504 



NATURE 



[February 28, 1918 



registered telegraphic addresses which he describes 

 on another page the present writer might be able 

 to enlighten him. 



The author's outlook on telegraphy is that of 

 the optimist who knows, and of the prophet who, 

 by a balanced consideration of the past, can fore- 

 see and frame a just conception of the future, and 

 is thereby enabled to point forward "to a 

 time when telegraph practice will , . . serve the 

 economic and industrial and social needs far more 

 vitally and far more intelligently than it has been 

 called upon to do in the past." A. J. S. 



Thomas A. Edison: The Life-story of a Great 



American. Pp. 216. (London: G. G. Harrap 



and Co., 1917.) Price 35. 6d. net. 

 The name" of no great man of science or inventor 

 is so familiar to the "man in the street" as that 

 of Thomas Alva Edison, and the anonymous 

 volume before us purports to give some account 

 of his life and work. The eight chapters bear 

 no titles, but are prefaced by rather sensational 

 contents-headings, including such phrases as "Ap- 

 prenticed to Magic," "Edison the Napoleon of 

 Modern Times," "Let there be Light," "And this 

 Light emanated from America," etc. The author 

 succeeds in conveying a vivid picture of the mani- 

 fold activities of his hero, but, while tracing in 

 chronological order Edison's various achievements, 

 the text consists largely of a series of thumb- 

 nail sketches of the man and of episodes in his 

 career, interspersed with extravagant eulogies 

 which will grate a little on the minds of sensitive 

 readers. 



. The descriptions of the inventions will convey 

 very little to readers who are not already familiar 

 with them, and those who are will regret fhe 

 neglect to give- credit to any but Edison and his 

 personal assistants. Thus, while ample space is 

 accorded to Edison's world-wide search for a suit- 

 able fibre for his incandescent lamp, Swan's name 

 is not mentioned. Again, one would imagine that 

 the kinematograph was wholly Edison's inven- 

 tion. As a matter of fact, he was preceded on the 

 photographic side by Muybridge and by Marey, 

 and did not, in the first instance, carry his ap- 

 paratus beyond the peep-show stage. The credit 

 of first projecting the pictures upon a screen 

 from a film belongs to R. W. Paul in England and 

 to Lumifere in France. E. C. 



French Scientific Reader. Edited, with Introduc- 

 tion, Notes, and Vocabulary, by Dr. Francis 

 Daniels. Pp. xvii + 748. (New York: Oxford 

 University Press; London: H. Milford, 1917.) 

 Price I05. 6d. net. 

 Dr. Daniels has compiled a judicious anthology 

 from the great scientific papers of a number of 

 distinguished French men of science, among 

 whom, to name a few-, may be mentioned Laplace, 

 Pasteur, and Fabre. The book will serve several 

 purposes : it provides ample material for a course 

 in scientific French for students preparing for 

 graduation In science; It brings out convincingly 

 the peculiar fitness of the French language to 

 serve as a medium of scientific expression ; and 

 NO. 2522, VOL. 100] 



it will give readers sound ideas of the development 

 of modern science. 



The selected passages cover very fairly the vari- 

 ous branches of physical and biological science ; 

 the copious vocabulary will largely dispense with 

 the need for a dictionary ; and the notes, of which 

 there are sixty-five pages, will provide teachers of 

 French with the information necessary to enable 

 them to understand the text. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to currespbnd with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Natuke. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



British Scientific Instrument Makers' Research. 

 Readers of Natlre ma} be interested to hear that 

 the recommendation made by Mr. E. S. Hodgson in 

 the issue of February 7 has been anticipated by the 

 optical trade. 



The British Optical Instrument Manufacturers Asso- 

 ciation is an organisation which was formed in the earlv 

 part of the war, and includes almost all the important 

 manufacturers. This association has co-operated with 

 the Ministry of Munitions in increasing the output of 

 optical munitions with a degree of success that could 

 not have been expected. It has energetically assisted 

 in the formation of the new Opto-Technical Educa- 

 tional Institute under the Imperial College of Science 

 and Technology at South Kensington, and has now so 

 far completed negotiations with the Department of 

 Scientific and Industrial Research that.it is scarcely 

 premature to say that a Scientific Instrument Research 

 Association under the auspices of that Department will 

 be in existence almost immediately. 



The trade association is for the present fully occupied 

 with the new requirements for military and jiaval pur- 

 poses, but it has a Technical Committee, which includes 

 the best expert optical knowledge of the country, that 

 would be glad to place its experience at the disposal 

 of all departments which require problems to be in- 

 vestigated or requirements to be met. 



Applications should be made to the Secretary, 6 

 Moorgate Street, London, B.C. 2, 



Conrad Beck, 

 President, British Optical Instrument Manufacturers 

 Association, Ltd. 



Alcohol Fuel and Engines. 



In the sympathetic notice in Nature of October 18, 

 1917, of the first report of the Special Committee on 

 Alcohol Fuel and Engines of the Australian Common- 

 wealth Advisory Council of Science and Industrj^ atten- 

 tion is directed to the oart that benzol, obtained from 

 the distillation of coal, may play, after the war, as a 

 substitute for petrol. Undoubtedly in Great Britain 

 very large quantities of this fuel will be available for 

 peaceful purposes, but in Australia very small quanti- 

 ties of it will be produced. 



The terms of reference of the Committee specify the 

 use of fuel that may be produced in Australia, and 

 hence, as the writer of the article in Nature supposes, 

 practically do not cover the use of benzol. 



At the same time the Committee has not neglected 

 the possibilities of using mixtures of alcohol and benzol 

 which, as is well known, enable the engine to be started 

 with greater ease than if alcohol alone were used. 

 Thomas R. Lyle, 

 Chairman of Special Committee on Alcohol Fur 

 and Engines. 



314 Albert Street, East Melbourne, January 8. 



