936 



SCIENCE 



[N.S. Vol. XXV. No. 650 



pen if tte writing is to be legible. In other 

 respects, the printing is good and clear, and 

 wide margins are supplied. 



In closing this brief notice, I can not do 

 better than again to refer to the introduction. 

 In the last paragraph, M. Poineare says: 

 " Ainsi aucune des parties de la Mecanique 

 Celeste ne lui a ete etrangere, mais son 

 ceuvre propre, celle qui fera son nom im- 

 mortel, c'est sa theorie de la Lune; c'est la 

 qu'il a ete non seulement un artiste habile, un 

 chercheur curieux, mais un inventeur original 

 et profond. Je ne veux pas dire que ces 

 methodes qu'il a creees, ne sont applicables 

 qu'a la Lune; je suis bien persuade du con- 

 traire, je crois que ceux qui s'occupent des 

 petites planetes seront etonnes des facilit^B 

 qu'ils rencontreront le jour ou en ayant 

 penetre I'esprit ils les appliqueront a ce nouvel 

 objet. Mais jusqu'iei c'est pour la Lune 

 qu'elles ont fait leurs preuves; quand elles 

 s'etendront a un domaine plus vaste, on ne 

 devra pas oublier que c'est a M. Hill que 

 nous devons un instrument si precieux." 

 E. W. B. 



Podcet-look of Aeronautics. By Hermann 



W. L. MoEDEBECK in collaboration with O. 



Chanute and others. Authorized English 



edition translated by W. Mansergh Varley. 



London, Whittaker & Co. 1907. Small 



8vo. Pp. 496. 



Moedebeck's ' Taschenbuck fiir Plugtech- 

 niker und Luftschiffer,' which first appeared 

 in 1895 as a little volume of 198 pages, be- 

 sides the ruled pages for entering observations, 

 was intended to be carried in the pocket of the 

 experimenter or aeronaut, and although a use- 

 ful compendium it was hardly known outside 

 Germany. A new and greatly enlarged edi- 

 tion (which renders the name ' pocket-book ' 

 inappropriate) has just been issued, and 

 through the generous help of Patrick Alex- 

 ander, an English gentleman interested in 

 aeronautics, who cooperated with Mr. Chanute, 

 the eminent Chicago engineer, the revised 

 treatise has been made accessible to English 

 readers. 



The following summary of its contents wiU 

 show the scope of this useful and timely hand- 



book. Chapter I. deals with the gases used 

 in filling balloons, and the next chapter, by 

 Professor Kremser, a Berlin meteorologist, 

 treats of the physics of the atmosphere. The 

 observations in the free air quoted were, how- 

 ever, obtained in Europe and no reference is 

 made to the large amount of data collected 

 with kites in the United States by our Weather 

 Bureau and at the Blue Hill Observatory, nor 

 to the more recent observations with balloons 

 at great heights, which were instituted by 

 this observatory. The same writer, in Chap- 

 ter m., gives practical directions for 

 making and reducing balloon observations, 

 but the translator has confused some of 

 the meteorological symbols. In the next 

 chapter Major Moedebeck discusses the tech- 

 nique of ballooning with which Chapter VI. 

 on ballooning might properly have been com- 

 bined. Kites and parachutes are treated in 

 Chapter V. by the Hamburg meteorologist. 

 Professor Koppen, who was one of the first 

 persons in Europe to experiment with kites 

 for meteorological purposes after their useful- 

 ness had been shown at Blue HiU in 1894. 

 It may be said that neither figure 51b nor 53 

 represents a typical Hargrave kite, H. H. 

 Clayton having invented this form with four 

 continuous corner-sticks. Alexander Graham 

 Bell's tetrahedral kite is omitted from the 

 types described, notwithstanding the fact that 

 the fame of the inventor has attracted wide 

 attention to it. No mention is made of the 

 practise of using larger wire for the lower 

 portions of the line which enables great 

 heights to be attained by attaching successive 

 kites. The bibliography should include the 

 important memoir by S. P. Fergusson, de- 

 scribing the perfected equipment at Blue Hill, 

 which was published in Annals of Harvard 

 College Ohservatory, Vol. 43, Part 3. In 

 Chapter VII. balloon photography is discussed 

 by Professor Miethe, an eminent authority, 

 as is, in the following chapter by Professor 

 Kutta, the allied subject of photographic sur- 

 veying. Next comes a detailed account, by 

 Major Moedebeck, of the history and present 

 status of military ballooning in the different 

 countries of the world. The editor's technical 



