3 NOVEMBER 1917, Page 9

AR About Engines, by Edward Cressy (Cassell and Co., Oa

net), is a readable book, which begins with the history and development of the steam engine, and purses on to turbines, gas and oil engines, the petrol motor and the locomotive, and concludes with chapters on power and fuel. As the author says, a large book on engines " which is wholly intelligible to a boy of thirteen should be burnt rather than printed"; but a boy of sixteen would understand most, if not all, of the author's simple descriptions of modern engines, which are well illustrated with photographs and diagrams. —The Romance of War Inventions, by T. W. Corbin (Seeley, Service, and Co., 5s.), covers a wide range, for it deals with guns, shells, torpedoes, submarines, wireless telegraphy, aeroplanes. and other engines of war. The facts that we should like to know about the inventions made in this war are, of course, not given by Mr. Corbin ; but his book is distinctly interesting.