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detecting sounds at sea is that invented by Dr. Joseph Schmitt of the Island of Anticosti. They hear much of wrecks on Anticosti, and the question of saving life at sea is a paramount one on this storm-beaten and ice-bound strip in the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Anticosti is ice-bound five months out of the year, and Dr. Schmitt, during one of these periods of enforced retirement from the world in general, became interested in a book in which the desirability of inventing some device for preventing marine disasters was eloquently pleaded. He set about inventing a sound indicator, building it with his own hands from such material as he could find on the island. It consists primarily of a hood in which the operator stands listening for distant sounds, which are collected in a funnel fixed just above the hood. There is a diaphragm in the funnel and leading down therefrom, two rubber tubes which are adjusted to the ears of the listener. There is also a mariner's compass resting under the funnel to let the listener know which direction the funnel is pointing when it records a sound. Dr. Schmitt made his first instrument from a dry-goods box which he used for a hood, a pair of old stethoscope tubes, and a piece of tin bent into the form of a funnel. Yet it worked successfully from the start. Sounds which could not be detected by the unaided ear, or, if audible, were lost as to direction, were instantly located by the director. Its value on ships and in lighthouses is undeniable, as the throbbing of a vessel may be heard with it when it is not possible to detect it with the ear unaided.

Quite recently at Southend-on-Sea, England, there was shown a device for generating electric waves and transmitting them so that vessels might be warned from rocky coasts. It is less pretentious than the ordinary apparatus for telegraphing without wires and is not intended to be used in carrying on conversations. It is to be placed in lighthouses and lightships so that all vessels passing within seven miles of the coast can instantly be made aware of the fact and can shape their course accordingly. Of course the vessel utilizing it would need to have a receiver on board, but not such complicated apparatus as Marconi uses. Somewhat the same idea is embodied in the gigantic megaphones which,

it has been suggested, should be set up on the rocky prominences of our coast.

THE DISPERSION OF FOG

But all of these ideas and inventions presuppose the existence of fog on the ocean, and now Professor Oliver Lodge, of Liverpool, comes forward and asserts that fog is by no means a necessary concomitant of sea life. He says it can be dispersed, and has made experiments which indicate that this claim is well founded. Discharges of static electricity, says Professor Lodge, will be properly arranged to turn all fog banks into rain. Professor Alexander McAdie also has investigated the subject and suggested that experiments be made by the United States Weather Bureau. The idea originated some years ago. Professor Lodge was crossing the ocean, and his vessel was detained several hours by the fog. On his arrival in Liverpool he set to work to see what could be done to dissipate fog on a small scale. He began to investigate the dust fog that often envelops cities. He succeeded in clearing a reservoir of magnesium smoke by means of electric discharges. He also succeeded in clearing a room of thick turpentine smoke by the same means. He announced the result before the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Speaking of his experiences on shipboard, he said:

Fog is an unmitigated nuisance. Electric light is powerless to penetrate it, and as we lay down there idle, it was impossible not to be struck with the desirability of dissipating it. It is rash to It is still more rash to predict what can be done. predict what cannot be done. I would merely point out that on every steamer there are donkey engines and that these can drive a very powerful Holtz or Wimshurst machine, one pole of which may be led to points on the masts. When electricity is discharged into fog on a small scale, the fog coagulates into globules and falls as rain. Perhaps it will on a large scale too."

Mr. McAdie urges the practical application of Professor Lodge's ideas. He calls attention to the fact that nearly every steamer carries dynamos which could be used to charge transformers so that at least 50,000 volts could be obtained. Now as a matter of fact, this is merely a mundane application

of what nature does when we talk of the phenomenon called "thunder clearing the air," for a static charge of 50,000 volts is a lightning flash of no mean proportions. It would certainly be a spectacular display, a number of great ocean liners speeding along with artificial lightning leaping from mast to mast. The flashing lights would be a source of protection even if the fog were not dissipated, and this brings us directly to those spectacular devices which even now are available.

The constant use of rockets on a vessel may save it from destruction in a fog bank, and vessels have been known to avert disaster by flashing a searchlight rapidly across and back through the air. For a fog bank is an evanescent thing which may roll up like a rain storm and cover a very limited or a very wide area. And sometimes the shaft of light reaches higher into the air than the low-lying bank of mist.

