Abstract
MR. PARR is head of the electrical engineering department of Yorkshire College, Leeds, and the book before us represents the instructions and experiments given to students in the practical course in that department. It is not our object to criticise that course, the value of which must largely depend on the theoretical teaching accompanying it; suffice it to say that it is apparently modelled very closely on that given by Prof. Ayrton at the Central Technical College. Whether there is sufficient justification for the publication of Mr. Parr's book must depend on whether the details of the system and apparatus are sufficiently widespread; in the majority of cases the instructions given for each experiment imply the provision of special apparatus for carrying out the test, and the instructions are given, if we may use the phrase, in terms of that apparatus. A more general description of the experiments would be of wider use, though probably not so convenient for the student actually passing through Mr. Parr's course. There is a good appendix describing the chief instruments and apparatus used, and another appendix giving solutions of the various problems raised by the experiments which we do not think so valuable, except as a labour-saving device to the demonstrator or idle student. The experiments are, on the whole, well devised to bring out clearly the fundamental laws of electricity and magnetism. We are sorry, however, to see included an experiment to “prove” Ohm's law, in which P.D. is measured by a high-resistance galvanometer; a galvanometer can only be employed to measure P.D. if Ohm's law be true, so that it cannot logically be used for this purpose in an experiment to prove the law. The method given second by Mr. Parr, in which an electrometer is used to measure P.D., is the only satisfactory one for proving Ohm's law. Technical teachers who are seeking to develop a practical course will find this volume a valuable guide.
Practical Electrical Testing in Physics and Electrical Engineering.
By G. D. A. Parr. Pp. vi + 392. (London: Longmans and Co., 1901.) Price 8s. 6d.
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Practical Electrical Testing in Physics and Electrical Engineering . Nature 63, 538 (1901). https://doi.org/10.1038/063538a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/063538a0