Abstract
(1) THE first two volumes under notice, written by nearly twenty experts and forming a comprehensive survey of present-day knowledge of all applications of acoustics, show how acoustics has become largely a branch of electricity. In most experimental acoustical researches now, the pressure fluctuations of the sounds are first converted into electrical fluctuations by such devices as the microphone and the indispensable thermionic valve, and are then studied as purely electrical fluctuations. The general methods used are described in a 150-page section on methods of measurement which follows a theoretical section on the basic ideas used in technical acoustics. Greater detail is to be found in the sections on the microphone, telephone and loud speaker. The propagation of sound in free space covers such applications as echo-sounding. Propagation over longer distances is treated in the sections on broadcasting and longdistance telephony. Speech and hearing are treated in a section on medical acoustics. Musical instruments, broadcasting, sound recording and reproduction magnetically, by gramophone records and sound films, noise prevention and shock absorption all receive detailed treatment.
(1) Handbuch der Experimentalphysik.
W. Wien F. Harms. Unter Mitarbeit von H. Lenz. Band 17, Teil 2: Technische Akustik, Teil 1. Pp. xv + 538. 44 gold marks. Band 17, Teil 3: Technische Akustik, Teil 2. Herausgegeben von E. Waetzmann. Pp. xi + 434. 36 gold marks. (Leipzig: Akademische Verlags-gesellschaft m.b.H., 1933, 1934.)
(2) The Voice: its Production and Reproduction; a Treatise on Voice Training, Production and Reproduction.
By Douglas Stanley J. P. Maxfield. Pp. xii + 287. (New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation; London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., 1933.) 10s. 6d. net.
(3) Acoustique.
Prof. Adrien Foch. (Collection Armand Colin: Section de physique, No. 166.) Pp. 210. (Paris: Armand Colin, 1934.) 10.50 francs.
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[Short Notices]. Nature 135, 490 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135490a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135490a0