ILLUMINATED LIFE-SAVERS

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Among the devices sent to Paris for exhibition in the Pollock prize contest were several that took cognizance only of the fact that vessels are sure to sink some time or other, and that in the moment of extreme peril some quick remedy must necessarily be forthcoming. Of these was one invented by Chief Constructor of the United States Navy Philip Hichborn. It was a life-buoy, capable of supporting two human beings, which is already in use on the United States war vessels. In shape it is annular, flat on top. Hanging down on two sides of it are iron tubes, and at the bottom of each is a metal receptacle. This receptacle is so constructed that, when the buoy is thrown overboard, water leaks into it and comes in contact with a powder (calcic phosphide), igniting it and producing a bright flame, which streams out of the iron tubes a foot or more above the water and is visible for miles. The flame will keep alight for an hour.

Constructor Bowles, of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, sent the model for a bulkhead door which he intends shall be inserted in the various compartments of a vessel, and which, operated by electricity, can be closed or

opened at a touch of a button from various portions of a ship.

Another device was the invention of W. J. Kennedy of New York City. It is a patent davit for quickly putting a life-boat over the side of a vessel. Many lives have been lost because of the failure of the boat davits to work. In wintry weather they are nearly always covered with frozen spray that gets into the joints and prevents their being turned. The time consumed in chopping away this ice sometimes means a difference between life and death for the imperilled ones. Now the newer davits are constructed so that this ice matters very little. Instead of turning on a pivot, the davits simply fall outward on hinges like the arms of a derrick, the weight of the boat and those on board cutting away the ice that otherwise would clog. A number of patent davits were submitted in competition for the prize. Patent life-buoys likewise were numerous, and some of them not only contained lighting devices, but also food and drink. Life-boats, opened and closed, have been invented in dozens. One of those presented for competition was encircled by a hollow steel belt to prevent its overturning. Of curious interest also was the Eophone, an instrument for detecting faint sounds at sea, the invention of Robert Nevill, of Washington, D.C. This was the device which Anthony Pollock was carrying to Europe to have patented when he lost his life on the Bourgogne.

These are the devices of life saving. But there is above and beyond all this the great protective system of the Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C., which oversees the mariner and his work, plots the charts, lays out the probable tracks of approaching storms. points out the sunken rocks, warns against the cyclone, tells about the tidal waves, directs how oil shall be poured upon the water, describes how the storm centre can be avoided. etc., until the shipmaster starting on a long voyage is able to tell almost with certainty just what dangers he will encounter. This governmental system is, after all, the greatest guarantee of safety on the ocean. It is only when the vessel has passed far out of the ken of man that the invention which wins the Pollock prize will find its great usefulness.

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE

PUBLIC SCHOOL.

THE RESULTS OF THEIR CLOSE COOPERATION - HOW THE
EXPERIMENT BEGUN BY MR. GREEN, OF WORCESTER, MASS.,
HAS SPREAD AND IN A SENSE REVOLUTIONIZED EDUCATION

BY

GEORGE ILES

FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

O

NE of the most momentous steps ever taken in the service of literature was when, in 1879, Mr. S. S. Green, the public librarian of Worcester, Mass., linked in a systematic manner the public schools of that city with its public library. This alliance, of course, has spread to other cities, but it is only fitting that we should observe it at its source, where its originator, as full of energy as ever, is extending the work along new lines of endeavor.

As far back as 1835, New York enacted a law establishing libraries in the district schools; and the example was copied by twenty other states; but in the main the results were disappointing. As a rule, each library was isolated from every other, there was an absence of care in selecting the first stock of books, and in furnishing new supplies when the old favorites had gone the rounds. Usually, too, the management was incompetent and slack, so that in many places the books, quite unguarded, seemed to melt like snow beneath an April sun.

