September, 1912 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
XV 
AERIAL NavicaTIon. By Albert Francis 
Zahm, A. M., M. E., Ph.D. 485 pp.; 
illustrated. New York: D. Appleton & 
Co. 19k, 
It would not be too much to say that Dr. 
Zahm has given us the best popular book on 
the airship and the aeroplane. No less 
could be expected of a man who is prob- 
ably the foremost authority on aero-dyna- 
mics in this country. A work such as this 
is to be particularly welcomed at a time 
when the market is flooded with popular 
books on aerial navigation, written for the 
most part by men who know little of the 
subject, except what they have read in pop- 
ular magazines and newspapers, and who 
are trying to turn an honest penny by writ- 
ing books which are supposed to meet the 
popular demand for information. Our only 
regret is that Dr. Zahm’s book should not 
have appeared earlier. Dr. Zahm has 
treated his subject historically, but has care- 
fully excluded, as he tells us in his preface, 
those experiments which, however pictur- 
esque or clever, constituted no advance in 
the art or led to no useful result. The re- 
sult is a very compact presentation of what 
is really historically valuable. The book is 
divided into four parts; the first deals with 
the growth of aerostation, the second with 
the growth of aviation, the third with aero- 
nautical meteorology, and the fourth is com- 
posed of appendices. Though frankly in- 
tended for popular reading, Dr. Zahm’s book 
gives every evidence of scholarly research. 
Here will be found clearly laid down the 
actual contributions made in the develop- 
ment of the dirigible by Haenlein, Woel- 
fert, Santos-Dumont, Col. Renard, the Le- 
baudys and Zeppelin, and the part played 
by Henson, Ader, Stringfellow, Chanute, 
Langley, Lilienthal, Herrgin, Wright, Mont- 
gomery, Santos-Dumont, Farman, Curtiss, 
Blériot and the rest in the development of 
the aeroplane. Unlike most of the popular 
books of the day, Dr. Zahm’s contribution 
is strictly up to date, for it brings the de- 
velopment of the aeroplane and the airship 
down to the end of 1910. 
THE Seconp Boys’ Book or Mopet AERO- 
PLANES. By Francis A. Collins. New 
York: The Century Company, 1911. 
8vo.; 262 pp. Illustrated. Price, $1.20 
net. 
The length of flight of the model aero- 
plane is now ten times that of the earlier 
models, and much of this improvement is 
directly traceable to boy students and work- 
ers. In this delightful volume are pictured 
more than fifty different types, resembling 
all sorts of animate and inanimate objects 
from a mosquito to a rat-trap. Some of them 
show great ingenuity, and are capable of re- 
markable things. As to motive power, a 
flight of half a mile is possible by means of 
twisted strands of rubber, while with the 
miniature gasoline motor distances of a mile 
have been traversed in single flights. 
Instructions for making and flying the 
models accompany the plates; there are 
practical rules for conducting races and 
tests, and the draft of a constitution and 
by-laws for a model aeroplane club. A 
catechism on aeronautical problems and 
practice is given, with a glossary of aero- 
nautical terms. It is a book to warm the 
heart of the boy mechanically inclined. 
A Lute or Jape: SELECTIONS FROM THE 
CiassicaL Ports of CHINA. Translated 
by L. Cranmer-Byng. New York: E. P. 
Dutton & Co., 1911. Cloth; 16mo.; 116 
pages. Price, 60 cents net. 
A certain writer has said that to be a 
great lover is to be a great mystic, since in 
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