M. Ardenne, Amplifier Measurement Techniques, translated from the German by electrical engineer Kh. I. Lev, edited by Prof. N. N. Tsiklinsky, ONTI, 1933, 235 pp., price 3 rubles 75 kopecks.

Although the translation of this book by Ardenne, published in 1929, has appeared only now, it has not lost its significance, if only because in this field we do not have in Russian a single book in which the questions of amplifier measurement are presented with sufficient completeness.

The whole book is divided into three sections, of which the first sets forth instruments and installations for measuring gain, the second—the methods for measuring gain, and the third—sources of errors in gain measurements and their elimination.

The first section is divided into chapters, of which the first describes sources of weak alternating currents or voltages, the second—devices for regulating small currents and voltages, and the third—instruments for measuring these currents and voltages.

The second section deals with questions of determining the amplification coefficient, measurements at low and high frequencies, and in the intermediate range.

Finally, in the third section, along with a description of possible errors and methods for eliminating them, the question of shielding from electric and magnetic fields is presented.

As is clear from the contents of the book, the questions of measuring amplifiers are set forth in it with sufficient completeness.

The book is intended chiefly for practicing engineers, since insufficient attention is paid in the book to theoretical derivations, and in many cases final formulas are given without the corresponding derivation and merely with references to journal articles in which the question is developed in greater detail. Since the references are made exclusively to foreign journals, little accessible to a wide circle of readers, their value is thereby considerably weakened, and a deeper acquaintance with the question under consideration is thereby made difficult. Therefore, in the Russian edition, references to Russian literature would have been highly desirable, as well as additional explanations and derivations of the formulas presented in the text where such derivations are absent.

It would also have been desirable for the physical meaning of such concepts as the “shot effect” to be explained in greater detail.

In the book, as indicated in the editor’s preface, work of recent years has not found a place, and only questions of amplitude and phase distortions are touched upon in passing.

However, despite the shortcomings indicated above, the book contains much valuable and interesting material and can serve as a guide in the investigation of amplifiers.

V. I. Romanov