Chapter XXXII: A Few Social Aspects of Invention (1)

Why cities gain at the expense of the country . . . The factory
system . . . Small shops multiplied . . . Subdivided labor has
passed due bounds and is being modified . . . Tendencies against
centralization and monopoly . . . Dwellings united for new services
. . . Self-contained houses warmed from a center . . . The
literature of invention and discovery as purveyed in public
libraries.

The Drift to Cities.

In the closing chapter of this book it may be permissible to glance for a moment at a few of the social and national consequences of invention. While, as we have seen in earlier chapters, the economic gains of ingenuity surpass computation, the work of the inventor has brought in its train evil as well as good, and this evil, with the further march of invention, is being plainly lessened year by year. A century ago about one tenth of the people in North America lived in cities and towns; to-day these centers of population hold nearly one half the families of the continent. Many observers regard this drift from country to city and town with dislike and alarm, without recognizing it to be inevitable. They paint pictures of country folk attracted by the superficial allurements of the city, a poor exchange for the wholesomeness and freedom of life in the country. They argue that with wise education the boys and girls reared on the farm will remain there, greatly to the gain of themselves and the nation. These critics leave out of view the feats of the inventor. Between 1870 and 1880 the self-binding harvester was perfected and introduced. Before its advent six or seven men followed every harvester to tie its shocks of grain. After the self-binder came into vogue, five of these men were no longer needed. Other inventions, planters, corn-shellers, and the like, as economical of labor, have been placed in the farmer’s hands within the past thirty years. The result being that to raise on farms the food for a million men, women and children, a greatly reduced staff in the field suffices to-day in comparison with the number required thirty or forty years ago. And what has become of the country population thus thrown out of work by thews of steel and brass? It has quietly betaken itself to towns and cities where, for the most part, it is manufacturing new comforts and luxuries for all the people, whether in town or country. In 1870 out of 100 wage-earners in the United States, 29 were engaged in manufactures, trade and transportation; in 1900 the corresponding figure had risen to 40. Enter this morning the house of a thrifty farmer or mechanic: you tread on a neat carpet, you see good furniture, a piano in the parlor, a bicycle in the barn. On the walls are attractive pictures, flanked by shelves of books and magazines. In not a few such houses one may find a telephone and electric lamps. As recently as 1870 some of these things did not exist at all, even for the rich. To-day they are enjoyed by millions. So with clothing: it is to-day better and cheaper than ever before. Food, too, is more varied and more wholesome than of yore, thanks to the express train, the quick steamer, the cold storage warehouse. All these agencies of betterment, and many more, are conducted in cities as the centers of capital, industry and population. While invention has, in the main, tended to make cities bigger than ever, it is now modifying that tendency by its rapid trolley lines to suburbs, its steamboat and railroad services constantly quickened in pace and lowered in fares. On the outskirts of Greater New York it is still possible for a wage-earner to buy land for a house and small garden, the burden of rent, liable to yearly increase, being escaped for good and all.

The Factory System and Checks Thereto.

It was in England toward the end of the eighteenth century that inventors first lifted the latch for an industrial revolution. When James Watt devised his steam engine, and its power was applied to spinning and weaving, these tasks were driven from the home to the factory, there to be more economically performed. Other industries followed, all the way from paint grinding to nail making, so that in a few years a profound change came over the field of labor. Under a scheme of subdivided toil the factory hand succeeded to the journeyman who, with a few mates, had split nails or drawn wire in a shop no bigger than some day he might own for himself. With the need to occupy large premises, to install engines and elaborate machinery, the capital of an employer has to be vastly more than of old, creating a new dependence on the part of the workman, and rendering it all but impossible that he should ever have a factory of his own. While the factory system of production is general in America, it is far from universal. Many leading manufactures, those of textiles, of boots and shoes, and so on, are usually conducted in factories, while some important industries, that of clothing, for example, are for the most part carried on at the homes of work people, or in small shops. Massachusetts in 1900, according to the U. S. census of that year, had 200,508 hands in 1078 textile mills and boot and shoe factories. Apart from these industries were 28,102 factories and shops, employing 291,418 hands, an average of but 10.57 each.[44] Taking the United States as a whole, the census for 1900 reports that the hand trades in small shops representing a product of $500 or less each, numbered 127,419. Presumably in all these cases the worker toiled by himself, usually as a repairer or a jobber rather than as a maker of new wares. All the other manufacturing concerns, 512,675 in number, employed on an average only 10.36 persons each. It is clear that the American factory is not as engulfing as many critics believe it to be. In larger measure than is commonly supposed workmen are to-day their own masters, or are busy in shops small enough to give scope to individual ingenuity and skill.

[44] Quoted by Edward Atkinson in a paper on the tendencies of
manufacturing. American Social Science Association, 1904.

Let us grant that a shoemaker, say in St. Louis, at work in a stall of his own is a better and happier man than if in a nearby factory he fastened eyelets, or burnished heels, day in and day out for years together. While the harm to the toiler wrought by extreme subdivision of labor is plain, its evils are being abated in more ways than one. First of all the productiveness of the modern factory has so augmented the joint dividend of capital and labor that while the working day grows shorter, wages are increased, every earned dollar buying more manufactured wares than ever before. Secondly, in some large railroad and other shops the workmen are given a variety of tasks in succession, so as to be more versatile, more useful in emergencies, than if ever punching steel, or threading bolts. Even if the result of such a plan is to diminish the total output in the course of a year, it is worth while to lose some money that human nature may be redeemed from stupefying monotony of toil. High wages and large dividends cost too much when bought at the expense of hurt to muscle, nerve and brain.

Handicrafts Revived.

And a notable group of artisans, few in number but steadily increasing, with electric motors at their elbows, to-day enjoy complete emancipation from the factory bell. A woodcarver, bookbinder, leather stamper, forger of ornamental iron, rug weaver, potter, lens grinder, or printer, can have to-day a shop of his own and take pleasure in the chosen and constantly varied toil that gives him bread. In their simpler forms the modern lathe, loom, printing press, are cheap enough to be within the means of poor men, while their product when it displays taste and originality is sure of a market. In times past Palissy, Hargreaves, and many another master of a handicraft, has perfected a remarkable invention in a small shop. We may expect the arts to receive golden gifts in the future from the successors of these men, feeling as they do the stimulus of a broadening demand for work executed on new lines of excellence.

Tendencies Against Centralization.

Until within a few years past economic forces in America threatened soon to place its chief industries in the hands of a few men, so strong and unscrupulous as to be able to extort weighty and increasing tribute. For this danger remedies legislative and judicial are being sought, with the prospect of eventual success. In this place it may be allowable to remark how the progress of invention is working hand in hand with the aims of social justice. In the pages immediately preceding this chapter we have seen how cities and towns are working themselves loose from monopoly. A gas supply, on the old basis of manufacture at least, must be a unit, with a strong temptation to overcharge its customers. To-day the lighting field is shared with electricity, showing many isolated plants; when these purvey heat as well as light their rivalry with central stations may become formidable. In American villages and small towns the principal source of light is petroleum, largely controlled by the Standard Oil Company. From its exactions there opens escape as the farmer finds a source of cheap alcohol in his corn, potatoes and beets, even in his unmarketable fruit or damaged grain, ready to give him more light than petroleum ever did, and besides propel his machinery, or carry his crops to the nearest market town. The betterment of common roads throughout the Union proceeds in earnest. As that reform goes forward we may see motor-driven cars and wagons exerting a restraining influence on local railroad rates. Already the steam railroads are facing keen competition from interurban electric lines. Wherever these lines resist absorption, or control, by the steam carriers they serve the farmer so well and cheaply as to be one of the chief boons he has received at the inventor’s hands.

