IN MEMORIAM.

JOSEPH RICHARDS.

Joseph Richards was born in Stourbridge, near Birmingham, England, in 1840, and in his youth was a machinist in Chance Brothers' chemical works, where his father was a

departmental superintendent. He studied chemistry at the Midland Institute, Birmingham, where he attended Hofmann's lectures. One of his classmates was Joseph Chamberlain, now Great Britain's Colonial Secretary. Later he was in partnership with his father in the business of manufacturing chemists, making copperas, bluevitriol, and ammonia salts from gas-liquors. In 1871 he came to America, intending to take charge of a plant for working the gas-tar liquors of the Chicago gas-works, but the day before he was to start West, the great Chicago fire wiped out the whole plant. Finding himself in Philadelphia, he started to re-work the waste dross from galvanizing pots, and soon built up a large business, refining as much as 3,000 tons a year. His process was patented, and depended upon the treatment of the dross with sulphur vapor at a red-heat, whereby most of the iron was sulphurized, the remainder collecting at the bottom as an iron-zinc alloy. Later, the Delaware Metal Refinery was incorporated to work this process, and also to reduce waste oxides of lead and tin, and to manufacture solders.

JOSEPH RICHARDS.

A specific gravity balance, to test the grade of lead-tin solders, was devised by him, and is now in almost universal use in the solder trade. It is described in this Journal. (May, 1899), and its value was recognized by the Franklin Institue by the award of the John Scott medal.

Later, the firm was one of the first to commence the manufacture of tin and terne plates, and Mr. Richards devised an ingenious balance for determining the amount of coating on specimens of such sheets. Since 1885 he was deeply interested in the production and possible uses of aluminum. He found many uses for the metal at a time when its cost ($8 per pound) made its application impracticable, but which have since come into general use. He patented the use of aluminum in deoxidizing and refining zinc and brass; also its use in small quantities in galvanizing pots. He devised and patented the most successful solder for aluminum which has yet appeared; a solder which has been in use ten years here and in Europe. This invention also was awarded the John Scott Medal on the recommendation of the Franklin Institute. He had large experience in remelting, handling and working aluminum; his hard, light alloys of aluminum with zinc being now in general use, and are acknowledged to be the cheapest light aluminum alloys of high quality to be had. Much of his experience in handling and treating white metals and their wastes is embodied in two communications to the Journal of the Franklin Institute (June and July, 1901). He was an active member of the Institute, having been succcessively President of its Metallurgical, Chemical, and Electrical Sections.

Besides being well known in the zinc, lead, tin and aluminum industries, he had a wide circle of most intimate and cherished friends, for to know him was to admire his equable and genuine character and to become attached to his attractive personality. From scientific acquaintances of the highest position to his humblest workman, he was beloved as a "best friend." He died in Philadelphia, March 22d, aged 62, leaving a widow and three children; his only son is Prof. Joseph W. Richards, of Lehigh University, the well-known writer on "Aluminium," and President of the American Electrochemical Society. His youngest daughter Florence H. Richards, is a practising physician in Philadelphia. W. H. W.

STACY REEVES.

Stacy Reeves, a prominent master builder, and for a number of years a member of the Board of Managers of the Franklin Institute, departed this life March 8, 1902, in his seventy-fourth year.

Mr. Reeves was born

STACY REEVES.

on his father's farm, near Mt. Holly, Burlington County, N. J., on June 16, 1828. Here the early years of his childhood were spent. After the death of his parents-both of whom he lost during his childhood-he was placed in the home of a distant maternal relative, where he remained until fifteen years of age, attending the primitive country schools of the neighborhood during the winter and assisting about the farm in the summer months.

After spending one year at the Friends' School at Westtown, he was apprenticed to Mark Balderston, a leading master carpenter of Philadelphia, with whom he learned his trade. He continued in the employ of Mr. Balderston some two years after reaching his majority. In 1851 he established himself in the business in which he continued with conspicuous success until the time of his death.

In 1862-63 he served in the Civil War as a member of the Pennsylvania Militia.

In 1869 he joined the Carpenters' Company, the oldest association of its kind in America (having been established in 1724). Of this association he served successively as Secretary (1889 to 1891); Vice-President (1892), and President (1895).

