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SCIENCE, 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 89. 



chine or bridge, or in the curving of the 

 curb by the roadside. The disregard of the 

 financial side may mean either a weak, 

 meagre and unsatisfactory result, or an un- 

 wise lavishness in expenditure, in both 

 cases producing in the long run a loss and 

 waste of money. 



The current engineering practice gives 

 great attention to the first and last of 

 these elements, and but little compara- 

 tively to the second. There is no branch 

 of it but would be benefited by add- 

 ing to scientific and business ability a 

 knowledge of the principles of artistic 

 design and an impulse to give expres- 

 sion to it. The effect on the life of our 

 communities and the Nation by such a 

 change is not easily estimated. The writer 

 does not expect, however, to see an imme- 

 diate revolution. This is not a change 

 that comes naturally in that way, but rather 

 by way of development and growth, gener- 

 ally slow, although it may at times be ac- 

 celerated. In this development our people 

 as a whole must increase in artistic sensi- 

 tiveness. We are not an aesthetic nation, 

 but we have latent possibilities in that 

 direction ; we are young, confident and im- 

 pressionable and have the courage to be 

 original in design, which counts for much. 

 We have evolved the American locomotive, 

 the American truss bridge, the American 

 automatic machine, the American much- 

 debated tall building, and many other things 

 especially adapted to American needs. We 

 shall grasp the artistic possibilities of con- 

 struction quickly when we come to know 

 what they are, and will apply them confi- 

 dently, not always at first with the most 

 happy results. We shall learn something 

 from the old world and will assimilate much 

 that is good in its practice, but in the end 

 engineering here will be both artistic and 

 American. 



There are evidences here and there that 

 this process of change is going on. Ameri- 



can machine design when compared with 

 that of other countries shows some marked 

 characteristics. A writer in the Engineering 

 Magazine says of these that " the best ones 

 are directness of design, by which is meant 

 the shortest cut to reach a given end, the 

 designer having in mind the thing to be 

 done quite as much as the machine which 

 is to do it; lightness and a close proportion- 

 ing of parts; in machine work a near ap- 

 proximation to pattern; rapidity of con- 

 struction and rapidity of action in the fin- 

 ished machine ; the substitution of special 

 steels and new alloys, hollow construction, 

 etc., for older materials and construction, 

 and a generally neat appearance of work, 

 and burrs, lips and roughness of casting re- 

 moved. The American designer is not an 

 artist like the Frenchman, but is more at- 

 tentive to appearances than the Briton. He 

 is gradually curing himself of the tendency 

 to tawdry ornament, needless accessories of 

 fancy castings, stenciled paints, japanning 

 out of place and bright work for mere 

 effect." These are good qualities and in 

 the line of improvement. Some recent in- 

 stallations of power plants illustrate a 

 movement that will have considerable in- 

 fluence on engine design. In many of our 

 larger cities there are engine rooms fitted 

 up in elegance, with marble floors and 

 wainscott, decorated walls and ceilings, 

 brilliantly lighted and with all the appli- 

 ances of the plant, engines, dynamos, 

 switch boards and even the smaller acces- 

 sories in keeping with the surroundings. 

 These plants are used as drawing cards or 

 advertisements. There are other plants 

 not so used, where there is displayed less 

 elegance, but fully as much artistic sense 

 in adapting the room and its treatment to 

 its purpose. In many of these places only 

 the enclosed type of engine can be used. In 

 all of therii the standard of maintenance 

 must have its influence on the matter of 

 design, which will in turn react on the 