To-day, in the best practice, a very different state of things has come about. To begin with, the librarian and the teacher confer together with a view to advance their common interests; the teacher himself is accorded for his own work the utmost facilities of the library, and, so far as funds permit, his suggestions for purchases are promptly acted upon. Next, in order to fill the shelves for his scholars, a careful choice is made of the works which may worthily supplement instruction, and of those books which in travel. and fiction, adventure and exploit, may provide sound entertainment-such books, indeed, as may introduce boys and girls to the best thought and the worthiest action.

In Worcester every pupil from the fifth to the ninth grade is to read two of these books in a year, and give a written or oral account of their contents. For the younger children fables, folk-lore and simple tales are supplied to teachers to be retold to their little hearers. Still other books offer masterpieces of poetry and prose to be committed to memory. The "Courses of Study for Primary and Grammar Schools in Worcester" are set forth in a pamphlet of sixty-six pages. To scan these pages is to see what the librarian and the teacher can do when they unite their forces. No longer is memorizing the printed page the be-all and the end-all of instruction. Anything that should be observed is observed; anything that should be done is done instead of being merely talked about or recited. Books come in for reference, for direction, as means of continuous explanation, as sources of knowledge concerning observations, experiments, generalizations far beyond the horizon of the learner. Nature study begins best at home, so we find the pupils first provided with excellent manuals of the flowers and trees, the physical geography, the birds and bird-songs of Worcester. Next follows a similar and larger array of books dealing with Massachusetts, after these come the other states of the Union, with at last, some sharpened glances at the rest of the world.

There is throughout an admirable grouping of the authors who most helpfully direct observation and explain the subtle ties which bind flower and insect, the variations which become the pivot of evolution, and the diverse strands of law which knit the countless facts of field and woodland into a connected philosophy. Graphic art, music and physical training, and the other branches of a well

considered course of study meantime receive due cultivation.

During the winter months the high water mark of circulation among the public schools of Worcester is a daily average of 2,000 books from the public library. It should be stated, however, that an additional large number of books are given to children for school uses on special cards issued to the children at the library, and that very large numbers of books are used for reference in the library building. In Detroit, a much larger city, the books are five times as many, purveyed to all grades of scholars above the fourth. The library in each school-room is changed once in four months, and no school is likely to get the same books oftener than once in two or three years. The books are in charge of the principal of each building, and are given out under very simple regulations. In Cleveland the public schools are branch stations of the public library; in that city, in Buffalo, Milwaukee and St. Louis, the relations of librarians and teachers are most fruitful.

Not a little ingenuity is displayed in elicit ing the young pupils' interest. When the early history of the United States is studied, it receives illumination from the lives of Washington, Jefferson and Adams; at a later period the story of the Civil War is vivified and brought home by the biographies of Lincoln and Grant. Every village, town and city has a history of its own, its roll of honored pioneers and leaders, its tales of heroism and enterprise, its scenic setting and distinctive trades, its home varieties of birds, insects and wild flowers, and all these are borne in mind as book is added to book on the school shelf. Anniversaries, too, become occasions of profit. The birthdays of Franklin, Hamilton and Fulton serve to recall their work for America and the world, the young scholars learning above all else how much of the liberty and happiness of the present were bought by the toil and faithfulness of men who long ago went to their graves. On May 4th of last year Wisconsin celebrated Arbor and Bird Day; the occasion was heralded by the reading of Burroughs and other such authors who may find boys and girls strangers to the tree and the blossom, the bird and the bee, only to leave them their sympathetic friends.

the schools of that city.

A thought much in the mind of the modern educator is that his opportunity is all too fleeting. A faculty or a talent springs up in early life much as a promising shoot in a garden; give it due recognition and fitting nurture, and in the fullness of time it will yield precious fruit; under neglect or wrong tillage the poor child is doomed to a life wanting the gain and delight it might otherwise have known. Hence it is that the new education offers an unbroken round of appeal. No longer are lessons addressed solely or mainly to the verbal memory: for the hand and eye are hammer, saw and plane, needle and thread, brush and pencil, plastic clay and wire; for the voice and the ear there is music; instead of reading about nature there are excursions to the woods, the fields and streams. The teacher is mindful to declare the limitations of the printed page and relegates the book to a rightful place which it fills more usefully than ever. Fortunately, we live in an era when authors include an increasing proportion of observers and doers, men of experiment and experience; their work admirably supplements the first-hand knowledge, often meagre enough, of those who have just crossed the threshold of the working world.

