Bibliography

Optics in Military Affairs. A collection of articles edited by Academician S. I. Vavilov and Prof. M. V. Sevastyanova. Third edition, revised and enlarged, in two volumes. Vol. I. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow—Leningrad, 1945. 392 pp. Price (bound) 37 rubles.

In 1933 a group of staff members of the State Optical Institute issued, in honor of the fifteenth anniversary of the Red Army, a small book under the title given above. As early as 1934 this book was reissued in a revised and substantially enlarged form. The third edition, the first volume of which appeared at the end of 1945, is an entirely new book. Not only the size has changed, but also the plan and the authorship (at least insofar as the first volume is concerned). In the second enlarged edition the whole book had 424 pages of ordinary book format. General questions of practical optics were allotted 104 pages. The first volume of the new edition, comprising 392 pages of large format, is devoted entirely to general questions. The second volume will be wholly occupied with a description of various military optical instruments (telescopes, periscopes, artillery angle-measuring instruments, etc.).

Although the chief purpose of the first volume remains the same—to serve as a manual for the command staff of the Red Army, for teachers and students of military academies and schools, and for engineering and technical workers in the military industry, especially the optico-mechanical industry (from the preface)—in reality the book is of great interest to a far wider circle of readers. Owing to its exceptional richness of content, the first volume under review is a genuine encyclopedia of applied optics; consequently the book will be used by practically everyone engaged in, or simply interested in, physics.

In a brief review it is difficult to give an exhaustive characterization of the contents of the book. It contains five sections. In the first (M. A. Elyashevich and D. S. Volosov) brief information is given from geometrical and physical optics (89 pp.), including the measurement of radiant energy and photometry. The second section—“Some Optical Materials, Methods, and Instruments”—contains chapters devoted to optical glass (K. S. Evstrop'ev and A. I. Stozharov), light filters (L. A. Venkman), photographic materials (V. V. Balakov), and luminescent materials (P. P. Feofilov and A. N. Sevchenko). To characterize it, we shall cite the titles of several paragraphs of the chapter “Optical Glass”: § 2. The principal stages in the production of optical glass and its processing; § 6. Colored glass; § 8. Optical bleaching; § 9. Manufacture of gratings; § 11. Silvering and aluminizing.

The third section is entitled “The Eye in War” (pp. 177–297). It contains the chapters: Basic information on the functioning of the eye (L. M. Gassovsky), Lighting conditions at night and vision in darkness (V. I. Kolyakin), Range of visibility and transparency of the atmosphere (N. E. Rytin), Light camouflage (A. A. Gershun), Principles of military optical camouflage and decamouflage.

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(M. M. Gurevich and E. K. Pushcheiko). The entire section contains a great deal of material of interest from both the scientific and the practical points of view.

The fourth section—photography in military affairs (pp. 297–364)—contains chapters: Photographic Objectives (K. S. Andronnikov and A. L. Kuritskii), The Photographic Process (G. P. Faerman).

The fifth section (pp. 364–380) is devoted to optical signaling: Optical Telephony (V. V. Balakov), Optical Interlocks (N. E. Rytin).

The book is supplied with an index of the literature (chiefly in Russian). The book’s appearance—the paper, illustrations, printing, binding—is very attractive. On the whole, it is an excellent book. Its publication is a great credit to the editors, the group of authors, and the publishing house (it should be noted that the book was issued on behalf of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the State Optical Institute).

E. Shpolsky.