You can dopend upon getting good work done by the principal ones, but may bo 
disappointed if you go to some of the less important manufacturers. 
Those of yon, wlio have read my treatise on ** The Dcsigniug of Ordinary Iron 
Highway Bridges, 1 1 will notice that some portions of the same are copied verbatim 
into this work : this needs no apology, for highway and railroad bridges have many 
features iu common. This fact will account for tlie two <lifforent stylos of spelling, 
winch you will probably notice : mine is the Euglisli method, but my book having 
been printed iu the United States was there translated into American : it would take 
inoro time than it is worth to make all the corrections needed for uniformity. 
The references to Chapters instead of pages has been a necessity, as this book 
is not to be clectrotyped. Any inconvenience resulting therefrom can be avoided 
by referring to the Index, which, on this account lias been made very complete. 
Before closing this chapter I wish to acknowledge with many thanks my in- 
debtedness to Theodore Cooper, Esq. C. E. for permission to use a part of liis valuable 
specifications, and to my assistants Messrs. T. Fukuda and Y. Kakajima for aid iu 
preparing plates and tables. Without Mr. Nakajima’s skillod assistance I would 
have been unablo to undertake such an amount of labour as the preparation of this 
treatise lias involved. Acknowledgements of assistance from other engineers are 
made in various places in tlie remaining chapters. 
With many apologies for having detained you so long upon this introJuctory 
letter, 
I am, gentlemen, 
very respectfully yours, 
J. A. L. Waddell. 
Tokio. Jan. 1885. 
