Abstract
THIS new addition to Methuen's series of monographs on physical subjects makes a valiant attempt to cope with the whole of the subject of luminescence, a task particularly difficult at the present time in view of the rapid advances taking place. The book may, on the whole, be recommended to the general reader. Those already familiar with the subject are likely to discover a number of inadequacies. One feels that the directions of most rapid progress at the present time have not been sufficiently emphasized, and it might have been a good deal wiser to confine the book to one of the more important aspects of the subject. In the result there are twelve chapters, of which the first and last are the worst. Chapter i, subtitled “The Experiments”, is almost meaningless in its narrow limits of three pages. Such “experiments” as are here mentioned could easily have been brought naturally into line in the later sections of the book. Chapter xii is concerned with technical applications. The most important application of luminescent solids is in discharge devices, and Dr. Hirschlaff's treatment of this aspect cannot be considered as more than sketchy.
Fluorescence and Phosphorescence
By Dr. E. Hirschlaff. (Methuen's Monographs on Physical Subjects.) Pp. vi + 130. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1938.) 3s. 6d. net.
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R., J. Fluorescence and Phosphorescence. Nature 143, 267 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143267a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143267a0