Januaey 9, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



63 



gineers and power users. The steam con- 

 sumptiou of a modern steam-turbine of 

 moderate size compares very favorably 

 with that of the better class of large re- 

 ciprocating engines, but what is of greater 

 importance is the evident superior steam 

 economy under variable loads. The steam 

 consumption per horse-power-hour varies 

 little from one third to full load; at over- 

 loads the economy, as shown by numerous 

 tests, may be even better. 



This feature predestines the steam-tur- 

 bine to the special field of electric lighting 

 and power generation, where it must in- 

 evitably become a formidable rival of the 

 larger-sized slow-speed reciprocating steam- 

 engine. 



It is a significant fact that immediately 

 following upon the installation of the 

 large 8,000-horse-power compovind steam- 

 engines at the central station of the Man- 

 hattan Elevated Railway, New York, we 

 find three 5,000-horse-power steam-turbines 

 under construction for the Rapid Transit 

 Company, of New York. 



The high rotative speed of the steam- 

 turbine is a prominent factor in favor of 

 its adoption in connection with electrical 

 generators, since the cost of the generator 

 end of the equipment ought eventually to 

 be very materially reduced; but for many 

 lines of work the high rotative speed of the 

 present types of steam-turbine is prohibi- 

 tive, nor can it be adapted successfully to 

 belt driving, except by the use of gearing. 

 However, it is fair to presume that the 

 present limitations of the steam-turbine 

 are not insuperable, and that the attention 

 which is now being given to its develop- 

 ment will evolve a more universal type of 

 motor adapted to general power purposes 

 with large and small units alike. 



The economies already obtained with 

 both the steam-turbine and the gas-engine 

 have brought each into a prominence 

 which is at least suggestive of the impor- 



tant developments that are taking place in 

 methods of obtaining and using power. 

 John Joseph Flatheb. 



THE PERPLEXITIES OF A SYSTEMATIST.* 



A FORMER Chairman of this Section 

 gave utterance in his retiring address to 

 the following frank expression of senti- 

 ment: 'So welcome to the old-fashioned 

 systematist, though his day be short, and- 

 may he treat established genera gently!' 



If this cheerful prognostication is to be 

 realized, the perplexities of the systematist 

 are of short duration at best, or worst, and 

 it were better for us, in view of our im- 

 pending doom, to come before you to-day 

 with the historic 'Morituri te salutamus,' 

 and then kindly but firmly retire to the 

 oblivion so imminently before us. 



But on second thought we find ourselves 

 not at all in the mood to fulfil the expec- 

 tations of the genial oracle referred to, 

 and, indeed, very much alive and willing 

 to continue in the struggle for existence, 

 although an even worse fate than death is 

 offered as an alternative when the same 

 prophet predicts that 'the future system- 

 atic work will look less like a dictionary 

 and more like a table of logarithms.' Of 

 course there is no gainsaying the fact 

 that those who prefer logarithms will have 

 them, but I will also predict that the num- 

 ber who will choose the lesser evil of the 

 dictionary will remain for an indefinite 

 length of time very miieh in the majority, 

 even if this choice dooms them to the outer 

 darkness where the 'old-fashioned system- 

 atists' are to be relegated by the loga- 

 rithm proposers. 



However this may be, certain it is that 

 there will always be need for the men who 

 perform the hard and often thankless task 



* Address of the chairman of the Section of 

 Zoolofiy and vice-president of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science. Read 

 at tlie Washington meeting, January 27, 1902. 



