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The rise of modern physics, a popular sketch
902
BOOK R E v I E w s .
[J. F. I.
precludes the discussion of more t h a n representative researches of which a sufficiently comprehensive account is given to enable the reader to follow its further development. No review is made of the subject-matter of the numerous texts on magnetism as usually presented and the general phenomena of ferromagnetism receive only brief reference. After an introductory chapter which is a model of concise thoroughness, an account is given of the classical electromagnetic theory and the earlier methods and results. The interpretation of magnetism as an atomic phenomenon is then developed, followed by an analytic review of the q u a n t u m theory and a survey of experimental results made during the period of evolution of the q u a n t u m theory. Among the topics of the ten succeeding chapters may be mentioned: Q u a n t u m and Weiss magneton number; Magnetic deviation of atomic rays; The Zeeman effect and other magneto-optical effects; Diamagnetism; Magnetism and the structure of the atom. Under these headings and others, the author makes a fully detailed presentation of the most recent investigations, many of which have been available only in original papers. For the benefit of the reader, who should possess a considerable degree of mathematical proficiency, the author has described quite fully the coordinate and vector methods of procedure which are employed throughout the book. The work constitutes a well-balanced and thoroughly documented account of recent progress in the study of atomic magnetism. L.E.P. THE RISE OF MODERN PHYSICS, A POPULAR SKETCH. By Henry Crew, Ph.D., Fayerweather Professor of Physics in Northwestern University. xv-356 pages, 18 x 13 cm., cloth. Baltimore, The Williams and Wilkins Company, I928. Price, $5. Treatises on physics are concerned with the science as it is and dwell only briefly upon historical facts. T h a t the lessons of the past are of value is generally admitted, and how much of one's time should be taken from the major task of dealing with the new and important matters of immediate interest to acquire a just perspective of the subject by some attention to the past is a problem which this volume aids materially in solving. The burden of the student of science is a heavy one but the informal and fluent character as well as the scholarly method of this narrative which will impress the reader with its quality will go far to lighten the additional task and prove rather a diversion of compelling interest. Beginning with the pre-Greek period when the contributions to physical science were mainly of a utilitarian character which received no formulation t h a t in any way resembled a physical law, Dr. Crew depicts the influence of t h a t immortal group of scholars of the Alexandrian period, Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes, Hipparchus and Claudius Ptolemy, as well as other notable figures in Greek and Roman science. It is in this period, we learn, t h a t while geometry and trigonometry bore a close resemblance to processes in use to-day the first electric current was two thousand years in the future. After noting the contributions of the Arabs, an outline of medieval science follows in which are included the enduring names of Roger Bacon, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler. T h e n comes the birth of modern physics with Galileo, Huygens and Newton which are more or less familiar to a student of physics. Their work and t h a t of
June, 1928.]
BOOK REVIEWS.
903
others like d'Alembert, Snell, Young and Fresnel is recorded in its proper relationship and with reference to the circumstances and influence of the times in which they lived. The rest is more commonplace in its modernity and the famous names concerned with that period are many-fold in number that of previous periods but the narrative continues with undiminished zest. The early work of the pioneers in electricity and magnetism is recorded, the laws of Coulomb, Gauss and Weber. This is followed by heat, thermometry, electromagnetism, and finally the great strides which have been made in the atomic theory and its relation to electricity, magnetism and the extraordinary developments of spectroscopic investigation. Twenty-four portraits of celebrated physicists contribute a desirable touch of human interest. A brief but representative bibliography and numerous references with the text will prove helpful to the serious reader. The work is of especial value in a school course in that it represents, as the author expresses it, an irreducible minimum for a just perspective of the past in physical science. The readable style in which it is written will prove equally attractive to the general reader. LUClEN E. PICOLET.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 7'he Disposal of Sewage. A text-book for the use of engineers, sanitary inspectors and students by T. H. P. Veal, B.Sc. 173 pages, illustrations, folded plates, I2mo, New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, I928, price $4.25. The A.C. Commutator Motor, by C. W. Olliver, B.Sc. 281 pages, illustrations, 8vo. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, I927, price $7.5o. Piles et Accumulateurs Electriques, par Lucien Jumau, Collection Armand Colin. 194 pages, illustrations, I6mo. Paris, Librairie Armand Colin, I928, price, in paper, 9 francs. Matter, Electricity, Energy. The principles of modern atomistics and experimental results of atomic investigation by Walter Gerlach. Translated from the second German edition by Francis J. Fuchs, Ph.D. 427 pages, illustrations, 8vo. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1928, price $6.oo. Probability and its Engineering Uses, by Thornton C. Fry, Ph.D. 476 pages, illustrations, 8vo. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1928, price $7.5o. Electric Winders. A manual on the design, construction, application and operation of winding engines and mine hoists by H. H. Broughton. 4o2 pages, illustrations, folded plates, quarto. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1928, price $15.oo. Elements of Optics, by Joseph Valasek, Ph.D. 215 pages, illustrations, 12mo. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1928 , price 82.oo. Principles of Mechanism, by F. Dyson, B.Sc. 296 pages, illustrations, 8vo. Lon,lon and New York, Oxford University Press, 1928 , price $4.25. Physics for College Students. An introduction to the study of the physical sciences by A. A. Knowlton, Ph.D. 641 pages, illustrations, plate, 8vo. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1928, price $3.75.
