A. L. Reimann, Thermionic Emission. Translated from the English and supplemented by B. M. Tsarev, edited by Prof. N. A. Kaptsov. 286 pp. 66 ill. State Publishing House of Technical-Theoretical Literature. Moscow—Leningrad, 1940. Price 9 rubles. Print run 3,000.

The book under review contains a detailed exposition of questions of the thermal emission of electrons and ions, recording the state of our knowledge of this subject as it stood approximately at the beginning of 1933. The achievements of 1934–1937 are presented by the translator of the book in the form of a concise supplement. Thus, on the whole the book contains comparatively new material.

Earlier articles and monographs devoted to thermionic emission (O. W. Richardson’s book of 1921; the article by Rothe, Schottky, and Simon in Handb. d. Physik, 1927; C. Deshman’s article of 1930, translated into Russian; de Boer’s book of 1934, also translated into Russian) either have peculiar biases in their exposition, or are brief and narrow, and are all already significantly out of date. Therefore the appearance of a new specialized monograph on this question and its translation into Russian should be welcomed.

The special value of the book under review consists in the fact that it is devoted, in its main part, to the exposition of all the details of the processes in technical high-activity cathodes, which play a fundamental role in almost all modern electrovacuum devices. Therefore the book is absolutely indispensable for workers in scientific-research and factory laboratories and institutes. But it will also be very useful for students studying electrovacuum devices.

The author of the book evidently sought to present, in a balanced way, both experimental and theoretical material on thermionic emission, and in this he succeeded to a considerable degree. The contents of the book are as follows:

Chapter I sets forth the history and physics of thermoelectronic phenomena, and all the phenomena observed in experiment are discussed in comparatively great detail from general theoretical points of view; the entire controversial side of the questions is also presented. This chapter briefly covers all the material of the book, serving as a kind of expanded introduction to it.

Chapter II considers the thermoelectronic emission of pure metals, and sets forth in detail and compares the results of investigations by different methods and by different researchers for a number of pure metals.

Chapters III and IV examine in detail the active cathodes most interesting and important for modern technical devices: W—Th, W—Cs, W—O—Cs, W—Ba, W—O—Ba, more complex thin-film cathodes and oxide cathodes, as well as the influence of various impurities on the operation of the cathode. This material is analyzed in detail and well illustrated.

Chapter V sets forth the modern general theory of thermoelectronic emission. The Sommerfeld–Nordheim theory of thermoelectronic emission, the general thermodynamic theory of thermoelectronic emission, and the passage of electrons through potential barriers are discussed here in considerable detail.

Chapter VI is devoted to a survey of the experimental side and the simplest theory of the emission of ions by heated metals and electrolytes.

Chapter VII was written by the translator and contains a brief survey of work on thermionic emission for 1935–1937.

Each of these chapters is accompanied at the end by a detailed list of literature on the questions touched upon in the given chapter.

Despite the good qualities of the book as a whole, one shortcoming may be noted in it, namely: the complete absence of descriptions of experimental methods of investigation; not a single diagram or drawing of the apparatus used is given. This, of course, makes the book accessible only to persons already having acquaintance with the questions treated in it.

It should further be noted that by the present time (the beginning of 1941) the material of the book already needs substantial additions, chiefly in the part concerning experimental results. Thus, for example, it does not

Bibliography

reflected are investigations very important for the theory of thermionic emission: studies of cathode surfaces by means of the electron microscope, the study of the emission of single crystals, and investigations of inhomogeneous and special highly active surfaces, which over the last five years have very considerably advanced our knowledge in the field of thermionic emission. Therefore, while noting the advisability of publishing the book under review, we believe that already now one ought to be thinking about bringing out, in the coming years, a new, fully up-to-date monograph on electron emission.

The translation has been done well. Certain minor roughnesses and misprints—for example, in formulas (19) and (32), the inconsistency between the title of Chapter VII concerning the supplementation of the literature with material from 1935 onward and the indication of the literature in the preface, etc.—are very few in number.

G. A. Tyagunov, Moscow