enormous; Davy quotes him frequently, snd even Faraday. . .refers again and a g a i n t o his w o r v The purpose of t,his WILLIAMD. WEIR book is to bring Ritter and his accomplishReed College ments to the attention of a wider presentPortland, Oregon day audience and so arouse an sppreoie, tion and understsnding of his place in the history of science, and in particular to call Die Begriindung der Elektrochemie und attention to his pioneer and significant Entdeekung der Ultravioletten Stmhlen role in the founding of what is now elecvon Johann Wilhelm Ritter. Eine trochemistry. Auswahl auz den SchriHen des roThe author has supplied an excellent mantiachen Phyaiker biogmphy of Ritter (15 pages). H e then takes up in detail R.itter's work on galAusegewahlt und kommentiert, von vanism, electrolysis, electrolytic decomArmin Hermann, Instibut fiir Geschiehte position, the derivation of the law of der Nsturwissenschaften der Unielectric potentials, the discovery of the versit,it Miinchen. Akademische Verultraviolet portions of the solar spectrum, lagsgesellschaft,, Frankfurt am Main, t h e discovery of t h e dry cell, the discovery 1968. 105 pp. Figs. 12 X 19.5 em. of the "Ladungssiule" (the precorsor of DM 14 (53.50). t h e storage batt,ery), the role of a voltaic pile included in an electrical circuit, the This very welcome book is Volume 2 so-called Kirehhoff Stromversweigung of the new series of the venerable Ost(branching of currents). He gives appowald's Klassiker der exakten Wisen site excerpt,^ from Ritter's writings toSchaften that was foimded in 1880 by gether with comments by himself and Wilhelm Ostwald and carried on by his son others. A full s e t of footnotes, literature Wolfgang Ostwald. The present series references, etc., renders the volume still was st,arted in 1065; the competent edimore useful. Obviously a large amount torial staff is made op of German and of t,ime, reading, and careful planning Swiss scholars. have gone into the composition of t,his Johann Wilhelm Ritt,er, German physsmall hut ent,ertaining and ed~reat,ional icist, was born in 1776 and died in 1810 and so had a short life. He was an i m ~ o r - work. A good reading knowledge of German is tant figure in his day but most of today's required, a. skill that unfortunately is not scient,ists have never even heard of him. common ampng students or even their He carried on a wide correspondence. elders t h a e days. Therefore, no analysis To quote L. Pearce Willimns: "His of the content,^ of the varions sections of influence on Hans Christian Oersted was
for the overlay of a critical perspective on the problems of chemical measurement.
the book will be attempted here. Howl ever, the moderate price of the volume makes it a.very goad b$for the relat,ively s m d l fraction who can read German. RALPHE. OI:SPICR Lrniuersity of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio
Materials, A Scientific American Book
Edited b y . Dennis Flanagin W. 'H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, 1967. 210 pp. Illnstreted. 15 X 22 vii cm. Clothbound, $5; paperbound, 82.50.
+
The thirteen "chapters" ,.in t b k book are the text of t,he single-topic issue of the Scientific American for September, 1967. Each has a fronticepiece photograph (black and white) and many of the original illustmt,ians. The authors' names are almost synonymow with, the fields about. which they write; Mott on Solid State, Mark on Polymers, for example. The d y l e is typical Seientifi American; no mathematics, but a vocabulary a t the "meanXree-pat.h2' level of saphist,icstion is almost required. The fascinating coming together of theory and empiricism in this realm of applied physical science is a story that needs telling. This hook does so-and both teachers and students should listen.
Volume
46, Number 8, August 1969
/
A551
