ELECIRIC WIRING.
Electric Wiring : a Primer for the Use of Wirer:ten and Students. By W. C. Clinton, B.Sc. (J. Murray. is. 6d.)—The nature and behaviour of our new illuminant, the details of its path from the generating station to the glow-lamps on our walls, can hardly be made intelligible to the amateur reader by mere letterpress and diagrams. Still, this little work will give paterfamilias a smatter- ing knowledge of mains, circuits, switches, roses, and burners which may serve him a good tutu when the workman looks in to remedy some erratic proceeding on the part of the electric fluid. If the author's expositions of theory and structure do not always shine with the incandescence requisite in a practical treatise, they reach the average clearness of English manuals. Of omissions we note the following. As the current of high voltage, Or pressure (say two thousand volts), generated by a distant central Plant is too explosive for use in our houses, it is diluted before entering the consumer's premises to an energy of from a hundred to two hundred volts. On this essential process, which is effected by the so-called transformers, the book is practically silent. The electric glow-lamp has its merits, but it is a less brilliant illumi- nator than the incandescent gas-burner, it is costly, and not long- lived. Amateurs who try to estimate their expenditure on Board of Trade electrical units by the help of worked book examples may find that they have grievously underrated their bill.
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