Various

“ If there are any real abuses of power by the employers, such as requiring work for unusual hours or at less than living rates, the first thing to do is to correct these abuses, so that complaints will not be upon a sound foundation. Some men, when the labor epidemic strikes their places, have sufficient force of character and influence with their men to avert the blow for some time. ”

“ Labor should not be organized for selfish ends, but for its own good, so as to secure steady and permanent employment, rather than prevent it by impracticable schemes and unwise methods, which will cripple manufacturers and all kinds of industry. ”

“ Reasonable questions to ascertain, where records are to be found and the kind of records accessible, are always proper if made at the proper time without interrupting an immediate train of thought; and with such information as a start, if a young man will endeavor to imagine himself in a place like that of the one who has finally to decide, and try to ascertain just what information will probably be required, then patiently go to work to find and present it in condensed shape, he from that moment really begins to be useful and his services will be rapidly appreciated. ”

“ Considerable interest has been aroused lately in scientific and industrial circles by a report that separation of the oxygen and nitrogen of the air was being effected on a large scale in London by a process which promises to render the gases available for general application in the arts. The cheap manufacture of the compounds of nitrogen from the gas itself is still a dream of chemical enthusiasts ”

“ Resins and waxes may serve only as protection to the surfaces of plants; coloring matters, as screens to shut off or admit certain of the sun's rays; but we are still far from penetrating the mystery of life. ”

“ We have in mind an instance where a superior authority in a large business enterprise who had great respect, as he should have, for the attainments of young gentlemen who have had the opportunities of a technical education, deliberately ordered out a competent mechanical engineer, familiar with the designs required in a large repair shop, and sent in his place a young gentleman fresh from school and flushed with hope, but who from the very nature of the case could know little or nothing of his duties at that particular place. ”

“ When organized under the laws of the State and under by-laws designed to secure steady employment, rather than any artificial condition of things in regard to pay hours, and continuance of labor, the true interests of the workman will be advanced. It may be that some one of you will develop a talent in the direction of organization and be the means of aiding in the solution of this great problem. ”

“ And above everything keep your eyes and ears open to obtain practical knowledge of all that is going on about you. Let nothing escape you of an engineering nature, though it has connection with the business in hand. ”

“ A simple plant does what animals more highly endowed cannot do. From simplest substances they manufacture the most complex. We owe our existence to plants, as they do theirs to the air and soil.
The elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen pass through a cycle of changes from simple inorganic substances to the complex compounds of the living cell. ”

“ The revolution of the driving axles and wheels is not interfered with in the slightest, because in the former the axle boxes are outside the path of the lines of force, and in the case of the latter because each wheel practically forms a single pole piece, and in revolving presents continuously a new point of contact, of the same polarity, to the rail; the flow of the lines of force being most intense through the lower half of the wheels, and on a perpendicular line connecting the center of the axle with the rail. ”

“ When we consider, however, that the cost should only embrace attendance, fuel, wear and tear, and a little lime and soda for the purifiers, that the consumption of fuel is small, the wear and tear light, and that the raw material—air—is obtained for nothing, it ought to be possible to produce the gas for a third or fourth of this amount in most of our great manufacturing centers, where the price of fuel is but a third of that demanded in London, and where provision could be made for economizing the waste heat, which is entirely lost in the Westminster installation. ”

“ While conciliation may be best at some times, policy at another, and resistance at another, we must also be thinking of the best means to prevent further outbreaks. It would seem to be true policy not to interfere with organization, but to try and direct it into higher channels. Those of the humanitarians who claim that the disease will be rooted out eventually by a more general and better education are undoubtedly largely in the right, notwithstanding that some fairly educated men have acted against their best interests in affiliating with the labor organizations. ”

“ For the application of disinfection in the rural districts, the movable stove is the most practical thing that we know of. It is easily used, can be taken to the smallest hamlets, and can be transported over the roughest roads. It inspires peasants with no distrust. The first repugnance is easily overcome, and every one, upon seeing that objects come from the stove unharmed, soon hastens to bring to it all the contaminated linen, etc., that he has in the house. ”

“ Young men who have learned how to harness the powers of nature and guide them to do their will are apt to belittle the difficulties they have yet to overcome, and have a false impression of the problems of life. ”

“ Whenever there is a new departure to be taken, and matters to be worked out from the solid which require close computation of strains or the application of any principles, your education will put you far ahead, and if you have, during the period of what may be called your post-graduate course, which occurs during your early introduction into practical life, been careful to keep your eyes and ears open so as to learn all that a man in practical life has done, you will soon stand far ahead. ”

“ All who contemplate building or improving homes, or erecting structures of any kind, have before them in this work an almost endless series of the latest and best examples from which to make selections, thus saving time and money. ”

“ Please think of the matter seriously, watch the law of evolution while you are advancing your professional knowledge, and if the opportunity offers, do all you can to aid in a cause so important and beneficent. ”

“ You will observe that some details have been copied for years and years, although thoughtful men would say they are not the best, simply because they are adapted to a large amount of work already done. This is particularly true of the rolling stock on railroads. The cost of a change in starting in a new country might be warranted, but it practically cannot be done when the parts must interchange with so much work done in other parts of the country. You will find in other cases that the direct strain to which a piece of mechanism is subjected is only one of the strains which occur in practice. ”

