Handbook of Military Optics. Compiled by a collective of staff members of the State Order of Lenin Optical Institute, edited by Academician S. I. Vavilov and Prof. M. V. Savostyanova. 263 pp. State Publishing House of Technical-Theoretical Literature, Moscow—Leningrad, 1945. Price 11 rubles.

The contents of the book under review are considerably broader than its title. No more than 70 pages out of 263 are devoted to military optics in the narrow sense of the word. This is quite natural, since it is practically impossible to compile a handbook illuminating only “purely military-optical questions.” Such a handbook would turn into simply a catalog or a collection of instructions. The editors and authors quite rightly decided to devote their main attention to the general features of military optical instruments and to general questions of applied optics connected with the use of such instruments.

For this reason the handbook is of considerable interest not only to military specialists, but also to all those dealing with the application of optical instruments and optical methods. The form of presentation has also been well chosen. All the reference material is presented in the form of 48 articles, some of which are of relatively large scope. The articles are arranged alphabetically and cover rather broad topics. For example: testing and adjustment of optical instruments; optical glass, visibility, processing of optical parts, optical communication, etc.

At the end of the book there is an index containing more than 300 terms with references to the articles. In addition, a bibliography on optics is given. Individual articles have been written by major specialists in the corresponding fields of optics. For example, the article “Eye,” written by Hassovsky, is an excellent concise exposition of all the main characteristics of the optical properties of the human eye. Also substantial are Yakhontov’s articles on photo-optics, Gurevich and Gershun’s articles on lighting engineering, and Slyusarev’s article on instruments. The data on the coloration of natural objects in the article by Lupeiko and Savostyanova are interesting. The descriptions of the designs of the instruments are distinct, clear, and give a sufficiently complete idea of the basic principles of operation of optical apparatus. One might wish for some slight increase in the material on lighting engineering. For example, photometry, strictly speaking, is absent. There is only a table of photometric terms and units. In the article “Artificial Illumination” only sources of artificial illumination are described, and there are no data on methods of illumination. The careful external presentation of the book should be particularly noted. In particular, the illustrations are well executed and selected. Especially successful are the clear diagrams of complex instruments and sights. The only thing that caught the eye was a violation of perspective in Fig. 2 (p. 25).

The book has a very convenient format and a neat appearance. In general, as we have already indicated, the book is of interest to a wide circle of readers and is undoubtedly very useful.

V. Fabrikant