“Those ... who are familiar with the first edition of this book, published in 1888, will hardly recognize the present volume as being a revision of the same book.... We now have the dead load stresses, the live load stresses and the stresses due to wind and other causes treated in separate chapters for the common forms of simple trusses. The fifth chapter takes up the consideration of long-span bridges.... Chapter VI. discusses portal bracing, sway and lateral bracing and plate girder design. Chapter VII. treats of deflections.... The final chapter takes up cranes, bents, towers, viaducts, and other miscellaneous structures. A notable feature of the new edition is the extensive use of illustrations, including half-tone views of notable truss bridges, folding plates and numerous text drawings.”—Engin. N.
| Engin. N. 53: 184. F. 16, ‘05. 230w. |
[*] Mertins, Gustave F. Storm signal. $1.50. Bobbs.
Two intertwined love stories provide the romantic interest in this story of the South and the negro. The conditions in the South after the Civil war are vividly presented, the good old negro type is well drawn, but the real story is that of the negro uprising, when black fiends, driven to desperation by the recital of their wrongs in their secret meetings, attack and are repulsed. There are strong dramatic scenes and characters which, tho unpleasing, are strikingly portrayed.
[*] Merwin, Samuel. [Road builders.] [†]$1.50. Macmillan.
“To make an achievement in railroad building dramatic and exciting and to hold the reader’s interest in suspense from beginning to end is a feat in fiction writing which few men would attempt.... The young engineer who with bulldog determination and ever-ready invention puts his engineering feat through on time, in the face of cunning enemies, natural obstacles, and stupid and criminal employees, is a type, but he is also a rousing good fellow.”—Outlook.
[*] “There is no lack of well contrived incident, and on the whole the book is true to life.”
| + + | Engin. N. 54: 534. N. 16, ‘05. 60w. |
[*] “The tale is clear-cut, terse and thrilling. Altogether the book is an industrial romance bristling with human interest.”
| + + | Outlook. 81: 710. N. 25, ‘05. 150w. |