Abstract
A BOOK with this title, appearing so soon after the termination of hostilities, could scarcely fail to excite considerable interest. The public in general and people with a scientific turn of mind in particular have been vaguely aware that, during the war, much work has been done in applying scientific principles to military purposes. In this country, as well as in Allied countries, there have been spread, in spite of the censorship, most exaggerated and distorted accounts of the practical results of these experiments. Here, then, in this book, it might have been supposed, would be afforded an opportunity of testing the truth of the rumours which have been current. To a reader in this frame of mind a perusal of the book will be somewhat disappointing. There are no great revelations, and it is a little difficult to see why the French censorship would not allow the author to publish the major portion of the contents during the war as he desired. The important subject of submarine detection and destruction, for example, is dealt with in a couple of pages. There is internal evidence that this does not arise from lack of knowledge on the part of the author, but rather from the operation of the censorship, which can have been removed in a very limited sense, only. The author has, no doubt, been seriously handicapped in this way, for the French authorities appear to have been much more strict than our own.
Les Applications de la Physique pendant la Guerre.
By H. Vigneron. Pp. viii + 322. (Paris: Masson et Cie, 1919.) Price 7 francs net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Les Applications de la Physique pendant la Guerre . Nature 104, 2 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104002a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104002a0