Take one instance chosen from many as striking. Dayton, Ohio, is a center of interurban lines which enfold in their sweep Urbana, Columbus, Hamilton and Cincinnati. Upon 220 miles of these lines the Southern Ohio Express Company picks up cans of milk, cases of eggs, crates of berries, packages of tobacco, from a thousand farmsteads. In the larger business of carrying grain and live stock the expansion is constant, so that the day seems near at hand when the company will find profit in placing a switch at every farm along its lines, sending cars there for everything the farmer has to sell. And the countryman finds Dayton as good a place to buy in as to sell in; its merchants offer better and cheaper wares than are to be had in the home village or the neighboring small town. To-day a farmer or market-gardener, a dairyman or stockbreeder, does not find the smallness of his capital the drawback it would have been ten years ago. With an interurban line passing near his home, or in front of his door, with a cheap telephone at hand, and enjoying a free rural mail delivery, he can sell his produce when he pleases and at the best market prices, paying but a light tax to the middleman, or completing a transaction with a directness that leaves the middleman out altogether.

Steam railroads seek large trainloads to be moved long distances; an electric freight and express service coins dimes into dollars by picking up market baskets, bundles for the seamstress and the laundress, a bunch or two of saplings for the orchard. The trunk lines of America, with their wide-spreading branches, enable merchants in the cities and the larger towns to replenish their counters and shelves every day. Stocks, therefore, need not be so large as of old, when, let us say, a whole winter’s goods were laid in by October. The change reduces the amount of capital required, the outlays for rent and insurance, the liability to shrinkage and deterioration of values. The interurban roads are extending these advantages to the village storekeeper who, in the morning telephones his wants to Toledo, Cleveland, or Detroit; and in the afternoon disposes the ordered wares on his shelves.[45]

[45] Outlook, New York, January 7, 1905.

New Domestic Architecture.

American dwelling houses, whether in city or country, have within forty years been much improved in plan and equipment. To speak only of dwellings in cities, we may note how designers and inventors have promoted comfort and convenience, healthfulness and cheer. At the close of the Civil War an ordinary house in Philadelphia, or Chicago, as it left the builder’s hands was little else than a bare box. Stoves for warming and cooking had to be brought into it, wardrobes heavy and clumsy were placed beside its walls, cupboards meant to be moved and not moved easily held the raiment and table linen. In rented houses the gas fixtures might belong to the tenant; when he took them away ugly breaks appeared in walls and ceilings. To-day all this is of the past: in important details the design of the mansion is embodied in dwellings comparatively small. Furnaces for heating, ranges for cooking, form part and parcel of the building; fixtures for gas and electricity, yielding both light and heat, are provided just as water faucets are; every bedroom has its clothes closet instead of the lumbering wardrobe. In the kitchen we find dressers and china closets built into the walls; the laundry has stationary washtubs and, in some cases, a drying room as well, so that the laundress does not care should it rain on washing day. The aim throughout is that the house and its equipment shall as far as possible make up a unit, that the labor of housekeeping be minimized to the utmost by a judicious outlay of capital when the house is built.

Electricity at Home.

Since 1900 the American householder, as well as the American business man, has fairly awakened to what the telephone can do for him. It is estimated that in 1905 the telephone in the United States earned four times as much as the telegraph. The day is at hand when every household but the poorest will enjoy the wonderful gift of Professor Bell. In somewhat the same fashion it is dawning upon the public that electricity stands ready to perform other services, each minor, but all, in the aggregate, going far to promote health and comfort at home.

At Schenectady, New York, Mr. H. W. Hillman, apart from heating in winter, has adopted electricity for many household tasks, with results described and illustrated in the Technical World, Chicago, July, 1906. His kitchen outfit for a family of five persons comprises an electric table, oven, griddle-cake cooker, meat broiler, cereal cooker, water heater, egg boiler, potato steamer, frying pan, coffee percolator, and a stove for ordinary cooking utensils. A three pound nickel plated electric iron is provided for the laundry. In the dining-room is an electric chafing dish and a percolator. On the verandah and in the den are electric cigar lighters. In the sewing-room the machine is driven by an electric motor. The bathroom has an electric mug which heats water for shaving in less than a minute; in chilly weather the luminous radiator yields just the slight heat which ensures comfort instead of discomfort. Of course, throughout the house electric lamps furnish light with the maximum of convenience and wholesomeness, the minimum of risk.

How does this service compare in cost with the employment of coal and gas? With coal at $6.50 a ton, and gas at $1.30 per thousand cubic feet, the average monthly expense was formerly $6.00; with electricity the bills are but 69 cents more per month, a mere trifle in comparison with the gain in comfort, the saving of drudgery, the promotion of cleanliness. The rate for electricity used for lighting is 10 cents per kilowatt hour, for heating only half that rate.

Mr. Hillman does not use electric heat for ordinary warming: it would cost him too much. A good many people are puzzled by the fact that an electric current, which yields a perfect light at a reasonable price, should in the sister task of heating fail in rivalry with a common stove or furnace. To solve this puzzle let us place our hands above a cluster of 15 Edison incandescent lamps, each of 16 candle power, representing one horse power, yet emitting no more heat than if three ounces of coal were slowly burning away in the course of an hour. This electricity may cost us ten cents an hour, the coal costs but the fifteenth part of one cent. In producing mechanical motion at a power-house, the engines waste at least ninety per cent. of the applied heat. To this heavy tax must be added the expenses of distribution, administration and maintenance. Until, therefore, the electrician reaches a mode of creating his current from heat without the enormous losses of present practice, we cannot look to him for a system of general heating. A word has already been said in this book about methods of district heating by steam. Another plan is worthy of mention. In Brooklyn the Morris Building Company supplies from a central plant fifty-two dwellings with hot water which serves not only for heating, but for cooking and washing also. The water is heated in part by live steam, in part by exhausts from steam engines.

Suggested Exhibits.

Such an experiment as this, the appliances at work for Mr. Hillman, suggest exhibits which might form part of the premises of agricultural colleges and technical schools. These establishments usually require for their officers such dwellings as are not too large and costly for ordinary householders. These dwellings, carefully designed and equipped, might serve as examples of the best practice in building, planning and appointment; in sound methods of heating from a central plant. At suitable times they might be open to public inspection. They might range in cost from $1,000 to $5,000, the cheapest to be built of wood, others to be built in brick, stone, or concrete. All the furniture and fittings to be chosen with an eye to wholesomeness, durability, and maintenance with the least labor possible. Each house should contain in its main room a card telling the cost of the building, with estimates of cost if executed in other materials. On occasion this plan might be extended to the contents of houses, each item on show days to be duly labeled. A series of such houses would tend to bring ordinary house-planning and housekeeping to the level of the best. Many books and journals offer architectural diagrams which few can understand, but everybody can see how attractive a good plan is when realized in a house to which he pays a leisurely visit. At Expositions, such as those of Chicago and St. Louis, the appeal of the architect and the exhibitor is rather to wonder than to utility. He shows us schlosses from Germany, palaces from Italy, châteaux from France, all appointed with costly magnificence. But while the average American wage is eleven dollars a week these displays can do little good as models for imitation.

