Abstract
FROM the title and table of contents of this work, one would expect to find a treatise on experimental physics. This expectation is, however, rudely dispelled when one commences to examine the letterpress. After a very brief description of the form of gas voltameter which the author has devised (see NATURE, July 12, 1894), more than a hundred pages are devoted to what presumably the author considers an exhaustive examination of the different uses to which this voltameter may be put. The fact that his voltameter has a considerable resistance, causes the author considerable trouble, but he consoles himself with the reflection that a Cardew or other voltmeter generally has a resistance of from 100 to 900 ohms. The difficulties encountered in measuring a quantity of electricity by copper or silver deposition are dwelt upon, and a new objection is raised, namely, that since the deposits have to be weighed, variations in gravity will affect the results! At another part of the book the ordinary balance is considered deyoid of sufficient accuracy, since the arms have generally different lengths, and Nicholson's hydrometer is recommended as a substitute when great accuracy is desired. In a chapter on sound, the author strongly recommends bicycle-wheels as a motive power. Apparently the cycle-wheels are to set themselves in motion, since the idea of driving any piece of machinery “by hand” is derided, and the great waste which takes place when water and other motors are used, is dwelt upon as a reason for their abandonment. One has met with the library steps which can be converted into half a dozen other articles of furniture; but these old friends sink into complete insignificance when compared with this gas voltameter and the numerous uses claimed for it, such as blowing soap-bubbles full of oxygen and hydrogen, which on being exploded can be used as fog-horns; supplying oxygen to aëronauts, or to explorers in coal-pits after an explosion; and preparing chlorine. It can also, we are told, be used as a barometer, pyknometer, ice calorimeter, dylatometer, thermostat, hygrometer, anemometer, level, or for exhausting incandescent damp bulbs. The above are a few of the uses claimed, and are extracted from what the author describes as not an “exhaustive list”!
Standard Methods in Physics and Electricity Criticised, and a Test for Electric Meters Proposed.
By H. A. Naber. (Published by the Author, 1894.)
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W., W. Standard Methods in Physics and Electricity Criticised, and a Test for Electric Meters Proposed. Nature 51, 318 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051318b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051318b0