REVIEWS 525 



The Boy's Own Book of Great Inventions. By Floyd L. Darrow. 

 [Pp. xii + 385, with 104 figures in the text and 33 plates.] (New York : 

 The Macmillan Co., 1918. Price 12s. bd. net.) 



It has become a commonplace in this country that the general science course 

 must be brought into closer touch with everyday phenomena ; but, as yet, it is 

 only in the United States that the books so urgently needed for this purpose 

 are being written. The Boy's Own Book of Great Inventions is an excellent 

 example of the type of book required. The author is a science teacher m 

 Brooklyn, N.Y., and as a consequence the volume is pleasantly free from 

 the technical blunders which so often mar books of the kind. Moreover,, 

 although it is written in a style which will be readily understood and enjoyed by 

 boys learning science at school, it nevertheless contains a considerable proportion 

 of strictly scientific matter : it would not be welcomed as a present by a boy 

 altogether ignorant of Physics ! The author's method is admirable. He first 

 gives an account of the history of the subject he is discussing ; next, he deals 

 with its principles or theory ; and finally, wherever possible, he describes how the. 

 reader may himself construct a working model. 



The inventions dealt with are chiefly those which mankind owes to the 

 physicist and engineer, an exception being some fifty pages devoted to chemistry, 

 more especially to the metallurgy of iron and steel. The other chapter headings 

 may be summarised as follows : the Gyroscope, the Telegraph and Telephone 

 with and without wires, the Aeroplane and Submarine, Steam, Gas and Petrol 

 Engines, Agricultural Machinery, applications of electricity, especially in relation 

 to Transport, Light, and Heat, and finally the Telescope. Indeed the only notable 

 omissions from the list are the gramophone and X-rays— the inclusion of which 

 would have been more in accord with the general atmosphere of the book than* 

 the chapter on the telescope. The diagrams are clear and the photographs of 

 the interesting type with which the modern American textbook is making us 

 familiar. We can recommend Mr. Darrow's book very cordially, particularly for' 

 the school library. 



D. O.W. 



Six Weeks in Russia in 1919. By Arthur Ransome. [Pp. viii + 152.] 

 (London : George Allen & Unwin. Price is. 6d. net.) 



It is something to read a book written by a man who has spent even only six 

 weeks in the heart of Bolshevist Russia, who has spoken — nay, has even dined — 

 with the leaders of the Terror, and who has seen something during his short stay 

 of the present condition of Russia, at any rate in Petrograd and Moscow. 



Mr. Ransome seems to have made his journey in order to write his history of 

 the Revolution, and he appears to have had full permission from the Bolshevist 

 authorities to collect material. 



According to the writer, food is very scarce in Moscow, and can only be 

 purchased at a ruinous price ; but every other commodity, including clothes, is in 

 great demand. When a man requires a new suit, he must first satisfy his House 

 Committee that he needs one. 



The speeches of the various members of the All-Russia Soviet on the Prinkipo- 

 Proposal are, as described by Mr. Ransome, particularly interesting. The Soviet 

 appears to be composed of every kind of individual — from the wild fanatic to the 

 self-seeking adventurer. From a conversation that the writer had with the 