NOTE ON THE LITERATURE OF INVENTION AND DISCOVERY

Books on invention and discovery are mentioned here and there
throughout this volume. The reader may wish further references, in
which case he may find them at the public library nearest home.
Within the past few years the public libraries of America have been
laying stress on their educational departments, are becoming more
and more a worthy complement to the public schools.

At the Carnegie Library, Pittsburg, the department of technology is
directed by Mr. Harrison W. Craver, a graduate of a polytechnical
institute, who has had experience as a practicing chemist. The
collection keeps mainly to lines of local interest, and includes an
ample array of trade journals. Indexes to articles in technical
journals are maintained. On the shelves are files of patents of the
leading nations of the world. Short lists of books on subjects of
current interest are from time to time compiled and issued. Workers
receive advice and personal assistance from scientifically trained
men. Questions are answered by mail and telephone. Notes on books
are appended to their titles on the catalogue cards, and in the
monthly bulletin.

Mr. Craver’s aid extends to other public libraries, among them to
that at Providence. Here the industrial department contains about
7600 volumes, chiefly devoted to the principal industries of the
city,--textiles, electrical arts, machinery, and the arts of design,
especially in jewelry. A room is at the service of draughtsmen: a
dark closet is available for copyists who bring cameras. When a new
book comes in the reader or the artist likely to want it is
notified.

The Pratt Institute Free Library, Brooklyn, has an applied science
reference room which receives 115 scientific, technical and trade
journals. It has brought together a large collection of trade
catalogues, duly classified, and a collection of cuts of machines
and mechanical devices. The custodian makes it his business to visit
the neighboring factories and workshops, so as to provide every
publication likely to be of help. The use of this department
increases steadily, with a marked effect on the proportion of
scientific books taken from the general library for home reading.

Newark, a city of many and diverse manufactures, has a public
library also of the first rank. Scientific books, as received, are
brought to public attention through the press, and by means of the
monthly bulletin mailed to any one on request. Short lists of
selected works on particular branches of applied science are
prepared for gratuitous distribution: in each book of a series the
full list is pasted as a guide to extended reading. Readers are
invited to ask for any book not in the library which they believe
would be of service to them.

These are but a few examples of the work the public libraries are
doing throughout the Union. At the headquarters of the American
Library Association are issued manifold aids for readers and
students: a list of them is given on a page following the index to
this book. Let us hope that one of these days the Association may
establish a bureau through which the literature of applied science,
and all other worthy literature, may be passed upon by a staff of
the best critics, for the behoof of all the people. Such a service
would inure not only to the good of those who borrow books from
public libraries, but would afford help to the men and women who buy
books for libraries of their own.

INDEX

Abbe, Ernst, portrait, facing 182; Jena glass, 181; at first
ignorant of practical optics, 293.

Aboriginal art, National Museum, Washington, 106; tools, 89.

Abrasion, manganese steel resists, 171.

Accident, Nobel profits by an, 411.

Accidental observation, 289.

Acheson, E. G., carborundum, 101.

Achromatism, Newton on, 254.

Acknowledgments, xxi.

Actinium, four derivatives, 200.

Adams, Frank D., proves marble plastic, 196.

Adams, John Couch, discovers Neptune, 378.

Aeronautics, 129.

Air, compressed. See Compressed air; brake catechism, R. H.
Blackall, 428; chamber of pumps, 252; churned in telescopic tube,
348; compressors, 424-427; and multiple cylinders for, 372;
turbines, reversed as, 372; conducting when traversed by X-ray, 282;
warm, and smoke protect from lightning, 294; hardening steel, 172;
jet for machine tools, 173.

Aladdin oven, 189, 190.

Alchemy and radio-activity, 203.

Alcohol, cheap, 452; engines, 468; for lighting, 157; lamp with
hood, 158.

Algonquin art, 115.

Allan Line steamers driven by turbines, 455, 456.

Allen, Leicester, on invention, 268.

Allis-Chalmers steam engines, facing 448, facing 452; Francis
vertical turbine, 446.

Alloy for electro-magnets, 173.

Alloys, influence of minute admixtures, 175; made by pressure, W.
Spring, 201; Weston’s for electrical measurers, 232, 234;
anti-friction, 174.

Alternating currents used as produced, 346.

Alum crystal broken and repaired, 193, 194.

Aluminium discovered by Wohler, 143; properties, 143, 144, 145;
separated from its compounds by C. M. Hall; uses, 144, 145; in
lithography, 144; in producing great heat, 145; alloys, 145; as
electrical conductor, 145; in iron manufacture, 145; mandolin
pressed, 185.

Alundum wheels, 101.

American Library Association, aids to readers and students, 487.

Ammeter, Weston’s, 233.

Ammonia sulphate from Mond plant, 461.

Analogy as a guide, 366-369.

Anderson, Sir William, on formulae, 383.

Andrews’ discovery of continuity in states of matter, 212.

Angles replaced by curves, 48-51.

Animal frame repeated in machinery, 250.

Annealing steel, 168.

Annular drills, 91-93.

Anthony, W. A., on invention, 268.

Anti-friction alloys, 174.

Ants, Warrior, nest, 260.

Aquarium, New York, 76.

Arbor hollow, cooled, 88.

Arc-lamp, 160; inverted, 75, 76.

Arch, its structural advantage, 42; discussed by W. P. P.
Longfellow, 43; as dam, 45; of skull, 250; Saracenic, 43; bridge,
Niagara, 31.

Arches inverted as gulleys, and anchorage, 45; pointed, 43; united
as dome, 355.

Architecture, Egyptian, 114; Japanese, Ralph Adams Cram, 114,
foot-note; materials, 115; modern, Russell Sturgis on, 119; new
domestic, 483.

Areas, irregular, measured, 347.

Argon discovered by Lord Rayleigh, 213.

Arm holding ball, 256.

Arrows, feathers in, 65.

Articulated water-pipe, 259.

Ashes, conveyors for, 447.

Astatic needles, 149.

Astronomy advanced by new instruments, 230; aided by Carnegie
Institution, 277; co-operation in, E. C. Pickering, 278;
measurements in, 229, 230.

Atkinson, Edward, Aladdin oven, 189; on window glass, 72; “Science
of nutrition,” 190; tendencies in manufacturing, 480, foot-note.

Atmosphere, gases of, 213, 214.

Atom, size, 130-32.

Atwater, W. O., on foods, 243; on energy value of foods, 264; aided
for researches on foods, 277.

Austenite, 164.

Automatic devices, 329-337; at Interborough Power-house, 447;
stokers, 450.

Automobile design, 117; gasoline driven, construction, 468; balanced
cylinders, 464; racing, 66; radiator, 87.

Axe tells story, Wm. Metcalf, 377.

Axles, hollow, 40; cooled, 88.

Baboons teach Hottentots and Bushmen, 136, 259.

Bain, Alexander, on identifying faculty, 360; on passion for
experiment, 304; on sound judgment, 385.

