LITERARY NOTICES. 



707 



The Practical Telephone Hand-book. By 

 Joseph Poole New York : Macmillan 

 & Co. Pp. 288. Price, 75 cents. 

 The task which the author of this hand- 

 book has performed is a presentation of the 

 art of communication by telephone as it is 

 now practiced. To this end he describes the 

 batteries, receivers, transmitters, signaling 

 apparatus, and switch boards in general use, 

 the systems employed in operating telephone 

 exchanges, modes of constructing telephone 

 lines, together with the poles, wires, insula- 

 tors, and other material required in the con- 

 struction. Long-distance working is also 

 treated, and underground work and the lo- 

 calization of faults are not omitted, while a 

 few minor or very recent topics are included 

 in a miscellaneous chapter and an appendix. 

 The volume is a thoroughly practical one 

 and is fully illustrated. 



Modern American Methods of Copper- 

 smelting. By Edwajid Dyer Peters, 

 M. E., M. D. Second edition, revised 

 and enlarged. New York: The Scien- 

 tific Publishing Company. Pp 398. 



The author has dealt most largely in 

 this work on facts gleaned from his own ex- 

 perience, while he has aimed to touch upon 

 theoretical questions only when it was essen- 

 tial for the understanding of practical facts. 

 Much attention has been given to matters of 

 cost, both of construction and subsequent 

 operation, and in this expenses are given, 

 not as calculated on paper, but as actually 

 incurred in building on a large scale and in 

 smelting many thousand tons of ores under 

 various circumstances, and in all the ordi- 

 nary kinds of furnaces. The first edition 

 of the book was published in 1887. For 

 the second edition such new material as 

 time and experience have suggested has 

 been added. But the advances in copper- 

 smelting since the work first appeared have 

 been rather in a general enlargement of 

 furnaces and apparatus than in any radical 

 changes or inventions. A section on the 

 electrolytic assay of copper has been pre- 

 pared by Mr. Francis L. Sperry, of Sudbury, 

 Ontario, and information and plans of the 

 regenerative gas-furnaces used at Atvida- 

 berg, Sweden, have been furnished by Mr. 

 Paul Johnson. It is in these regenerative 

 gas-furnaces that the author expects to see 

 realized the vital point of economy in the 



use of fuel. In the first chapter the ores of 

 copper are described ; in the second, their 

 distribution is pointed out. The chapters 

 that follow concern methods of copper as- 

 saying, the roasting of copper ores in lump 

 form, stall roasting, roasting in lump form 

 in kilns, calcination of ore and matte in a 

 finely divided condition, the chemistry of 

 the calcining process, smelting, blast-fur- 

 naces, the smelting of pyritous ores con- 

 taining copper and nickel, reverberatory 

 furnaces, refinement of copper with gas in 

 Sweden, treatment of gold and silver bear- 

 ing copper ores, and the Bessemerizing of 

 copper mattes. 



A Graduated Course of Natural Science. 

 By Benjamin Loewy, F. R. A. S., etc. 

 Part II. London and New York : Mac- 

 millan & Co. Pp. 257. Price, 60 cents. 



The second installment of this course of 

 study consists wholly of experiments, most 

 of them being in the domain of physics, but 

 some in that of chemistry. The element- 

 ary laws and principles of mechanics, acous- 

 tics, optics, and electricity are successively 

 brought out, and a few forms of chemical 

 action are illustrated. A list of questions is 

 given on the work included in each chapter. 

 This part of the course is designed for young 

 students, hence the directions and interpre- 

 tations of the experiments are given in sim- 

 ple language. An appendix contains hints 

 for performing the experiments, and there 

 are sixty diagrams of apparatus in the body 

 of the book. The author states that he has 

 throughout aimed at rendering the experi- 

 ments feasible with a very limited appara- 

 tus, and inexpensive materials and appli- 

 ances. 



Electricity Simplified. By T. O'Conor 

 Sloane. New York : Norman W. Hen- 

 ley & Co. Pp. 158. Price, $1. 



The objects of this little book are to ex- 

 plain the commonly accepted theory in re- 

 gard to the action of electricity, and to de- 

 scribe the various ways in which electrical 

 energy has been practically utilized. The 

 theoretical part of the subject most needs 

 explanation, and hence naturally receives 

 most attention. Among the practical ques- 

 tions of popular interest that are answered 

 are. How long does it take to send a signal 



