R. A. HOUSTOUN, Light and Colors, translated from the English, 2nd ed., revised and supplemented by Prof. N. T. Fedorov, GTTI, Moscow 1933, p. 148.

The book under review contains a popular survey of almost all known properties and applications of light. Along with an account of old and new views on the nature of radiation, one may also find in it descriptions of the principle of sound cinema or the optical telephone. The author’s great erudition has enabled him to avoid the excessive vulgarization into which it is easy to fall in a popular exposition. This is the book’s chief merit. On the other hand, the enormous quantity of material presented

The material makes the book “hard to grasp” for the unprepared reader. What stands out is the great unevenness in the presentation and distribution of the material. Thus, the quantum theory of light is mentioned in passing, apparently with the reader’s awareness in this field in mind, whereas the wave theory is set forth popularly and quite fully.

Let us point to some questions that are insufficiently treated in the book, or not touched upon at all. Disproportionately little attention is given to television (p. 56). It would have been appropriate to add, in the present edition, a fuller discussion of the principles of television. Outdated are the paragraphs in which the photoelectric effect and photoelements are mentioned (pp. 48–125). A false impression remains that photoelectronic technology is based chiefly on selenium photoelements. In the questions indicated, the obsolescence of the material is felt; this also applies to those branches of science and technology which have developed intensively in recent decades. In the chapter “Light of the Future” the efficiency figures given for thermal light sources are greatly exaggerated (p. 118). These figures, referring to the energy radiated in the region of the visible spectrum (0.4–0.8 micron), are not recalculated into luminous flux, apparently because the author did not wish to complicate the presentation or the reasoning by introducing spectral sensitivity of the eye. However, the fundamental limitation of the possibilities of using incandescent bodies for illumination becomes especially striking if one takes into account the true efficiency of radiation, which in the most advantageous case \((T \simeq 6000^\circ K)\) does not exceed 15%, and not 50%, as the author writes. Thus all the stated values of the efficiency of thermal light sources (incandescent lamps) are exaggerated.

Comparing this second edition with the first (GIZ, 1926), one may note an insufficient “modernization” of certain chapters of the book. Many inappropriate paragraphs have fortunately been omitted. This does not apply to p. 29, where in the first edition there was a quotation from Bruges, beautifully illustrating the character of the “polemics” between Bruges and Jung.

Chapter V stands out favorably in the book; in the present edition it has been substantially supplemented by Prof. N. T. Fedorov. This chapter is quite accessible and at the same time gives a very complete idea of the foundations of colorimetry.

The quality of the translation is generally satisfactory. We shall note only one example in which the translator, trying to keep close to the original, committed a gross methodological error, extremely undesirable in a popular book. On p. 36 the inexperienced reader may have a doubt: does the figure of 1610 km given here have some special significance? Yet this figure is only a conversion into the metric system of the measure 1000 miles, and in this case the whole meaning of the number is that it is “round.”

The disgraceful design of the book attracts attention: bad paper, worn type, misprints, indistinct and missing illustrations. On p. 62 we read: “Uranium has the highest atomic weight (?) number — 92”; on p. 119: “For a gas-discharge tube… it turned out that 0% (zero percent! V. P.) of all the radiated energy fell to the share of light,” etc., etc. In Fig. 41, not only at a distance of 2 m, but even with a magnifying glass, we could not discern the points promised in the text. Just as unsuccessful was the search for the color table mentioned on p. 7.

V. Pulver