the difficulties could be decreased by improving the quality of the text-books, along the lines of the following specifications, which, he claimed, would apply in most particulars also to engineers' reports, contributions to the proceedings of engineering societies and to engineering periodicals.

His specifications, in condensed form, are:

1. The matter should be arranged in proper sequence.

2. The language should be clear, concise, and forceful.

3. The running titles and headlines should be so arranged that the reader can easily and quickly find any particular part.

4. Diagrams and figures, as far as possible, should be inserted at the most convenient place in the text, and be accompanied by a descriptive legend.

5. Folding plates should be placed at the end of the volume.

6. Folding plates should have a blank stub, such that when the plate is unfolded the printed matter will be entirely outside the body of the volume.

7. The several divisions should be indicated by the proper headings, and the minor subdivisions (sections) should be numbered continuously through the volume, chiefly for convenience of cross-reference.

8. Cross-references should state also the page.

9. Attention should be given to the typographical arrangement of mathematical formulas.

10. The nomenclature should be suggestive of the quantity represented.

11. The nomenclature should be prominently stated before being used.

12. Each table should have a serial number, and a fully explanatory title at its head. 13. Tables should be divided horizontally by frequent lines.

14.

Each horizontal line of a table should have a serial number.

15. The vertical major divisions of tables should be indicated by double rules.

16. The relative divisions of the several columns of the table should have consideration.

17. Matter of minor importance should be printed in finer type.

18. The book should have a very full index, with page references.

19. The collections of "useful tables" frequently printed at the close of the volume should be preceded by a list of titles.

20. The mechanical execution should be in keeping.

XI

"FIELD" AND "POLICY" OF

TECHNICAL JOURNALS

The primary purposes of any journal should be the production of revenue, and the securing of a position of paramount influence in the field it represents. The attainment of this twofold aim depends upon the combined efforts of the business and the editorial departments. On the latter depends the standing of the journal as a power in its field; to this department the periodical looks for the supply and selection of literary material of a character useful to a certain class of readers. Here the business department steps in and through the circulation of the periodical among these readers, obtains advertising, on which the journal must depend for its main revenue, in fact, for its very existence. We are not interested in the present work with the details of management of either the business or the editorial department, but it will be seen that the success of a periodical as an authority in any branch. of literature and as an advertising medium is based on its literary pages, and this, in turn, shows the necessity of care and a definite policy in the selection of the material for publication.

This editorial policy covers all features of the literary pages: the character of articles acceptable; the standards of quality; the acceptance, rejection, editing, and return of contributions; payments for contributions; abstracts and reprints from lectures, papers, reports, etc., presented at conventions and society meetings; the illustrating of articles; the use of letters addressed to the editor; reviews and notices of books; standardization of type and make-up of text pages, and many similar details.

There are, perhaps, journals made up of a hotch-potch of clippings, without any literary excuse for existence, but every high-class and successful journal has a definite "Field” and "Policy," to which it rigidly adheres. The field is necessarily a development, depending upon the progress of the department of the profession to which the journal relates and upon varying commercial conditions. It is almost as impossible for a journal to decide on the limits of its field at the commencement of its existence as it is for a college student to decide on the limits of his future work on his graduation day. In time, however, the journal "finds its level," and when that time arrives and a definite field and policy have been adopted and declared, the journal should show evidence of a consistent adherence to these principles.

Acceptance and Rejection of Articles. No

journal can, of course, within the limits of its space, publish everything of interest relating to its specialty, but it should be the purpose of the editors to keep in touch with the whole range of information in that branch of the profession and select for publication the best material that they can find relating to it.

Writers frequently ask a periodical if an article on this or that subject is "in its line." As a rule, all articles connected with the declared field of the journal are directly "in its line," but whether they will be acceptable or not depends solely on the editor's judgment as to their interest and value to the readers. Editors are always pleased to receive contributions on any subject "in its line," from any source whatever. These are usually examined by the managing editor, and such as are found unavailable for use in any form are returned to the senders when such return is requested. Contributors should always specially request return of manuscript when this is desired, and especially of drawings and photographs. It is also well to send stamps with a contribution to cover cost of such return. (See page 212.)

Editors will, as a rule, give an opinion as to whether an article on a given subject is likely to prove interesting, but the final acceptance of an article is seldom, if ever, made until the complete manuscript, with illustrations, has been submitted.