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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 855 



rapid tracing of the growtli of steam navigation 

 and marine engineering had to be quite limited. 

 Nevertheless, the lecture seemed to be of great 

 interest to his audience. And the fact of the 

 growth of steam ships from the paddle wheels 

 used to a large extent in the forties of the last 

 century, through the propeller systems, and finally 

 of the great advances made through the steam 

 turbine, which is only an improvement of Heroes 's 

 steam turbine of 2,000 years ago. 



He mentioned the famous steamer Great Eastern, 

 which was a wonder in her day, which is nearly a 

 half century ago. She was simply about fifty 

 years in advance of her time, for although a great 

 engineering success, she was not a commercial 

 success, which is the real measure in these days 

 of what is considered a success in commercial life. 



He laid great stress on the improved material 

 with which the engineer could work to-day, with- 

 out which it would be impossible to build the great 

 vessels of 30,000 tons displacement, and 70,000 

 horsepower. 



Another fact which he pointed out, and which 

 is worth noting, was that high speeds properly 

 belong to big ships, because esperiments had 

 shown that for a higher speed the resistance of a 

 large ship per ton of displacement was very much 

 less than that of a small one. 



He dwelt upon the different types of battle- 

 ships, from the Dreadnought type down to the 

 small torpedo boat and torpedo-boat destroyer, 

 btating that in naval construction it was necessary 

 to have the various classes of ships to fill their 

 particular positions in the battle fleet, the same 

 as the different arms of the service in the army, 

 such as artillery, cavalry, infantry, etc. 



After the lecture illustrations were made of the 

 lecture proper, by means of a series of illuminated 

 lantern slides. 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



The 694th meeting was held on April 22, 1911, 

 Vice-president Fischer in the chair. The follow- 

 ing paper was read: 



The Scientific Aspects of the Tresident's Inquiry 

 into Economy and Efficiency: Dr. F. A. Cleve- 

 land, chairman. Committee on Economy and 

 Efifieiency. 



The work that the committee had been asked 

 to do was mentioned, and which, briefly stated, is 

 that it was to make such concrete recommenda- 

 tions to the president as would enable him to act 

 with greater economy and efficiency in the man- 

 agement of the business affairs of the government. 



At the beginning there was little of scientific 

 information of how the large business concerns of 

 the government are organized or what the govern- 

 ment is doing. The committee felt a grave re- 

 sponsibility. It assumed in the start that for 

 progress and commendable results it was necessary 

 to focus the attention of all in the service upon 

 the subject of administration. This required a 

 working hypothesis or common plan of cooperative 

 effort or coordination. As the whole of this in- 

 quiry looks to something constructive, it first had 

 to be decided what sort of information is needed 

 by the man who is responsible for the conduct of 

 the government 's business. 



The first work was to find out how the govern- 

 ment is organized and what it is doing. The 

 president asked each head of department to co- 

 operate with the White House, and under their 

 supervision the inquiries have been conducted. 

 Diagrams and charts were exhibited showing the 

 departmental organizations in their different divi- 

 sions and branches and their activities, and how 

 they are connected up and coordinated; these 

 being based upon the reports and outlines of 

 organization prepared by the several departments. 



In describing the organization of the govern- 

 ment's work, the speaker remarked in passing that 

 one is really amazed when he knows what wonder- 

 ful organizations some of the government offices 

 are. 



Eeports were also secured describing the legal 

 powers of the various departments and divisions 

 of the government service throughout the country 

 in order to ascertain the authority for the various 

 activities pursued, and in these matters also the 

 committee had appealed for their information to 

 the men in the service who had been living the 

 parts; to those directly concerned. 



The committee assumed that the cost of the gov- 

 ernment 's activities should be knovm, and that all 

 should know that the administration of the gov- 

 ernment 's affairs is economical. To ascertain this 

 it is necessary to know, (1) that a thing is bought, 

 (2) what is bought and (3) is it suitable for the 

 purpose for which it is bought. Also in studying 

 economy the relation of cost to results must be 

 known. 



The analysis of the costs of the government's 

 activities in terms of administration, operation 

 and maintenance were discussed, and how the an- 

 alysis was applied in arriving at standards of 

 judgment of costs in relation to results. 



E. L. Fakis, 

 Secretary 



