PREFACE.
I here present the revised edition of a course of lectures on Experimental Mechanics which I delivered in the Royal College of Science at Dublin eighteen years ago. The audience was a large evening class consisting chiefly of artisans.
The teacher of Elementary Mechanics, whether he be in a Board School, a Technical School, a Public School, a Science College, or a University, frequently desires to enforce his lessons by exhibiting working apparatus to his pupils, and by making careful measurements in their presence.
He wants for this purpose apparatus of substantial proportions visible from every part of his lecture room. He wants to have it of such a universal character that he can produce from it day after day combinations of an ever-varying type. He wishes it to be composed of well-designed and well-made parts that shall be strong and durable, and that will not easily get out of order. He wishes those parts to be such that even persons not specially trained in manual skill shall presently learn how to combine them with good effect. Lastly, he desires to economize his money in the matters of varnish, mahogany, and glass cases.
I found that I was able to satisfy all these requirements by a suitable adaptation of the very ingenious system of mechanical apparatus devised by the late Professor Willis of Cambridge. The elements of the system I have briefly described in an Appendix, and what adaptations I have made of it are shown in almost every page and every figure of the book.
In revising the present edition I have been aided by my friends Mr. G. L. Cathcart, the Rev. M. H. Close, and Mr. E. P. Culverwell.
Observatory, Co. Dublin,
3rd August, 1888.