This author has managed to write a good elementary text on electrical circuit fundamentals without once mentioning electronics or vacuum tubes. At this time few electrical writers, even in the electrical power field, are able to refrain from referring to these popular subjects.
Covering a huge amount of territory with brief explanations of microscopic physical phenomena underlying macroscopic electrical effects, the volume assumes nothing about the student's general knowledge or background. All questions of units and the origin of dimensional quantities are carefully tabulated so that the student need have no vague feeling about the correspondence among these quantities.
In general, the treatment of circuits having linear parameters is the rule and only brief reference is made to nonlinear elements. However, the mathematical treatment of nonsinusoidal waves is covered in some detail owing to the fact that the emf wave from a commercial alternator is rarely exactly sinusoidal, even at no load, and the effect of armature reaction in distorting the flux distribution as the machine acquires load can result in a considerable distortion of the emf wave. Examples of rectangular and special wave forms are used to show how they may be studied by both analytical and graphical methods. The care with which the Fischer-Hinnem method is demonstrated deserves special mention. The transient behavior of circuits in which a circuit element or emf has been inserted or removed has been fully covered owing to the close relation of this subject to power system switching.
Since this is a text book for undergraduate instruction purposes, each chapter concludes with a set of problems. As many numerical examples are given showing the details of the solution. The author has rio fear of degrading his book by simplification. His teaching is graphical and one gets the impression that nothing has been spared so that clarity may be achieved. Nor has he any fear of presenting "old stuff" if it is something that should be mastered by the student.
The book should be an easy one from which to teach a course, for the many subjects discussed have been carefully sorted and compartmentalized into convenient teaching units. In one respect, such a large number of details are covered that the book bears some resemblance to an encyclopedia of elementary electricity and engineering principles.