around to that end of the engine itself to see the thickness or length of bearing of the crank. The result of the teachings of text-books, such as this, is that the graduates of our schools, on entering practice, have to acquire a new method of comprehension, and a new manner of delineation, which, although far simpler and more natural than the old, is obtained at a disadvantage, in that the old one was received from what they have been taught to consider standard authorities. A subject which is so simple, easy and interesting as the making of working drawings, and which could be made a relief to the tedium of studies, should not be put in the form of problem, theorem, analysis and construction, but should be based on the experience and practice of eminent engineers and artisans, and should form a training for the common sense and good judgment of students, and a preparation for their entrance to the designing room and workshop. Even for teaching theoretical descriptive geometry the engineer's system would be simpler and clearer, and the advantage of adopting it in our technical and industrial schools would be very great, because the training of the students would then be in harmony with their future work, time and trouble would be saved during their early apprenticeship, and they and their employers would be spared the difficulty of overcoming erroneous early impressions and prejudices. A text-book of descriptive geometry, based upon the method of thought and mode of procedure actually adopted by skilled draughtsmen, and supplemented by one on working drawings as they are really made and used in our large industrial establishments, would deserve to be studied in every scientific school and by every mechanic in the country; but a professedly practical book, like the one under review, which teaches obsolete methods and incorrect technicalities, must certainly be misleading and injurious to the people whom it was intended to benefit. W. H. T. FRANKLIN INSTITUTE DRAWING SCHOOL. The following is an abstract of Mr. Robert Grimshaw's remarks at the recent closing exercises of the school: "I leave my own drawing-room for the purpose of doing myself the honor of attending the closing exercises of your drawing class; to testify the interest I feel in instruction in drawing in general, and in the schools thus interested in particular. "You have kindly asked me to speak in behalf of the art of drawing and of this particular school; but, although I note with interest that there are both free hand and mechanical drawings exposed here as the result of the year's course, permit me to narrow my remarks to the subject of mechanical drawing, concerning which I know the most and in which I am most interested. "If printing be described as the art preservative of arts, drawing might with equal aptness be called the art definitive of arts. It is to the mechanical arts what notation is to music, algebra to mathematics. In its wonderful manifold qualities it is used for illustration, description, expression; for record and study; as an aid to invention, design, calculation, tabulation and generalization. "As a means of illustration it stands unrivaled, conveying ideas in sequence, and logical demonstration where words would be lame or useless. Without it the college professor or the Franklin Institute lecturer would be lost. That it excels words in the matter of description is amply proved by its free use in descriptive circulars of machines and by its entry into columns of daily papers. As a means of record, our own Patent Office has recently recognized it as far superior to models, which have in most cases been dispensed with. It has this advantage over models that, while a model may be tampered with and show no signs of change, a drawing would, even if there were but one copy extant, be less easily altered; if altered it shows the fraud more plainly; and, besides this, there are likely to be duplicates or copies of the original drawing, which will attest any change, or additions made in after years by any one to add to or detract from the value of the invention. As a means of study, who could learn anything about the slide valve, for instance, without diagrams? A few pencil lines relieve the imagination of the great strain necessary to picture the actual or relative positions of the moving and fixed parts. As an aid to invention, there are many who will certify how the friendly line has saved thought, time and expense, has preceded and helped along the birth of new movements and combinations, and revealed faults which would have been very expensive to remedy in the pattern, model, or actual machine. What is true of original invention is true of design for well-known devices. "Of course, knowing the value of drawing, It is easy to see that it should be of the right sort. A mechanical drawing should be accurate, reliable, neat, universally understood. If it is not accurate in its lines and reliable as to its dimensions, it may be the source of great expense and trouble. If it be not universally understood, it will be of little value. It must be self-explanatory. Chordal tells of a young man who prepared a drawing to send to a distant city, and with it there were several pages of fools-cap explanations. Being asked what the fools-cap was for, he replied, 'to explain the drawings;' and on then being asked what the drawings were for, he said they were to assist the explanations! "There is much instruction given in drawing that is worse than useless. The learner gets tricks that are hard to unlearn, and cause him and others trouble. I remember my own course in mechanical drawing, in one of the most noted schools in this country. I had gone all through projection, perspective, etc., had drawn highly colored copies from expensive French drawings, and my crowning effort was a canal