Balance, beginnings, 208; ancient Egyptian, 219, 220; Lavoisier,
209; interferometer applied to, 217; measures irregular areas, 347;
requirements for, 220; at its best, 221.

Balance wheel in time-pieces, 222; Earnshaw’s compensated, 223.

Balances, Bureau of Standards, 235.

Bale, Geo. R., Modern Foundry practice, 176.

Ball-and-socket joints, 251.

Ball bearings, 47, 48.

“Baltic,” steamer, 127.

Baltimore truss, 25.

Bamboo, its uses, 141; for walls and roofs, 39; for water carriage,
45; filament for electric lamp, 140.

Bank-swallow, lesson from, 297.

Bar of metal shaped by pressure, 326; for reinforcing concrete, 436,
437.

Bark vessel and clay derivative, 115.

Barnard, E. E., detects a double star, 285.

Barrel pressed steel, 185.

Barrett, W. F., experiments with iron alloys, 173.

Basin, experimental, for ship models, 54, 55; U. S. Navy, facing 54.

Baskerville, Charles, researches in thorium, 200.

Basket, Bilhoola, 110, 111; Pomo, 109; bowl, Yokut, 112.

Baskets imitated from fish traps, 116; materials for, 109;
waterproof, 143.

Basketry, materials for, 142; Indian, Otis T. Mason, 110, 142.

Bates, W. H., explains protective resemblances, 289.

Bearings, ball, 47, 48; roller, 47, 49.

Beaufoy, Marc, on ship resistances, 52.

Beauty through use, 104, 105.

Beaver dams, ingenuity of, 265; tooth, 258.

Becquerel, Henri, researches in phosphorescence, 199.

Beethoven composing, 300.

Begonia, tuberous, produced, 249.

Bell, Alexander Graham, portrait frontispiece, facing 2, his
Brantford homestead; transmission of sound by light, 393-400;
telephone, 393, foot-note, 293.

Bell, Sir I. L., manufacture iron and steel, 177.

Bell, Louis, “Art of Illumination”, 229, foot-note.

Bergman, Torbern, analyzes steel, 163.

Bessemer, Henry, portrait facing 402; early tasks, makes bronze
powders, 401; improves sugar-cane mill, 402; begins experiments with
iron, 403; first converter, 404; illustrated, 406; pulverizes
materials for glass, 407; on “a little knowledge,” 408; improves the
drying of oils, 409; process, 164; steel rails, 14.

Bicycle wheel, 382.

Bi-focal spectacles, 85.

Bilgram, Hugo, gearing, 67.

Binding machinery, direct, 342.

Binocular glasses, 81, 82.

Biological observations, Karl Pearson on, 277; laboratories, 276.

Birch-bark vessels, 115.

Bird’s feet covered with dirt observed by Darwin, 280.

Bilhoola basket, 110, 111.

Birds and reptiles, a link discovered by E. S. Morse, 287; flight
of, studied, 263.

Bismuth pure and united with tellurium, 175.

Blackall, R. H., air-brake catechism, 428.

Blanchard lathe, 95-97.

Blast furnaces curved, 50; gases for power, 462.

Blasting, its utility, 411.

Blenkinsop’s locomotive, 345.

Bliss press work, 184-186; forming die, 184; gears, 67.

Blocks, hollow concrete, 433-435.

Blood, circulation of, 256; pressure, experiments on, 272.

Blowing machinery, Homestead, Pa., 415.

Boat, canal, diminishes in resistance when quickened, 283.

Boiler corrugated, 88; economy, 450; outside furnace, 381; plate
cut, 91; copper, how improved or worsened, 176.

Boiling point water lowered as atmospheric pressure lessens, 375.

Boivin burner for alcohol, 157.

Bolometer, Langley’s, 225.

Bookcases, sectional, 351.

Book-shelves with camber, laden and unladen, 36, 37, 254.

Books reproduced by photography, 324.

Borderlands of knowledge, Lord Rayleigh on, 275.

Bourne, George, on beauty of tools, 105.

Bow-puller studied by E. S. Morse, 288.

Bowstring bridge, 31; Philadelphia, 32; invented by Alex. Nasmyth,
308.

Brace, ratchet bit, 90.

Brachiopods studied by E. S. Morse, 288.

Brahe, Tycho, observations, 229.

Brain in co-ordination, 257; disease, localization, 378; disease
treated, 272.

Brakes, Westinghouse, 428.

Bramah, planer, 98.

Brashear, J. A., concave plates for Rowland, 237; optical surfaces
produced, 83, 84; lenses and mirrors for interferometer, 217.

Breakwaters curved, 51; concrete, 430.

Breech-loader, 379.

Bricks shaped by pressure, 325.

Brick-work outlines, 112.

Bridge, concrete, at St. Denis, 431; Forest Park, St. Louis, 444;
Memorial, Washington, D. C., 444; continuous girder, 32, 34; deck,
24; pipe-arch, Rock Creek, 41; and at Saxonville, Mass., 41, 42;
Plauen, Germany, 42, 43; rollers, 38; St. Louis, 31; strains
studied, 25; through, 24; Victoria, Montreal, 26-28; Whipple, 25.

Bridges, 18-38; cantilever, 26; near Quebec, 29, 30; Kentucky river,
30, 31; esthetic designs, 38; railroad, 23; suspension, 32.

Bronze powders, Bessemer’s, 401.

Browne, Addison, on original research, 273.

Brush, Charles F., arc-lamp, 160.

Bubbles rising in liquid, 127, 128; sharpen files, 147.

Buchanan, William, plans famous engine, 15.

Buffalo trails give hints to railroad engineers, 259.

Buffon on invention, 271.

Bullock cart with solid wheels, 47.

Bulrush section, 251.

Bureau of Ethnology reports, 107, foot-note.

Bureau of Standards, Washington, 234-236.

Burke, Charles G., telegraphic code, 352, 353; simplified signals,
354.

Burner, Boivin, for alcohol, 157.

Burroughs, John, on observation, 281.

Bushmen learn from baboons, 136.

Buttresses for arches, 43.

Cabin, disadvantages of its size, 130.

Cables, electric, X-rays examine, 327.

Cactus adapts itself to environment, 248.

Cadmium rays, 218.

Caliper, micrometer, 236.

Camber in book-shelves, 36, 37, 254; in bridges, 37.

Campbell, H. H., Manufacture iron and steel, 177.

Canada, roofs in, 118, 119.

Canal and circulation blood, 256; boat diminishes in resistance when
quickened, 282.

Candles copied in gas-burners, 116; and in electric lamps, 117.

Cantilever, 26; bridges, 26-31; where best, 35.

Capital more necessary under factory system than before, 480.

Carbon dioxide detected in flue gases, 470.

Carbon in steel, 163, 164; filament graphitized, 158.

Carborundum wheels, 101, 102.

Carburetor, 466.

Cards for catalogues, 349, for notes, 350.

Carex root in basketry, 110, 143.

Cargo steamer, 59, 61.

Carnegie Institution for Original Research, 276-278; Library,
Pittsburg, 486.

Carpenter, Rolla C., “Heating and ventilating buildings,” 472.

Cartilage in joints, 251.

Carving chisels and gouges, 90; by air hammers, 418.

Catenary curve, 43.

Cathode rays, 198.

Cattle-breeding, 249.

