| PAGE |
| LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS | xiii |
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | xxi |
| CHAPTER | |
| I. | INTRODUCTORY | 1 |
| II. | FORM
Form as important as substance. Why a joist is stiffer than a plank. The girder is developed from a joist. Railroad rails are girders of great efficiency as designed and tested by Mr. P. H. Dudley | 5 |
| III. | FORM CONTINUED. BRIDGES
Roofs and small bridges may be built much alike. The queen-post truss, adapted for bridges in the sixteenth century, neglected for two hundred years and more. A truss replaces the Victoria Tubular Bridge. Cantilever spans at Niagara and Quebec. Suspension bridges at New York. The bowstring design is an arch disguised. Why bridges are built with a slight upward curve. How bridges are fastened together in America and in England | 18 |
| IV. | FORM CONTINUED. LIGHTNESS, EASE IN MOTION
Why supports are made hollow. Advantages of the arch in buildings, bridges and dams. Tubes in manifold new services. Wheels more important than ever. Angles give way to curves | 39 |
| V. | FORM CONTINUED. SHIPS
Ships have their resistances separately studied. This leads to improvements of form either for speed or for carrying capacity. Experiments with models in basins. The Viking ship, a thousand years old, of admirable design. Clipper ships and modern steamers. Judgment in design | 52 |
| VI. | FORM CONTINUED. RESISTANCE LESSENED
Shapes to lessen resistance to motion. Shot formed to move swiftly through the air. Railroad trains and automobiles of somewhat similar shape. Toothed wheels, conveyors, propellers and turbines all so curved as to move with utmost freedom | 65 |
| VII. | FORM CONTINUED. ECONOMY OF LIGHT AND HEAT
Light economized by rightly-shaped glass. Heat saved by well-designed conveyors and radiators. Why rough glass may be better than smooth. Light is directed in useful paths by prisms. The magic of total reflection is turned to account. Holophane Globes. Prisms in binocular glasses. Lens grinding. Radiation of heat promoted or prevented at will | 72 |
| VIII. | FORM CONTINUED. TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTS
Tools and implements shaped for efficiency. Edge tools old and new. Cutting a ring is easier than cutting away a whole circle. Lathes, planers, shapers, and milling machines far out-speed the hand. Abrasive wheels and presses supersede old methods. Use creates beauty. Convenience in use. Ingenuity spurred by poverty in resources | 89 |
| IX. | FORM CONTINUED. ABORIGINAL ART
Form in aboriginal art, as affected by materials. Old forms persist in new materials. Nature’s gifts first used as given, then modified and copied. Rigid materials mean stiff patterns. New materials have not yet had their full effect on modern design | 108 |
| X. | SIZE
Heavenly bodies large and small. The earth as sculptured a little at a time. The farmer as a divider. Dust and its dangers. Models may mislead. Big structures economical. Smallness of atoms. Advantages thereof. Dust repelled by light | 120 |
| XI. | PROPERTIES
Food nourishes. Weapons and tools are strong and lasting. Clothing adorns and protects. Shelter must be durable. Properties modified by art. High utility of the bamboo. Basketry finds much to use. Aluminium, how produced and used. Qualities long unwelcome or worthless are now gainful. Properties created at need | 135 |
| XII. | PROPERTIES CONTINUED
Producing more and better light from both gas and electricity. The Drummond light. The Welsbach mantle. Many rivals of carbon filaments and pencils. Flaming arcs. Tubes of mercury vapor | 154 |
| XIII. | PROPERTIES CONTINUED
Steel: its new varieties are virtually new metals, strong, tough, and heat resisting in degrees priceless to the arts. Minute admixtures in other alloys are most potent | 163 |
| XIV. | PROPERTIES CONTINUED
Glass of new and most useful qualities. Metals plastic under pressure. Non-conductors of heat. Norwegian cooking box. Aladdin oven. Matter seems to remember. Feeble influences become strong in time | 180 |
| XV. | PROPERTIES CONTINUED. RADIO-ACTIVITY
Properties most evident are studied first. Then those hidden from cursory view. Radio-activity revealed by the electrician. A property which may be universal, and of the highest import. Its study brings us near to ultimate explanations. Faraday’s prophetic views | 197 |
| XVI. | MEASUREMENT
Methods beginning in rule-of-thumb proceed to the utmost refinement. Standards old and new. The foot and cubit. The metric system. Refined measurement as a means of discovery. The interferometer measures 15,000,000 inch. A light-wave as an unvarying unit of length | 208 |
| XVII. | MEASUREMENT CONTINUED
Weight, Time, Heat, Light, Electricity, measured with
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