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randa for supplementing their oral instruction in the Physical Laboratories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and were as yet incomplete along many lines of research. work followed in these laboratories. His industry in the development of the laboratories may be inferred from the fact that these "Notes" passed through seven editions between 1885 and 1895. As often stated by Holman, "These notes were printed, but were not published." Had his life and strength been spared, a monumental treatise along this line might have been hoped for from his pen. He also prepared a set of Lecture Notes on Heat in 1886.

His third book was a volume of 176 pages, entitled "Discussion of the Precision of Measurements," published by Wiley in 1892. This book was the outcome of several years of teaching those lessons which it has always appeared to me were Holman's special mission, and it covered a field in which his good influence was felt with peculiar force in the after-work of all his students. The lesson of this book was to distinguish between precision. and accuracy, to keep the margin of possible error in measurement always clearly in view, to set traps to discover the margin of error, and to avoid useless places of decimals and non-significant figures, and to save the waste of effort which comes from straining under the load of more figures than the data warrant or the ultimate result requires. This book reflects on every page the appreciation which the author had of investigating the instrumental and experimental errors involved in an investigation before commencing the research itself; and the importance which he attached to discussions of this kind did much toward raising the standard of the laboratory as an educational force to where it is to-day.

His fourth book further exemplified the lessons that

I have described above. It was entitled "Computation Rules and Logarithms," a book of about 120 pages, published by Macmillan in 1896. Its keynote may be stated in the first four lines of his preface, namely:

It would probably be within safe limits to assert that one-half of the time spent in computations is wasted through the use of an excessive number of places of figures and through failure to employ logarithms.

To about forty pages, forming what, so far as I have seen, is the best brief treatise that exists on methods of computation, is added, in about seventy-five pages, a set of mathematical tables arranged and selected with a view to quickness of use and to the degree of precision required in ordinary engineering computations, consisting of powers, roots, reciprocals, logs, anti-logs, and trigonometric functions carried to only four or five places of decimals, but sufficient to admit in general no computation error greater than one-twentieth of one per cent.

His fifth and last book, entitled "Matter, Energy, Force, and Work," a profound yet wonderfully lucid treatise on the fundamental physical concepts, published in 1898 by Macmillan, was prepared while the author was wasted by keen physical suffering and in blindness; but no shadow from all this trouble can be seen on his work. As I turn its pages and enjoy the beauty of its clear-cut statements and its broad, firm grasp of some of the deepest problems of philosophy, I marvel more and more at the keenness of intellectual vision and the strength of will and purpose that under such limitations and discouragements produced such a work. He wrote the book to continue the teaching that he could no longer give in person, because his heart was in the work, and from his earnest conviction that clear fundamental conceptions of the physical forces

were essential to the engineer or chemist who would understand the science of his profession and would gain that sharpness of intellectual vision that may clear the way to further progress.

In September, 1886, when health had in a great measure returned and the future again looked bright, he married Miss Lydia M. Newman of Falmouth, Maine, of “Mayflower" ancestry and kinswoman of many who have led the intellectual life. One child, Anna, was born to them on July 11, 1892, who has been the veritable sunbeam of the household through the recent weary years. Their home was first at Auburndale, adjoining the home of his classmate, Professor Lewis M. Norton; but later, as lameness returned, they made their home in pleasant Back Bay apartments, in order that he might be near the Institute and accessible to the calls of his friends. The memories of many cheerful yesterdays crowd around the picture of that home. Their summer home was a simple artistic cottage that he had built in the woods and under the pines on Bear Island, Lake Winnipiseogee. He had chosen its location. for its quiet, secluded beauty, after much cruising about the lake, and found the summers in it always restful and refreshing. In a way it came to be his real home more than the city domicile, and there was much in it and about it that was characteristic of the man.

When physical helplessness came to Professor Holman, in the last four or five years of his life, a wealth of unselfish devotion was given by his noble wife; and to her little less than to him are we of the Institute indebted for the profound scientific works that he put forth in these later years. Her modesty has sought to hide the earnestness and extent

of her work; but it could not but be noted, and with deep admiration, by the intimate friends. She was at once the devoted nurse, the guardian of his strength, his intellectual companion, his amanuensis, and his searcher for references and authorities in English, French, and German scientific literature.

In the later years they made their home in Brookline, in a location chosen largely for quiet and for accessibility to friends. I shall always treasure the memory of an evening spent at this home two years ago, at about the time his last book was published. Professor Hale, Professor Goodwin, and I were calling. Professor Holman, sadly crippled and wasted from rheumatic arthritis, sitting in blindness, bolstered up in his reclining chair, with cheerful voice, quick question, and clear replies, discussed with Professor Hale his researches in astral physics, and with Professor Goodwin the work in the Technology Laboratory and recent researches on incandescence. By sheer force of cheerfulness he made his visitors forget his own sad plight. Goodfellowship and soon even merriment prevailed at times. Throughout the evening so skilfully did Holman lead and direct the conversation that not a word of commiseration for himself was permitted to enter.

I venture to quote from a recent letter of one of Professor Holman's distinguished pupils, Professor George E. Hale, director of the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago. A hundred others would echo the words of his first paragraph.

One of the highest privileges I enjoyed at the Institute was my association with Professor Holman in the Physical Laboratory. His contagious love for scientific research, his clearness of view and of expression, and his sympathetic interest in the work of his pupils were dominant qualities which made him an ideal teacher and a never-failing source of inspiration.

His most important contribution to the Department of Physics is undoubtedly his course on the precision of measurements, the influence of which is certain to be felt in every progressive physical laboratory.

The wise decision which re

I shall never forget our last conversation. sulted in the election of Dr. Pritchett to the Presidency had not yet been made, and his mind was filled with concern for the Institute's future. He felt the need of a strong leader to head the advance, but, assuming that such a leader could be found, the years to come seemed bright with promise. The fullest success, he believed, will be attained only when great prominence is given to advanced work, and particularly to original research on the part of both faculty and students. In spite of his infirmity, the old fire was in his voice as he gave expression to the hopes he had so long been cherishing. His death soon followed; but I have often rejoiced that his influence, always powerful for good, did not cease with his retirement from the Institute, and still remains as a strong incentive to further progress.

In Holman's brief letter to the North-western Alumni Association at their annual dinner held in Chicago but a few months before his death, he voiced a sentiment on which he had long pondered, and which I feel may well be taken as his last words to his brother Alumni. I therefore give this letter almost entire : —

To the Members of the North-western Alumni Association:

In response to your kind invitation, I gladly send a few words of greeting. If it were possible for me to be with you to-night, I know that I should find myself among warm-hearted and loyal friends, among friends whose fellowship is a privilege; men with red blood in their veins ; men in full swirl of active life, in touch with events, and able to discern their trend. To you, as friends and as men who can weigh possibilities, I offer with enthusiasm a thoughtful toast:

The Institute: Grandly conceived, nobly de-
veloped, foremost in technological education,
- shall it not also be foremost in science?

True technology is science scientifically applied. Science and the product of scientific investigation are the bone and sinew of technology. The scientific method is the brain of the industrial arts, as artisan skill is the brawn.

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