N. A. Smolkov. Radio Waves and Magnetism. Moscow University Press. Moscow, 1950, 67 pp., price 4 rubles.

N. A. Smolkov’s book Radio Waves and Magnetism briefly recounts the history of the Electromagnetism Laboratory of Moscow State University in connection with its 30-year activity. The Electromagnetism Laboratory is well known to Russian and foreign physicists; however, its individual outstanding achievements are known to the broader public only in the main. Therefore the appearance of a book that presents, in an accessible form, the totality of the laboratory’s work should be recognized as useful and timely.

The author correctly connects the activity of the founder and head of the Electromagnetism Laboratory, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR V. K. Arkad’ev, with the work of his predecessors—physicists who worked at Moscow University and, in particular, with the physical school of Prof. P. N. Lebedev, of whom V. K. Arkad’ev is a pupil.

Having briefly described the prerevolutionary scientific works of Prof. V. K. Arkad’ev that determined the direction of his further activity, the author sets forth how the Electromagnetism Laboratory was created and worked; within some 3–4 years (1919–1922) its number of staff members grew from three to twenty-three.

Then follows a brief account of the laboratory’s main achievements, beginning with the fundamental research of V. K. Arkad’ev, de-

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for the first time, a theory of the electromagnetic field in a ferromagnetic metal. Since the conclusions of Maxwell’s classical theory sometimes contradicted experimental facts, V. K. Arkad’ev, on the basis of his experiments, entered into the struggle with the traditions established in electromagnetic theory and, contrary to Heaviside’s assertions, introduced into science the concept of magnetic conductivity. Thus arose Arkad’ev’s equations, which are supplemented and generalized Maxwell equations.

Another group of works carried out by the staff of the Laboratory of Electromagnetism was devoted to the processes of magnetization of iron in aperiodic and periodic magnetic fields. In these investigations the retarding action of eddy currents was studied, and the discrepancy of Rayleigh’s formulas relating to demagnetization with experimental data was also established. This group of works is used today by electrical engineers in calculations of the resistances of iron conductors under alternating currents.

The third extensive field of research of the Laboratory was connected with the theory of magnetic absorption spectra in iron over a wide range of frequencies, corresponding approximately to wavelengths from 1 to 10,000 cm.

Among other discoveries made in the Laboratory of Electromagnetism, the creation by A. A. Glagoleva-Arkad’eva of a mass radiator stands out; its description has now entered all textbooks. In this way the “white spot” between long electromagnetic waves and light waves was filled. A. A. Glagoleva-Arkad’eva’s method is used by scientists up to the present time.

No less curious are the phenomena described further: the magnetization of steel parts during their dissolution in acids and the invention of the echo-box, which makes it possible to observe the reverberation of the shortest radio waves inside metallic cavities. This method makes it possible to measure the reflecting power of metals and the absorbing power of gases.

Further, the book describes stictography, discovered by V. K. Arkad’ev in the 1930s—a method of recording short electromagnetic waves on sensitive electrochemical plates with the use of coherers.

This method makes it possible to transilluminate objects opaque to electromagnetic waves and to light. In parallel with the development of this method, the possibility was discovered of transilluminating dielectrics by means of screens glowing under the action of centimeter waves.

The survey of the achievements of the Laboratory of Electromagnetism ends with a description of the phenomenon, discovered by V. K. Arkad’ev in 1944, of the hovering of a magnet above superconducting lead. This experiment, as effective as it is instructive, still cannot be widely demonstrated, since it requires the presence of difficult-to-obtain liquid helium.

Certain valuable works carried out in the Laboratory of Electromagnetism are covered very briefly in N. A. Smol’kov’s book. These are the works of B. A. Vvedenskii, K. F. Teodorchik, N. S. Akulov, V. S. Volkov, V. I. Gal’tsova, A. A. Leont’eva, and others.

These investigations belong to the first period of the activity of the Laboratory of Electromagnetism, which is reflected in the book less vividly than, for example, the 1940s. Meanwhile, had the author wished, he could have shown the reader the first decade of the laboratory’s life as clearly as the last decade. This would only have benefited the section “The Training of Personnel.”

Of special interest are the facts cited in the book that reveal attempts by foreign researchers to appropriate discoveries made in the Laboratory of Electromagnetism. In 1921 the German Hans and the Argentine Loyarte published articles from which it followed that,

that all discoveries made up to that time by V. K. Arkad’ev in the field of electromagnetism supposedly belonged to him.

As a result of the exposure of Gans’s scientific bad faith, the latter was forced, to his own disgrace, to confirm in print the priority of V. K. Arkad’ev. Still more scandalous was the clarification of the fact that a doctoral dissertation by Lorentz had been copied from works published by V. K. Arkad’ev. On the question of the dependence of magnetic permeability on frequency, V. K. Arkad’ev carried on a lengthy polemic with physicists of the University of Jena, forcing them to acknowledge the correctness of his theory. A characteristic example of the suppression of the work of the Laboratory of Electromagnetism is the conduct of the well-known German physicist R. Becker, who first published works based on V. K. Arkad’ev’s theory without references to the latter, and then elevated to the rank of “achievements of Finnish science” an article by Prof. Lindman, who in 1938 repeated experiments made in 1912 by V. K. Arkad’ev.

This list of the main questions treated in N. A. Smolkov’s book makes it possible to conclude that its content is of interest not only to specialists in the field of electromagnetism, but also to broad circles of readers interested in the history of Soviet physics.

One cannot fail to mention certain shortcomings of the book. In places the author uses incorrect terminology (“cathode lamps,” “voltaic arc,” on p. 41). The end of p. 47, beginning with the unintelligible phrase “... the Earth, the Sun, and the stars possess a magnetic field, being gigantic magnets,” is poorly expressed and has little connection with the figure on p. 48.

The figure depicting the strobograms of the Hertz vibrator and the rays emerging from the projector is incomprehensible and insufficiently explained in the text. These shortcomings are all the more conspicuous because, on the whole, the book is well produced.

N. A. Nikitin