Incalculable is the importance of thus beginning aright the study of books. The vast majority of pupils leave school about their fourteenth year; thereafter their education, their understanding of what they see in the field or the workshop, in trade or politics will be largely determined by the love of good literature they have formed at school.

Already the soundness of taste developed in good schools has manifested itself in the free choice of books when school days are done. No boy or girl ever comes to an intelligent admiration of Hawthorne, Dana, Stevenson and Parkman, and later for Jane Austen, Thackeray and George Eliot, without an instinctive aversion for the inanities of Oliver Optic, Charlotte M. Braeme and Mrs. Southworth. Just as in the case of the practical talents, a wide freedom to choose from the open shelves, discovers this boy to be strongly aroused by the feats of Kane, Nordenskjold and Nansen, while his playmate finds his heroes in the very different personalities of Watt, Faraday and Edison.*

*The Carnegie Library, of Pittsburg, has just issued a catalogue of such of its books as are recommended for The titles are carefully graded for use all the way from the kindergarten to the high school. The whole forms a capital guide either for the borrower or the buyer.

Notes follow the titles.

THE AUTHOR AND THE PUBLISHER

T

AT PEACE

THE TRADITIONAL FEUD BETWEEN THEM WAS IMAGINARY
OR IS PAST IN THE UNITED STATES-THE SQUABBLES
AND SUSPICIONS BETWEEN THE TWO CRAFTS IN ENGLAND
BY

MARY B. MULLETT

HERE was a time when there was supposed to be a state of suspicion if not of war between the men who wrote books and the men who published them. The outside world, at least, had an idea that the author was a long-suffering, down-trodden creature, who sometimes dared to claim his own soul but seldom succeeded in collecting his claim. There were then not very many authors. But the persons who write now are more conspicuous and much more numerous than they used to be. During the last ten years the guild has so increased, that you never know but your dearest friend or your next-door neighbor may be secretly writing an historical novel. All men and women are under suspicion. The latest edition of the Dictionary of American Authors contains seventy-five hundred names, and there are seventy-five hundred more persons who think that they ought to be in the list.

Now if this large and important guild were oppressed the public would hear of it; for they are not a silent company. Women's clubs would discuss the oppression; there would be authors' organs and protective associations and all sorts of machinery of defence. And if there were a publishers' and authors' war in these days it would be a right merry war, for the publishers have multiplied almost as rapidly as the authors. But instead of war, there is really a hearty enough friendship, for which there is a good reason.

But in spite of the peace that prevails the gossip-loving public that lives outside the borders of Book Town still do an uncommon amount of talking about authors and publishers a greater hubbub, indeed, than was ever warranted by the facts. Read the reminiscences of American authors and publishers and you will find testimony to the

most friendly relations. For instance, in James T. Fields's delightful "Yesterdays with Authors," the relations of Emerson, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Lowell, and Holmes to their publishers are frankly explained. They were a very happy family. Similar were the pleasant relations between Irving and his publishers. One quarrel or difference in the book-world, such as poor Poe was always having, is exaggerated into a general habit.

The reason that amicable relations generally exist between these two crafts is the best of all reasons-in no other way can each serve the other successfully. To quarrel is to lose. All successful business arrangements rest on mutual trust. But the publishing business in a peculiar sense demands such a personal mutual trust. Every prominent and successful publisher is the personal friend and adviser of the authors whose books he publishes. In fact, one of the principal charms and rewards of the business of publishing-the one thing that makes it a profession rather than a trade-is the delight that the true publisher gets from the friendship of his authors and his pleasant relations with them. He becomes their partner in furthering what they stand for in literature. By the very nature of the business an author is obliged to trust the publisher. There is no practicable plan whereby a dishonest publisher can be prevented from making an inaccurate report to the author. But to make a dishonest report implies not only a very flagrant form of dishonesty on the part of the publisher himself, by the connivance also of his bookkeepers and practically of all his office force-a dishonest establishment, in fact.

And an author who wisely chooses his publisher will choose him in a great measure for

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