4 NATURE 
[NovEMBER 5, 1903 
which always surprises those who take it up by the 
fulness of its information and by the interest which 
it stimulates. There is no specific indication in the 
present volume as to what parts are derived from the 
original and what parts are due to Prof. Ward’s 
careful editing; in any case, the result of the collabor- 
ation is a most admirable book. 
W. N. SHaw. 
OUR BOOK SHELF. 
The Steam Turbine. By Robert M. Neilson. 
Edition. Pp. xvii + 294. (London: 
Green and Co.) Price tos. 6d. net. 
Tue history of the steam turbine previous to the reign 
of Parsons, whose first patents were applied for in 
1884, may be made out from chapters i. and ii. But 
descriptions of inventions in the language and with 
the illustrations usual in patent specifications are not 
quite what is expected from the author of such a book 
as this. There is an appendix giving the names and 
dates of all patents relating to steam turbines. The 
history and construction of the Parsons and the Laval 
turbines are given at some length, with the results of 
practical tests for power and consumption of steam, 
and the reader gets an opportunity of understanding 
the construction of modified forms which are now, 
under various names, coming into use. Students are 
anxious to examine good drawings and descriptions 
of the details of the Parsons turbine, and it would 
appear that these are difficult to obtain. The 
author of this book has given much information 
and many illustrations somewhat in the style made 
familiar to us in the engineering newspapers. Much 
more information is given about the Laval type of 
turbine. As to the theory of these turbines, the 
essentially important points seem to be ignored, and 
yet all the theory of any turbine known to anybody 
may be given very shortly indeed. There is a par- 
ticularly interesting point in connection with the Laval 
turbine to which the author might have directed atten- 
tion, namely, the exceedingly great speed reached by 
fluid at the end of an expanding mouthpiece. So far 
as we know, the reason for this has never been pub- 
lished, and yet any student of the papers of Osborne 
Reynolds ought to be able to give it readily. 
The chapter on the propulsion of ships by turbines 
is interesting. 
On the whole, the book is one that ought to be read 
by students; it is practically the only book on the sub- 
ject, but we think that the author has not done so 
well with his materials as he might have done. 
Whittaker’s Electrical Engineer’s Pocket Book. 
Edited by Kenelm Edgcumbe. Pp. viii+456. 
(London: Whittaker and Co., 1903.) Price 3s. 6d. 
Tus little book differs in several respects from the 
ordinary type of pocket book; it possesses the usual 
features—a limp cover, round corners, gilt edges, and 
a weight quite unsuited to the pocket—which serve to 
characterise the ‘‘ pocket book,’’ but in the arrange- 
ment of the matter it rather resembles a small encyclo- 
pedia. Each branch of electrical engineering is dealt 
with in a separate section or chapter, which may be 
read consecutively as if it were a brief treatise on the 
subject. The method has much to recommend it; the 
electrical engineer who comes across some problem in 
a branch with which he is not familiar can turn up 
the section dealing with that branch and read a 
summary of the whole subject; numerous references 
to recent papers will greatly help him in finding the 
particulars which he wants. There are, of course, also 
NO. 1775, VOL. 69] 
Second 
Longmans, 
a number of tables of the constants more generally 
required. The treatment is not very even; thus whilst 
generating machinery—dynamos, alternators, and | 
motors—receives full consideration in 100 pages or | 
more, only four pages are given to electric lamps and 
lighting, and the information given therein is quite 
inadequate. The diagrams and illustrations are 
clearer than those usually to be found in books of this 
class. 
Astronomischer Jahresbericht. 
cenus. Band iv. 
Reimer, 1903.) 
Tuts, the fourth issue of this most valuable and useful 
volume, contains the references and a brief summary of 
contents of the astronomical literature published last 
year. The work is of the same high standard as in 
former years, and casts great credit on the labours of 
Herr Wislicenus and his joint compilers. This year- 
book is so well known to astronomers, and has been 
found so valuable by them, that it is hardly necessary 
to dwell either on the general arrangement of the 
subject or on the method of treatment. The main 
object of the compilers was to make as perfect a record 
as possible of all the published papers on this subject, 
yet to keep the book from becoming too bulky. This 
they have succeeded in doing, in spite of the fact that 
many of the abstracts of lengthy papers are very 
complete. : 
Now that the Royal Society has published the first 
annual issue of this branch of science (E. Astronomy) 
in the ‘International Catalogue of Scientific Liter- 
ature,’’ it seems possible that there will scarcely be 
room for both of these compilations, since the more 
perfect they become the more closely will they resemble 
each other. This question, however, the future will 
no doubt settle. There is, nevertheless, one main 
difference between them, in that the volume before us 
summarises the contents of each paper to which refer- 
ence is made, while that of the ‘‘ International Cata- 
logue ’’ is restricted to the bare references. 
Wien iy euler 
Practical Management of Pure Yeast. By Alfred 
Jorgensen. Translated by R. Grey. Pp.  viii+60o. 
(London : the Brewing Trade Review, 1903.) 
Tuts useful little work might have received with advan- 
tage a title better descriptive of its contents. It con- 
tains a condensed account of the biological methods 
which are employed in the author’s well-known 
laboratory in the pure culture and analysis of alcohol- 
producing yeasts. According to the preface, the lead- 
ing purpose of this treatise is to enlighten the so-called 
practical man in the methods of investigation employed 
by the zymotechnologist, so that in the future the 
practical man and the technologist may work together 
with better understanding at the many important and 
difficult problems which are encountered in the pro- 
cesses of the fermentation industries. No doubt the 
little book is well calculated to fulfil its object if only 
the practical man will read it, and we hope it will be 
in much demand for this purpose. But whatever may 
be the success of the book in this direction, it un- 
doubtedly deserves the careful attention of all zymo- 
technologists, as it indicates the lines on which a 
well-known investigator of great experience is work- 
ing with a view to the solution of many interesting 
and complicated problems in connection with the 
organisms of fermentation. The last words on the 
biological methods of analysis and the technical em- 
ployment of pure cultures of yeast are still a very long 
way from being spoken, but as an advance towards 
this end we cordially recommend the work to the atten- 
tion of all interested in the biological aspect of the 
fermentation industries. 1K) 
By Walter F. Wisli- 
Pp. xxxii+648. (Berlin: Georg 
