Students, scientists, engineers and others whose work covers a broad technical field know the value of a good dictionary, especially from three standpoints. The coverage must be adequate; the arrangement must be so that the sought for information can be found in a minimum of time and with a minimum of effort; the definitions must be clear and complete. Perhaps at no time more than the present has such a book been so useful.
The author of th'is book has attempted to supply a wide and representative selection of officially approved, standard definitions promulgated by various United States engineering, technical, trade and industrial organizations, as well as by Government agencies. The principle observed with regard to subject coverage is stated to be that the number of terms included for any single subject was determined on the basis of whether that subject is fundamental in all fields and whether it has current importance in the world of technology. Broad coverage is also given to fields of current importance in the war effort and priority is accorded those terms likely to be encountered in the general curricula of technical and vocational schools.
The order of presentation is strictly alphabetical and cross references are used to show relations of word families to each other. In the case of words with like spelling but with different meanings in different fields, the field is indicated in each instance. The number of these is surprising. The definitions are accurate, concise and understandable. There are some ninety illustrations. An appendix contains a list of American standard abbreviations for scientific and engineering terms, units of weight and measure, temPerature interconversion tables, table of chemical elements, and geometrical shop data.