ABSTRACTS OF TECHMCAL ARTICLES 159 



j)r()l)lems were encountered in the application of joint construction because 

 of the use of longer spans and higher voltages for the power circuits and the 

 increased noise induction in the necessarily longer exposures. However, 

 progress in the art through cooperation of the telei)hone industry with the 

 Edison Electric Institute and the Rural Electrification Administration has 

 brought about the develoi)ments reviewed in this paper which now make 

 long span higher voltage rural joint use feasible where conditions are favor- 

 able. 



Atomic Energy.' Karl K. Darrow. {The 1947 Xorniaii Wail Harris 

 Lectures at Xorthiicstern L'niversity.) This little book, which reproduces 

 four lectures substantially as they were given, is at once a very readable and a 

 very accurate account of enough of the facts of nuclear physics to convey a 

 good understanding of the atomic bomb and the possibilities of atomic 

 power. The scientitic accuracy of the presentation is instanced by the 

 author's apologies for his title; he emphasizes that in reality his subject is 

 unclear energy, but that on the day of Hiroshima somebody wrote of an 

 atomic bomb and the misusage spread like a chain reaction. 



The role of electrons, protons and neutrons in atom building is told in a 

 simple and entertaining style (but with a degree of ornamentation that may 

 disturb some readers), and the discussion of rest mass and the Einstein rela- 

 tion between mass and energy is pointed up by well-chosen numerical il- 

 lustrations beginning with the lightest composite nuclei. The role of fast- 

 particle bombardment in increasing and decreasing the size of nuclei is also 

 explained. The reader thus acquires a clear understanding of the basic 

 phenomena for which nuclear fission is famed. The text is augmented by 

 well-chosen cloud chamber photograj)hs. 



Though the author's treatment is accurate, his style and marshalling of 

 facts are very readable. This is well illustrated by the closing paragraph 

 of the third lecture, which follows immediately upon the author's develop- 

 ment of the idea of the chain reaction: 



Here is the climax of my lectures, and here is where you should be frightened; and' 

 if I had an orchestral accompaniment, here is where the orchestra would have mounted 

 to a tumultuous fortissimo, with the drums rolling and the trumpets blaring and the 

 tuba groaning and the strings in a frenzy, and whatever else a Richard Wagner could 

 contrive to cause a sense of Gotterdammerung; for, let there be no doul)l of it, this is 

 something that could bring on the twilight of civilization. Hut at this crucial junc- 

 ture I have only words to serve me, and all the words are spoiled. We speak of an 

 awful headache, a dreadful cold, a frightful bore, and an api)alling storm; and now 

 when something comes along that is really awful and dreadful and frightful and 

 ajjpalling, all these words have been devaluated and have no terror in them. I have 

 to fall back on the saying, of unknown origin and dul)ious value, that the strongest 

 emphasis is understatement. Let then this picture, with its circles and its symbols 

 and its numbers, be considered an emphatic understatement of the most terrific thing 

 yet known to man. 



' Publishedbv John Wiley & Sons,Inc., New York, and Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London. 

 80 pages. $2.00. 



