tains some exceedingly interesting pieces of apparatus. One of the largest instruments was made for M. Arago, the celebrated French philosopher.

On each side of this room is a pleasant apartment; the one at the right being the study of the professor of physics, and that at the left the study of the professor of mechanical engineering.

The large room next the room just mentioned is the lecture-room of the professor of mechanical engineering. This room is probably thirty-five feet square, sixteen feet to the ceiling, and well lighted, and thoroughly provided with means of heating and ventilation.

A large model-case nearly covers the farther side of the room, and contains a fine collection of apparatus acquired partly by purchase and partly by contribution from friends of the school and of the enterprise. Among the latter we are pleased to find many of our best-known and most enterprising as well as liberal manufacturers. The purchased apparatus is from the German makers of models at Darmstadt and Frankfort, and the French makers at Paris. The Germans seem to make them most substantially, and the French by far the most elegantly, and as a natural consequence the latter are the most expensive. Some few pieces are from London, and others are American, while still others were made at the Institute.

Among the most noticeable are the German models of gearing, several French sectional models of steam-engines, one of them being on quite a large scale, well proportioned, and very neatly made; a set of apparatus of different kinds for measuring the velocity of flow of water, dynamometers, cranes, and windlasses, pumps, water-wheels, turbines, and steam-engines of various kinds.

The most beautiful model in the collection is a copy of the English oscillating engine with feathering paddles as made by Penn & Co. We hope that some one will have enough of enterprise and public spirit to make the Institute the possessor of an equally perfect model of the American steamboat-engine.

We find in this collection models of the engine described by Hero of Alexandria over two thousand years ago, a modern copy of the old devices of DeCaus and Savery, models of the engines of Newcomen and of Watt, and a little horizontal stationary engine of 14-inch cylinder and 4 inches stroke, with a drop cut-off which is adjusted by a little fly-ball regulator. It is supplied with steam by a copper boiler fed by a separate steam-pump. It was made, we understand, by the head of this department when himself a boy at school.

At one end are boiler-models, and, at the other, roof and bridge trusses, and scattered through the case are many pieces that would be unusually interesting if they were not surrounded by so many others of still greater interest. A model of the Fontaine turbine by Salleron, of Paris, is the most perfect specimen of model-making imaginable, and hardly less beautifully made is the small Giffard injector, cut open to exhibit its internal construction. This was made and contributed by Sellers & Co., of Philadelphia. Blake & Brothers, of New Haven, contributed a powerful little stone-crusher, that will crumble between its jaws any mineral that can be inserted there. The professor of chemistry often finds this a convenient substitute for the mortar. William D. Andrews & Brother, of New York, have given a neat little centrifugal pump; A. K. Rider, a model of his steam-engine; D. P. Davis and the Recording Steam-Gauge Company each have presented a finely finished specimen of the recording steam-gauge. A. L. Holley furnished model rolls and specirien tuyeres as used in the Bessemer-steel manufacture, and other manufacturers have exhibited equally active and helpful sympathy in this important enterprise by presenting other models and samples, and have already placed in this department a valuable set of drawings which occupy a good proportion of the space allowed in the set of drawers, which extend along the side of the room opposite the model-case.

Mr. George B. Whiting, chief draughtsman of the Bureau of Steam Engineering of the Navy Department, has placed here a large proportion of his own private collection of drawings, embracing some extremely valuable complete sets of drawings of steammachinery.

At the end of the room, at the right of the entrance, is a case which is beginning to fill up with samples of useful ores, minerals, and metals. A set of specimens from the Pennsylvania Steel Company illustrate the Bessemer-steel manufacturé by exhibiting samples of the steel rail and of all the material, ores, irons, spiegeleisen, ganistor, &c., &c., that are used in its manufacture.

The Chrome-Steel Company contributed samples of their remarkable metal; the Pembroke irons and the iron of Catasauqua and elsewhere are shown, with the ores from which they are made.

The Manhattan Oil Company, of New York, present samples of all commercial, animal, and vegetable oils; and the Dover Company, of mineral oils.

Professor Thurston is gradually collecting a very interesting set of engineering. relics.

