NATURE 



229 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1910. 



RECENT AERONAUTICAL PUBLICATIONS. 



(1) Tlie Art of Aviation. A Handbook upon .Aero- 

 planes and their Engines, with Notes upon Pro- 

 pellers. By R. W. A. Brewer. Pp. xiii + 254+12 

 plates. (London : Crosby, Lockwood and Son, 

 1910.) Price 10s. 6d. net. 



(2) How to Build an Aeroplane. By R. Petit. Trans- 

 lated by T. O'B. Hubbard and J. H. Ledeboer. 

 Pp. xiii+ii8. (London: Williams and Norgate, 

 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net. 



(3) How to Build a 20-foot Biplane Glider. By A. P. 

 Morgan. Pp. 60. (New York : Spon and Cham- 

 berlain ; London: E. and F. X. Spon, Ltd., igog.) 

 Price li. 6d. net. 



(4) Lcs Aeroplanes, considerations theoriques. Bv P. 

 Raybaud. Pp. 24. (Paris : F. Louis Vivien, 1910.) 

 Price I franc. 



(5) Ballons ct Aeroplanes. By G. Besangon. Pp. 

 346. (Paris : Garnier Freres, 1910.) Price 1.75 

 francs. 



(6) L'.iviation. By Prof. Paul Painleve and Prof. 

 Emile Borel. Pp. viii + 266. (Paris: Feli.x Alcan, 

 1910.) Price 3.50 francs. 



(71 Navigation in der Luft. By Prof. A. Marcuse. Re- 

 printed from the Denkschrift der ersten Inter- 

 nationalen Luftschiffahrts-aiistellung zu Frankfurt 

 a. M., 1909. L, pp. 46-59. (Berlin : Julius 

 Springer.) 



(8) Stahilitii des .Aeroplanes, Surface mdtacentrique. 

 By Prof. M. Brillouin. Reprinted from the Revue 

 de Micanique, 1909. Pp. 80. (Paris : H. Dunod 

 and E. Pinat, 1910.) 



(9) Die Seitensteuer der Flugmaschinen. By Prof. 

 H. Reissner. From Fhtgtechnik und Motor- 

 luftschiffahrt, 1910, S, 10. (Munich and Berlin : 

 R. Oldenbourg.) 



(10) IV. Congres international d'.ieronautiquc, 1909. 

 Proces verhaux, Rapports et Mhnoircs. Pp. iv + 

 473. (Paris : H. Dunod and E. Pinat, 1909.) 

 Price 8 francs. 



(11^ Bibliography of Aeronautics. By Paul Brockett. 

 Pp. xiv + 940. (Washington : Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, 1910.) 



(12) Petite Encyclopedic aeronautiquc. By L. Ventou- 

 Duclaux. Pp. 144. (Paris : F. Louis Vivien, 1910.) 

 Price 1.75 francs. 



(13) The Encyclopaedia of Sports and Games. Edited 

 by the Earl of Suffolk and Berkshire. New and 

 enlarged edition, in monthly parts. Part i., pp. 80, 

 with numerous plain and coloured illustrations, in- 

 cluding article "Aeronautics." (London: William 

 Heinemann, 1910.) Price is. net each part. 



"T^HE present season has been, so far as aviation is 

 J- concerned, a record of brilliant successes and 

 terrible calamities. The recent fine performance of Mr. 

 Moisant in flying from Paris to near Dover forms the 

 fourth cross-Channel recofd, the preceding one being 

 the late Mr. Rolls 's flight to France and back without a 

 stop on June 2. Mr. Moisant's performance differs 

 from the previous ones in that he carried his mechanic 

 NO. 2130, VOL. 84] 



as a passenger, and that he steered his entire course 

 by cornpass, not having been over the ground before. 

 His flight was not performed under by any means 

 ideal weather conditions, for within a few miles of the 

 English coast he ran into a rainstorm, which, owing 

 to the high relative velocity at which the machine was 

 being driven, or, as a newspaper reporter imagined, 

 "with the high wind prevailing coupled with the speed 

 at which the aeroplane was travelling" beat on the 

 aviators' faces and on the machine with the violence of 

 hail. Again, when approaching the English coast, the 

 machine is stated to have been sucked down from 

 800 to about 200 feet, as the result of air currents set 

 up by the cliffs. And while the Holyhead to Dublin 

 course still awaits completion, it cannot but be said 

 that Lorraine's preliminary flight from Blackpool to 

 North Wales was an excellent performance, and it is 

 quite possible that the Irish Channel may be crossed 

 before this review is actually printed. 



On the other side, we have a terrible list of fatali- 

 ties, and the mere smash up of a machine that has 

 cost hundreds to build has become a matter of such 

 everyday occurrence as to confirm the view often ex- 

 pressed by the present reviewer, that it would have 

 been better, cheaper, and probably quite as quick in 

 the long run to have first got everything done that 

 could be done in studying the problem of aviation by 

 the methods of exact science and to have developed 

 the practical side subsequently. 



Mr. Brewer's book has only been out a 

 short time, the preface being dated April, 1910, 

 and yet in his introduction he directs attention to the 

 small loss of life that has been incurred in the develop- 

 ment of flying machines. The tide of good fortune 

 would certainly seem to have recently turned, as we 

 have before us records of no fewer than eleven deaths 

 through accidents with either balloons or aeroplanes 

 during the month of July, while the preceding three 

 months claimed a death-roll of twenty-eight or 

 more. The Standard of July 13 gave a list of eleven 

 fatal accidents precedent to the death of Mr. Rolls, 

 commencing with Lieutenant Selfridge in 1908, and 

 not including previous fatalities, such as those of 

 Lilienthal and Pilcher, and the death of the Marchese 

 Vivaldi Pasqua has just been announced, following 

 on a series of fatal accidents in Belgium, America, 

 and elsewhere. 



The fact that Mr. Brewer (1) has acted as assistant 

 to Mr. Grahame White will probably secure for his 

 book a large circulation, but for the more intelligent 

 reader a greater recommendation probably arises from 

 the fact that the author has concentrated his attention 

 mainly' on those features of the aviation problem on 

 which he is most competent to speak with authority 

 as the result of practical experience, namely, the 

 structural details of aeroplanes, propellers, and par- 

 ticularly of internal-combustion engines. In fact, an 

 important feature of the book is that we find here 

 illustrated descriptions of the main features of the 

 principal types of motor, such as the Antoinette, 

 Gnome, Panhard, Wright, and similar information 

 regarding the different leading types of monoplane 

 and biplane. To add to the completeness, tables arc 