He was one of the charter members of the Master Builders' Exchange, of Philadelphia; was for a number of years one of its directors, and became its third President.

For a number of years prior to his death he was one of the directors of the Penn National Bank.

Mr. Reeves became a member of the Franklin Institute in 1889. He was chosen as manager in 1890 and served continuously until his death. For several years he also served as one of the curators, in which capacity his skill and experience as a builder proved extremely useful in connection with the extensive alterations to the library and reading room of the Institute, which were made about four years ago. In many other affairs of importance his colleagues in the board were wont to place the utmost dependence in his sound judgment.

The business that he founded in 1851 did not assume large proportions until after the Centennial Exhibition, in 1876, but in later years it grew very rapidly into prominence. The firm enjoyed the reputation of being one of the most conservative and reliable in the city. His son, Albert A., was taken into partnership in 1877, and a younger son, Henry, in 1885, and the firm name was changed to that of Stacy Reeves & Sons.

The firm founded by Mr. Reeves constructed many prominent buildings in Philadelphia and its vicinity. Among them are: The Wood Building, at Fourth and Chestnut Streets; Drexel Building, at Fifth and Chestnut Streets; Forrest Building, on the east side of Fourth Street, south of Chestnut; Hotel Lafayette, on the west side of Broad Street, south of Chestnut; the Lehigh Valley Railroad Buildings, at Mauch Chunk, Pa.; Lehigh University, at Bethlehem, and the Industrial School, built by the Misses Drexel, at Eddington, Bucks county. The restoration of the historic Independence Hall, ordered by the City Councils several years ago, was also undertaken and carried out by the firm.

Personally, Mr. Reeves was one of the most modest and unassuming of men. His sound business judgment was held in high esteem by his colleagues, and his advice and co-operation were never withheld when asked for. He will long be remembered for his sterling traits of character by his associates in the Institute, who sincerely deplore his loss. W. H. W.

ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE SCHOOLS OF DRAWING, MACHINE DESIGN, AND NAVAL ARCHITECTURE

FOR THE SESSIONS 1901-1902.

HALL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE,
PHILADELPHIA, April 25, 1902.

THE DRAWING SCHOOL:—It gives me great pleasure to announce that the classes have been larger this season than for many years, and that the attendance has kept up to the end better than ever before. This is not only complimentary to the school, but also shows that the students are here for business, and that they come here because they know that the time will be profitably employed and the results will be practical and useful to them in their various careers.

The industrial interests of the country are becoming so immense and the requirements in the way of knowledge and technic so great, that it behooves the young men of the land to take advantage of every opportunity to learn everything bearing upon, or of use in, their various trades and professions.

They will find that mechanical drawing is the very best study to start with. It trains their imaginations to conceive the location and relation of points, lines and surfaces, the combination of these into simple solids, and so on up to complicated forms and their movements. It awakens a desire to understand the geometry of the forms and the kinematics of the movements, and thus leads up to the mathematics of the subject.

The work is interesting and gratifying, and no one who follows it up with ordinary application can fail to be greatly improved and to have his prospects and position bettered by it. That these facts are becoming better known and understood, the growth of the school and the work of the students amply testify.

My assistants this season have been: Mr. Clement Remington, Mr. John Rae, Mr. Edward V. Hindle, Mr. A. N. McConnell, and Mr. W. W. Twining. Appended hereto are some data relating to the Branch School at Germantown Junction, which is in a flourishing condition.

WM. H. THORNE, Director.

THE BRANCH SCHOOL is located at No. 2906 N. Sixteenth Street, and it is readily accessible by the trains of the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads and by the trolley cars. It is under the immediate direction of Mr. Haakon E. Norbom. The same text-books are employed and the same methods of instruction are followed as in the Central School. Pupils enjoy the same privileges also as to attendance upon the lectures. The Branch School is devoted exclusively to the teaching of Mechanical Drawing-the classes being divided similarly into Junior, Intermediate and Senior Classes. The beginning and ending of the winter and spring terms and the times of holding the classes and terms of instruction are the same as those of the Central School.

It is very gratifying to see the steady increase in the attendance at these night sessions. Last year it was found necessary to increase the desk room by building an annex which would accommodate two-thirds more than the original number of scholars. The year just ended (the eighth) shows an attendance for the two terms of 128, which tests the increased facilities of the school to the utmost.