REGULAR MEETING-2nd OF FEBRUARY, 1898. A regular meeting (the 377) of the Society was held in its rooms, 1736-9 Monadnock Block, Chicago, Wednesday evening, 2nd of February, 1898. President Alfred Noble in the chair; 70 members and guests present. The reading of the minutes of the previous meeting was omitted as the members already had them in printed form. The secretary reported for the Board of Direction the receipt of applications for membership from David Sloan, F. B. Badt, Frederic Sargent, H. J. Westover, Oscar Sanne, Wm. Kramer, J. G. Giaver, J. W. Page, G. H. Hillebrand, David Macdonald; for junior, G. C. Geraty. Mr. Isham Randolph, chairman of the 1897 entertainment committee, read the final report of the entertainment committee, the full text of which apappear in the February issue of the Journal. It was moved and seconded that the report be received, accepted and placed on file. On motion, a hearty vote of thanks to the committee for their successful labors dur ng the past year was seconded and carried. Mr. Reynolds movied that the chair appoint five members as Entertainment Committee for 1898. Ca rried. The Chair stated that he would announce the committee later. There being no further business, the reading of the paper of the evening on "Some Engineering Features of the Nicaragua Canal," by Mr. A. Noble, was in order. The first vice-president, Mr. J. J. Reynolds, took the chair and Mr. Noble proceeded with the paper. At its conclusion Mr. Geo. S. Morison and others entered into discussion of the subject. After the subject was disposed of the Chair called upon Mr. Condron, chairman of committee on professional papers, for report on progress of the committee. Mr. Condron stated that a dozen or fifteen papers were promised for the first six months, and that the committee were very much pleased with their success. SPECIAL MEETING, 16th OF FEBRUARY, 1898. A regular meeting (the 378) of the Society was held in its rooms Wednesday evening, February 16, 1898, 1st Vice-President James J. Reynolds in the chair; 45 members and guests present. The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved. The chair called upon Mr. T. L. Condron, chairman of committee on papers, for report. Mr. Condron presented a program of papers for the coming six months, and stated copies of the program would be mailed to all members in a few days. There being no further business, Mr. Victor Windett read his paper on "The South Works of the Illinois Steel Co.," illustrated with a large number of views of the works. At the finish of the paper Mr. C. E. Stafford, manager of the Open Hearth Plate Mill Dept., gave an interesting explanatory talk on the subject, and was followed by Mr. Davison, chief chemist, with much matter of interest, Messrs. Albert Reichmann, A. M. Feldman, T. L. Condron, J. C. Bley, V. Windett also added to the discussion. At the conclusion a vote of thanks was cordially tendered Messrs. Windett, Stafford and Davison. The meeting adjourned. NELSON L. LITTEN, Secretary. LIBRARY NOTES, The Library Committee wishes to express thanks for donations to the library. Back numbers of periodicals are desirable for exchange and aid in completing valuable volumes for our files. Since the last issue of the Journal, we have received the following as gifts from the donors named: U. S. Coast & Geodetic Survey to June 1896. Metpn. Sewerage Com. of Mass.-9th Annual report of the Board to Sept. 30, 1897. F. King & Co., London.-The Automotor and Horseless Vehicle, Pocket Book of Automotive Formulæ, etc., 1898. Institution Mechanical Engineers, London, Eng.-Vol. IV, November, 1896, Proceedings, Vol. I, February, 1897. Proceedings, Vol. II, April,. 1897. G. S. Morison.-Reports Board of Consulting Engineers, Dept. of Docks, New York City, 1897. Mass. Inst., Technology.-Result of Test made in The Engineering Laboratories, Vol. IV, Description and Computation of a 24 hour Duty Test on the 20 Million Gallons Leavitt Pumping Engine at Chestnut Hill. State Geologist, Iowa.--Iowa Geological Survey Reports Vol's. I to VII, 1893 to 1896, inclusive. O. B. Green.-R. R. Comrs. Reports, 1890, 1896, 1897. W. O. Seymour.-45th Annual Report (1897), R. R. Comrs. of Connecticut. Harman, Jacob A.-12th Annual Report of the Illinois Society of Engineers and Surveyors. January, 1897. U. S. Department of Interior.-Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for 1896. Annales des Ponts et Chaussees.--1897. 3me Trimestre. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.--Result of Tests. Vol. V. Applied Result of Tests. Vols. VI and VII. The Federated Canadian Mining Institute.-Journal of. 1897. Vol. II. Boston Transit Commission.-3d Annual Report year ending August 15, 1897. ruary, 1897. Nobe, Alfred.