Quarterly Universal Illustrated Descriptive Catalogues, issued simultaneously to Electric Light and Power Plants, Electrical Supply and Construction Companies and Street Railway Companies; for the convenience of Buyers, and with economy and increased effectiveness to Manufacturers and Dealers. All Classified and Arranged Most Conveniently for Ready Reference. _To quote a representative Buyer_: “A compact, handy volume, full of information of exceptional value to the buyer, not burdened with matter that does not interest him, and most convenient for reference; in fact, just such a book as I would compile and revise periodically, from standard publications, miscellaneous catalogues, etc., were it not for the time, trouble and expense such an undertaking would demand.” A Complete All-Buying Circulation Guaranteed. THE BUYERS REFERENCE CO. (INCORPORATED), 114 Nassau Street, New York. NOTES ON NEW AND PATENTED INVENTIONS. In the great struggle after new methods, processes and implements that characterizes our day, and which is a principal factor in our material progress, there is a constant rule of the “survival of the fittest.” Opposed to this is the claim, sometimes put forward, that the value of a patented invention is not so much in its intrinsic worth as in the method of presenting and introducing it to the world, or to a market. Both propositions are in a sense true, but with this qualification, that “permanent” success always depends upon intrinsic worth, and while a short success may be attained by a plausible but faulty invention, the future is sure to regulate it to the place it belongs. It is perhaps unnecessary to argue this. Everyone’s observation will prove it. =CASSIER’S MAGAZINE=, an engineering publication, gotten up in the same style and equal in every respect to Harpers’, The Century, and Scribners’, has begun a series of articles about “New and Patented Inventions.” Many important things are to be considered in these articles, among them that of “added detail.” This might properly come under the head of “operative conditions,” because it involves maintenance and attendance, but may be made more plain by quoting a remark once made in England by an experienced designer and constructor of machinery. He said: “The great art of designing machinery consists in leaving out parts and pieces.” The articles will be written by John Richards, in a popular style such as the ordinary inventor and the busy business man can have time to read and understand.