TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE vii 



The Translator desires to make special acknowledgment of 

 the great courtesy and kindness of the distinguished author, Prof. 

 Andre Blondel himself. The preparation of this book for the press 

 has been a labor of love which has occupied very pleasantly and 

 profitably a portion of the leisure moments of the translator. He 

 considers himself remunerated amply, for the work involved, by the 

 great privilege which has been one of the perquisites incidental to 

 the task, namely, that of closer personal contact and acquaintance 

 with the author; and he is very glad to have had the opportunity, 

 through this translation, to help make the work and the talents of 

 the author better known, as they deserve to be; for, unquestionably, 

 Prof. Blondel is one of the great productive workers of our time 

 in pure and applied electrical science. His work, great as it is in 

 itself, becomes really wonderful and phenomenal, when the circum- 

 stances under which it has been done are realized and appeciated: 

 Though handicapped most unfortunately, by protracted serious 

 ill health and physical suffering, he has, nevertheless, kept well in 

 the front rank with his more fortunate contemporaries and colleagues 

 in the entire world; and he has achieved fame and renown by great 

 mental powers, by wonderful originality and versatility, not only 

 as a scientist, a teacher, and an author, but also as an inventor, an 

 engineer, and an expert. The great respect which is inspired by the 

 prodigious quantity and the superior quality of Prof. BlondePs work 

 turn to absolute wonder and to profound admiration, before the 

 wonderful activity and the untiring energy of his highly gifted, 

 well-trained mind. No tribute of praise is too great for the work of 

 this man, who is at the same time a genius and a hero, with an 

 innate love of science and a devotion to scientific progress which 

 uphold and uplift him, and urge him onward, quand m$me, in spite 

 of ill-health and physical suffering, to new researches and new 

 achievements. 



THE TRANSLATOR. 



NEW YORK, December, 1912. 



