Affidavit of American Manufacture . Penalty for False Affidavit . . . Printing of Notice... Ad Interim Protection . . . Du- ration of Copyright . Protection Afforded and Penalties for Infringement . . . Assign- ment . . . Registration . . . Copyright Fees. Choosing a Publisher . The Literary XVII. PREPARATION OF ILLUSTRATIONS Wax-engraving Process . . . Photo-litho- graphy and Photo-engraving... Prepara- tion of Drawings . Half-tone process The Physical Side of Books: Papers Outline of Work of the Manufacturing Dealing Direct with the Printer. Estimation of Space Occupied by Manuscript .. Type Faces. . Electrotypes Proof-reading: Press-work. Errors Most Frequent in Indexing of Technical Information: The Industrial Library Index. System for Both Field and Office Use . . . Classification Dewey Decimal System of Classification: Explanation of the Dewey System . . . Use and Advantages of the Decimal Classification Extent of the Engineer's Library Selection of Books and Periodicals. Government Publications and How to Reading and Judgment of Engineering Literature: Periodicals . . . How to Read INTRODUCTION THE PURPOSE OF LITERATURE. A certain writer has said that "The purpose of literature is to render our lives, that is, the individuality of each one of us, broader and deeper, through contact with the thoughts of great personalities in all departments of study." Certainly a man's life is influenced by the literature he reads very much as his character is by the company he keeps. The nonreading man is usually an uncultured and uneducated man. The merely professional, or "one-book" man is a narrow man; worse than that, he is an artificial man, a creature of technicalities and specialties, removed equally from the broad truths of nature and from the healthy influences of human contact. In society, the most accomplished man of mere professional skill is often a nullity, whose talents have dominated his life to the exclusion of human sympathies and interests. The odor of the "shop" is always about him; he is like a merchant or a broker who can talk of nothing but leather or grain or stocks, or he may be a book-worm and smell mustily of books, as an inveterate smoker does of tobacco. The young man who has entered a field of professional work should endeavor to keep his mind open to the general interests of humanity, and instead of rushing into professional studies exclusively, should rather avoid the engrossing influence of what is popularly called "shop." He will soon enough learn to know the cramping influence of purely professional occupation and studies, and if he insists on fixing his mind on these to the entire neglect of general culture, he should be told at once that no professional training, however complete, can teach a man the whole of his profession; that the most exact professional drill will fail to teach him that most interesting and most important part of his business-the part, namely, where the specialty of the profession comes directly into contact with the generality of human notions and human sympathies. Of this the profession of the law furnishes an excellent and perhaps the best example, for while there is no art more technical, more artificial, and more removed from a fellow-feeling of humanity, than law in many of its branches, in others it marches out into the great arena of human rights and liberties, and deals with large questions, in the handling of which it is often of more consequence that the pleader should be a complete man than that he should be a legal expert. In the same way, medicine has as much to do with a knowledge of human nature as with the virtues of skilfully mixed drugs and the revelations of a technical diagnosis. So, also, in the practice of the art, as Tredgold defined it, "of directing the great sources of power in Nature for the use and convenience of man," the engineer is brought into contact with every advance in civilization, comfort, luxury, and safety of mankind. The life of the engineer is rendered "broader and deeper," through contact with the work and thoughts of his fellowman as reflected in the writings of men prominent in the various departments of study and of his own profession. "Literature" is a large subject, and it is not my intention, in the present small work, to delve too deeply into its mysteries. But what is "Literature"? Mere bookmaking is not literature. Bibliography, fiction, history, are only so many branches of literature; books and periodicals are only two forms of literature; we speak of the "Literature of Engineering,' or of Civil Engineering, or of Cement and Concrete, meaning the entire range of published information on these general or specialized subjects. Thus, "Literature" may be said to be the record, in more or less permanent and readable form, of the results of human thought and activity, considered collectively. The literature of his profession is the most valuable instrument at the command of the engineer, but in the present-day tendency towards specialization and the strong individualizing of the separate departments of the profession, there is always danger of a misuse of this instrument. |