Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/574

560 do in handling the instruments; the simplest and most reliable batteries, etc. That the book is a really practical one may be gathered from the following extract: "The poles for an ordinary line to carry from one to four wires should be of chestnut, cedar, or other durable wood, and should be reasonably straight, at least twenty-five feet long, and at least five inches in diameter at the top," etc. An appendix contains a chapter on the Gibboney long-distance telephone, and another on how to make the phonograph.

a writer of out-of-door books Mr. Torrey must be given high rank. His style is chatty, he goes into no long disquisitions, and in his descriptions of Nature he does not forget that the human animal is part and parcel thereof. His favorite subjects of observation are birds, and he tells us much about the ways of the herons, the pelicans, and the gannets, of the kingfishers, the grackles, and the buzzards, and many others of the feathered tribe. Occasionally he tells us about creatures of other kinds, or some striking flower, and his experiences with crackers and negroes are frequent enough to give quite a human flavor to the book. A curious bit of local language here and there adds still further to the variety of his observations. The value of the little volume is increased by a serviceable index.

of Nature can no longer be excused by the size and forbidding character of scientific books. An especially attractive series of little guides to various divisions of the world about us has begun to appear under the general title of The Library of Useful Stories, the first place in the series being given to the stars. Mr. Chambers is an experienced writer on astronomical subjects, and has a happy faculty for taking away the strangeness of unfamiliar things. He opens this little volume by telling of two legal cases which turned on the matter of standard time, and shows that in such matters, as well as in navigation, astronomy comes very close to everyday life. This, followed by a chapter on First Experiences of a Starlight Night, make an easy introduction to the subject. In speaking of the constellations and their history he improves the opportunity to bring in much curious lore. Of similar interest is the chapter on The Stars in Poetry, further along. Every one has wondered about the number of the stars, and Mr. Chambers does not neglect to tell us what attempts have been made to estimate them. Colored, moving, temporary, and variable stars are duly described; also stars arranged by twos, in groups, and in clusters. The nebulae and the Milky Way have due consideration, and finally we are told something of what has been learned by the spectroscope about the stars and nebula?.-A Table of the Constellations and a List of Celestial Objects for Small Telescopes are appended. Twenty-four maps in white on black illustrate the text.

over a year ago we pointed out the chief distinguishing features of this work in noticing its first volume. In the second volume the excellences of the first are well maintained. Among the special features falling in the latter half of the alphabet are colored plates showing national coats of arms, familiar flowering plants, signal flags, and typical colors, also plates showing typical heads of human races, and the seals of the United States, the several States, and the Territories. Several other terms have illustrations occupying a whole page. The color chart appears under "spectrum" and is accompanied by a table giving the percentages of primary colors to be combined for producing nearly five hundred shades. A list of varieties, subdivisions, or technical terms is given under many words, such as man, measure, officer, printing-press, science, soap, theology, watch,