BOOK NOTES
PLASTICS ENGINEERING HANDBOOK, issued
by The Society of the Plastics Industry,
Inc. Second edition, 813 pages, diagrams,
illustrations, 16 X 24 cm. New York,
Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1954. Price,
$15.00.
This is a completely revised and greatly
expanded version of the 1947 SPI Hand-
book. Nearly twice the size of the original
handbook, this present volume contains com-
pletely new chapters-for example, Tooling
with Plastics-as wel1 as new information
on material from the first edition. New in
the present edition is the fold-out chart on
adhesives in the chapter on Cementing and
Assembly. The chart was compiled from
data received from adhesives producers al1
over the country and is the most complete
tabulation of its kind available. Anyone
connected with the vast plastics industry wil1
find this Handboek of inestimable value.
STEAM, AIR, AND GAS POWER, by William
H. Severns, Howard E. Degler and John
C. Miles. Fifth edition, 502 pages, dia-
grams, illustrations, 15 X 22 cm. New
York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1954.
Price, $6.50.
Any book which runs into five editions
has proved its worth. This new edition of
a standard work on heat-power engineering
covers essentially the same subjects as the
prior editions-the construction, application
and performance of modern steam, air and
gas power plant equipment. New material
includes a chapter on mechanica1 refrigera-
tion, and the expansion of the sections on
gas turbines, air compressors, and the com-
bustion of oils and gases. New illustrations
add to the usefulness of the book, and new,
graded problems wil1 aid both student and
teacher. The present edition is completely
up-to-date.
FARM BUILDINGS, by Deane G. Carter.
Fourth edition, 291 pages, diagrams, illus-
trations, 16 X 24 cm. New York, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1954. Price, $5.50.
The fourth edition of this well-known
book has been drastically revised. Instead
of grving detailed specifications (which are
quickly outdated), the author attempts to
guide the reader in solving his particular
farm building problems through analysis
with more genera1 ones. Professor Carter
covers farm buildings from the standpoints
of building objectives, planning resources,
functional aspects and environment. The
discussion oq production-management has
been greatly expanded, and 90 per cent of
the illustrations are new.
PRINCIPLESOF ENGINEERINGTHERMODYNAM-
ICS, by Paul J. Kiefer, Gilbert F. Kinney
and Milton C. Stuart. Second edition, 539
pages, diagrams, charts, 16 X 24 cm. New
York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1954.
Price, $7.75.
In 1930, the first edition of this standard
text appeared. It has been used by a large
number of teachers, whose recommendations
for improvement have been incorporated into
this second edition. The new material has
been tested in mimeograph form in actual
classes for reveral years at the U. S. Naval
Postgraduate School, with good results.
Emphasis continues to be on the principles
of engineering thermodynamics. This new
edition covers the thermodynamic basis of
fluid mechanics and aerodynamics, unifying
the mechanica], chemical and aerodynamic
applications in an up-to-date way. The
chemical background of the junior author,
Gilbert Kinney, adds to the usefulness of
this edition.
ELEMENTARY CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, by
Max S. Peters. 322 pages, illustrations,
16 X 24 cm. New York, McGraw-Hill
Book Co., Inc., 1954. Price, $6.00.
Aimed primarily at non-specialists with
no previous training in the field, this text is
intended to provide a genera1 understanding
of the practica1 science of chemical engineer-
ing. The text may also be used as an intro-
ductory course for chemical engineering
majors. The essential purpose is to present
a unified picture, with emphasis on the de-
velopment, applications and interrelation-
ships of the basic principles. A knowledge
of calculus would be useful to the student,
although in the sections where calculus is
533
 used, simplified derivations are given for
the benefit of those who are not familiar
with the calculus.
TEN FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE ELECTRICAL
SCIENCE, by Bern Dibner. 48 pages, por-
traits, illustrations, 21 X 27 cm. Norwalk
(Conn.), Burndy Library, 1954. NO price.
This elegantly printed compilation of bi-
ographies has been prepared to show the
history of the development of the science of
electricity. The ten fathers discussed are
William Gilbert, Otto von Guericke, Ben-
jamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta, Andre
Marie Ampere, Georg Simon Ohm, Kar1
Friedrich Gauss, Michael Faraday, Joseph
Henry and James Clerk Maxwell. A por-
trait of each man precedes an excellently
written account of his contributions to elec-
tricity. Also, reproductions of the various
instruments associated with each man give
the reader a graphic idea of the simplicity
of the experimental apparatus available to
these men. The booklet has been presented
to our Library by the author, and it is rec-
ommended reading for al1 who are interested
in electricity, whether they be students or
practicing electrical engineers.
STROBE-THE LIVELY LIGHT, by Howard
Luray. Second edition, 144 pages, illus-
trations, 16 X 24 cm. San Francisco,
Camera Craft Publishing Co., 1954. Price,
$4.00.
Stvobe is a manual on the use of the elec-
tronie flash for photography. The wide ex-
perience of the author as a photographer
has permitted him to incorporate into this
smal1 volume al1 the salient information nec-
essary to use successfully the electronic
flash. He covers al1 the facets of this work
and gives details which generally result from
experience.
The editors wish to cal1 to the attention
of our readers the following books, published
in 1954 by Dover Publications, New York.
Only titles and prices are listed, since the
works, al1 reprinted, are wel1 known to
those in the field. Dover Publications is
performing a real service, especially
, . to sci-
ence students, through the republication of
standard works in reasonably-priced editions.
THE GEOMETRYOF REN DESCARTES. Trans-
lated from the French and Latin by David
Eugene Smith and Marcia L. Latham,
with a facsimile of the first edition, 1637.
244 pages, 14 X 21 cm. Price : $2.95
(cloth) ; $1.50 (paper).
SELECTEDPAPERS ON NOISE & STOCHASTIC
PROCESSES, edited by Nelson Wax. 337
pages, 16 X 24 cm. Price : $3.95 (cloth) ;
$2.00 (paper). Collection of six papers
by J. L. Doob, S. 0. Rite, M. Kac, S.
Chandrasekar, G. E. Uhlenbeck and L. S.
Ornstein.
ELEMENTS OF NUMBER THEORY, by 1. M.
Vinogradov. Translated from the Fifth
Revised Edition by Saul Kravetz. 227
pages, 14 X 21 cm. Price: $3.00 (cloth) ;
$1.75 (paper).
THE DESIGN AND USE OF INSTRUMENTSAND
ACCURATEMECHANISM, by T. N. White-
head. 283 pages, 14 X 21 cm. Price:
$3.50 (cloth) ; $1.95 (paper).
THE PSYCHOLOGYOF INVENTION IN THE
MATHEMATICALFIELD, by Jacques Hada-
mard. 145 pages, 14 X 21 cm. Price:
$2.50 (cloth) ; $1.25 (paper).
GWX;RAPHICALESSAYS, by W. M. Davis.
777 pages, 15 X 22 cm. Unabridged re-
issue of a 45-year old classic, with an in-
troductory note by Douglas Wilson John-
son. Price, $5.50 (cloth).
A TREATISE ON ELECTRICITYAND MAGNET-
ISM, by James Clerk Maxwell. An un-
abridged republication of the last, Third
Revised edition. Vols. 1 and 11 bound
as one. 1082 pages, plates, 15 X 21 cm.
Limited edition. Price, $4.95.
ON THE SENSATIONSOF TONE, by Hermann
Helmholtz. Unabridged edition with a
new introduction by Henry Margenau.
576 pages, 16 x 24 cm, ?rice, $4.95
(cloth).,