Engineering of To-day. By Thomas W. Corbin. (Seeley and Co.
58. net.)—Mr. Corbin has selected certain features of engineering which more particularly express the perfection that such-and-such a branch has reached,—the manufacture of gas, big guns, submarine diving, railway signalling, engineering materitds, and the novelties introduced by electricity into engineering methods. Lucidity in description and judgment in selecting examples are noticeable points in the "Science of To-day Series," and the book before us is an excellent instance. The block system of signals may not be one of the principal achievements of engineering, but the average boy will study it with quite as much interest as he would the important factors which go to the building of bridges. Perhaps the most striking thing in the wide scope of modern engineering is the assistance which one section renders another. Electro- magnetism comes to the help of weight-lifting appliances, as some of us can easily understand, but the connexion between submarine diving and Winchester Cathedral is not obvious ; however, the repairers had to call in a diver to help underpin the water- logged foundations. One very remarkable development of the day is "reinforced concrete," surely the most peculiar, and apparently the most successful, mixture of two utterly diverse materials— steel and concrete—one can well imagine. These and many other notable examples will make this book a most excellent and trustworthy introduction for boys who have a hankering after engineering.
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