Bibliography

J. Millman and S. Seely, Electronics, 1941. McGraw Hill Co., N. Y.
(J. Millman and S. Seely, Electronics), p. 721.

Like most modern American books on electronics, the present book is an adaptation of a course of lectures delivered for students of electrical engineering.

The contents of this book are evident from its table of contents: I. Introduction (pp. 1—14), II. Motion of charged particles in electric and magnetic fields (pp. 15—62), III. Applications of the laws of motion of particles in applied fields (pp. 63—110), IV. Electrons in metals (pp. 111—142), V. Phenomena at the surface of metals (pp. 143—181), VI. Characteristics of thermionic cathodes (pp. 182—203), VII. High-vacuum diode (pp. 204—232), VIII. Kinetic theory of gases (pp. 233—260), IX. Elementary phenomena in gases (pp. 281—287), X. Electric discharge in gases (pp. 288—323), XI. Technical gas-discharge tubes (pp. 324—361), XII. Rectifiers (pp. 362—418), XIII. Controlled rectifiers (pp. 419—452), XIV. Filters for rectifiers (pp. 453—477), XV. Photoelectric and photoemissive phenomena (pp. 478—500), XVI. Characteristics of triodes (pp. 501—511), XVII. The triode as a circuit element (pp. 512—550), XVIII. Multielectrode tubes (pp. 551—572), XIX. Voltage amplifiers (pp. 573—624), XX. Power amplifiers (pp. 625—676). Appendices: Author and subject indexes. At the end of each chapter a certain number of problems is given, as well as references to the principal monographic and original literature.

Apart from the 8 chapters in which various technical applications of electronic devices are considered, the remaining 14 chapters are devoted to the exposition of questions of physical electronics. The questions treated here are presented, by their nature, in very different styles and may be divided into two categories.

The first category includes, chiefly, questions of vacuum electronics (Chs. II, III, IV, V, etc.), whose presentation must in general be regarded as very successful; the material is set forth clearly, quite up to date, and accompanied by the necessary derivations, figures, and so forth. One is pleasantly surprised in this book by the extensive use of potential diagrams of metal surfaces, for example in the discussion of work function, contact potential difference, etc.

The motion of electrons in electric and magnetic fields and its applications—for example, to the case of the cathode-ray oscilloscope, magnetron, and so forth—are considered in sufficient detail. The physics of metals and their surfaces, electron emission, etc., is presented well and in a modern manner. Nevertheless, even here, as in many similar cases, such large sections as, for example, modern electron optics, efficient cathodes, and the like have “suffered”; as a rule, their exposition clearly “does not fare well” in books of this kind.

Finally, it should be noted, as a very positive feature of this book, that it contains a very large number—348—of problems,

as well as a bibliographic index of monographic and original literature.

On the other hand, the second category should include the presentation of gas discharges and electronic devices, which leaves much to be desired. The treatment of these questions is, as a rule, very brief and superficial, and from reading these sections the reader will probably be left with a very unimportant residue, especially in comparison with the exposition of the first part. It is enough, for example, to say that all types of gas discharges are allotted only one chapter, X, of 35 pages, of which, for example, the arc is allotted only 4 pages; all elementary processes of the gas discharge are likewise allotted only one chapter, IX—27 pages, etc., and all this against the background of such a detailed exposition of vacuum electronics.

A similar impression of superficiality is left also by reading the chapters devoted to electron tubes and photoelements, the treatment of which for some reason proves to come after gas-discharge devices.

Thus, the authors have produced a book that leaves the reader with a dual impression—both a very good one and a very weak one. The positive features of this book noted above are undoubtedly very substantial, and taking them into account in the preparation of textbooks on electronics appears highly desirable.

N. D. Morgulis