Mechanical Inventions of To-day. By T. W. Corbin. (Seeley, Service
and Co. 5s. net.)—As a matter of fact a book with the above title could be brought out every six months. Nor would it be an exaggeration to say that by the time the non-expert had digested one volume he would find one of the ingenious machines in it had been practically consigned to the scrap heap. Mr. Corbin knows what he is about, and his selection is a good one, if it is impossible to avoid the strong family likeness which all books treating of machines bear. He writes well and conveys much information that is useful in grounding a student in general mechanical knowledge. He gives inventors, by the by, some excellent advice in his last two pages. After pointing to the fleet of obsolete warships off Portsmouth, and reminding us of the ingenuity spent on them and their armament thirty years ago, he asks inventors to devise means of relieving men from such labours as that of the stoker on a steamship or a miner working in a shallow seam of coal. No man, he says, ought to have such work to perform as that of the stoker in these enlightened days, and who will disagree with him?
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