lock of most complicated structure, having upon its beautiful surface elevation, plan and section, in all the glories of cut stone, brick, cast and wrought iron, and brass, with impossible water in the foreground and in the dim distance. Its winding steps were my night-mare until I had finished them, and my pride and hope when the last dot of gamboge was put upon the knobs on the railings. Having completed such a magnificent work of art, such a triumph of engineering, there were no more worlds to conquer. I was ready to tackle anything, from a taper key to a Bessemer steel works. But, alas! When I entered the works, expecting to be set right to work on compound marine engines, I was put to tracing stub ends; and when allowed to trace a fly-wheel my school compasses reamed out the centre, and then the bow pen cut the middle circle clean out, so that my chief never found out about the reaming. "I had never been taught to draw all the small circles first, to draw circles before the straight lines which were tangent to them, nor any of the hundred similar little things which should have preceded the magnificent masonry of the hydraulic lock. In a properly managed drawing class this would have been impossible. Let me say, in conclusion, that the art of drawing, and its practice, will save to him who possesses it, and to others, time, money, material, labor and annoyance." BOOKS FOR PRACTICAL MEN. STEEL. Its History, Manufacture, Properties and Uses. By J. S. Jeans, Secretary of the Iron and Steel Institute. In one thick volume, 8vo, 860 pages. Illustrated by 24 plates and 183 engravings. $14.50. SUPPLEMENT TO SPONS' DICTIONARY OF ENGINEERING. Edited by Ernest Spon, Member of the Society of Engineers and of the Franklin Institute. Complete in 3 Divisions, cloth, at $5.00 each. SPONS' ENCYCLOPEDIA of the Industrial Arts, Manufactures and Commercial Products. Division 4. Edited by C. G. Warnford Lock. Containing India Rubber, Jute, Knitted Fabrics, Hosiery, Lace, Leather, Linen, Manures, Matches, Mordants, Narcotics, Oils and Fatty Substances, Paint, Paper, Paraffin, Pearl and Coral, Perfumes, Photography, Photometry, Pigments, etc. $5.00. Sold only by subscription. PAPER-MAKING. The Practical Paper-maker. A complete Guide to the Manufacture of Paper. By James Dunbar. 18mo. Cloth, $1.00. HAND-BOOK OF ELECTRIC TESTING. By H. R. Kempe, Member of the Society of Telegraph Engineers. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $5.00. POCKET-BOOK OF USEFUL FORMULA and Memoranda for Civil and Mechanical Engineers. By Guilford L. Molesworth. Twentieth Edition. With a valuable contribution on Telegraphy, by R. S. Brough and Paget Higgs, LL.D. 32mo. Roan, $2.00. In russia, tucks, $3.00. DIRTY DUSTBINS and Sloppy Streets. A Practical Treatise on the Scavenging and Cleansing of Cities and Towns. By H. Percy Boulnois, M. Inst. C. E. Crown 8vo. Cloth, $1.40. ELECTRO-TELEGRAPHY. By Frederick Beechey. A Book for Beginners. 124 pages and 36 illustrations. Paper, 20 cts.; cloth, 40 ets. STEAM ENGINE. A Practical Treatise on the Steam Engine, containing Plans and Arrangements of Details for Fixed Steam Engines, with Essays on the Principles involved in Design and Construction. By Arthur Rigg. Illustrated by 96 plates. 4to. Cloth, $10.00. The above or any book sent free by mail on receipt of published price. Catalogues and circulars forwarded promptly on application. E. & F. N. SPON, Publishers and Importers of Scientific Books, No. 446 BROOME STREET, NEW YORK. jan 81 Ly THE BOYDEN PREMIUM. URIAH A. BOYDEN, ESQ., of Boston, Mass., has deposited with the Franklin Institute the sum of one thousand dollars, to be awarded as a premium to "Any resident of North America who shall determine by experiment The following conditions have been established for the award of this premium: 1. Any resident of North America, or of the West India Islands, may be a competitor for the premium; the southern boundary of Mexico being consid ered as the southern limit of North America. 2. Each competitor must transmit to the Secretary of the Franklin Institute a memoir, describing in detail the apparatus, the mode of experimenting, and the results; and all memoirs received by him before the first day of January ne thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, will, as soon as possible after this date, be transmitted to the Committee of Judges. The Board of Managers of the Franklin Institute shall, before the first da of January, one thousand eight hundred and eighty three select three citizens of the United. States, of competent scientific ability, to whom the memoir shall be referred; and the said Judges shall examine the memoirs and report to the Franklin Institute whether, in their opinion, and, if so, which of their memoirs is worthy of the premium. And, on their report, the Franklin Institute shall decide whether the premium shall be awarded as recommended by the Judges. 4. Every memoir shall be anonymous, but shall contain some motto or sign by which it can be recognized and designated, and shall be accompanied by a sealed envelope, endorsed on the outside with same motto or sign, and containing the name and address of the author of the memoir. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Franklin Institute to keep these envelopes securely and unopened until the Judges shall have finished their examination; when, should the Judges be of opinion that any one of the memoirs is worthy of the premium, the corresponding envelope shall be opened, and the name of the author communicated to the Institute. 5. Should the Judges think proper, they may require the experiments described in any of the memoirs to be repeated in their presence. 6. The memoirs presented for the premium shall become the property of the Franklin Institute, and shall be published as it may direct. jan '81, ly |