We have pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of the first number of
THE ENGINEERING AND MINING JOURNAL, a weekly publication which was most
desirable to our civil engineers in this country, who have hitherto
had to depend for professional information on European sources. The
American Journal of Mining was a popular periodical, and this prefixed
addition to and modification of its title will go far to increase its
well earned fame; for, judging by the specimen number, (and we know
that cannot do its future full justice,) this new effort of Messrs.
Western & Company is already a success as a most welcome co-laborer in
the great constructive art. We tender it our best wishes, and place it
on our exchange list.
MOORE’S RURAL NEW YORKER is an old and well tried friend of everything
pertaining to agriculture and domestic economy. No country can boast of
better serials of this class than ours, and foremost amongst the best
we conscientiously place the Rural New Yorker. In its issue of July
10th, we find an illustrated suggestion for “a roomy house,” in which
we detect some defects which render its execution inadvisable. There
is no provision for chimnies, and the stairs are impracticable. Such
a house would be far more expensive than comfortable. However, it is
pleasing to see men ready to contribute their mite to the general fund
of information on a subject so intimately connected with home life and
happiness.
THE SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN comes to us with its full share of the
practical and the useful, amongst which we would particularly note an
improved brick kiln. It has often surprised us to see the clumsy way in
which bricks are usually burned and the serious waste of fuel arising
from the loss of such a large percentage of heat, not to speak of want
of uniformity in baking or burning. The kiln to which we allude is
decidedly good and greatly superior to all its foreign predecessors,
even Hoffman’s, which it more nearly resembles.
HEARTH AND HOME, with all its attractiveness, is regularly on our
table. This periodical is most creditable to the illustrated serial
literature of our country, and we are satisfied of its being a fixed
fact, from the evidence before us of the liberality of its publishers
and zeal of its gifted editors and staff of contributors. The prize
song is a gem well worthy of a fitting setting in music equal to its
own.
THE PRINTER’S CIRCULAR for July is filled with the interesting
proceedings and intense enjoyment of the recent meeting of the National
Union at Albany.
THE AMERICAN BUILDER for July has its usual amount of racy readings,
its smart comments, and general information. It speaks well for the
spirit of the western architects that our Chicago contemporary has laid
in its foundation, and goes on with the work.
DESIGNS FOR STREET FRONTS, SUBURBAN HOUSES AND COTTAGES. By Cummings
and Miller. This is a quarto volume containing fifty-two plates, with
letter-press description of details for interior and exterior ornaments
required in domestic architecture and the designs for the same. The
former to a scale of a quarter inch, and the latter three-quarters of
an inch to the foot. Besides this several designs are given for villas,
country houses, and cottages. But the main advantage this work has over
most of its predecessors, is in the very full and exhaustive hints,
suggestions and instructions it gives to those in need of such; by
which any practical man can readily apply any required embellishment
to the house he proposes to construct. In fact the book before us
supplies a very great want, by presenting to the builder remote from
the professional aid of city architects an array of useful practical
information which is inestimable to him, and is most desirable to the
progress of tasteful construction throughout this wide country. The
plates are unexceptionably executed, and the evident care with which
this excellent guide to practical building has been put through the
press renders it a most fitting work for those to whose wants it is so
well adapted.
We highly recommend it as a faithful monitor and admirable assistant
of the carpenter and builder. A. J. Bicknell, Troy, N. Y., is the
publisher.