In the library and museum on the first floor we saw the identical high-pressure, . direct-acting engine and tubular boiler, and the remains of the screw used by John

Stevens on the Hudson River in 1804, the little steamer attaining a speed of eight miles an hour at times. With these are the twin screws used by that great engineer in 1805. In the lecture-room we find the patent issued from the English patent-office for this tubular boiler in 1805, to John Cox Stevens, the oldest son of its inventor; and in the model-case is a model of the same boiler, which exhibits a strong resemblance to some of the safety tubular boilers of the present day, and was evidently quite as efficient.* Here is to be seen a drawing of the engine of Fulton's first boat, the Clermont, drawn by Fulton's own hand, an autograph letter from Robert Fulton to Mr. Stevens, an autograph letter from Robert Stephenson, the distinguished son of the even more distinguished George Stephenson, which contains the assurance that then, 1835, the tendency in Great Britain was toward heavier rails and more powerful locomotives, and that the latest of his own design weighed nine tons, and could draw one hundred tons at the rate of sixteen or eighteen miles an hour on a level. A sketch accompanies the description.

There are other things of interest to be seen here, but space will not allow of further description of this, to us, most interesting of the many interesting departments of the Stevens Institute of Technology,

We would like, had we space, to describe the collections of physical apparatus, the apartments, with their apparatus and fittings, belonging to the department of chemistry, to which is devoted all available space in the whole west wing, the pleasant drawing-rooms and recitation-rooms and the work-shops of Hawkins and Wales, the instrument-makers to the Institute.

Instruction, during the first two years of the course, which is four years in length, is similar to that pursued in other colleges, except that the classics are not taught, all the available time being spent upon mathematics, English and foreign languages and literature, and the usual courses in science, and this constitutes a course preparatory to entering upon the technical and professional work of the last two years.

During the last two years the student enters the laboratories and work-rooms and pursues his professional studies with the intention of securing a practical and immediately useful knowledge of the several branches. In the physical laboratory he makes for himself, and with his own hands, the experiments that the student usually in our college courses merely witnesses from his seat at a distance from the lecturetable, and when he has acquired some familiarity with the adjustments and uses of the apparatus, he enters upon a final course of independent research, the results of which, when new and valuable, are at once published.

In mechanical engineering, the course commences with the study of the nature of materials used by the engineer, the methods adopted in obtaining them and preparing them for the market and for use, and the best methods of preserving them from decay. The course is illustrated by specimens which, thanks to the great interest taken in the school by all who have visited it, are continually coming in.

The course continues with the investigation of the facts and laws governing the strength of materials, by means of the apparatus of the Institute. In investigating tensile strengths, the use of the excellent and powerful testing-machine of the Camden and Amboy repair-shops is generously allowed by Mr. Francis B. Stevens.

Instruction in the use of tools and in designing machinery follows, partly in this course and partly in that of the professor of drawing, which is really almost as much a department of engineering as that which is so called. The course closes with the study from text-book and lecture of the principal prime movers.

The departments of engineering and drawing work together from beginning to end, and the time given them is in the aggregate fully commensurate with their importance as leading departments.

Occasionally, in response to the many invitations received, the students are given opportunity to do useful work outside the regular course, and to visit manufacturing establishments and places of interest.

During the past year students of the Institute attended the competitive trial of steam-boilers at the fair of the American Institute, keeping the logs with commendable accuracy, and exhibiting a professional interest in the work. They have engaged in at least one test of the performance of a newly-designed steam-engine, have visited, among other places of interest, the Allen Engine-Works, the Chrome-Steel Works, the caissons of the East River bridge, the machine-department of the Brooklyn navy-yard, and the iron-clad Dictator.

The cost of tuition is fixed at a minimum figure, and, in special cases, is remitted entirely if the student, proving pecuniarily deficient, exhibits unusual attention to duties. The number admitted is, however, limited, and when the number of appli cants capable of passing the preliminary examination exceeds this limit, the requisite number is obtained by selecting the most worthy.

Students who, after studying two years, exhibit special fondness for science, are

*A sketch of this boiler is given in the Journal of the Franklin Institute for September, 1871, and in London Engineering, January 5, 1872.

vey, exploitation, and construction of mines, with the construction and adjustment of