Caves as store-houses, 137; Virginia and Kentucky, 123, 246.

Cedar for basketry, 110, 142.

Ceiling, heating coils on, 86; white, as reflector, 76.

Cellulose filaments for lamps, 261.

Celts lend forms to bronze, 116.

Cement, natural, 430; Portland, 430; Roman, 429.

Cementite, 164.

Central stations, telephonic, 257; management, Edison Electric Co.,
Brooklyn, 474.

Centralization, tendencies, 481.

Cerium for gas mantle, 156.

Chain suspended, 43, 44.

Chaldean records of eclipses, 229.

Channeling machine, Saunders, 342.

Chanute, Octave, on invention, 268.

Character in research, Tyndall on, 364.

Charcoal, 125; produces vacuum, 328.

Chemical synthesis, 374; theory enlarged by discovery of
radio-activity, 203; triggers, 337.

Chemistry of living bodies, 262.

Chimneys, why shorter, 448; reinforced concrete, 440, 441.

Chisel, carving, 90; cold, of two kinds steel, 167.

Chittenden, L. E., lesson from bank-swallow, 297.

Church, Duane H., inventor watch-making machines, 222.

Church of St. Remy, 43; Notre Dame de Bonsecours, Montreal, 118.

Cinders, large and small on hearth, 120.

Cities, why they gain at expense of country, 478; sites for, 246.

“Class in Geometry,” 122.

Classification literature, Melvil Dewey, 352.

Clay, molded, 102, 103; in the arts, 139.

Cleveland Stone Co., compressed air plant, 427.

Clifton suspension bridge, anchorage, 45.

Clipper ships, 57.

Cloaca Maxima, Rome, 45.

Clocks, Riefler, 223, 224; self-winding, 330.

Coal, glowing, broken into fragments, 120; cutter, Ingersoll, 418;
testing plant, U. S. Geological Survey, foot-note, 241; washer, 151.

Cobbett, William, on writing as an exciter of thought, 300.

Coding in telegraphy, 352-354; in invention, 317.

Coherer, origin of, 147.

Coignet netting for concrete, 442.

Coils, heating, 86.

Collections, value of, 288.

Collodion, Nobel utilizes, 411.

Color dispersion, 180.

Columns of bridge, 23; hollow, 39.

Combinability of matter, 194.

Compass deflected by electricity, 230, 231, 290.

Compasses as truss model, 20; liquid, 149.

Compensating devices, 148.

Complexity in machine may be necessary, 341.

Compressed air, 417-428; drives tools, 417; coal cutter, 418; for
hammers, facing 418, 419; air tools first used by dentists, 419;
drill used as hammer, wood-borer, 420; ramming, paving, tamping,
420; drives away chips, cools cutter, lifts water, 421; works pumps;
for painting, 422, 423; for cleansing, 423; sandblast, 424, 425; air
compressors, 424-427; inter- and outer-cooler, 426; heaters for,
426; in quarrying, 427; Westinghouse brakes and signals, 428; for
transmitting power, 348.

Compression in building, 8; members must be of rigid material, 19.

Compressors, air, 424-427; Parsons‘, 372.

Conch-shells as pitchers, 108.

Concrete and its reinforcement, 429-445; vast uses concrete, 431;
bridge at St. Denis; desirable qualities, 431; silos, 431, 432;
residence, Fort Thomas, Ky., 432 and facing 432; for small, cheap
dwellings, 432; blocks, general manufacture, 433, 434; reinforcement
introduced by Monier, 435; bars for, 436, 437; Monier netting;
expanded metal, 437, 438; molds, 438; Pugh Building, Cincinnati,
grain elevators, bins, 439; chimneys, incorrodibility, 440, 441;
tanks, reservoirs, 441, 442; Coignet netting, 442; conduit,
water-pipes, 442; culvert, N. Y. Subway, 443; bridges, 443-445;
strengthened by crushed stone, 240; “Concrete Construction about
the Home and on the Farm,” 431, foot-note.

Condensers, steam engines, 87; Weighton’s, 452.

Conduit, reinforced concrete, 442.

Cones, similar, vary in contents as cube of like dimensions, 376.

Confectioners’ ornaments, 325.

Contents, solid, ascertained, 343, 344.

Continuous girder bridge, 32, 34.

Contours as decided by material, 111.

Contraction withstood, 88.

Contraries, profit in, 379.

Convenience in machines, 106.

Converse inventions, 70.

Conveyors, 69.

Cook, O. F., on interest as prime factor in discovery, 306.

Cooking box, Norwegian, 189.

Co-ordination, brain, 257; machinery, research, in armies, 194.

Copernicus as discoverer, 270, 359.

Copper in electric bath, 103; reduced in electrical conductivity by
admixtures, 175; for boilers, affected by union with antimony,
arsenic, bismuth, 176.

Corals fed, 123.

Corona observed, 293.

Corrodibility, slight, of Jena glass, 183; of steel reduced, 167; of
steel in concrete, 441.

Corrugated boiler, fire-boxes, 88.

Cotton seed utilized, 149.

Counterbalance, hydraulic pressure, 371.

Cowpox prevents smallpox, 295.

Cram, Ralph Adams, on Japanese wood-work, 113; “Japanese
Architecture,” 114, foot-note.

Craver, Harrison W., Carnegie Library, Pittsburg, 486.

Crookes, Sir W., on precise measurement, 214; tube, 198; radiometer
modified by Nichols, 226.

Cross-fertilization of sciences, Maxwell, 275.

Cross-ties introduced on railroads, 13; steel, Pittsburg, 17.

Croton Dam, concrete, 431.

Crow gets at clam, 369.

Crystal, alum, broken and repaired, 193, 194, 357.

Crystallization iron and steel, J. W. Mellor, 177.

Cube subdivided, 121, 122; root extractor, 375, 376.

Cubit, origin, 209.

Culvert, reinforced concrete, 443.

Cunard steamers, new, 128; driven by turbines, 456.

Curie, Pierre, and wife, discover radium, 199.

Curves replace angles, 48-51.

Cushing, F. H., on Zuni water vessels, 108.

Cutters, lathe, 90; milling, 98, 100, 101.

Cylinder, hollow, for piping, 45; for boilers, 46; strength of, in
organic forms, 250, 251.

Cypress, deciduous, 247, 248.

Dacotah fire-drill, 94.

Daguerre’s discovery of photography, 304, 305.

Dam in arched form, 45; across Bear Valley, 44.

Darwin, Charles, as observer, 280; as questioner, 356; facts and
arguments, 359; on directive worth of theory, 356.

Davenport, C. B., experimental evolution, 276.

Da Vinci, Leonardo, artist and inventor, 308; suspended wheel, 382.

Dawson, Bernard, open hearth furnace, 164, 165.

Dayton, Ohio, as center interurban electric lines, 482.

Deck bridge, 24.

De Laval, steam turbine, 452, 453.

Delta metal, Alex. Dick, 325.

Dentists first to use air tools, 419.

De Rochas, Beau, gas engine, 462.

Detachable parts of tools and so on, 239.

De Vries, Hugo, discovers evolution by leaps, 276.

Dewar, James, non-conducting glass vessels, 375; produces vacuum,
327.

Dewey, Melvil, decimal classification literature, 352.

Dexter feeding mechanism, 331.

