Society, shall be appointed." The rest of the rule refers to the duties of the committee. It would be in order, therefore, that some one should move that a nominating committee should be appointed by the president, under Article 31 of the rules. This motion being duly made and seconded, the president, after the adjournment, appointed the following committee: Mr. W. R. Warner.. Mr. H. G. Morris.. Mr. H. A. Wheeler... Mr. C. J. H. Woodbury. .Cleveland, O. . Boston, Mass. While the meeting had been, in a sense, conducted by the members themselves and without incurring financial obligation, as has been said before, yet the hospitable intent of Niagara Falls and Buffalo, and the western part of the State, had not allowed the Society to escape from being the recipient of attentions and courtesies for which the Society desired to express its sense of recognition. This was done in the form of a report prepared during the meeting, and presented in the name of a Committee on Resolutions by the Secretary, as follows: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, concluding its thirty-seventh convention, in the City of Niagara Falls, desires to put on record the satisfaction which it feels in the conduct of a meeting at which it has been possible to enjoy so much of pleasure without incurring at the same time a burden imposed by a sense of financial obligation to manufacturers and residents in the city which entertained them. It is impossible, however, in adjourning, to escape the sense of indebtedness to engineers and others, by whose courtesy the details of the meeting have been so admirably carried out, and whose attention has given so much added enjoyment to a successful meeting. The Resolution Committee therefore begs leave to present the following resolutions, and asks that the Society will ratify its recommendations: Resolved, That the thanks of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers are due to the Hon. Arthur C. Hastings, Mayor of Niagara Falls, for the courteous and kindly words of welcome with which he greeted the arrival of the Society in Niagara Falls. It was the opening note of a meeting which the Society will long remember with pleasure. Resolved, That the American Society of Mechanical Engineers desires to express to the Niagara Falls Power Company, to Dr. Coleman Sellers, and to Mr. W. A. Brackenridge, engineers of that company, its thanks for the opportunity which was given to it for the full inspection of the stupendous undertaking which that company has laid out. They recognize the magnitude of the problem on its financial and on its technical side, and will carry away with it an earnest appreciation of the talent, the thought, the knowledge, and the skill which have been brought to bear upon the solution of the unique and almost insuperable difficulties which have had to be met and overcome. Resolved, That in the visit which was permitted to the members of the Society at the Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company's plant, the members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers enjoyed the opportunity to study a problem so different in its character and method of attack from that which has been presented in other places and under different conditions. The Society recognizes the great opportunity for growth and development which is offered where so great a quantity of water is available under such great heads, and will watch the outcome and the increasing development of the hydraulic motor under these exacting conditions, with growing appreciation. The members would like to include in this resolution their thanks to the Niagara Falls Paper Company, the Carborundum Company, and the firm of Dobbie-Stuart Company, for the opportunity to visit their plant during their stay at Niagara Falls. The members of the Society desire to express to the proprietor and management of the International Hotel their thanks and appreciation of the careful attention to detail, whereby their reception on the evening of Wednesday was made so pleasant a feature of their stay in Niagara Falls. It means much of sacrifice to put the service and facilities of a great hostelry at the command of a group of visitors, and for the kindly and considerate way in which this was done, and for the attention which was paid to the visitors, the Society request that Mr. Samuel Greenwood and those associated with him will accept their hearty thanks. It has been one of the most unique experiences of the Society in many years of successive conventions, to enjoy the oppor. tunity which was presented to them in the afternoon of Thursday, for the ride on the Gorge Road and the Canadian Electric Railway. They desire to thank the companies concerned, in extending this pleasure to the members, for their admirable arrangements, and to congratulate them on the skill and care which have been manifested in the location, planning, and construction of their difficult undertaking. The afternoon was most thoroughly enjoyed and the Convention asks that Messrs. Ricker, Brooks, and their associates will accept the thanks which is their due. The Indians should not be forgotten. Resolved, That the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, assembled in convention at Niagara Falls, desires to express to those corporations, firms, manufacturing establishments, and engineers in Buffalo who have extended to them the courtesies