REVIEWS. 
413 
RICHARD TREVITHICK.* 
A SSUREDLY it must have been a labour of love on the part of the son, 
who has given us these two large volumes on the life of Richard 
Trevithick. If he expects to make money out of them, he must be vain 
indeed. Still we must hope that to those interested in the progress of 
mining, engines, and machinery they will have a certain value and im- 
portance. Truly the man whose life is here given must have been devoted 
to the pursuit he was engaged in, for he seems to have been during his 
whole life attached to the invention of machines for rendering mining more 
simple and expeditious; and numerous indeed appear to have been his 
inventions. We do not perceive that he possessed any of that great 
inventive power so common to Watt and Stephenson. Nor do we find in 
his life any of those occasions in which, as it were, a man is led back from 
his special calling to the more general concerns of mankind. This may be, 
however, from the fact that the present writer had not the materials at his 
command. Therefore the volumes, while they must have a particular 
interest for the engineer, are devoid of those incidents which render a book 
of the kind attractive to the reader of biography. It seems to us that the 
author had hardly the capacity for a biographer, and that he would have 
done better had he placed the task in other hands. Still, the book is not 
without interest to the practical engineer. 
SHORT NOTICES, 
Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1871. Edited by S. F. Baird. 
New York : Harper Brothers, 1872. This is the first attempt in America to 
publish a yearly record of the progress in different branches of science. It 
includes every branch, and does not, so far as we have seen, give to any one 
department greater space than another. It seems to be very fairly done ; 
but we must assure the editor, that unless he covers at least three times the 
space at present occupied, he cannot expect to produce anything like a tole- 
rably faithful record. We would urge on him also the propriety of con- 
siderably shortening some of the paragraphs, and of totally excluding others. 
It seems a good work, and we hope to see the succeeding volumes, on the 
plan we suggest. 
Magnetism and the Direction of the Compass. By John Merrifield, LL.D., 
F.R.A.S. London: Longmans, 1872. This i3 a little manual for the use 
of students in navigation and science schools, and it appears to be very well 
prepared. It deals both practically and scientifically with the several ques- 
tions arising out of the deviation of the compass, and is clearly a practical 
and useful volume. 
( Other notices are pressed out through want of space in this , the index No. 
of “ Popular Science Review .”) 
* Life of Richard Trevithick, with an Account of his Inventions. By 
Francis Trevithick, C.E. Wood engravings by W. J. Welch. 2 vols. 
London : E. & F. Spon, 1872. 
