41 



THE EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE SERIES. 



In neat 12mo volumes, bound in cloth, fully illustrated. Price per volume, $1.00. 



In active preparation : 

 II. SOUND. III. HEAT. 



IV. ELECTRICITY. V. MAGNETISM. 



NOW READY: 

 I. 



LIGHT; 



A Series of Simple, Entertaining, and Inexpensive Experiments in the 

 Phenomena of Light, for Students of every Age. 



By ALFRED M. MAYER and CHARLES BARNARD. 



This series of scientific books for boys, girls, and students of every age, was 

 designed by Prof. Alfred M. Mayer, Ph. D., of the Stevens Institute of Tech- 

 nology, Hoboken, New Jersey. The full title of the first book of the series is 

 given above, and from this book may be learned the aim and scope of the whole 

 series. Every student of physics can remember the mysterious and awe-inspiring 

 machines of the school laboratory, the great air-pumps, the strange and compli- 

 cated electrical apparatus, and all the cumbersome and expensive machines used 

 to display the simple laws of Nature. Perhaps he remembers the jealous care 

 with which these things were guarded, and can recall the teacher's frightened 

 and blundering use of the fearful galvanic battery and the dreadful exhausted 

 receiver, with its awful expiring mouse. These things were indeed strange, 

 mystical, and altogether incomprehensible. It was small wonder that the young 

 student learned to look upon the simple phenomena of Nature as a deep, dark 

 thing, only to be grasped by great minds, armed with huge and expensive 

 machinery. Prof. Mayer, looking directly at Nature free from the absurdities 

 of the school-men, saw that the laws of Nature need no complications of brass 

 and iron to show themselves to bright boy-eyes and clear girl-brains. Three 

 postal-cards and a lamp will illustrate the progression of light as well as the most 

 costly machine in all the laboratories, and an iron top, costing five cents, will show 

 the laws of color as well as the best lantern in existence. This, then, makes the 

 aim of this series. Every book is addressed directly to the young student, and 

 he is taught to construct his own apparatus out of the cheapest and most com- 

 mon materials to be found. Should the reader make all the apparatus described 

 in this first book of the series, he will spend only $12.40. The remaining books 

 of the series, that are now in active preparation, will treat in the same cheap 

 and simple manner of Sound, Heat, Electricity, and Magnetism. 



The series appears as the joint work of two authors. Prof. Mayer performed 

 every experiment in the presence of Mr. Barnard, and Mr. Barnard wrote out 

 and prepared the book for the press. Prof. Mayer is well known, both here and 

 in Europe, as one of the leading physicists, and Mr. Barnard is well knowji as a 

 writer in all the leading magazines, and as the author of a number of juvenile 

 books. 



D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 549 & 551 Broadway, N. Y. 



