Abstract
WE have read this little book with great pleasure. Its object, the author tells us, is to teach a few of the simpler facts in acoustics in such a way that the learner shall not be deterred by unnecessary difficulties, either in the use of technical language or in having to provide expensive apparatus. Most successfully has the author attained the end he had in view. It is just what a child's book on science should be. Written in a simple attractive manner, without any silly childishness, it conveys a great deal of information, and that in the best kind of way. For, the learner, by a series of simple experiments, is made to lay firmly the groundwork of his knowledge on this sub ject. All the apparatus the author requires is a toy fiddle, one or two small tuning-forks, a couple of finger-glasses, a clamp, a square and a round piece of glass, a gimlet, a tall jar, silk thread, and some solitaire balls. With such homely instruments really good elementary teaching is given. The chapter on strings made to vibrate in time with tuning-forks is capitally done, and will give the learner more knowledge than he could gain from many a pretentious text-book. We should like to suggest to the author a few additions to his simple experiments, but in the limits of this notice we cannot do more than direct his attention to the Instructions in practical physics given to the science teachers at South Kensington, and printed for their use by the Science and Art Department. There is of course nothing new in the way of experimental illustration in these chapters on sound; it is the good use the author has made of what has been done by others that is the merit of this little book. We gladly recommend it to all girls and boys who will honestly go through what is to be done as well as what is to be read.
Chapters on Sound, for Beginners.
C. A.
Martineau
By. (London: The Sunday School Association; Manchester: Johnson and Rawson, 1875.)
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Chapters on Sound, for Beginners . Nature 12, 165 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/012165a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/012165a0