The Electric Arc

Abstract

THERE are few electrical phenomena which are of more interest than those exhibited by the electric arc, or which are more difficult to investigate. The complexity of the laws by which it is governed and the number of factors which can be varied independently make any research into its properties of a laborious character. Mrs. Ayrton is to be congratulated, not only on the painstaking investigations which she has carried out on the direct-current arc, but also on the remarkable success which has attended her work. Much of the book before us is already familiar as the result of papers published in the Electrician or communicated to scientific societies. But in one sense the book may be said to be entirely new, as it presents for the first time the results of Mrs. Ayrton's work in the form of a connected whole in which the interdependence of the various parts is made manifest.

The Electric Arc.

By Hertha Ayrton Pp. xxv + 479. (London: The Electrician Printing and Publishing Company, Ltd.) Price 12s. 6d.