Table of contents

We are all interested in physics. We are therefore all concerned with knowing exactly what we mean by the name. Nevertheless, I doubt whether a satisfactory definition of the subject exists, and the dictionaries usually play for safety by keeping to generalities.

A few months ago the first group of students taking a Diploma in Technology Applied Physics Course at the Birmingham College of Technology passed their final examinations and they will be awarded the their final examinations and were awarded the Diploma later in the year when they had completed their industrial training. Two other groups from Brunei and Northampton Colleges have now taken their finals and so a small number of young physicists trained in this new way and holding this new award are now working in industry. In view of this it seemed appropriate that the Bulletin should publish some account of the scheme and the progress so far made in its development.

By E. L. MascallLondon: Oxford University Press. Pp. vi + 118. Price 10s. 6d.

It was explicitly laid down in the deed governing the delivery of the Bampton lectures in the University of Oxford that the same person should never give the course more than once. Subsequent history has in fact decreed otherwise, since a kinswoman of the founder has made it possible for " Bamptons " to be held in the New World, namely in the University of Columbia.

By Gille, Pelegrin, and DeCaulneLondon : McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd. Price 128s. Pp. xx + 793.

New books on the theory and practice of automatic control systems are now published so frequently that it is difficult to be enthusiastic about any of them, and particularly so when they are as expensive as this one. But it is gratifying to be able to say that this is not just " another book on servo-systems " : it has several features which are both novel and useful and which distinguish it from most of the existing books.

By Albert SimonLondon : Pergamon Press. Pp. ix + 182. Price 35s.

The field of research into the possibility of producing controlled power from the nuclear reactions of light elements is comparatively new. While serious research began about 1950, security restrictions prevented the spread of knowledge until 1958, when the field was thrown open at the second Geneva Conference on Atomic Energy.

By K. W. CattermoleLondon: Heywood & Co. Ltd. Pp. xii + 442. Price 70s.

The author states that according to estimations some ten to twelve million transistors were in use in 1956 but that in fact this number of thermionic tubes was made each week. It would be interesting to know the present situation, but clearly thermionic valves are still with us and show no signs of being displaced completely, even perhaps in some fields where transistors have much to commend them.

By W. RiezlerMunich : R. Oldenbourg Verlag. Pp. viii + 382. Price DM 31.50.

This is a most unusual introduction to nuclear physics. One's first reaction to the almost complete absence of any discussion of nuclear forces is that this is Hamlet without the Prince, but riper reflection shows that there is a good deal of method in this particular madness.

By W. T. ScottLondon : Chapman & Hall Ltd. Pp. xvi + 635. Price 70s.

The serious teacher of electricity and magnetism concerns himself, sooner or later, with the logical development of his subject. When he reaches this stage he usually becomes dissatisfied with the development as he has known it previously.

By Nelson F. Beeler and Franklyn M. BranleyLondon : Faber & Faber Ltd. Pp. 134. Price 16s.

This book is obviously intended for a wide audience. The publishers' maintain that " Apart from the microscope, the necessary equipment is found in any home."

By W. D. Hayes and R. F. ProbsteinNew York and London: Academic Press Inc. Pp. xiv + 464. Price 92s.

The book is directed to students and research workers in the field of modern gas-dynamics and to hypersonic aerodynamicists. The authors divide the hypersonic features of a high speed flow into those of a " hydrodynamic " nature which arise because the Mach number of the flow is large and those of a physical or chemical nature which arise because the energy flow is large.

By Zdeněk KopalLondon : Chapman and Hall Ltd. Pp. xiv + 558. Price 105s.

At first sight this work, on the relationship between pairs of stars evolving in such close association as to be almost in contact, might appear so specialized as not to attract many general physicists. Two facts make us commend the book to the world of physicists against any such hasty shyness.

By A. LefrancoisParis : Revue d'optique. Pp. 128. Price 660 French francs.

This little book discusses in great detail and in an elementary manner the errors in measured quantities and the degree of accuracy of calculated quantities derived from them. The first chapter deals with systematic and accidental errors, refers to the error curve of Gauss, and comments usefully on the precision of measuring instruments.

By Theodore G. MehlinLondon : Chapman & Hall Ltd.; New York : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pp. viii + 392. Price 64s.

This is a very American book : it is written with the mixture of engaging innocence expected to appeal to a somewhat childlike public, together with ready handling of highly technical argument, the speculative character of which is not always obvious. The price is high, and Gamow is mentioned and Eddington not.

By O. R. Frisch, F. A. Paneth, F. Laves and P. RosbaudBraunschweig: Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn. Pp. 285. Price DM 29.50

Between November, 1958, and October, 1959, three of the foremost German physicists—Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn and Max von Laue—attained the age of eighty; this book forms a tribute paid to them by thirty eminent physicists from all parts of the world. It takes the form of a heterogeneous collection of essays varying in length from one page to thirty, in vein from the light and inconsequential to the weighty and deliberate, in content from the historical to the purely scientific.

Edited by G. R. NoakesLondon : Taylor and Francis Ltd. Pp. 80. Price per part 5s. Subscription price per volume of 6 parts 27s.

The subtitle of this new journal is " A Journal of Interpretation and Review " and if one is to judge a journal by its very first number, then it must be said that it comes down fairly heavily on the side of " Review." There are authoritative articles in a variety of branches of physics, all excellently written and all very clear for those with the necessary background.

Even among first-rate physicists C.T.R. was someone special, even unique. From the study of an apparently unimportant, if intriguing, oddity, he developed a technique, or more accurately a series of techniques, which have been and still are essential to the development of some of the most important branches of physics. C.T.R.'s observations of clouds on Ben Nevis in 1894 are worthy to be ranked with those of Galvani in the butcher's shop.

I am sure that I have already occupied far too much space in the Bulletin, and it is therefore with much trepidation that I dare to ask for still more—and that for the purpose of entering the lists against no less a personage than you yourself. I refer to your article on " A Parent's View of Education." Most of this I entirely agree with ; what I disagree with is your rather disparaging references to elementary practical physics.

I am disturbed about the General Paper published and commented upon in the September Bulletin (Vol. 10, No. 9). It appears that for some candidates (loc cit, p. 228) a pass is a necessary qualification for Graduateship of the Institute. Of what use in their jobs will be the knowledge they are expected, by this paper, to possess ?

Principal Contents Of The December, 1959, Issues