of an invitation to visit their establishments during the Niagara Falls visit, its hearty thanks for the same, even if the pleasure of other opportunities has made it impossible to accept all the chances that have been laid before them. They desire particularly to include in this list Messrs. Riter & Conley; Tonawanda Iron & Steel Co.; Brooks Locomotive Works; Delaney Forge & Iron Co.; Buffalo Forge Company; Holly Manufacturing Com pany; Wagner Parlor Car Company; Lake Erie Engineering Works; Pratt & Letchworth Company; Buffalo Smelting Works; Buffalo Bridge & Iron Works; Buffalo Railway Company. Resolved, That the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recognizes the interest in its convention which has been taken by Mr. Peter A. Porter and the management of the Cataract House in the success of their convention. Members would thank these gentlemen for the use of a convention hall without charge, and for the arrangements of headquarters, for which they are indebted to their care. As soon as the Engineer's Society of Western New York learned that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers was planning a convention at Niagara Falls, they appointed a committee of coöperation, who should attend to the arrangements necessary for such a convention. Of this committee Mr. W. C. Johnson, engineer of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power & Manufacturing Company, has been chairman. The Society desires to express to this executive committee, and to its chairman in particular, its cordial appreciation and thanks for all that they have been instrumental in securing for the Society. The difficult burden of previous arrangement has been borne by this committee and its chairman with great skill and ability. This resolution is to convey, in a faint and unsatisfactory way, the recognition which the Society feels for that work. The precedent has not been established as yet in the Society of Mechanical Engineers that the official meetings of the Society permit its lady guests to have the opportunity of saying what they would like to say, when they also have been included in the affectionate thought and interest of those in charge of a convention. It must be left, therefore, to those who are mere men to make themselves the mouthpiece for the expression of the thanks of the ladies for the courtesies which have been unintermitted during their stay in Niagara Falls. They ask that the committee of ladies who were in charge of the entertainment at the Three Sisters, and who have in so many other and almost unnoticed ways secured the comfort and pleasure of their visitors, will understand that this is a failure in the way of an attempt to express what the ladies would say of appreciation for the work of this committee. These resolutions being duly seconded, and carried with acclamation, the motion to adjourn, being duly presented, was carried. The president gave the usual notice that the annual meeting was to be expected in New York City, beginning November 29th, and that the Council had given favorable consideration to a suggestion that they should select the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, for the spring convention of 1899. The meeting then adjourned. Friday afternoon was allotted to visits by individuals to points of interest in Buffalo. The weather during the meeting was perfection, and the manifold attractions of Niagara Falls were much appreciated by everybody. DCCLXXIII.* GRAPHIC DIAGRAMS AND GLYPTIC MODELS. BY R. H. THURSTON, ITHACA, N. Y. (Member of the Society and Past President.) GRAPHICAL representations of relations of quantity are often employed by the draughtsman, the lecturer on physical science or engineering, and in scientific bookmaking, usually adopting a diagram of two dimensions. Glyptic methods of representation have been rarely used, except in such relief-models, from time to time, as particularly important geological work occasionally illustrates. The former class exemplifies the art of the geometrician applied to special purposes; the latter similarly applies the art of the sculptor to the reproduction of forms of a radically different sort. The graphic representation of the relations of two variable quantities by the construction of a diagram having two rectangular co-ordinates, is as old, at least, as Aristotle. That great philosopher of Greece, over two thousand years ago, employed this system in his illustrations of the principles of economics and his doctrine of "reciprocation" of exchanges in commerce, by equivalence of current valuations. His case of the shoemaker and the builder is perhaps most familiar. He places the producers and their products, between which exchanges are to be effected, at the four corners of a rectangle, and diagonal lines indicate the paths of transfer in exchange of the house of the builder for the shoes of the shoemaker and of the one product to the producer of the other, and thus exhibits "the acts of mutual giving in due proportion." Watt's indicator diagram is a curve in which the ordinates are the total steam-pressures and the abscissas the corresponding, simultaneous motions of the piston of the engine, both on conveniently chosen scales, * Presented at the Niagara Falls meeting (June, 1898), of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and forming part of Vol. XIX. of the Transactions. + Aristotle's Ethics, chap. 6. |