532 



NA TURE 



[Ai'KiL 9, 1908 



The two sections are clearly printed and admirably 

 illustrated, but, as is unfortunately the case with the 

 majority of chemical treatises published on the Con- 

 tinent, references to British work and authorities arc 

 conspicuous by their absence. W. A. B. 



BRITISH ARCHAiOLOGISTS IN ITALY. 



Papers of the British School at Rome. Vol. iv. 

 Pp. x + 296; illustrated. (London: Macmillan and 

 Co., Ltd., 1907.) Price 31s. 6d. net. 



THE " Papers of the British School at Rome," while 

 similar in format, are not similar in form to 

 the " Annals of the British School at Rome," nor 

 can they be precisely similar in content, since the 

 pleasure of chronicling the results of actual excava- 

 tions is denied to the director of the British School at 

 Rome. Let us always gratefully recognise the 

 greater liberality of the Hellenic authorities and the 

 greater tolerance of the Greek archseologists, who, 

 while naturally and rightly desirous of keeping Greek 

 antiquities in Greece, at the same time recognise 

 the fact that the antiquities of classic Greece and 

 Rome are the heritage of the whole civilised world, 

 not of one country alone, and admit that the( privilege 

 of searching for them should be freely extended to all 

 who have the money and the will to carry out the 

 work. Some dav, perhaps, the Italians will do like- 

 wise. Until then, British archeeologists in Italy are 

 confined to the contemplative life, and can do little 

 more than write papers of the type presented in the 

 volume under review. 



The director, Mr. Thomas Ashby, most approaches 

 the standard of the practical work of the Athens school 

 in his very interesting paper on the " Classical Topo- 

 graphy of the Roman Campagna," which is illustrated 

 by good photographs, perhaps somewhat unnecessarily 

 reproduced abroad, either in France or Italy, as the 

 lettering beneath them shows. Probably we hardly 

 realise how intensely hideous was the Roman style of 

 country-house architecture, until we see such a 

 place as Sette Bassi, which Mr. Ashby illus- 

 trates. It must have looked exactly like a warehouse, 

 or, more probably, a piano factory. All the beauty 

 and grace of ''classical " architecture is Greek; the 

 Romans were by nature as inclined to unredeemed 

 utilitarian ugliness in their architecture as are the 

 Germans or ourselves. Of the other papers, 

 Mr. A. J. B. Wace's " Studies in Roman 

 Historical Reliefs " is an interesting piece of 

 critical work. Mr. Yeames, late of the British 

 Museum, assistant director of the school, has some in- 

 teresting remarks on Roman art of the post-Antonine 

 period (first half of the third century a.d.) as exempli- 

 lied in a small ivory statuette of a gobbo or hunch- 

 b.ick in the British Museum. 



The last paper, and in some ways the most 

 inii)ortant, is on '" The Early Iron Age in South 

 Italy," by Mr. T. E. Peet, who reaches interesting 

 conclusions. In his preface the director says that the 

 papers 



" of Mr. Yeames and Mr. Peet, the latter especially, 

 NO. 2006, VOL. 77I 



though still belonging to the archaeological sphere, 

 deal with departments of It which have not previously 

 found a place in the Papers of the School." 



Since to the minds of many the department cf 

 archaeology represented by Mr. Pcet's paper seems the 

 most important of all, it is to be hoped that no future 

 Papers of the School at Rome will fall to contain some 

 contribution 01: the prehistoric antiquities of Italy, 

 about which we want to know far more than we do 

 at present. H. H. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Armature Coiislruction. By H. M. Hobart and A. G. 



Ellis. Pp. ix + 34S. (London : Whittaker and 



Co., 1907.) Price i^s. net. 

 The widespread use of dynamo electric machinery for 

 all sorts of purposes is sutlficient justification, if such 

 be required, of treatises dealing with the design and 

 construction of such machinery. Many books have 

 been written on this subject, but we believe this is the 

 firsU time that a complete volume has been devoted to 

 the consideration of the construction of what is, per- 

 haps, the most important part of any dynamo, viz. 

 the armature. 



To those who know anything of this class ot 

 machinery, it will be obvious that there is ample 

 scope for a writer with first-hand knowledge to 

 compile an interesting and valuable book ; to men- 

 tion only one point, the practical construction of a 

 good commutator is a process full of interest. The 

 book before us will certainly repay careful study in 

 spite of a certain lack of proportion which is very 

 noticeable. 



A very brief summary of the contents is as follows : 

 The first seven chapters describe the various work- 

 shop processes whereby the mechanical parts of the 

 armature are built up, that is to say, the armature 

 stampings, the spider, and the commutator; the next 

 two chapters are devoted to armature windings for 

 direct-current machines and for alternators, treated 

 diagrammatically ; and the last four chapters to the 

 methods of winding and to finishing and testing. 

 When it is stated that 172 pages (including full-page 

 illustrations) out of a total of about 390 are devoted 

 to winding diagrams alone, it will be apparent that 

 the authors have allowed their enthusiasm for such 

 diagrams to get the better of their judgment. There 

 is no doubt that the subject is of great interest, but 

 in the opinion of the present writer the two lengthy 

 chapters devoted to it are quite out of place in such 

 a work ; in so far as explanations are necessary for 

 the proper understanding of subsequent chapters, 

 three or four pages would be ample to furnish all that 

 are required. 



The chapters that deal with construction pure and 

 simple are well written and illustrated, and con- 

 tain a large quantity of valuable information. Chap- 

 ter ii., on armature laminations, is perhaps the best 

 in the book, and contains specifications for the com- 

 position of suitable steel ; the various methods of 

 testing the quality of the steel are described, and con- 

 stants are given which may be taken as satisfactory. 

 The process of stamping the core plates is given in 

 detail, and is illustrated with a number of photo- 

 graphs of slotting presses and other tools. The other 

 chfipters are also full of interest, and, but for the 

 error of judgment mentioned above, the whole book 

 might be unreservedly recommended to those who 

 from one cause or another are concerned with the 

 practical details of armature construction. 



