The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1897-01-30
a Nv usE "a PAoToeRApHY.
Note Books with Intricate m for
Engineers with the Camera

L
Note Books with Intricate Formulas for
Engineers with the Camera
John w. Nystrom, Of Philadelphia, a
well-known civil and mechanical en-
gineer, once said to his colleagues:
Make your own pocketbook." In Civ
ing this advice Mr.. Nystrom did not
have in mind q receptacle for money,
but a little volume usually carried about
by engineers containing rules, mathe-
NAUTICAL tables and formulas adapted
for immediate use. At first it was con-
sidered to be almost impossible for a
man to make a book of this kind, but
COW modern science steps in, and every
engineer can make a pocbetbook for
himself which win invariably suit him
better than anything he could buy, be-
cause it may be made to serve him in
the special branch of engineering which
he practices.
Thus the civil engineer whose spe-
cialty is hydraulic rams and the flow of
water in channels is likely to find in
his general pochetbook only a few
formulas for making the calculations
he needs. Even if the SUBJECTS treated
more exhaustively, the engineer may
not be familiar with the system, so he
does better if he follows Mr.. Nystrom's
advice: "Figure the thing out for your
self, preserve the formula used, and
when You have it to do again it will ba
easy"
But formulas accumulate rapidly,
and any engineer or astronomer en-
gagged in active practice soon has a big
collection, which. being without an in
dex, is not of great value. The problem
that confronts him then is how to bring
this mass of matter into some neat,
compact and portable form. He may
have hundreds of formulas in algebra
and calculas which, owing to their
length, ne dare not copy, as that would
be conducive to errors
There is some one who cancopythem
for him, however, and that man has
never been known to make a mistake.
He has copied thousands of finely
printed pages replete with intricate al
gebraical calculations where the omis-
sion of an accent would spoil the whole
result. He does his work we'll and
quickly, too, sometimes copying a
whole page in something less than a
second. In short, he is infallible. That
nan is the photographer, and he has
become so popular Of late among physi-
clans, engineers, lawyers and mathema-
ticians hat special Departments have
been instituted in many studios for
work of this sort.
For a notebook of this kind notes
should be made, not in script, but with
a typewriter, one, of course, having a
mathematical keyboard, including the
signs in addition, multiplication, sub
traction and division. TGe size Of the
paper used should depend upon the de-
sired dimensions of the volume. Sheets
eight by ten inches reduce photograph
ically to five by seven inches nicely.
Pure white paper is the lest, and it
should not be folded, otherwise the
creases will show in the photograph.
When the page Of matter is once re-
corded on the Photographic plate, as
many copies as are desired may
be printed on blue print or other pre-
pared paper without the slightest
chance of error. These different prints
are then bound together, and behold, a
book, or several books, for that matter,
ifsodesired. Itsometimes happens that Il
goodmathematica table is found in some
old volume now out of print. This may
be photographed, reduced or enlarged
to any desired size, and incorporated in
the book. TIE copy SO made is bound to
be truthful, which might not be the
case if it had been made with a pen or
put into the hands of a'printer.
An engineer owning his camera can
make his own pocketbook for about ten
cents a page, which is about IS cents
below the price charged by photograph
ers. Some little experience is necessary
in order to get the right time of ex-
posure, as wellias the right size of lens,
which mrst MT have too rnuch curva-
ture.-N. Z. SIN.
Another Idol Shattered.