120 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



NOTICES BY JOHN T. CARRINGTON. 



Note. — In consequence of the great variety in sizes of books 

 now published, the old descriptions, founded on the folding 

 of the paper on which they are printed, will not in future 

 be followed in these pages. In its stead their size, including 

 binding, will be given in inches, the greater being the length 

 and the lesser the breadth, unless otherwise specified. — Ed. 

 Science-Gossip. 



Lighting by Acetylene. By William E. Gibbs, 

 M.E. 141 pp., 7J in. X4f in., with 66 illustrations. 

 (New York : D. Van Nostard Company. London : 

 Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1S98.) 7s. 6d. 



The new industry of the commercial manufacture 

 of calcium carbide and its product of acetylene- 

 gas is evidently to have early a literature of its 

 own. The author has taken pains to produce a 

 work well up to the date of its completion ; but as 

 he himself says, revision may be expected in such 

 a work in the initial stage of the industry. A 

 couple of pages suffice for the history of acetylene 

 gas, and seven pages for its " dangers," most of 

 which have been the result of inexperience in the 

 treatment of acetylene during the preparatory 

 stages of its commercial development. This the 

 author clearly shows in these pages. Now that 

 its management is better understood, the " dangers " 

 have practically disappeared, or at most are less 

 than those from coal-gas, and more easily guarded 

 against. Indeed, acetylene is less poisonous than 

 coal-gas as generally supplied by the companies, 

 and recovery is more rapid than from the toxic 

 influence of coal-gas. Therefore those living in 

 an atmosphere where there is a slight escape of 

 acetylene suffer less than if affected by a similar 

 amount of coal-gas. The odour of the former is 

 so apparent that the inclination is to stop a leak 

 which would be tolerated in coal-gas. The emana- 

 tions from perfect combustion of acetylene are far 

 less deleterious than those of coal-gas, especially 

 on account of the amount of acetylene being 

 less than one-fifth necessary to produce the same 

 amount of coal-gas light. The.author has carefully 

 followed the industry from its commencement, and 

 illustrates most of the earlier as well as the later 

 furnaces and generators. For the lighting specialist 

 and those who require information on the subject 

 of acetylene,- we can recommend the book before 

 us. We must remember, however, it is written by 

 an American who had chiefly for his material the 

 condition of what is called the " art " on that con- 

 tinent. He has evidently given some attention to 

 what has been done in France, but his next edition 

 will doubtless include several marked stages of 

 development which have occurred in this country. 



Acetylene Gas and Calcium Carbide. By G. F. 

 Thompson. 88 pp., 7^ in x 4§ in. (Liverpool: 

 G. F. Thompson, Lombard Chambers, 1898.) 

 2s. 6d. net. 



Mr. Thompson has printed, with additions, a 

 lecture he gave before the Liverpool Polytechnic 

 Society, and has well told the history of the new 

 illuminant. Perhaps in his historical chapter 

 there are one or two statements as to the dis- 

 covery of the commercial calcium carbide which 



will receive revision when the book goes to 

 a second edition. The contents of this useful little 

 work consists of an introduction and ten chapters 

 dealing with the subject from many points of view. 

 The author's information is singularly correct as a 

 whole, viewed from the date on which he went to 

 publication. It is curious, however, that neither 

 this nor Mr. Gibbs' work just noticed, should 

 make any reference to an interesting discussion 

 which occupied three days before a Committee of 

 the House of Lords, in March, 1896. The last 

 chapter of this book is interesting as showing the 

 immense future of the synthetic value of acetylene, 

 as applied to arts and industries. This portion of 

 the study of acetylene has already received some 

 attention, and it is found that gaseous hydro- 

 carbons synthetically produced can be applied to 

 making many commercial products which have 

 hitherto had their origin in entirely different 

 sources. Not the least of these are alcohol, and 

 dye stuffs at present represented by the aniline 

 dyes. This chapter is worth the cost of the 

 book, if intelligently read by its purchaser. Mr. 

 Thompson has produced an excellent account of 

 the new industry of acetylene, and one we can 

 recommend. 



A Dictionary of Bird Notes of British Birds. By 

 Charles Louis Hett. 38 pp., 6£ in. x 4 in. 

 (Brigg: Jackson, 189S.) 2s. 6d. 



An original little work from several points of 

 view is the result of the author's venture. It is 

 an attempt, and so a basis for future improvement, 

 to put into more or less articulate human sounds, 

 as expressed in letterpress print, the bird notes of 

 the various members of the British avi-fauna. It 

 would be a bold thing to say that the author has 

 succeeded in every case. The amount of dis- 

 cussion that will arise out of his pages will be 

 something for our ornithologists to anticipate. 

 The notes are not given in every instance, such as 

 the rarer birds like the little crake. We give one 

 or two instances of the author's views. Taking the 

 chaffinch. "Call: ' flinck-flinck,' 'pink -pink' or 

 ' spink-spink, ' yack-yack ' and ' treef-treef.' Note: 

 (male, spring), ' tu - wheet, tu - wheet ' (very 

 sweet). Song: ' tol-de-rol, lol, chickwedo,' or 

 ' tol, lol, lol, kiss me, dear,' with an occasional 

 ' wee, we,' or snore of a drunken man. Chiefly 

 on the wing : ' tuke," or ' tyiik.' " That sound after 

 the " wee, wee," must surely emanate from some 

 captive birds, chaffinches, like many others, being 

 notably imitative, as has been so well shown in Mr. 

 Witchell's book on "The Evolution of Bird Song" 

 (Science-Gossip, iii. 74). Of the song of a thrush 

 he says we must read or write "go-it, go-it, stick- 

 to-it, stick-to-it, you'11-do-it, you'll do it," but he 

 omits the run that follows, which would defy most 

 people to clearly express in writing. The book is 

 printed on one side only, so that notes may be 

 made opposite the author's pages. At the latter 

 part of the book is an extensive glossary of popular, 

 local, and old-fashioned names of British birds, 

 with reference numbers to a list of scientific names as 

 accepted by a Committee of the British Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union in 1SS3. Last of all is a list of sport- 

 ing and other terms applied to wild-fowl. Some 

 of the less-known ones are curious, such as a 

 "desert of lapwings " for many ; "an exaltation of 

 larks," also for many; "a watch of nightingales" 

 for several; a " nide of pheasants " = a hatching; 

 or a " sedge of herons " = several. The book is full 

 of lore and interest for both ornithologists and 

 bird-lovers generally, and worth the price. 



