Various

“ Unless one were treating of the history of the science of optics there is no reason why the latter theory should be mentioned any more than the old theory of the formation of the earth. It is not to be presumed that any one whose opinion is worth the asking still thinks it possible that the old view may be the true one because the evidence is demonstrable against it, yet while the undulatory theory prevails there are not a few persons well instructed otherwise who still write and speak as though light has some sort of independent existence as distinguished from so-called radiant heat ”

“ Indeed, whoever aspires to something better than a hand-to-mouth struggle with poverty, whether as mechanic, farmer, professional man, or what not, must of necessity be to some degree a business man; and in every position in life business training and a practical knowledge of financial affairs are potent factors in securing success. ”

“ The other is that the practical outcome of these institutions is a swarm of conceited flourishers with the pen, who, because they have copied a set or two of model account books and learned to imitate more or less cleverly certain illegibly artistic writing copies, imagine themselves competent for any business post, and worthy of a much higher salary than any merely practical accountant who has never been to a business college or attempted the art of fancy penmanship as exhibited in spread eagles and impossible swans.
As a rule popular prejudices are not wholly unfounded in reason ”

“ The great bugbear staring the amateur mechanic in the face when he contemplates making a small steam engine is the matter of boring the cylinder. To bore an iron cylinder on a foot lathe is difficult even when the lathe is provided with automatic feed gear, and it is almost impossible with the ordinary light lathe possessed by most amateurs. To bore a brass cylinder is easier, but even this is difficult, and the cylinder, when done, is unsatisfactory on account of the difficulty of adapting a durable piston to it. ”

“ The school of experience is by no means to be despised. To many it is the only school available. But unhappily its teachings are apt to come too late, and often they are fatally expensive. Whoever can attain the needed knowledge in a quicker and cheaper way will obviously do well so to obtain it; and the supplying of such practical knowledge, and the training which may largely take the place of experience in actual business, is the proper function of the true business college. ”

“ The ether transmits the energy it has received in every direction with the velocity of 186,000 miles per second, whether the amplitude be great or small, and whether the number of vibrations be many or few. It is quite immaterial. The form of this energy which the ether transmits is undulatory; that is to say, not unlike that of the wave upon a loose rope when one end of it is shaken by the hand. As every shake of the hand starts a wave in the rope, so will every vibration of a part of the molecule start a wave in the ether. ”

“ It is estimated that the total annual losses of insured property by fire, throughout the world, average nearly two hundred million dollars. Add to this the annual destruction of uninsured property, and we should probably have a total amounting to quite double these figures. How great the loss, how severe the tax upon the productive industry of mankind, this enormous yearly destruction amounts to, will come home to the minds of most readers more directly if we call attention to the fact that it just about equals the value of our total wheat crop during a year of good yield. ”

“ A perfected system of intercommunication has for years been in practice between co-ordinate schools in New York, Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, and other cities, by which is carried on an elaborate scheme of interchangeable business, little less real in its operations and results than the more tangible and obtrusive activity which the world recognizes as business. ”

“ It is true vision may be good when there is no purpurine, but there is no doubt but that this substance is secreted in the eye, and that it is photographic in its properties, and so far must be taken as an element in any theory of vision; but the chief point here considered is that objectively light does not exist independent of the eye, that light is a physiological phenomenon, and to speak of it otherwise is to confound a cause with an effect. It is, hence, incorrect to speak of the velocity of light; it has no velocity. It is radiant energy that has the velocity of 186,000 miles a second. ”

“ The almost universal use of steam has been attended by the fitting up of factories with force pumps, hose, and all the appliances of a modern fire brigade; dangerous rooms are metal sheathed, and machinery likely to cause fire is surrounded by stationary pipes from which jets of water may be turned on instantaneously from the outside; stores and warehouses have standing pipes from which every floor may be flooded with water under pressure, and the elevators, those most dangerous flues for rapidly spreading a fire, are either bricked in entirely or supposed to be closed at every floor. ”

“ It is obvious that the knowledge which makes an expert accountant will in all probability suffice for the general business requirements of professional men, the inheritors of property and business, manufacturers, mechanics, and others to whom bookkeeping and other business arts are useful aids, but not the basis of a trade. For the last-named classes, and for women, shorter periods of study are provided, and may be made productive of good results.
A sufficient idea of the general working of the college may be obtained by following a student through the several departments. ”

“ Packard regards education as a tool. If the tool has no edge, is not adapted to its purpose, is not practically usable, it is worthless as a tool. This idea is kept prominent in all the work of the college, and its general results justify the position thus taken. The graduates are not turned out as finished business men, but as young men well started on the road toward that end. ”

“ Thousands of merchants never mean to keep a dollar's worth of goods in store or warehouse that is not fully covered by insurance, and they make this cost a regular charge upon their business as peremptorily as they do the wages paid the hands in their employ. But few manufacturers can so completely cover their risks by insurance, yet a large portion of them do so as far as they are able. ”

“ The theory that leaf variegation is a disease has been held by many distinguished botanists and is in nowise new. But this theory has been controverted, and we think successfully, by other botanists, and it is not now accepted by the more advanced vegetable physiologists. There are now so many acute and industrious students and observers in every department of science, and the accumulation of facts is so rapid and so great, that very many of the older theories are being set aside as not in accord with the newly discovered facts. ”

“ Botanical science does not wholly consist in the classification and nomenclature of plants, but largely consists in a knowledge of vegetable anatomy and physiology, and these require much study and some knowledge of other sciences, such as chemistry, meteorology, geology, etc. Without such general knowledge it is difficult to form a harmonious theory in regard to any of the phenomena of plant life. ”

