584 



NATURE 



[October 20, 1923 



advantages and disadvantages ; for while it helps 

 towards the forming of a reasonable perspective, the 

 result is rarely of any great literary interest. Such an 

 interest, although of secondary significance during the 

 man's generation, is a considerable asset to the per- 

 petuation of his memory. 



The genius of George Westinghouse is expressed in 

 patent specifications and in industrial processes and 

 products. On account of the diversity of these 

 activities the editor has considered that a chrono- 

 logical survey would be confusing, and the record of 

 achievements is dealt with under the different subjects 

 to which they apply ; in this manner an admirable 

 summary is presented of the work of Westinghouse and 

 its value in the world of industry. 



The two major achievements made by Westinghouse 

 were the development of the air-brake, which greatly 

 influenced railway transport, and the application of 

 alternating currents in the production and distribution 

 of power. In the former he acted primarily as an 

 inventor, in the latter as an industrial organiser. 

 Both activities resulted in the evolution of industrial 

 concerns, vast in size and ramifying in many directions. 

 At the present time some seventy of these concerns 

 exist. In other fields, he developed the use of natural 

 gas at Pittsburgh and took out thirty-eight patents 

 in this connexion; he did important work both in 

 steam engineering and railway signalling, and in forty- 

 eight years he took out some four hundred patents. 



Whether Westinghouse was greater as an inventor or 

 as a manufacturer is debatable, but both his inventions 

 and his industrial ventures would have suffered much 

 without this unique combination of capacities. 



The greater part of the book deals with a survey of 

 technical and manufacturing achievements, but the 

 two concluding chapters give a well-drawn portrait of 

 Westinghouse — the man. The editor shows him to be 

 a man possessing almost superhuman qualities linked 

 with very human weaknesses, a man of impelling 

 personality, an idealist whose feet were firmly planted 

 on the ground, a genius in imagination and vision, with 

 marvellous powers for concentration, persistence, 

 audacity, and fortitude to carry the fruits of his genius 

 to such conclusions that they enormously benefited 

 mankind. Perhaps the greatest weakness that is 

 evident from the editor's presentation is a too great 

 self-reliance and an inflexibility of mind when once a 

 decision had been made. A most outstanding char- 

 acteristic was his capacity for leadership, and his 

 relations with his men were inspired by a man-to-man 

 comradeship and good feeling, an instinct which has 

 become traditionally known in industry as " the West- 

 inghouse Spirit," which in its essence embodies in the 

 highest degree loyalty and enthusiasm. 



NO. 2816, VOL. ] 12] 



Aristotle and Physical Science. 



(i) Aristotle: on Coming-to-Be and Passing- Away. (I'l 

 Generatione et Corruptione.) A Revised Text 

 Introduction and Commentary by Harold II. Ji >. 

 Pp. xl + 303. (Oxford : Clarendon Press ; London 

 Oxford University Press, 1922.) 325. net. 



(2) The Works of Aristotle: Translated into English. 

 Meteorologica. By E. W. Webster. Pp. vi + 140 

 (Oxford : Clarendon Press ; London : Oxford I'ni- 

 versity Press, 1923.) 75. 6d. net. 



(i) 'T^IIE treatise " On Coming-to-Be and Passing 

 L Away " is one of very great interest to the 

 pure Aristotelian. The question discussed in it is ihi- 

 the four most elementary substances known 

 being earth, air, fire, and water, how do these tiian.i 

 into one another and how do they form less simi 1' 

 substances such as flesh and bone ? 

 what happens when water is boiled in u kttllc .•' 1 

 such questions as this the Atomists had already given 

 an approximately correct answer. The scientific man 

 will naturally ask whether Aristotle made any real 

 advance on his predecessors ; if he did not, why should 

 we trouble ourselves about his views on such problems ? 

 It must be regretfully admitted that he did not make 

 any such advance. 



Aristotle seems to have been a good deal impressed 

 by the atomic solution, but refused to accept it, 

 criticising it with some severity, as indeed he always 

 does criticise with severity all his forerunners. But 

 what better had he to offer ? Matter, says he, is one 

 substratum underlying all phenomena : so far perhaps 

 we agree with him, since modern science more and more 

 tends towards belief in one substratum, and the weak 

 point of the old Atomists was that they preferred a 

 multitude of different groups of absolutely primitive 

 matter, as Dalton did. Again, this substratum assumes 

 the forms of the four so-called elements (which are not. 

 strictly speaking, " elements " for Aristotle). Now if 

 this could be interpreted to mean that the substratum 

 appears in the four forms of solid, liquid, gaseous, 

 incandescent, it would be ver>' good sense, but un- 

 luckily Aristotle never put it that way. No, they are 

 somehow formed by combinations of the tw^o pairs 

 of contraries, hot and cold, dr\' and moist : when 

 water is boiled, the cold-moist is transformed into the 

 hot-moist ; and the efficient cause of these combinations 

 and transformations is the movement of the heavens, 

 in particular of the sun. Certainly the scientific man 

 will be tempted to wish with Bacon that Democritus 

 had come down to us instead of Aristotle — at least 

 so far as this question is concerned. 



But the pure Aristotelian does not fret himself over 

 such considerations. His one aim is to understand the 