“ With soft iron contact surfaces the variation in friction is very rapid and sensitive to slight changes in current strength, and this fact may prove of value in connection with its application to regulating and measuring apparatus. In all cases the point to be observed is to maintain a closed magnetic circuit of low resistance through the two or more surfaces the friction of which it is desired to increase, and the same rule holds good with respect to the electric system, except that in the latter case the best effects are obtained when the area of surface in contact is smallest. ”

“ You can do so with heart when you know the employes are all well paid, and particularly, as is frequently the case, when the labor organizers and walking delegates claim that some old, tried foreman shall be dismissed because they do like him, really because he has not been a tool in carrying out their plans, and they defiantly acknowledge that their war is against non-union labor, and that they have organized your men and forced a strike to require your establishment to become as it is called a "union shop." ”

“ We have referred to some who have acquired the happy faculty of making themselves immediately useful. This is a much more difficult matter than the words imply. If one of you should be so fortunate as to be ordered to make certain tests almost like those you have already conducted here, or to tabulate the results of tests as you have done it here, or to make inspections akin to those which have been fully explained here, there is every probability the work would be done satisfactorily in the first instance. ”

“ Then, young men, is the time to show your pluck, and our experience is that educated young men will do so every time. They can be depended upon to go straight ahead with duty through every danger, bearing patiently everything that may be said, defending themselves with nature's weapons as long as possible, and without fear using reserve weapons in case real danger of life is imminent. ”

“ Life is short, and you must realize that now is your opportunity. If any diversion in the way of pleasure or even certain kinds of congenial work is offered, consider it in connection with the question, "Will this be conducive to my higher aim?" ”

“ In carrying through a very important strike against a mere desire to control and not to correct abuses, your speaker desires to pay the highest tribute to a number of educated young men, mostly from the technical schools, who fearlessly faced every danger, and by their example stimulated others to do their duty, and all participated in the results obtained by a great success. ”

“ The educational facilities you have enjoyed are of such great value in some exceptional cases that the parties thus benefited may do you an injury by leading others to expect that you will be equally valuable in performing duties which require much more practical experience and knowledge of detail than it is possible that you could have obtained in the time you have been here. ”

“ It will be apparent at once that a method of increasing the tractive power of the present steam locomotives by more than 50 per cent. without adding to their weight and without injury to the roadbed and wheel tires, such as is caused by the sand now commonly used, would prove of considerable value, and the same holds true with respect to electrically propelled street cars, especially as it has been found exceedingly difficult to secure sufficient tractive adhesion on street railways during the winter season, as well as at other times, on roads having grades of more than ordinary steepness. ”

“ The schools have enough to do in the time available if they teach principles and sufficient practice to enable the principles to be understood. The aptitude to design, which must be what is meant by mechanical intuition, requires very considerable practical experience, which you will readily learn if you do not keep yourself above it. If you have used your leisure hours to study why a certain piece of mechanism was made in a certain way rather than in another ”

“ No matter how humble a position you may take in the beginning, you will be embarrassed in much the same way as the young gentleman in question, though it is hoped in a less degree. Your course of action should be first to learn to do as you are told, no matter what you think of it. ”

“ The simplest form of plant life is an undifferentiated individual, all of its functions being performed indifferently by all parts of its protoplasm.
The chemical basis of plasmodium is almost entirely composed of complex albuminous substances, and correlated with this structureless body are other compounds derived from them. Aside from the chemical substances which are always present in living matter, and are essential properties of protoplasm, we find no other compounds. ”

“ Co-operation has been suggested as a cure for the evil, and there are cases where it has apparently succeeded, in connection with the earlier forms of labor organization. The ambition of later labor leaders almost prevents this remedy being of effect. It may be possible still with very intelligent workmen, isolated from the large mass of workmen in the country towns, to feel an interest in co-operation; but such inducements, or the higher ones of personal kindness to employes or their families, are not of much effect in large manufacturing centers. ”

“ In the circuit of the field magnet is placed a variable resistance. This resistance is thrown in or out by means of a motor device actuated by an electromotive force indicator. A plunger of soft iron is suspended from a spring, and hangs within a solenoid of wire, which solenoid is in connection with the terminals of the dynamo. Any increase or diminution of the electromotive force causes this iron to move in or out of the core, and its movement is made to connect or disconnect the gearing which throws in the field magnet resistance with a shaft driven by the engine itself. ”

“ For large contact areas the magnetic system is found to be most economical, and this system might possibly be used to advantage to prevent slipping of short wire ropes and belts upon their driving pulleys, in cases where longer belts are inapplicable as in the driving of dynamos and other machinery. Experiments have also been, and are still being, made with the object of increasing friction by means of permanent magnetism, and also with a view to diminishing the friction of revolving and other moving surfaces, the results of which will probably form the subject matter of a subsequent paper. ”

“ This carelessness follows them into after life, and there are instances where young men, who can make certain kinds of investigations much better than their fellows, and promptly give a statement of the general nature of the results, have, when called on afterward for the details, forgotten then entirely, and their notes and memoranda, if preserved, being of little use, the labor is entirely lost. Such men necessarily have to learn more careful ways in after life. ”