Electricité atmosphérique

Abstract

IT is a remarkable fact, and one not easy to explain, that although some of the most important contributions to our knowledge of atmospheric electricity have been made by British workers, there is no book in the English language dealing with the subject. The need for such a treatise has been constantly felt, especially when students have expressed a desire to undertake research on some problem connected with atmospheric electricity. Until quite recently, the only books to which such students could be referred have been written in German, and this has proved a great obstacle. The position has been very much improved by the almost simultaneous publication of two works in French, which language has much less terror for the average English student. One of these, “Traité d'électricité atmosphérique et tellurique,” by E. Mathias, was reviewed in NATURE so recently as August 1 last, and now M. Chauveau's book, the first part of which appeared three years ago, has been completed.

Electricité atmosphérique.

Par B. Chauveau. Troisième fascicule: Généralités sur les ions, l'ionisation et la radioactivité. La conductibilité et l'ionisation de l'atmosphère. Pp. xi + 240. 22 francs. Deuxième fascicule: Le champ électrique de l'atmosphère. Pp. x + 264. 25 francs. (Paris: Gaston Doin, 1924 and 1925.)