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A. S. BARNES & BURR,

51 & 58 JOHN STREET.

1859.

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ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-nine,

BY WILLIAM G. PECK,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

WILLIAM DENYSE, Stereotyper and Electrotyper, 188 William Street, N. Y.

PREFACE.

THE following work was undertaken to supply a want felt by the author, when engaged in teaching Natural Philosophy to College classes. In selecting a text-book on the subject of MECHANICS, there was no want of material from which to choose; but to find one of the exact grade for College instruction, was a matter of much difficulty. The higher treatises were found too difficult to be read with profit, except by a few in each class, in addition to which they were too extensive to be studied, even by the few, in the limited time allotted to this branch of education. The simpler treatises were found too elementary for advanced classes, and on account of their non-mathematical character, not adapted to prepare the student for subsequent investigations in Science.

The present volume was intended to occupy the middle ground between these two classes of works, and to form a connecting link between the Elementary and the Higher Treatises. It was designed to embrace all of the important propositions of Elementary Mechanics, arranged in logical order, and each rigidly demonstrated. If these designs

have been accomplished, this volume can be read with facility and advantage, not only by College classes, but by the higher classes in Academies and High Schools; it will be found to contain a sufficient amount of information for those who want either the leisure or the desire to make the mathematical sciences a specialty; and finally, it will serve as a suitable introduction to those higher treatises on Mechanical Philosophy, which all must study who would appreciate and keep pace with the wonderful discoveries that are daily being made in Science.

COLUMBIA COLLEGE, February 22, 1859.

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