BOOK R E v I E w s .
[J. F. I.
precludes the discussion of more t h a n representative researches of which a sufficiently comprehensive account is given to enable the reader to follow its further development. No review is made of the subject-matter of the numerous texts on magnetism as usually presented and the general phenomena of ferromagnetism receive only brief reference. After an introductory chapter which is a model of concise thoroughness, an account is given of the classical electromagnetic theory and the earlier methods and results. The interpretation of magnetism as an atomic phenomenon is then developed, followed by an analytic review of the q u a n t u m theory and a survey of experimental results made during the period of evolution of the q u a n t u m theory. Among the topics of the ten succeeding chapters may be mentioned: Q u a n t u m and Weiss magneton number; Magnetic deviation of atomic rays; The Zeeman effect and other magneto-optical effects; Diamagnetism; Magnetism and the structure of the atom. Under these headings and others, the author makes a fully detailed presentation of the most recent investigations, many of which have been available only in original papers. For the benefit of the reader, who should possess a considerable degree of mathematical proficiency, the author has described quite fully the coordinate and vector methods of procedure which are employed throughout the book. The work constitutes a well-balanced and thoroughly documented account of recent progress in the study of atomic magnetism. L.E.P. THE RISE OF MODERN PHYSICS, A POPULAR SKETCH. By Henry Crew, Ph.D., Fayerweather Professor of Physics in Northwestern University. xv-356 pages, 18 x 13 cm., cloth. Baltimore, The Williams and Wilkins Company, I928. Price, $5. Treatises on physics are concerned with the science as it is and dwell only briefly upon historical facts. T h a t the lessons of the past are of value is generally admitted, and how much of one's time should be taken from the major task of dealing with the new and important matters of immediate interest to acquire a just perspective of the subject by some attention to the past is a problem which this volume aids materially in solving. The burden of the student of science is a heavy one but the informal and fluent character as well as the scholarly method of this narrative which will impress the reader with its quality will go far to lighten the additional task and prove rather a diversion of compelling interest. Beginning with the pre-Greek period when the contributions to physical science were mainly of a utilitarian character which received no formulation t h a t in any way resembled a physical law, Dr. Crew depicts the influence of t h a t immortal group of scholars of the Alexandrian period, Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes, Hipparchus and Claudius Ptolemy, as well as other notable figures in Greek and Roman science. It is in this period, we learn, t h a t while geometry and trigonometry bore a close resemblance to processes in use to-day the first electric current was two thousand years in the future. After noting the contributions of the Arabs, an outline of medieval science follows in which are included the enduring names of Roger Bacon, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler. T h e n comes the birth of modern physics with Galileo, Huygens and Newton which are more or less familiar to a student of physics. Their work and t h a t of
June, 1928.]
BOOK REVIEWS.
903
others like d'Alembert, Snell, Young and Fresnel is recorded in its proper relationship and with reference to the circumstances and influence of the times in which they lived. The rest is more commonplace in its modernity and the famous names concerned with that period are many-fold in number that of previous periods but the narrative continues with undiminished zest. The early work of the pioneers in electricity and magnetism is recorded, the laws of Coulomb, Gauss and Weber. This is followed by heat, thermometry, electromagnetism, and finally the great strides which have been made in the atomic theory and its relation to electricity, magnetism and the extraordinary developments of spectroscopic investigation. Twenty-four portraits of celebrated physicists contribute a desirable touch of human interest. A brief but representative bibliography and numerous references with the text will prove helpful to the serious reader. The work is of especial value in a school course in that it represents, as the author expresses it, an irreducible minimum for a just perspective of the past in physical science. The readable style in which it is written will prove equally attractive to the general reader. LUClEN E. PICOLET.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. 7'he Disposal of Sewage. A text-book for the use of engineers, sanitary inspectors and students by T. H. P. Veal, B.Sc. 173 pages, illustrations, folded plates, I2mo, New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, I928, price $4.25. The A.C. Commutator Motor, by C. W. Olliver, B.Sc. 281 pages, illustrations, 8vo. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, I927, price $7.5o. Piles et Accumulateurs Electriques, par Lucien Jumau, Collection Armand Colin. 194 pages, illustrations, I6mo. Paris, Librairie Armand Colin, I928, price, in paper, 9 francs. Matter, Electricity, Energy. The principles of modern atomistics and experimental results of atomic investigation by Walter Gerlach. Translated from the second German edition by Francis J. Fuchs, Ph.D. 427 pages, illustrations, 8vo. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1928, price $6.oo. Probability and its Engineering Uses, by Thornton C. Fry, Ph.D. 476 pages, illustrations, 8vo. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1928, price $7.5o. Electric Winders. A manual on the design, construction, application and operation of winding engines and mine hoists by H. H. Broughton. 4o2 pages, illustrations, folded plates, quarto. New York, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1928, price $15.oo. Elements of Optics, by Joseph Valasek, Ph.D. 215 pages, illustrations, 12mo. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1928 , price 82.oo. Principles of Mechanism, by F. Dyson, B.Sc. 296 pages, illustrations, 8vo. Lon,lon and New York, Oxford University Press, 1928 , price $4.25. Physics for College Students. An introduction to the study of the physical sciences by A. A. Knowlton, Ph.D. 641 pages, illustrations, plate, 8vo. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1928, price $3.75.