Diamond, combustibility of, 357; artificial, H. Moissan, 265;
drills, 92; separated from other stones, 150.

Dick, Alex., inventor Delta metal, 325.

Dies, steel, 175.

Diesel oil engine, 466.

Diffusion of constituents air, 262.

Digestion, impaired, treated with lining of ostrich stomach, 295.

Digit as measure, 209.

Directive paths, 332.

Directness as an aim in design, 342.

Directory iron and steel works, J. M. Swank, 178.

Discovery, character in, 364; chief impulse to, 306; method of, 300;
Faraday on, 363, 364; Jevons on, 364.

Discursiveness, Thomas Young, 365.

Disease, functional, 378; skin, treated with Uviol lamp, 183; brain,
localization, 378.

Dispersion of color, 180.

Distribution motive power, direct, 342.

District heating by steam, 448; Lockport, N. Y., advantages, 473; by
water, 485.

Division of labor modified, 480.

Dodge & Day effect economies, 244.

Dogmatism, Tyndall, 363.

Dollond lenses, 254, 255.

Dome built of arches, 355; of ants’ nest, 260.

Domestic architecture, new, 483.

Douglas, James, on automatic machinery in metallurgy, 332.

Downdraft furnace, 381.

Dowson producer gas for lightning, 157.

Draft, mechanical, 380, 448, 472.

Drama, nature as, 356.

Drawing, James Nasmyth on, 308.

Dredges, hydraulic, 259.

Drill, diamond, 92; fire, Dacotah, 94; steels, 418; air, used as
hammer, 420.

Drills in rifle-making, 282; multiple, 290; ring, 91-93; twist, 93.

Drilling in lathe, two methods, 370.

Drucklieb, C., sandblast, 424, 425.

Drummond, Thomas, lime-light, 155.

Dry blast process, Gayley, 165.

Dudley, C. B., anti-friction alloys, 175.

Dudley, Plimmon H., portrait, facing 14; forms of rails, 14; on
steel for rails, 169.

Dulong and Petit, non-conducting glass vessels, 375.

Duncan, R. K., “The New Knowledge,” 204, foot-note.

Dundonald, Lord, gas flame, 280; down-draft furnace, 381.

Durand, W. F., on ships varying in size, 128.

Dust, 125; combustible, 125.

Dvorak sound-mill, 132.

Dwellings, suggested exhibits, 485.

Dyes tested with Uviol lamp, 183.

Dynamite invented by Nobel, 410.

Eads, J. B., Mississippi jetties, 283; St. Louis bridge, 31, 41,
127.

Ear structure, 257.

Earnshaw’s compensated balance wheel, 223.

Earth, age of, 356; sculpture, 122.

Eclipses, Chaldeans observed, 229.

Economizer, steam engine, 449.

Economy, aim in invention, 341; tested by experience, 383.

Edison, portrait, facing 374; as an organizer, 414; bamboo filament,
140; incandescent lamp, 158; on concrete for cheap dwellings, 432;
separates iron from sand, 150; storage cell, 374; store-house, 153;
tells how he invented phonograph, 310; latest phonograph, 312.

Education of eyes, ears and hands, 300.

Eel, electric, 257.

Egyptian architecture, 114.

Elasticity explained, 358.

Electric cables, X-rays examine, 327; conductors and non-conductors,
202; dynamo and its converse, the motor, 373; eel, 257; heat for
cooking, 188; heat, why too dear for ordinary warming, 484; heater,
Gold’s, 87; lamps in candle shapes, 117; lighting, 158-162;
lighting, General Electric Co.‘s researches, 416; lighting current
economized by uniform voltage, 243; locomotive, General Electric
Co., 128, 129, 415, 476, facing 476; motor aids handicraftsmen, 481;
traction, 476; interurban, 482.

Electrical advances, Lord Rayleigh on, 274; conductor, copper as,
affected by admixtures, 175; conductor, iron as, 173; contact,
imperfect, leads to invention of microphone and coherer, 146;
experiments, Faraday’s simple, 391; reversibility, 373; sparks
useful, 147; Testing Laboratories, N. Y., 242; thermometry, 225,
226; units adopted, 239.

Electricity for all possible services, 474; in the household, 484;
for power transmission, 348; may be produced by food, 264; measured,
230-234; measures heat, 373; modifies properties, 140; brings new
properties into view, 197; used as produced, 346.

Electrolysis and its converse, 373, 374.

Electro-magnetism discovered by Oersted, 230, 290, 373.

Electro-magnets curved, 50; alloy for, 173.

Electro-plating and its converse, 374.

Electrons, Joseph J. Thomson on, 132; form cathode rays, and parts
of atoms, 198.

Elements of chemist probably a single substance, 357.

Elevator cages, 40; grain, 68; reinforced concrete, 439.

Elliptical hand-hole plates, 46.

Embossing machines curved, 50.

Embroidery machine, 319.

Emery testing apparatus, 242.

Emery wheels, 101, 102.

Energy, molecule as reservoir of, 131; potential, 358.

Engineering problems, Osborne Reynolds on, 274; principles in
vegetation, 247.

Entrance of ships, 53.

Ericsson, John, inventive from childhood, 303; Life, 98; Monitor,
97, 98.

Erie City boiler, 46.

Eskimo ingenuity, 106; pelts and bird-skins, 138; skin scraper, 91.

Esthetic design of bridges, D. A. Molitor, 38.

Ether may give birth to matter, 358.

Ethnology, Bureau of, reports, 107, foot-note.

Everett, Harold A., acknowledgment to, 64.

Evolution proved by Darwin and Wallace, 267; chemical elements, and
of stars, 204; the master key, 357; experimental, 276.

Ewart detachable link belting, 69.

Exhibits of dwellings suggested, 485.

Expanded steel, 437, 438.

Expansion withstood, 88.

Experiment, 299-328; passion for, Bain on, 304.

Experimental evolution, 276.

Explanation, the longing for, 355.

Explosions, retarded effects, 195.

Explosives, utility of, 409, 411.

Eye structure, 257; and Dollond lenses, 254, 255.

Faber talking machine, 343.

Factory system, rise of, 479; checks to, 480.

Faculty, identifying, 360; knitting, 359.

Fan blower, converse of windmill, 371; for furnaces, 372; for
pneumatic tubes, 373; for heating and ventilating, 380, 472; screw
form, 69.

Fanning mill, 150.

Fansler, Percival E., acknowledgment to, xxi.

Fant, Thomas E., acknowledgment, xxi.

Faraday as an observer, 279; discovery magneto-electricity, 373;
discovery specific inductive capacity, 212; magnetic researches,
201; on discovery, 363, 364; on observations of untrained men, 294;
on radiant matter, 204-206; method of working, 389; on experiment,
390; simple apparatus for experiment, 390; orderliness, 391;
imagines lines of force, 392.

Farm implements should be simple, 340.

Fathom, origin, 209.

Feathers have advanced birds in scale of life, 250; in arrows, 65.

Feeding mechanism, Dexter, 331.

Fellows gear shaper, 67.

Ferguson, Mephan, water-pipe, 45.

Ferrite, 164.

Ferro-titanium arc-lamp, 161.

Fibre, indurated, 322.

Filaments for incandescent lamps, 261.

Files sharpened by bubbles, 147.

Fire kindling, 125; modifies properties, 140; brings properties into
view, 197.

