PREFACE. XI 



them in Professor A. Weinhoid's Vorschule der Experi- 

 mental- Physik, which has been translated by Mr. B. 

 Loewy. This work constitutes a systematic treatise 

 on elementary physics, founded upon a well-chosen 

 series of experiments, which it is intended that the 

 reader should perform with his own hands ; and in 

 order to facilitate the carrying out of this intention, 

 very full instructions are given, both as to the precau- 

 tions needed in making the experiments and as to the 

 mode of constructing the necessary apparatus. These 

 instructions are extremely clear and precise ; and 

 although to readers unaccustomed to experimental 

 work they may sometimes seem needlessly minute, 

 I feel sure that it will be found in actual trial that the 

 apparently small matters to which attention is some- 

 times called are just such as make the difference 

 between success and failure. With very few excep- 

 tions, anyone with a taste for mechanical occupations 

 and a fair amount of handiness could, with patience 

 and by carefully following the directions given, make 

 all the apparatus referred to in the book. 



Whenever this or some similar work comes to be 

 commonly adopted in schools, physics will be in a fair 

 way of becoming one of the most popular as well as 

 most useful parts of school-work, instead of being, as it 

 too often is now, less liked and worse taught than almost 

 any other subject. But the conditions, under which 

 alone such results can be expected, cannot be better 

 stated than in the following extract from Professor 



