Dictionary of British Scientific Instruments

Abstract

THE British Optical Instrument Manufacturers' Association, which is one of the industrial associations working in connection with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, has just issued this very useful dictionary. The main part of the work consists of a list of British instruments arranged alphabetically, with a brief description of each and an indication as to the firm or firms which supply it. Illustrations of a large number of the more important instruments are also included. Some of these are shown in position at the National Physical Laboratory. The utility of the book is obvious; it serves as a dictionary to the inquirer who wishes to know something about an instrument which he hears mentioned in conversation or reads of in a book; it is also a trade handbook, giving the would-be purchaser at a glance information as to where an instrument he desires to acquire can be obtained. This, however, is not all; the volume illustrates in a remarkable way the activities of the trade, the range of instruments of British manufacture, and the debt men of science owe to the instrument maker. The work has been well carried out, the list is very complete, and cross-references are numerous; the definitions or explanations are clear and concise. Thus:—

Dictionary of British Scientific Instruments.

Issued by the British Optical Instrument Manufacturers' Association. Pp. xii + 335. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 21s.