Fire-arms rifled, 65.

Fire-boxes, Morison corrugated, 88.

Fire-drill, Dacotah, 94.

Fire-fly, Cuban, 263.

Fire-lighter, spiral, 41, 42.

Fire-syringe, 467.

Fischer, L. A., acknowledgment to, xxi.

Fishing-rod, in steel tubing, 41.

Flaming arc-lamp, 160.

Flesh frozen for slicing, 326.

Flight, mechanical, 262.

Flint, aboriginal, 89; for tools and weapons, 137; polished by sand,
424; burnt for white ware, 290.

Flour milling, Hungarian, 150.

Flywheel encased to lessen air resistance, 67.

Folk observation, 294-297.

Food, how chosen, 135, 136; energy value of, 264; investigated by W.
O. Atwater, 243; with aid from Carnegie Institution, 277.

Foot measure, origin, 209; skeleton, 250.

Foresight in invention, 265.

Form, 5-119; conferred, 103, 104; in plastic arts, 103; to lessen
resistance to motion, 65-71.

Fortifications, curves in, 51.

Foster, Sir Michael, on original research in medicine, 269.

Foundries, iron, list, last paragraph, 178.

Foundry practice, modern, Geo. R. Bale, 176; compressed air in, 420.

Francis vertical turbine, 446.

Franklin, Benjamin, bi-focal spectacles, 85; stove, 85; proves
lightning to be electricity, 360.

Fraunhofer invents spectroscope, 284.

Freeman-Mitford, “Bamboo Garden,” quoted, 141.

Freezing earth to stop leak, 326; water expands, 375.

Friction, Beauchamp Towers’ researches, 274; alloys for minimizing,
174.

Frost wedges off stone, 123.

Froude, Edmund, on ship resistances, 53.

Fuels which serve gas engines better than steam engines, 466.

Furnace inside boiler, 381; downdraft, 381.

Furniture embodied with house, 483; lumber for, bent and seasoned at
once, 343.

Galileo invents pendulum, 222.

Gallows-pipe, 86.

Galton, Francis, on sharp sight and visual memory, 281.

Galvanometer, Maxwell’s, Kelvin’s, 231.

Gang saws, 290.

Garden squirt, 371.

Gas exploded by electric spark, 147; from a candle, 457, 458;
engines, 458, 462-466; producer, 459-461; Mond gas, 461; blast
furnace, 462; for heat, light and power, 475; grates imitate maple
or charcoal, 117; lighting, 154, 155, 280, 457; mantle, 155-59;
producer, Loomis, 382; Taylor, 460; turbine projected, 415.

Gases, kinetic theory of, 357; of the atmosphere, Sir W. Ramsay,
214, foot-note.

Gasoline engines, 468.

Gayley dry blast process, 165.

Gearing, 67.

Geissler tubes, 198.

General Electric Co., locomotive, 415, 476, facing 476; researches
in lighting, 416.

Generalization in discovery, 306; Simon Newcomb on need of, 277.

Geological studies aided by Carnegie Institution, 277; Survey, U.
S., coal testing plant, 241, foot-note.

Geology, elementary, 122, 123; records of, 377; study of, 356.

Geometry, Class in, 122.

Germany leads in original research, 275.

Germs destroyed with Uviol lamps, 183.

Giffard injector, 347.

Gill, Sir David, on double star discovery and measurement, 286.

Girders, 10-12; box, 39; Hennebique concrete, 437.

Glacial action observed, 294; Darwin fails to observe, 280.

Glanz-stoff, artificial silk, 261.

Glass, binocular, 81, 82; Jena, see Jena; nickel steel of equal
expansibility with, when heated, 170; prismatic and ribbed, 73, 74;
rough, for windows, 72; total reflection, 77-82; making, Bessemer
pulverizes materials for, 407.

Gledhill, J. M., on high-speed tool steels, 172.

Globes, Holophane, 78-81.

Gluttony, Indian, a cause, 137.

Glycerine utilized, 149.

Gold betokened by a bush, 296; extraction of, 332; solid, diffuses
in solid lead, 201; alloyed with bismuth has no tenacity, 175.

Gold’s electric heater, 87.

Goldschmidt, Dr., produces great heat from iron oxide and aluminium,
145.

Goodyear, C., discovers vulcanization of rubber, 289.

Gothic cathedrals, 43.

Gouges, carving, 90.

Gourd as pitcher, 108; derived pottery forms, 109.

Graham, Thomas, on states of matter, 201.

Grain dried for keeping, 137; elevator, 68; separated from chaff,
150.

Graphitized carbon filament, 158.

Gravitation, law of, Newton’s discovery, 387.

Gravity as motor in mills and post-offices, 321, 322; balanced, 148;
brings rain to valley, 245; specific, learned, 344.

Gray, Elisha, telautograph, 315.

Greek sculpture, 114.

Gribeauval, Gen., interchangeability, 238.

Griffin, Charles, on convenience in machines, 106.

Grinding lenses, 83, 84.

Guesses precede theories, 358.

Guillaume, C. E., invents invar, 169; his unit of measurement, 213.

Gun, built-up, 252, 253; breech-loading, 379; curved, 50; drilled,
93.

Gunpowder cakes, 125.

Guthe, K. E., steatite fibres, 235.

Hadfield, R. A., alloy for electro-magnets, 173; manganese steel,
171.

Haida squaw mats, 116.

Haitinger, Ludwig, discovers cerium in gas-mantle, 156.

Hall, Asaph, discovers two satellites of Mars, 286.

Hall, Charles M., produces aluminium, 143.

Hall, F. W., mechanical treatment steel (see under Harbord), 177.

Halsey, T. S., on premium plans for wages, 244, foot-note.

Hammer, air, 419; drill used as, 420; wasp using pebble as, 260.

Hand-breadth as measure, 209.

Hand-hole plates, Erie City boiler, 46.

Handicrafts revived, 481.

Handwork should not be directly imitated in machine design, 342.

Harbord, F. W., Metallurgy of steel, 177.

Harcourt lamp, using pentane, 226.

Harcourt, Rev. Vernon, makes new glass, 181.

Hargreaves, James, invents spinning jenny, 290.

Harris compressed-air pump, 422.

Harris rotary press, 48.

Harrow simple, 340.

Harvester, self-binding, 478.

Harvey, discovery movements heart and blood, 267, 272, 359.

Haymaking and law of size, 130.

Heart and built-up gun, 252, 253.

Heat, as motion, 358; conservation of, 250; converted into work,
263; economy, 85, 86; electric, for cooking, 188; light and motive
power from central stations, 473-474, 481; measured by electricity,
373; non-conductors, 186-188, 190; treatment of steel, 167;
withstood by Jena glass, 183.

Heater, Gold’s electric, 87.

Heating and power production united, 471; ventilating, and
Sturtevant methods, 380, 472; coils, 86; district, by steam, 448; by
water, Morris Building Co., Brooklyn, 485.

Hefner unit of illumination, 226.

Helium, density, 213; in sun, in minerals, may be a constituent of
chemical elements, 202.

Helmholtz ophthalmoscope, 321.

Herkomer, Hubert, direct reproduction, 342.

Herschel, resources of, 305.

Heusler, F., magnetic alloys of non-magnetic elements, 173.

