In this issue will be found the first chapter of the description of the Amateur runabout, which was announced in the previous number. The writer claims but little originality in the design and wishes to express his obligation to those who are so kindly assisting in supplying the necessary information. The principal objects in view are to supply a serviceable car at the lowest possible cost consistent with durable construction. The various sources of supply for parts are being investigated, and several fixtures are being made up special, that those building from this description may be able to get supplies of up-to-date design and yet at low cost. As many questions are likely to arise, special attention will be given to correspondence regarding same, by this means giving readers all the data necessary to intelligent progress with the work. Suggestions will also be gratefully received. We confidently believe this to be the first practical description of a motor car to be published in this country, and that it will be welcomed by a wide circle of readers.

The addition of a number of new and desirable premiums to our list has delayed the issue of same till the next issue. We hope to have it fully completed for that issue.

The reprint and binding of all the back numbers is about completed, and it is expected that all orders for bound volumes will be filled by the time this magazine is delivered.

Photography is one of the most valuable means of record, and its uses for this purpose is extending into all departments of engineering and mechanical work. A photograph tells its story at a glance, and when dated and supplemented with written notes a series of views makes the best possible record of progress. The cost of making photographs with a proper equipment is not a great expense, and any bright young man can learn to make exposures, develop the negatives and make the prints in a few days. To insure accuracy as to the dating it is a practice to set up a small blackboard in the foreground with the date chalked in large letters thereon. Whenever a special job is done a picture should be taken of the set-up of the machine and of the successive steps taken in the operation. It will often be of material assistance afterward to be able to show just how a certain job was done and what tools were used. In a case of accident or breakdown a record may be of great value, and cases are known where a good picture has been the principal and deciding evidence in a damage suit. With a high-grade lens tracings can be photographed in greatly reduced scale without distortion, and prints made from the negatives may be used in the shop much more conveniently than the large, cumbersome blueprints. Lines and dimensions, although of microscopic size, will stand forth with great distinctness even though the tracing is photographed to a scale, say, one-sixth or less of the original size. In fact the usefulness of the camera in the average shop is only limited by the enterprise of those responsible for its application.

In looking up with criticism or adimration at a modern office building probably the last question which would suggest itself to the observer is "how much does it weigh? " The mind can hardly realize the significance of figures in this connection, and yet it re not uninteresting to read of a close estimate of the exact weight of an up-to-date metropolitan steel structure, including the entire contents. The aggregate weight of one just built for the New York Times has been declared as 81,913,000 pounds. Of course the actual weight of a large part of everything used in its construction is known to the contractors who handle and bill it, as for example, the structural iron, which weighed 7,021,000 pounds.