Brown and White Vol. 11 no. 41

              university lecture a very interesting and instruc tive lecture was given last friday by mr joseph l ferrel of phila delphia his subject was the protection of wood from fire and decay in introducing him dr drown said that mr farrel's meth od had been thoroughly tried and found satisfactory he was award ed a gold medal by the franklin institute of philadelphia in substance mr farrel spoke as follows — for more than a hundred years different methods have been tried for preserving wood from fire and decay but until recently no mat erial advancement was made in this line in the old machines the chief object was to get the largest amount of timber in the tank at one charge and then force the pre serving fluid into the cells of the wood by pressure as the gates of these tanks were hung external ly increased pressure forced them out and made the tank leak as an auxiliary process the wood was sometimes first softened or the sap drawn out by placing the timber in a vacuum but both of these process es are injurious to the fibre and when the wood was then subjected to pressure it was simply compress ed with the loss of its vitality and elasticity the new method uses smaller tanks each with two gates hung internally thus increased press ure only makes the joints tigher it took twenty four h^urs to satu rate a piece of timber by the old method while it only takes one hour by the new and the wood is much more thoroughly saturated the pressure which a certain kind of timber will stand for a given thickness has been determined so that the wood looses none of its elastisity ammonium sulphate was form erly used as a preservative fluid but it has been shown that this subst ance volatilizes at a high tempera ture and besides costs from four to five cents a pound alumninium sulphate is now used and is found to be much belter when heated it increases in size as the heat be comes greater it does not destroy the elasticity of the wood it does not affect paint or varnish and lastly it is very cheap which makes it practicable for universal use mr farrel performed a very in ' continued on fourth page sophomore banquet some sixty members of the class of 1906 assembled at the wyan dotte thursday evening to enjoy their annual banquet it was a success in every way and great credit is due to the committee vanduyne todd and tunstall reds watson was an able toast master and the following toasts were proposed : foot-ball gott the class — crowther base ball — langdon the fairer sex — myers lacrosse — wrightson track — van duyne allentown — past present and future ed adams ed's speech was a master piece ; he was in fine spirits and his toast was thoroughly enjoyed by an enthusiastic and sympathic au dience between courses besides the toasts the ball was kept roll ing by the close harmony fiends who deliveied several very fine selections altogether it was a very enjoya ble affair and the fellows disband ed with the knowledge that they had had another smashing good time at old lehigh forum meeting officers elected the regular meeting of the forum was held last thursday night besides a very interesting program the annual election of offi cers added to the importance of the occasion the committee on the franklin and marshall debate submitted their report and the debate will be held in bethlehem on may 23 the preliminary debate for choosing lehigh's representatives will take place on april 12 three mem bers of the faculty will be the judges after the regular business was finished beaver 04 gave a resume of national affairs his talk was both interesting and instructive he carefully reviewed the decision on the merger case which was recent ly given by the supreme court macmim 07 followed with a carefully prepared resume of for eign affairs the next number on the pro gram was a literary review on the recent german publications some of which possess considerable merit the regular debate of the even ing was on the question resolved that illiterate people should not be allowed to vote as only one of the appointed contestents was pres ent three others were chosen by the president hodgkin and mar tin had the affirmative side while wolfe and kuryla held the nega tive the last thing on the program was the election of officers for the ensuing year mervine was chosen president gilmore 06 vice president ehlers secretary kuryla treasurer and van reenan sergeant-of-arms after this the meeting adjourned it seems sadly deplorable that better order is not maintained at the university lectures whis pering shuffling feet and other dis turbances have always been in evi dence at these lectures but it has never been so noticeable as at the more recent ones at the last two the speakers have been compelled to stop talking at times and wait until the noises had subsided before they could continue a sense of common decency should make the men treat the lecturers with more courtesy the brown and white lehigh university south bethlehem pa monday maroh 28 1904 gym l contest communication from the epitome board vol xi editor of brown and white dear sir — elsewhere appears notice of an advance sale of the 05 epitome at 1.25 per copy the sale will be carried on by tickets each ticket entitling holder to an epitome when book is published in latter part of may sales will be canvassed by the members of the board and it is hoped by this means together with the reduced price which will be in effect for over a month to give every man in college an opportunity to buy an epitome at any time it may best suit his pocket or convenience to do so we hope and expect to get out a book at least the equal of any of its predecessors and we ask the support of the undergraduates in this new departure which is in every way to their advantage and con venience epitome board brown 07 wins the l contest on saturday evening of last week was from a stand point of earnest and enthusi astic competition a very successful event and was likewise an exhibi tion of a high standard of gym nastic work but if the men com peting should have had to look for college support and a generous in terest in their efforts from the stu dent body there surely would have been little or no life in their per formance the freshman wand drill which preceeded the contest was very enjoyable and the well executed figures received warm and gener ous applause from the small but appreciative audience the events of the contest and points scored by the men compet ing were as follows — horizontal bar dudley 22 evans 25 brown 27 horse—mcdevitt 21 krause 20 stauffer 26 parallel bars mcdevitt 17 brown 26 isert 25 clubs stauffer 24 hesse 27 scipt 18 isert 20 kings brown 24 scott 23 tumbling dudley 20^2 isert 24 krause 12 evans 22 decision of judges brown 78 isert 70 stauffer sqia brown's scores both during the season and in the contest are an evidence of his claim to the prize for the faithfulness with which he has worked for the team's success mr charles e suiter of the university of pennsylvania acted as judge his decisions were receiv ed without question in every in stance after the contest an election for captain for next year was held evans 06 was elected to the position by a unanimous vote re-union of 1901 the officers of the class of 1901 are making a big effort to make their triennial reunion in june a big success obituary early last friday morning mrs mary f heck mother of prof r h c heck and n h heck 04 died after a lingering illness at her residence at st luke's place no 41