Hewitt mercury-vapor lamp, 161; Jena glass for, 183.

Hides prepared for use, 138.

Hillman, H. W., household uses electricity, 484.

Hip joint section, 252.

Holloway, J. F., supports turbine by upward pressure water, 371.

Holmes, W. H., Art in shell of the Ancient Americans, 116; form and
ornament in ceramic art, 111, 115; Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos,
108, 109.

Holophane globes, 78-81, 229.

Homestead blowing machinery, 415.

Hood, ventilating, for alcohol lamp, 158.

Hooke’s universal joint, 256.

“Hopes and fears for art,” Wm. Morris, quoted, 114.

Hopkinson, J., on limits to rules, 383; on mathematical analysis,
384.

Hornet and moth, resemblances, 288.

Horse, evolution of, 249.

Hottentots learn from baboons, 136; antidotes for snake venoms, 296.

Hough, Walter, acknowledgment to, xxi.

Houses numbered, 351, 352.

Howe, truss, 24, 25.

Howe, H. M., “Iron, steel and other alloys”; “Metallurgy of steel,”
177.

Howell, Wilson S., maintains uniform voltage, 243.

Howells, W. D., “Hazard of new fortunes” quoted, 306.

Hudson, W. H., on folk medicine, 295.

Hughes, David E., microphone, 147.

Hull, Gordon F., on pressure of light, 133.

“Human body,” H. N. Martin, 252.

Hungarian milling, 321.

Hussey, Obed, mower, 320.

Hutton, F. R., on gas engine, 464.

Huygens employs pendulum, 222.

Hyatt bearing, 47, 49.

Hyde, E. P., Bureau of Standards, photometer, 235.

Hydraulic presses curved, 50; pressure as counterbalance, 371.

Hydrogen in thermometry, 225.

I-beam developed from joist, 10.

Ice-lens focusses solar rays, 5.

Identifying faculty, 360.

Idiom of material, 111.

Ignorance and discovery, 294; Bessemer’s golden, 403.

Illumination, Art of, Louis Bell, 229, foot-note.

Imagination in invention, 309; Faraday’s powers of, 392; Tyndall on,
361.

Imitation of Nature, 249.

Indian gluttony, a cause of, 137.

Indicative plants, 296.

Individuality of matter, 358.

Indurated fibre, 322.

Ingalls Building, Cincinnati, concrete, 438, 440.

Ingersoll coal cutter, 418.

Ingersoll, Ernest, acknowledgment to, xxi; on debt of birds to
feathers, 250.

Initiation in chemistry, 337; in photography, 338.

Injector, Giffard, 347.

Inking rollers, 40.

Inks tested with Uviol lamp, 183.

Insanity, its revelations, 379.

Insects trapped by sundew, 281.

Instruments aiding observation, 356; advance astronomy, 230.

Interborough power-house, roof truss, 21; tests coal, 241; exterior
facing 450; interior facing 452; automatic machinery, 447.

Interchangeability old and new, 238, 230.

Interest as prime factor in discovery, 306.

Interference water-waves, 214; light, 215, 216; discovered by Thomas
Young, 366.

Interferometer, 214-217.

Introductory, 1.

Invar, 169; used for time-pieces, 223.

Invention at first slow, 115; Bessemer on nursing and tending an,
407; organized in America, 414, in Germany, 275; prerequisites, 271;
social aspects of, 478; literature of, 486.

Inventions, origin of, O. T. Mason, 107.

Inventors improve their work in act of construction, 300.

Inverted arc-light, 75, 76, 381.

Iron, inflammable variety of, 151; crystallization, J. W. Mellor,
177; as electrical conductor, as affected by admixtures, 173; its
three forms, 151; foundries, list, foot 178; history manufacture, J.
M. Swank, 178; metallurgy, A. H. Sexton, 178; T. Turner, 179; works,
directory, J. M. Swank, 178; steel and other alloys, H. M. Howe,
177; strength of wrought, 20, 21; and steel manufacture, H. H.
Campbell, 177; Sir I. L. Bell, 177; Institute Journal, 179.

Isolated plants, 473-74; serving neighborhood, 475, 481.

Jackson, Robert T., observation leaves, 281.

James, William, on discovery, 359; on limits to rules, 382.

Japanese architecture, Ralph Adams Cram, 114, foot-note; pottery,
113, 288; wood-work, 113.

Jena glass, 180; first experiments, 181; refraction and dispersion,
181; transparent, 182; in photography, 182, 183; in microscopy, 182;
annealing, 182; in thermometry, 182, 225; resists heat and
corrosion, 183; transmits ultra-violet rays, 183; lenses, 255.

Jenner, Dr., vaccination, 295.

Jetties, Mississippi, J. B. Eads, 283.

Jevons, W. S., “Principles of Science,” 229; on discovery, 364.

Joint, Hooke’s universal, 256.

Joist, more rigid than plank, 7; and plank bent double, 7.

Joule, J. P., discovery of thermo-dynamic law, 212.

Journal Iron and Steel Institute, 179.

Journals, hollow, 40.

Judgment, William James on, 382; Alex. Bain on, 385; moves to new
fields, 385; in ship design, 63.

Jupiter, size of, 121; fifth satellite discovered by E. E. Barnard,
285.

Justifying wedges, 323-325.

Kaiser Wilhelm II., steamer, 59, 60.

Kelp absorbs from sea iodine and bromine, 296.

Kelvin, Lord, estimates size molecule, 131; defines entrance and run
of ships, 53; on measurement, 211.

Kennedy, A. B. W., on simplification, 341; on economy in machines,
383.

Kepler as discoverer, 270, 305; his law, 388.

Kersten, Frederick, separates diamonds from other stones, 150.

Kidneys, disease of, affects vision, 379.

Kingpost truss, 18.

Kites improved by perforation, 292.

Knitting faculty, 359.

Knives, 90.

Knowledge necessary to inventor and discoverer, 267; Bessemer’s
view, 408.

Koebele, Albert, saves orange groves, 282.

Krakatoa volcano, 125.

Krypton, 213.

Kuzel, Hans, tungsten electric lamp, 160.

Labor, division of, modified, 480; saving devices in farming, 478.

Lachine bridge, 32.

Lalance & Grosjean, pressed ware, 185.

Lamp and reflector a unit, 75; giving heat and light, 343; arc, 160;
incandescent, as standard, 227.

Langley, S. P., bolometer, 225; churns air in telescope, 348;
mechanical flight, 262; on Cuban firefly, 263.

Larned, J. N., editor “Literature of American History,” xxii.

Lathe, 95-98; cutters, 90; rotary mandrel, 48; tool, 93, 94.

Lattice trusses, where best, 35; showing rivets, 36.

Lavoisier balance, 209.

Law as binding thread, 134.

Lead, solid, dissolves solid gold, 201; pipe made by pressure, 325.

Leaves observed by R. T. Jackson, 281.

Le Chatelier, electrical thermometer, 226.

Lenard, Philipp, cathode rays, 198.

Lenoir gas engine, 458.

Lens, Dollond, 254, 255; Fresnel, 72, 74; grinding, 83, 84.

Le Vaillant on food eaten by monkeys, 259.

Leverrier, Urbain, discovers Neptune, 378.

Levers and limbs, 256.

Libraries, public, technological departments, 486-87.