The Design and Construction of Dams: including Masonry, Earth, Rock-fill, Timber, and Steel Structures, also the Principal Types of Movable Dams

Abstract

M R. WEGMANN'S treatise has been before the public for so long that we imagine its general features will be more or less familiar to all who are engaged in the domain of waterworks engineering. The modest volume of 106 pages which appeared thirty-four years ago has, however, developed considerably in the course of time. It is now a ponderous tome of some 600 quarto pages of text, with well over ioo full-page plates in addition. A volume of such weighty proportions cannot fail to impress the reader considerable amount of patient toil in its compilation. It is, in fact, not merely a text-book; it is a work of reference, containing diagrams and particulars of most of the notable dams which have been constructed in recent years. It is permissible to the critic to question the wisdom of combining the two objects in a single volume. To the student, a text-book of modest proportions is a desideratum; he needs something easy to handle and conveniently portable, in the pocket if need be. The work of reference, on the other hand, is only required on occasion and may rest in the bookcase for long intervals. This combination of textbook with an exhaustive, or nearly exhaustive, record of existing examples is open to the objection that it meets the convenience neither of the student nor of the expert. However, we do not wish unduly to press the point. The Design and Construction of Dams: including Masonry, Earth, Rock-fill, Timber, and Steel Structures, also the Principal Types of Movable Dams. By E. Wegmann. Seventh edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. xvii + 555 + plates A-Z + plates AA-VV + plates I–III. (New York: J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1922.) 50s. net.