Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-16
HARD. THINGS MADE EASY.
The Amusing Side of Modern Passion
For popular" Science.

Briefly described" writes Mr.. Dom
ville-F'ife, "a gyroscope is a rotating
wheel which automatically controls
the direction of the torpedo's flight.
True enough; and a torpedo, explained
briefly is a projectile the direction Of
whose flight is automatically controi-
ed by a gyroscope; While a gyroscope
1brieay explained) ...... The point IS.
of course. that explanations. tradition
ally, take up both time and space. and
it would be impossible to describe the
whole Of the universe Qn anything like
detail, that Isl under two or three vol
umes.
Let us regard Mr.. Domville-Fife's s
hook Submarine Engineering of Today
(Seeley, Service, 5s net as the first. 1t
is a popular account of the methods by
which sunken ships are raised, docks
built, rocks blasted away ........ and
many other such marvels wrought and
accomplished. The advantage is that it
Is quite clear and explanatory: an OBJ
yious advantage, indeed, to lasses and
lads who may have sunken ships to
raise docks to build or rocks to blast
away. and cannot pay for professional
advice without making inroadS on
their pocket money. Or ferro concrete
work to do, Ferro-concrete, it appears,
is to be one of the main subjects of
conversation this Christmas. You find
the Christmas authors running frantic
races TO be the most seasonabl exact
and Informative on the matter, Mr.
Gordon Knox tAll About Engineering.
Cassell. 6s.) treating it by and large,
all the way up from the making of
concrete to the skyscraper photograph;
Mr.. Archibald Williams Get Me Ex-
plain, Wells, Gardner, 6s.), with a trifle
less levity, drawing you diagrams-the
kind of diagram your friend the plumb
er flatt2rs you with, the pretty things
adorn~ with (a) and (b) and now and
then {a1l and (b1).
Among these three books and two
others, two. Mr.. Williams's and anoth-
er have an excellent quality in COM
mon; they are both, that is to say,
rnainly concerned to make a complete
| and detailed explanation of their case.
1t is the common fault of boys books
| on science and applied science that
they show evidence of some trembling
authors fear of being too technical"
-
Now Mr.. Williams has not only the
courage to call a spade an engine
driven rotary shovel when it seems
needed, but the audacity also to plump
down good solid formulate of the kind
that explain the thing to you quite
shortly, and do you all the good in the
world to puzzle out for yourself. To
puzzle out for yourself if you are more
than fiye-andtwenty, for the modern
lass Tor ladD of fourteen, armed with
at glance. And just so with Mr..
Hyatt Verrilfs CHarper's Aircraft Book
Harper and Brothers). If you are to be
Intelligent on the matter of aircraft
(and not merely a collector of auto
graphs) you must take the trouble to
so into the mechanics of moving bodies
in air, and to experiment, with gliders.
to verify your mechanics for yourself.
1t is delightful occupation, an occu-
patton for heroes; and Mr. VerrilPs
look is true elementary textbook of
the subject. The point about this sort
of thing is that you must either do it
properly or leave it alone Mr.. Charles
Gibson's book The Romance of Scien
tific Discovery (Seeley, Service, 5s.) J
may be all very jolly cit is as a matter
of fact on ones own authority,) but
it is, one must say, rather jollier than
it is explanatory.-Man Guardi-