Abstract
THIS volume contains a fair amount of information useful to those wishing to purchase and set up spectroscopic apparatus for chemical research, but it seems to us to be ill-assorted and indifferently arranged. The author plunges straightway into the elementary mathematics of the prism and plane and concave gratings, and then describes the various parts of spectroscopes; yet on p. 78 it is thought necessary to inform the reader that a 12-inch focus telescope lens will give a much shorter spectrum than an 18-inch focus lens. There are, however, in the various dis courses on adjustments, refractive indices, resolving power, the methods of producing radiation, sensitive plates, &c., numerous hints which will be found useful by those who have only a general knowledge of physics and wish to take up spectroscopy. It is for such readers that the book is intended. The notes on “series” and the Zeeman effect would probably be better left to the more advanced works on spectroscopy. There are a few uncorrected misspellings and one or two curious terms, which suggest that the author's acquaintance with real, practical laboratory work has been either too brief or too restricted. The astrophysical side of the subject is not dealt with at all, the idea being to restrict the book entirely to the chemical side.
The Spectroscope: its Uses in General Analytical Chemistry.
By T. Thorne Baker. Pp. viii + 130. (London: Baillière, Tindall and Cox, 1907.)
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R., W. The Spectroscope: its Uses in General Analytical Chemistry . Nature 78, 126 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/078126b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/078126b0