Abstract
IT is fortunate for aviation that Dr. Simpson should have first become prominent largely through the study of the electricity of thunderstorms, and in virtue of that fact and of his official position as director of the Meteorological Office, it would be expected that a handbook dealing with the risks of damage to aircraft due to lightning would not only be as helpful in that direction as the present state of knowledge allows, but would also be a boon to those seeking to learn something about atmospheric electricity without having to embark upon an ‘ elaborate treatise such, for example, as that of Elster and Geitel. This expectation is fully satisfied, for in only twenty-four pages both needs are met. The work of condensation has been so well done that on the theoretical side the average intelligent scientific reader who is not a specialist in atmospheric electricity is not likely to realise the amount of condensation that has been effected. This is a subject in which it is only too easy to find oneself unable to see the wood for the trees, the more so as the trees are often en veloped in a fog of controversy, and after experts have met to discuss its unsolved problems there is apt to be an intellectual battle, and a casual spectator may not be able to distinguish victor from vanquished.
Air Ministry: Meteorological Office.
Professional Notes, No. 66: Lightning and Aircraft. By G. C. Simpson. Pp. 24. (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1934.) 4d. net.
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Physics . Nature 134, 618 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134618a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134618a0