“ In the bank is employed a regular working force, such as may be found in any bank, consisting of a collector or runner, a discount clerk, a deposit bookkeeper, a general bookkeeper, and a cashier. The books are of the regular form, and the work is divided as in most banks of medium size, and the business that is presented differs in no important particular from that which comes to ordinary banks. After getting a fair knowledge of theory, the student is placed in this bank. ”

“ As to the eye itself, certain of the wave lengths are competent to produce the sensation we call light, but the same ray will heat the face of a thermopile or produce photographic effects if permitted to act upon the proper material, so there is no more propriety in calling it a light ray than in calling it a heat ray or an actinic ray. What the ray will do depends solely upon what kind of matter it falls upon, and all three of these names, light, heat, and actinism, are names of effects of radiant energy. ”

“ If on opening a text book on geology one should find stated the view concerning the creation and age of the earth that was held a hundred years ago, and this view gravely put forward as a possible or alternative hypothesis with the current one deducible from the nebula theory, one would be excused for smiling while he turned to the title page to see who in the name of geology should write such stuff. ”

“ The responsibilities of architects are greater than they have ever before been; the growing demand of the times calls for intelligent studies in all that relates to architecture, whether it be in the realm of æsthetics, in sciences that relate to construction, in the nature and properties of the materials used, in the atmosphere that surrounds us, or in the availability of the thousand-and-one useful and ingenious inventions that tend to promote the convenience and completeness of structures. ”

“ It is always in the first stages of a fire that thoroughly efficient action is necessary, and here it is worth a thousand-fold more than can be any efforts after a fire is once thoroughly started. Long immunity is apt to beget a feeling of security, and the carelessness resulting from overconfidence has been the means of destroying many valuable factories which were amply provided with every facility for their own preservation. The teachers in some of the public schools of New York and Brooklyn, during the past year, set an example which some of our millowners might profitably follow. ”

“ The aim of the proprietor is to keep the school abreast of the demands of the business world, and to omit nothing, either in his methods or their enforcement, necessary to carry out his purpose honestly and completely. An idea of the superior housing of the college will be obtained from the views of half a dozen of the rooms at No 805 Broadway, as shown in this issue of the Scientific American—the finest, largest, most compact, and convenient suite of rooms anywhere used for this purpose. ”

“ How often, too, do we see capable and ingenious and skillful mechanics confined through life to a small shop, or to a subordinate position in a large shop, solely through their inability to manage the affairs of a larger business. ”

“ Again, color in block or in variegation is not positive evidence of disease in animal life. The white Caucasian is as healthy as the negro, the copper-colored Malay as the red Indian. The horse, ox, and hog run through white and red to black both in solid and party-color, and all are equally healthy; so with the rabbit, dog, cat, and others of our domestic animals. In wild animals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects, it is the same, so that mere difference in color or combinations of color are not prima facie evidence of disease. ”

“ The most wonderful of all musical inventions; a machine which in a purely mechanical manner produces any kind of music, Waltzes, Polkas, Marches, &c., &c., without any practice or knowledge of music whatever; in this respect far superior to any music-box, even though it costs many times as much, for there is no limit whatever to the number of tunes it will play. This instrument is on a somewhat similar principle to the wonderful Phonograph, the perforations in a flexible strip producing the effect. ”

“ He is made familiar with the form and purpose of all kinds of business paper, and the rules which govern a bank's dealings with its customers. He gets a practical knowledge of the law of indorsement and of negotiability generally, and is called upon to decide important questions which arise between the bank and its dealers. Wherever he finds himself at fault he has access to a teacher whose duty it is to give the information for which he asks, and who is competent to do it. ”

“ The greatest care is taken to prevent mere copying and to throw the student upon his own resources, by obliging him to correct his own blunders, and to work out his own results; accepting nothing as final that has not the characteristics of real business. Much care is bestowed in this department upon the form and essential matter of business paper, and especially of correspondence. A great variety of letters is required to be written on assigned topics and in connection with the business which is recorded, and thorough instruction is given in the law of negotiable paper, contracts, etc. ”

“ That a safety nut so simple and so obviously efficient as the one shown in the annexed engraving should be among the recent inventions in this line instead of being among the first, is a curious example of the manner in which inventors often overlook the simplest means of accomplishing an end. The principle on which this nut operates will be understood by reference to the engraving. Two nuts are represented on each bolt, simply for the purpose of showing the difference between the nut when loose and when screwed down. In practice only one nut is required to each bolt. ”

“ In view of the speedy discomfiture of the deluded graduates of such schools when brought face to face with actual business affairs, and the disgust of their employers who had engaged them on the strength of their alleged business training, one is not so much surprised that prejudice against business colleges still prevails in many quarters, as that the relatively few genuine institutions should have been able to gain any creditable footing at all. ”

“ What is the best turbine water wheel now in use? A. There are several wheels in market that seem equally good. You should examine all of them and decide from your own observation which is best. 2. What is the rule for finding the horse power of water acting through a turbine wheel which utilizes 80 per cent of the water? A. Finding the weight of water falling over the dam and its velocity in feet per minute, multiply the weight in pounds by the velocity, and the result is foot pounds, divided by 33,000, the quotient is theoretical horse power; if your wheel gives out 80 per cent. ”

“ While it is true that the unsupported allegations of an inventor, that he conceived an invention at a certain date, are not sufficient to establish such fact, the testimony of a party that he constructed and used a device at a certain time is admissible. ”