--Transactions of Institution of Civil Engineers. London. Vols. I and II. 1836-1838. The following books received by purchase: Materials of Construction.... by J. B. Johnson Modern Machinist. Usher Electric Power Transmission. Bell Steam Engine Holmes Otto Cycle Gas Engine.. W. Norris Text Book on Machine Drawing Anthony Essentials of Gearing.. .Anthony Treatise on Belting. Cooper Modern Steam Engines.. Rose Compound Locomotives. Woods Heat as a Mode of Motion Tyndall New Exchanges on file in the Library: Journal of the Military Service Institution, bi-monthly, The Mechanical Engineer, weekly, Manchester, England. The Black Diamond, weekly, Chicago. Marine Engineering, monthly, New York. Revue Practique de L'Electricite, weekly, Paris, France. The Auto-Motor & Horseless Vehicle Journal, monthly, London. Bulletin of the Polytechnic Society, Moscow, Russia. The library and reading rooms are open from 9 A. M. to 5 P. M., on week days, except Saturday, until noon. TO MEMBERS. The Library Committee wishes suggestions as suggestions as to good engineering books, new or old, that are desirable for our library. The aim is to give the greatest good to the greatest number of our members possible with the funds at our command, and the committee, composed of few members, cannot well judge wisely to meet the various needs of our membership. Will each member please send to the Secretary of the Society the title of one or more books which he considers useful and authoritative in some line of engineering work? Please state title as fully as possible, together with the names of author and publisher, etc. Any suggestions in regard to the library in general or in any detail will be gladly received. Western Society of Engineers. The Society, as a body, is not responsible for the statements and opinions advocated in its publications. The peculiarity of American water wheels is that they receive water on the periphery and discharge it downward and toward the center while the foreign wheels receive the water on top and discharge it below, or at the center and discharge it outward. Fig. 351 is a cut of the Victor Turbine, which is a good representative of the Americanturbine. Fig. 352 shows the New American turbine wheel mounted in a wooden flume. Nearly all wheels now built in America are mounted in this way in iron or wooden penstocks. The water is carried by a flume to the penstock in which the wheel rests. The wheel covers a hole cut in the floor. The water flows through the wheel from the penstock and thereby imparts motion to it. Below the wheel and penstock is a large channel through which the water escapes. This type of wheel, which is peculiarly American, has been slowly evolved from very imperfect forms until it has become superior to all others. The history of the American turbine is an illustration of American ingenuity combined with that unfaltering faith which does not hesitate to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in developing inventions. In the year 1859 the committee of water-works of the city of Philadelphia instituted a series of competitive tests of water-wheels to enable them to select the best design for new pumping works which were about to be erected in Fairmount Park, on the Schuylkill River. The results of those tests were afterwards published in a pamphlet which gives the general condition and state of the art at that time. The Jonval, or French type, gave by far the best results. It is illustrated by Fig. 353. This wheel led those tests with a high record of 87.77 per cent efficiency. The wheel which showed the next best record, and which afterwards received the contract and was adopted by the city, was of essentially the same description. Seven wheels of the class which takes water on the outside and is now universally adopted by American builders, were tried at the same tests. Their average efficiency was 121⁄2 per cent less than those of the Jonval type, and in selecting waterwheels for the city the committee would not consider them because their efficiency was so low. This shows how completely in its infancy was the American type of waterwheel in 1859. In 1876, seventeen years later,another competitive test of water-wheels was carried on in Philadelphia at Fairmount Park. This test was under the auspices of the Centennial Exposition. Sixteen water-wheels were tried. Fifteen were of the American type. The only Jonval wheel, or wheel of foreign type, was entered by the same manufacturers who secured the order which depended on the tests of 1859. Their wheel was designed by the same French engineer who had been trained in the best French schools, where he had studied the best French models. Its chutes and buckets were set in finished grooves, cut with perfect accuracy. They were made of rolled brass, so as to allow the water the smoothest and best course. FIG. 351.-VICTOR TURBINE. The American wheel which led the test in 1876 was a Risdon wheel, a plain iron casting. It is illustrated in Figs. 354 and 355. It was from five to ten per cent. better at full gate and gave 33 per cent. more power out of the water at part gate, so much had the American type of wheel been developed at that time. By comparing it with the Watson-Stevenson wheel, Fig. 353, which gave the best records in the tests of 1859, the difference between the French Jonval type and the American type will be easily perceived. |