February 20, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



305 



professional and private life, those brought 

 into contact with him found themselves, 

 at the close of their however forceful rela- 

 tions with him, imbued with a kindly and 

 affectionate sentiment, and often became 

 warm and strong friends. 



He was a member of many scientific, 

 technical and professional associations, at 

 home and abroad, and his death leaves a 

 vacancy in many ways very difficult to fill, 

 particularly, in the position which he for 

 a generation held as an educator of the 

 youth of his profession. 



R. H. Thurston. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Thermodynamics of Heat-engines. By Sm- 

 NEY A. Reeve, Professor of Steam Engineer- 

 ing at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 

 New York and London, The Macmillan 

 Company. 1903. 12mo. Pp. 304; figs. 58; 

 steam tables, etc. 



This little book, by the author of ' The 

 Entropy-Temperature Analysis of Steam-En- 

 gine Efficiencies,' the first formal attempt to 

 introduce this method of analysis to the stu- 

 dent of the heat-engines in this country by a 

 native writer, is particularly useful as elabo- 

 rating that subject still more completely and 

 helpfully. It, however, includes very much 

 more than this. It is an interesting, original 

 and instructive elementary treatise on the 

 thermodynamics of the heat-engines, written 

 by an author who has given, evidently, much 

 patient and illuminating thought to the sub- 

 ject, and who has made himself thoroughly 

 familiar with his work. 



Every chapter gives proof of independent 

 thought, and while, imquestionably, many of 

 the modes of expression of fundamental ideas 

 and facts would be differently presented and 

 probably sometimes criticized by one trained 

 in the forms of the great school of Clausiusian 

 writers, every competent critic will probably 

 admit the soundness of the philosophy and the 

 clarity of expression which distinguish the 

 book. 



The start is excellent — a page of tabulated 



notation — and the reader is permitted to begin 

 his task by a comprehension of the language 

 in which it is to be discussed. The symbols 

 are all English. The general principles of 

 energetics are elaborated and illustrated and 

 viewed from various standpoints. The space 

 taken is comparatively large; but the result 

 is not only an understanding of, but familiar- 

 ity with, the foundations of the science. The 

 language of the ' laws ' of energetics and of 

 thermodynamics is sometimes paraphrased in 

 multiple and with gain of understanding if 

 not always in precision. The much-discussed 

 ' Second Law of Thermodynamics ' takes the 

 form : ' The entropy of the world tends to a 

 maximum and the temperature to a mini- 

 mum.' It is, however, pointed out that the 

 law may not hold with accuracy ; ' since there 

 is as yet no evidence accumulated which re- 

 veals any fixed proportion between the several 

 sorts of energy in the universe,' and no such 

 law can be stated, if it confines itseK to a 

 single form of energy, such as heat. 



The cycles p-^ and 0-(4, are described, com- 

 pared, their uses illustrated and, particularly, 

 their individual characteristics and special 

 utilities exhibited. The illustrative compari- 

 son with hydraulic energy-movements is very 

 helpful. Of the new ' Third and Fourth Laws ' 

 of energetics and of thermodynamics, it may 

 at least be said that the author states his 

 points correctly. The new laws may not be 

 accepted as formally entered on the statute- 

 book by the scientific jury which always ulti- 

 mately decides such matters. 



In the study of steam- and gas-engines, the 

 two graphical forms of illustration are em- 

 ployed, side by side, and very admirably, in 

 exemplification of the principles and of the 

 operations constituting the thermodynamic 

 case. The reader of the work can hardly fail, 

 if intelligent and thoughtful and a conscien- 

 tious student, to secure a good idea of the 

 most abstruse points of the subject and ability 

 to make useful applications of the knowledge 

 thus acquired. 



The book is a valuable contribution to the 

 literature of applied thermodynamics. The 

 appended steam table is a distinctly important 



