Movable Bridges: vol 1 Superstructure

by Otis Ellis Hovey '85. Wiley, N. Y.

It is safe to say that, among those competent to judge, the treatise on movable bridges by Otis E. Hovey, Assistant Chief Engineer of the American Bridge Company, will be regarded as the most complete and authoritative which has yet appeared. Complete because, within moderate limits, it presents a comprehensive view of all the really serviceable types of such structures from the most ancient to the more modern. Authoritative because the author, with his experience of thirty-five years as bridge engineer, and his identification with the entire development of .the science and art of bridge construction in iron and steel, in this modern era, has gained wide recognition as the master of his subject.

The excellent arrangement adopted presents, first, a brief but adequate historical review of types antecedent to those of distinctly recent development. Then, in four chapters, a comprehensive view of the six recognized types of modern movable bridges as adapted to the exacting requirements of present-day practice. The entire range of modern construction is thus covered and all of its essential practical features presented by clearly written descriptive text, more than eighty figures and plates in the text, and by tables of statistics and data relating to the most noteworthy modern bridges of these types. Apparently nothing is omitted which is essential to giving the reader a full understanding of all essential practical details; while nothing is included which does not contribute to that end.

In the latter half of the volume four chapters are devoted to applications of the simpler processes of mathematical and graphical analysis to actual cases,—thus giving brief but sufficient demonstration of the fundamental theory and methods used in the designing. Four concluding chapters deal with, details of design and the practical solution of some problems which have been forced upon designers as they have gained experience and successfully adapted their designs to the demands of increasingly heavy traffic.

Especially interesting is the discussion of the details of the machinery for operating swing bridges, end-lifting and locking devices, etc., and problems involved in the use of the disc center. As to the latter the mathematical analysis is fully developed in an appendix. Another appendix presents the mechanical and mathematical basis for the design of the treads for the supporting and segmental girders of rolling-lift bridges.

It is probably a safe prediction, with which every appreciative reader will concur, that this treatise,—with its companion volume relating to the application of power for operating such structures,—must have and hold a distinct position as standard authority on movable bridges.

ROBERT FLETCHER.

"Topper: an Improbable Adventure," by Thorne Smith. (James Thorne Smith, Jr. 'l9) Mcßride.

"What mad, unbelievable adventures. And he, the staid Topper, had played a part in them." Frank Stockton would have liked this book;, so would John Kendrick Bangs. But it could not have been written in their time. It is dated by Prohibition; it deals with the surreptitious cakes and ale of this present uneasy period. Soon the classifiers will begin their work and we shall have monographs on Attitudes toward Prohibition in Contemporary Literature. But the classifiers will have difficulty with "Topper," because "Topper" deals with the effects of Prohibiten not on persons but on ghosts. It is, in a way, an argument in favor of Prohibition, at least in favor of Prohibition as it is at present administered. For the ghosts in "Topper," far from finding earth an arid and a joyless spot, revisit the glimpses of the moon with a gusto that comes only from the happiest of preghostly recollection.

Cosmo Topper, "an institutional sort of animal," whose family life might be described as sedentary, acquires a second-hand motor car which had formerly belonged to a vivid young married couple named Kerby. The Kerbys had separated themselves from this life (and from the car, Topper innocently supposed at the time of purchase) by crashing into a tree. But the power of the machine is strong upon the Kerbys. Their ghosts haunt the car, and Topper presently finds himself involved in an uproaring flirtation with Marion Kerby, jade among ghosts, who has forgotten in her translation nothing of what every woman knows. In the course of their experience they are joined by two joyous harddrinking rakes of ghosts, Mrs. Hart and the Colonel, and by the amazing ghost-dog, Oscar, whose struggles to materialize usually result in the appearance of only half a dog, either half but rarely the whole. From these rare spirits Topper learns that they who treat life as a joke find death a joke too, and gains a revelation of a larger life and a lighter death.

The humor of the book proceeds from initial conception and from resulting episode rather than from the interplay of character on character—except now and then in the case of Topper and Marion. Despite the fact that the ghosts outnumber the mortals almost four to one, the book is as physical in its incident as a moving picture comedy. But the episodes are never over-played and there is as much variety to them as one could hope for. There is, too, a fine madness in the telling which should cheer the most unliteral mind.

But the real reason why most people will like "Topper" lies in the possibility it opens for vicarious experience. To be able to make oneself visible or invisible at will and thus to play scandalous tricks on people made to have tricks played on them—that is an ambition that all men deeply cherish. "Topper" is filled with people doing that very thing. The book appeals to the Lob in all of us. The idea of the second-hand car haunted by the ghosts of its former owners is a good one; the pictures of Topper's home life are delight Mly portrayed. But what most people will carry away from the book and look back on with frequent longing are the pictures of the disembodied Marion examining garments in the department store, upsetting the affrighted care-taker who has come to order her party out of the house in which they have taken temporary refuge, maltreating her rival, Mrs. Brewster, in the hotel parlors. To be able to accomplish that is almost worth crashing into a tree for. But suppose something went wrong after you had crashed K. A. R.

"American Extraterritorial Jurisdiction in China" by Crawford M. Bishop 'O6 has been reprinted from the American Journal of International Law for April 1926.

Samuel French of New York has published "She Would and She Did," a comedy in four acts, a light satire on people as they are, by Mark Reed 'l2.

"Thoughts Locking Antlers" and "Mountain Moment," two poems by A. K. Laing '25, are published in the June issue of Poetry.

"Granite" by Thomas Quinn '22, a story of Dartmouth undergraduate life, has been published by Harold Vinal, New York. This will be reviewed in a later issue of the magazine.

The issue of Vanity Fair for June contains "Made in England" by Stanley Jones 'lB. Another article by Jones "Where Audiences are Never Apathetic" appears in the May 23rd issue of the Nezv York Herald-Tribune Sunday magazine.

"A Jersey Pilgrimage" by John Cotton Dana '7B, appears in the May issue of the Review ofReviews.

The latest novel of Ben Ames Williams 'lO is "The Silver Forest" published by Dutton, New York.

H. Thompson Rich 'l5 is the author of "I Come Singing" a collection of verse published in a very attractive form by Harold Vinal, New York. Besides the ordinary edition there is a large paper edition autographed by the author.

Dr. C. L. Dana '72 is the author of "The Peaks of Medical History" published by P. B. Hoeber, New York.

The June issue of Rays from the Rose Cross contains an article "Inr-Emmanuel, a Rosicrucian story of Jesus the Christ" by Julian Hovey 'l6. This article is to be continued in later issues of the magazine.

"Digestibility of Fats Taken from Different Parts of the Animal Body" by Arthur D. Holmes 'O6 has been reprinted from the Journalof Oil and Fat Industries for January, 1926. "Confessions of a student of the Classics" is the title of an article by Kenneth Andler '26, to be found in the issue of McNaught's Monthly for June, 1926.

"A Year of Plann'ng and Achievement" the President's report to the Board of Directors of the Chicago Theological Seminary for the year ending June 8, 1926 by President Ozora S. Davis 'B9 has been published in pamphlet form. "The Message and the Messenger" an address to the graduating class of the Theological Seminary, June 8, 1926 by President Davis has likewise been published as a pamphlet.