May 12, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



727 



of the State Highway System of Rhode 

 Island': 



"The first tangible step towards the es- 

 tablishment of a state system of continuous 

 highways in Rhode Island was the passage 

 of an 'act to provide for the construction, 

 improvement and maintenance of state 

 roads' by the General Assembly in 1902. 

 The salient features of the 1902 act are as 

 follows : the construction and maintenance 

 of the state highway system is vested in a 

 board, consisting of five members, who 

 serve without remuneration : the chief en- 

 gineer is appointed by the board; the en- 

 tire expense of construction and mainte- 

 nance of standard roads is borne by the 

 state, resulting in a maximum benefit to 

 the state as a whole and to the urban as 

 well as the rural communities (the fifteen 

 trunk highways comprising the state sys- 

 tem of continuous roads have a total mile- 

 age of 249 miles, 18.89 of which was con- 

 tracted for by the state in 1903) ; an annual 

 appropriation of $5,000 for general office 

 expenses is included in the act : annual 

 construction appropriations are based upon 

 the annual reports of the board ($100,000 

 in 1903 and $100,000 in 1904) ; cost of ex- 

 tra Avidth, in excess of fourteen feet, is to 

 be borne by the towns concerned. The 

 standard macadam road consists of 14 

 feet of 6-inch macadam, built in two 

 courses of broken stone, with dust used as 

 a top dressing only, the surface being in 

 form, the two intersecting planes having a 

 tranverse slope of three fourths of an inch 

 to the foot. By the knowledge obtained 

 from road metal tests made at Washington, 

 together Avith information gained from ob- 

 servations on how the material actually 

 wears and binds in practice, the board 

 hopes to reach satisfactory conclusions 

 with reference to the rocks that may be 

 used for road building purposes in Rhode 

 Island. The recognition of the injurious 

 effects of narrow tires upon macadam roads 



resulted in the passage of an act in 1902 to 

 prohibit the use of narrow tires after April, 

 1905. It is believed that a rigid enforce- 

 ment of this law will materially reduce the 

 cost of maintenance of the state roads." 



The next two papers on the morning's 

 program were on 'Lines of Progress in 

 Aeronautics,' and were intended to supple- 

 ment the series of papers on this subject 

 which were presented at the St. Louis meet- 

 ing of the association. Calvin M. AVood- 

 ward, dean of the School of Engineering 

 and Architecture of Washington Univer- 

 sity, St. Louis, Mo., described the efforts 

 which had been made and stated some of 

 the reasons why they had not met with 

 greater success at the Louisiana Purchase 

 Exposition during the past year. Being a 

 member of the committee of the World's 

 Fair on the subject of aeronautics, he was 

 able to speak with positive knowledge. 



The second paper was by Mr. K. Dients- 

 bach, of New York, who is the American 

 correspondent of Illustrierte Aeronautische 

 Mitteillungen. He reviewed the recent 

 progress made in aeronautical science by 

 Maxim, Langley, Zahm and the Wright 

 Brothers. 



In the absence of the author, the paper 

 by David Todd, director of Amherst Col- 

 lege Observatory, on 'A Twelve-ton Ob- 

 servatory Dome of Thirty-five Feet Diam- 

 eter,' was read only by title. 



Clarence A. Waldo, professor of mathe- 

 matics at Purdue University, Lafayette, 

 Ind., presented samples of 'A New Engi- 

 neering Product, and Some of Its Prob- 

 lems.' The product consisted of metallic 

 materials formed into hollow shapes, such 

 as flasks, floats, spheres, bottles and the 

 like. It was much to be regretted that the 

 exact method of manufacture was not de- 

 scribed, and the 'problems' which had been 

 met were only stated and their solution not 

 given. 



A. J. Wood, professor of experimental 



