ABSTR.ICTS OF RECENT TECHNICAL BOOKS 655 



No effort has been spared by the author to make his treatment clear 

 and as simple as the subject matter will permit. The method of pre- 

 sentation is distinctly pedagogic. To electrical engineers and to elec- 

 trical instructors this exposition of the fundamentals of electric circuit 

 theory and the operational calculus should be of more than ordinary 

 value. An appendix furnishes a list of original papers and memoirs 

 which gives a fairly complete bibliographic survey of the field. 



The volume is published by McGraw-Hill Book Co., price $3.00. 



Exploring Life: the Autobiography of Thomas A. Watson. To have 

 been the youth who at the age of twenty was assigned to build Alex- 

 ander Graham Bell's original telephone apparatus, and then to share 

 with him and Sanders and Hubbard the cares of rearing the telephone 

 industry in the United States to healthy childhood, and finally to 

 share the handsome profits which accrued therefrom, would doubtless 

 satisfy the desires of the average ambitious individual. But to look 

 upon this as merely a beginning and before the age of thirty to separate 

 himself voluntarily from the business he had helped to found and set 

 forth in quest of achievement in other and entirely unrelated fields 

 attests an eagerness to play the game of life which cannot fail to be an 

 inspiration to everyone. 



So interesting is the life the author has led and so charmingly has he 

 related his varied activities that the book would be welcome at any 

 time, but coming during the semicentennial of the invention of the 

 telephone, it is appropriate as well. To those who are desirous of ob- 

 taining further light on the early career of the telephone, particularly 

 in the United States, the book brings several chapters of new material. 

 But to the much wider circle who find enjoyment in a document which 

 is at once homely and adventurous, every page of this autobiography 

 will yield delight. 



Published by D. Appleton & Co., price $3.50. 



Some Measurements of Short Wave Transmission} R. A. Heising 

 and J. C. ScHELLEKG and G. C. Southworth. Quantitative data on 

 field strength and telephonic intelligibility are given for radio trans- 

 mission at frequencies between 2.7 megacycles (111 m.) and 18 mega- 

 cycles (16 m.) and for distances up to 1,000 miles, with some data at 

 3,400 miles. The data are presented in the form of curves and sur- 

 faces, the variables being time of day, frequency and distance. Com- 

 parisons are made between transmission over land and over water, 

 between night effects and day effects, and between transmission from 



" Proceedings of I. R. E., Oct., 1926. 



