FEBRUARY 21, 1907 | . 
WEA LEO RE: 
399 
the patience to pore over this new book, but they 
will not gain much insight into the science these 
fossils illustrate, and their enthusiasm must be un- 
usual if they retain any desire to proceed with 
palzeontological research when they have completed 
their course. DG ear Vie 
ASPECTS “OF BLECTRICAL 
ENGINEERING, 
' Applied Electricity: a Text-book of Electrical En- 
gineering for Second Year Students. By J. Paley 
Yorke. Pp. xii+420. (London: Edward Arnold, 
1906.) Price 7s. 6d. 
The Electrician Primers. Edited by W. R. Cooper. 
Three volumes in one. Vol. i., Nos. 1-24, Theory. 
Vol. ii., Nos. 25-55, Traction, Lighting and Power. 
Vol. iii., Nos. 56-80, Telegraphy, Telephony, Elec- 
trolysis and Miscellaneous Applications. (London : 
The Electrician Printing and Publishing Co., n.d.) 
Price ios. 6d. net. 
THREE 
Electricity of To-day: its ‘Work and Mysteries de- | 
scribed in Non-Technical Language. By Charles 
R. Gibson. Pp. xiv+347. (London: Seeley and 
Cor, 1907.) Erice cs. net: 
HE three books before us suggest an interesting 
comparison of three points of view from which 
any applied science can be regarded. Each covers, 
or attempts to cover, in a more or less summary 
fashion, practically the whole subject of electrical 
engineering, but as each appeals to an entirely dit- 
ferent audience, the difference in method of treatment 
is necessarily very marked. Mr. Yorke’s volume is 
written for the student who proposes to become an 
electrical engineer, the genuine professional, whose 
chief assets must be knowledge and brains. The 
readers of the Electrician Primers will mostly be found 
amongst artisans, amongst the class not unjustly dis- 
tinguished from electrical engineers by the name of 
electricians, people who require a fair amount of 
knowledge, but who can get on with a very limited 
amount of understanding. Finally, Mr. Gibson’s 
book makes its appeal directly to the general public, 
or to that section of it which shows an intelligent 
desire to keep abreast of the times and is not content 
to utilise the advantages of civilisation without some 
attempt at appreciating the manner in which they are 
obtained. 
The great necessity for the professional engineer in 
his college training is to obtain a sound foundation 
on which to build by means of future experience. 
Facts are easily learnt and as easily forgotten, whilst 
even if remembered they are likely to prove of but 
trifling value in actual practice. No man can say 
when he is at college what branch of his profession is 
going to occupy his future, and it should be the aim, 
therefore, of any second year’s course to impart a 
sound knowledge of the way in which the funda- 
mental physical principles of electricity and magnetism 
are utilised in the practical applications of electrical 
engineering. Mr. Yorke has kept this point of view 
NO. 1947, VOL. 75| 
| clearly before him in the book under review, and has 
succeeded on the whole very well in elucidating the 
connection between theory and practice. There is no 
question, however, but that the value of a book of this 
kind depends almost entirely on the lectures and 
laboratory work that accompany it. Text-books alone 
are so incapable of giving sound instruction in elec- 
trical engineering that one is almost justified in 
maintaining that to criticise them apart from the 
course with which they to be used is idle. The 
best that can be said is that the book would serve as: 
a very useful model on which to base a second year’s, 
course of instruction. It is, perhaps, unwise that 
manufacturing methods should be described; in one or 
two instances this has led to mistakes which might 
are 
have been avoided. 
To attempt a detailed criticism of the Electrician 
Primers would be to write a volume as bulky as 
that which they themselves form. They range over 
such diversified subjects as ‘‘ Curves and their Use,’” 
“Electric Railways,’’ and “ Photo-engraving,’’ to 
quote but a few examples. Each primer forms a small 
handbook, and the artisan engaged in any particular 
branch of work would gain a fair insight into the 
raison d’étre of his various operations by the study of 
those primers dealing specially therewith. As a re- 
ference book also the complete set should prove 
useful. The electrician occupied with tramways may 
occasionally find it necessary to know something about 
arc lamps or telephones, and in such cases the rough 
general information he requires could probably be 
obtained from these primers. The whole ground of 
electrical engineering is covered very completely by 
the series. 
The correct person to review Mr. Gibson’s book is a 
member of the general public and not an electrical 
engineer, -as the principal questions to be answered 
are, Is it intelligible? and Is it interesting ? 
It is a hard task to describe some of the more com- 
plicated developments of electrical engineering in 
simple, non-technical language, and to avoid incorrect- 
ness in the search for simplicity. Mr. Gibson has, 
however, accomplished this task with remarkable 
skill, and for many passages deserves to be sincerely 
congratulated. There is too great a tendency, per- 
haps, to the relation of amusing little anecdotes which 
do not teach much, and to what may be described as 
sensationalism, but this is very natural and perhaps 
excusable. The interest of the layman, no doubt, re-- 
quires to be sustained by such illustrations as the 
photograph of a church wrecked by lightning, or 
of an attractive young lady making afternoon tea 
with an electric kettle. But neither of these pictures 
has much educational value. To cavil is, however, 
ungracious; the more the public can be interested in 
electricity the better for the whole trade and profes- 
sion, and Mr. Gibson’s book will undoubtedly help on 
the work of progress. One is apt to laugh at 
‘“ popular *’ science, but Mr. Yorke’s students and the 
Electrician’s artisans would all be amongst the unem- 
ployed without the market which Mr. Gibson helps to 
provide. Maurice SOLOMON. 
