Engineering News; but on the other hand, it is no reason why we should exclude it. What we are after is what will interest our readers. If the publication of an article benefits somebody or other as an advertisement, so much the better.

The editors of Engineering News, therefore, receive and examine with great care matter submitted by manufacturers, advertisers, and others descriptive of new devices, machinery, tools, plant and methods of doing work, and selection is made from this matter solely on the basis of what the editors believe to be the interest of the readers. Thus the "tradewrite-up" is judged on the same basis as the original contribution of a practicing engineer, or the paper read before an engineering society. The better the article which the manufacturer submits, the better its chances of acceptance. It must be remembered that the amount of matter offered to the editors, and from which they must make their choice, is many times as great as the pages of Engineering News can contain. Obviously a great deal of matter has to be rejected, not because it is not good, but because it does not rank among the best.

III.

The conditions of publication are often of importance in determining the acceptance or

rejection of an article. The "trade-write-up" which is sent out broadcast to all sorts of trade journals is pretty sure of rejection. That which is sent out for simultaneous publication in a limited list of papers stands a little better chance, but if accepted it will generally be given briefer space than it would receive were we given the first opportunity of publication, or were the article given to us exclusively.

IV.

Not only for the sake of securing its acceptance, but for the sake of holding the interest of the largest number of our readers, it is worth while to take much pains in the preparation of matter to be offered to Engineering News. Where matter is to be submitted by a manufacturing establishment we would counsel its preparation by the engineering department rather than the advertising department. What we want, and what our readers want, is not "glittering generalities" but plain statements by the practical men of how engineering problems have been solved. For illustrations, we prefer drawings or blue-prints and good photographs, from which we can prepare our own cuts.

V.

Final decision as to whether an article offered to us will be accepted, cannot be made until the completed article is placed in our

hands. We will give an opinion, however, on request, as to the probabilities of an article on a stated subject being acceptable. Matter found unavailable for use will be returned, if return is requested.

VI.

As a rule, new inventions, machines, etc., are not described until they have been actually built and practically operated. Exception to this rule is made only in case a device is of unusual interest and is of such a character that its merits can be fairly judged from the description and drawing. It may be added that this rule works to the benefit of the inventor. It is a mistake to rush into print with the description of a device until it has actually taken concrete form, and until actual experience can be quoted in support of the claims made for it.

VII.

We pay cash for original contributions to Engineering News. Articles prepared by our own staff on the basis of information furnished by manufacturers are of course not paid for, under ordinary circumstances. No articles are paid for unless furnished exclusively to us, and in the submission of matter by manufacturers it should be explicitly stated whether any prior publication has been made, and, if so, where. (Mention in trade catalogues should

not be omitted.) It should also be stated whether exclusive publication is offered to us or whether the matter is to be given to other journals, with full particulars.

VIII.

The editors lay no claim to infallibility of judgment or infinite knowledge. They may often err in their selection of matter by accepting the poorer and rejecting the better. Moreover, they have to be governed by conditions of which the outsider knows nothing. Available space and current interest in a particular line may often cause the acceptance of an article which is in other respects not so good as other articles which meet with refusal. The demands on the time of the editors are such that they cannot undertake to state in detail the reasons which govern their decision to accept or reject any article.

IIX

THE "WRITE-UP” ARTICLE

(Reprinted from an editorial in "Mining and Scientific Press," of Dec. 26, 1908.)

The exploitation of a manufactured product in the guise of reading matter is called a "write-up." It is not a literary word and it does not represent literature; it is the exponent of a commercial idea in the guise of scientific or technical information.

In the daily press you find yourself reading a paragraph that begins with a seductive reference to the "grandeur that was Greece or the glory that was Rome" and ends by recommending Snook's soap. In the financial press you become absorbed in a picturesque account of South African mining only to discover that you have been inveigled into a consideration of the opportunity for sudden wealth presented by the shares of the Great Bullion Extended Mining Co. in southern Nevada. In a technical paper you plunge into a turbid description of pumps and their work in mines, to find that the purpose of the article is to recommend the Jones centrifugal pump manufactured by the Jones Co., of Jonesville, Tenn.

If you are good natured, not too busy, and possessed of a sense of humor, you laugh at