MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10882, 27 June 1899, Page 3

MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES

Dr. J. G. Findlay* in, the "Poet," Wetting' ton, says: —It. is an "fexceedingly handsome volume, admirably bound, and of convenient size. - The mechanical contrivances by wfoicih. reference is facilitated are excellent. Facility of reference is a. merit, -far if means time-saving, and is an essential of that eerviceable pnwrticalnfeS3 that is the best test of a good dictionary. A. Wilson, M.A.V Hector, High School, Dunedin, in the "Ofcago IXaily Times," says: It is a universally recognised characteristic of the American people that they are ingenious and resourceful in meeting "felt wants," so that if there is one virtue more than another we should expect to find in a dictionary of American extraction it is a certain serviceable practicalness suited to the .everyday requirements of all manner of men. Before opening this dictionary you are made aware, from certain letters on its leather 1 binding, and from certain lettered notches ' in its marbled edges, that even in the matter of mere mechanical devices it is not as other dictionaries are. You have never to search for a. letter. At whatever part of the volume you happen to be, only slip your finger into one of these vermilion notches, and you have the letter you are in search of. If you wish to find any. section of the appendix—the dictionary of fiction, gazetteer, dictionary of biography, and so on— again you have only to run your finger into the.ptoper notch and the section is before yon. When you open the book you find further evidence of the practical thoughtfulness of those who have compiled it.