Practical Marine Surveying. By Ensign Henry Phelps, U. S. N.
While this book was written to fill the need of a suitable text-book on the subject at the Naval Academy, it thoroughly bears out its title and is eminently practical, and will be found useful by all who wish to acquire a knowledge of marine surveying. There have been a number of books written on this subject, but this is the first one that is really practical and by means of which any one with sufficient education to handle the instruments and make the calculations can learn to make a good marine survey. It contains many valuable “wrinkles,” some of which have been passed along for years in the Coast Survey, and others that are the result of experience in the survey of the Western Coast under the Hydrographic Office, Navy Department.
American Railroad Bridges. By Theodore Cooper, M. Am. Soc. C. E.
In this work Mr. Cooper gives a history of American bridge-building, together with a description of the existing and accepted types and the methods in use to-day, and it cannot fail to be of interest to all who design, manufacture or use railroad bridges. In the historical portion, under the head of wooden bridges he commences with the ‘‘Great Bridge” built across the Charles river, between Old Cambridge and Brighton, in 1660, and carries it along to 1844, when the Pratt truss was patented, in which the tension members were of iron. Under the head of iron bridges he commences with Thomas Paine’s letter, written in 1803, and ends with the iron lattice bridge built 1865-66 over the Connecticut river. He then takes up the history of long-span bridges, commencing with the bridge built 1863-64 over the Ohio river at Steubenville, and continuing the history up to the present day. He then gives the theory and practice of designing and proportion, a description of the manufacture of bridges, of the typical American railroad bridges with a discussion of their relative merits, and concludes with a discussion of the failure of bridges. There are a number of plates and some tables giving the result of physical tests of full-size bridge members. R. W.