Brown and White Vol. 7 no. 24

              in charge of public works in cuba the following is a list of the more important drawings desired for the 1901 epitome full page drawings are wanted for the titles mentioned below board of editors fraternities honorary societies societies and clubs honor court technical societies eating clubs athletics mustard and cheese minstrel show memorabilia the end half or quarter page drawings are requested for the following preface - calendar contents faculty forum beown and white junior promenade june hop banquets university day football baseball lacrosse track cane spree literary gags quotations definitions etc athletic committee at last meeting change made in new rules a stated meeting of the athletic committee was held last thursday evening in the committee's new room in saucon hall lacking one of a quorum the members present transacted buiness subject to the approval of the majority of the committee the rules governing the election of assistant managers was changed the change was made in clause ii which now reads the team shall nominate three men etc mr h a foering 90 principal of the lehigh preparatory school was elected alumni member of the committee to succeed mr c p coleman resigned some suggestions regarding pay ment of athletic dues were made and will be announced later the treasurer's report showed an en couraging balance as a result of the football season during the early part of the term dr drown kindly consented to deliver a talk before the civil engineering society on some subj ject of inter-est to the members and the meeting immediately prei ceeding the christmas holidays was selected for this purpose dr drown discussed the ques tion whether iron either in the metalliic form or as oxide can be used to advantage in the purifica tion of water or sewage it has been used both in household filters and in large city filters with the idea that it exerts an oxidizing action on organic matter but there is no evidence that this is the case it is well known that oxide of iron under favorable conditions will be reduced by organic matter which becomes thereby oxidized and destroyed as such but the process is an extremely slow one and cannot be utilized practically to destroy organic matter in water by any of the ordinary processes of filtration formerly the oxidiza tion of organic matter was supposed to be a purely chemical process now we know that it is due to the action of micro organisms or bac teria which work very energetic ally when all the conditions are favorable but in any of the ordi nary processes of water filtration the rate of oxidation by bacteria is not rapid enough to exert any con siderable effect on the organic mat ter in the short time during which the water is~in the pores of the fil ter moreover it is not reason able to suppose that with plenty of free dissolved oxygen in the water the organic matter would either directly or ucder the influence of bacteria decompose oxide of iron but aside from this supposed action of oxide of iron there is a way in which iron compounds may exert purifying action on water namely by removal of all suspended matters and the color due to vege table matter the use of alum in the mechanical purification of water is well known the per salts of iron act in the same way namely they are decomposed by the carbonates of the alkalies and alkaline earths in the waterand precipitated as ferric hydrate which acts as a coagulant carrying with it when it settles out or is filtered out all the suspended matter in the water both earthy and organic including nearly all the bacteria fication of water acts on this prin ciple the water to be puriried is first agitated with metallic iron ' which goes into solution in propor the anderson process theoretic cally one of the most perfect of all processes for the mechanical puri continued on second page mr james b eeynolds of new york delivered the sixth lecture in the course on " modern social problems on friday morning in the physical laboratory his sub ject being " the social settle ment in introducing the speak er dr drown spoke of the fact that although philanthropy was old the social or college settle â–  ment was a modern development the substance of mr eeynolds remarks was as follows : " the beginning of the present century is noted for having been one of revolution there had been several great revolutions both social and political but another seemed to be necessary the people were being oppressed by their governments and this tyranny must be overthrown by this means the leaders sought to bring about social perfection the lead ers of the french eevolution thought to accomplish this but the guillotine was not the agent to teach the doctrine of brotherly love they failed to perceive the true characteristics of human na ture no one can deny that all men should be born free but to say that all men are born equal mentally and physically is folly it was in the attempt to make all men free and equal that the revo lution failed the leaders did not recognize the difference between need and desire nor did they see the distinction between capacity and ability they also failed to look ahead and see the conditions they sought to cure entirely changed " the change of conditions at the beginning of the century was not alone political but it was social as well one hundred years ago the employer worked at the bench with his men ; there was scarcely any social cleavage the factory system changed all this it separ ated the employer from his men and opened a gulf between rich and poor that has been constantly widening i do not wish to infer that the factory system has been an evil for it has advantages which more than counterbalance the dis advantages , however the condi tions are dangerous to the democ racjr so the problems involved must be solved many agencies have worked for social betterment but a still more determined effort is required if we are to prevent the bad influence overcoming the good among the many agencies working for this end is the ' col lege settlement there are three things which give this system an advantage over some of the others continued on third page there will be a meeting of the chese club on friday morning im mediately after the college lecture gilbert pres the following quoted from an article in the philadelphia times on cuban civilization will doubt less interest the alumni and under graduates of lehigh senor jose vallalon now in charge of the public works in matanzas and santa clara prov inces will have his authority extended over the island he is an engineer of recognized ability and a graduate of lehigh univers ity to him will fall the great engineering problem that the united states must carry out before cuba is returned to her own people we refer of course to the purification of havana har bor this must be effected by the digging of a canal that will give the pouch like bay another outlet to the sea estimates made by the lamented waring showed that a drainage canal could be cut through the low lands behind the cabanas to a point five miles east of morro castle for about 4,000,000 the problem of securing a flow of water through the harbor would have to be solved by building a breakwater from the narrow entrance into the gulf stream that rushes eastward at the rate of five or six miles per hour the water off the morro is very deep and it is problematical as to how a jetty could be built a canal from the bay of bayou honda would be more expensive but absolutely effective havana must be made as healthy as new orleans for the safety of our northern ports that will engage in cuban trade the brown and white lehigh university epitome drawings south bethlehem pa tuesday january 9 1900 c e society vol vii university address social settlement interesting discussion of the by dr drown a very instructive talk given petition subjects suggested for com calendar no 24 tuesday jan 10 at 7.15 p m meeting of glee club in christmas hall friday jan 12 at 11 30 a m in the physical laboratory college lecture by mr walter b snow on " mechanical heating and ventilation sunday jan 15 at 9.30 a.m bible class in christmas hall at 6.00 p m meeting of the christian association notices glee club there will be a meeting of the glee club in christmas hall wednesday january 10 at 7.15 p m heitschu there will be an important meeting of the 1901 epitome board saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock at the beta theta pi house