β Scribed by T.K. Cleveland
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
will bring one to the cemetery where lies a grave and stone bearing the name Joseph Priestly and the epitaph: "Return into thy rest, 0 my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. I will lay me down in peace and sleep till I wake in the morning of the resurrection."
T. K. CLEVELAND.
FARADAY. 113 pages, 8vo. London, The British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association. 1931.
Six years ago the British Society of Chemical Industry commemorated the centenary of Michael Faraday's discovery of benzene. This year the Royal Institution assisted by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, have planned a series of Faraday Centenary Celebrations in recognition of this great scientist's discovery of electro-magnetic induction. In this discovery lay the origin of the dynamo.
This book on the life and work of Michael Faraday has geen published by the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association and written by E. W. Ashcroft. Considerable pains have been taken in its printing and the person responsible for the typography deserves praise. The pages are uncut.
Michael Faraday, born September 22, I791 , was the son of a blacksmith. His earlier years fell within a period of hard times for the laboring classes, and at the age of nine the young Michael had learned the secret of making one loaf of bread last a week. Although circumstances would permit only the most meager of educations, consisting of not much more than the three "R's," for one of Michael Faraday's temperament and abilities his first job probably turned out to be the best possible substitute for college. At the age of thirteen he was apprenticed to a bookseller.
Most of us have heard how Faraday was given tickets for a series of lectures delivered by Sir Humphrey Davy at the Royal Institution; how he made careful and complete notes on these lectures and how these notes, submitted with his application, won for him the position of laboratory assistant under Davy at the Royal Institution.
So, at the age of twenty-two, Faraday's feet had been directed to paths of scientific adventure and his face turned toward the unexplored and shadowy vistas which lay in the realm of natural philosophy. An account of his experiences, experiments and discoveries in the years to follow comprises one of the most fascinating stories of scientific adventure ever written. Let us in retrospection accompany Faraday on his European trip which he took with Davy shortly after joining the Institution. In Paris, Davy is shown a new substance which gives off a deep violet vapor when heated. It is iodine, which Davy shows to be an element. In Genoa, they experiment upon electric fish to see whether they can decompose water when connected in a manner similar to voltaic battery. In Florence, at the Accademia del Cimento, they borrow the large "burning glass" and manage to burn diamond in a glass globe filled with oxygen. Back at home Faraday begins a long series of accomplishments first in chemistry and later in physics, his discoveries in which have had such far reaching influence inthe development of the Age of Electricity. He analyzes a specimen
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
The Central Electricity Board and the electrical industry generally, in England some years ago, recognized the value of research for the purpose of obtaining proved data and information in advance of undertakings of various kinds, thereby eliminating long chances and unproved assumptions by the engi