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The Library Shelf

The Library Shelf help in this matter. The term 'Insertion loss' is for some reason confined to transducers with no reference to R.F. components at all. Your reviewer found himself wondering what policy decision included entries under 'Grashof's number' and 'Weber number', yet excluded Space Flight and Missiles Prandtl and Fresnel. He did not recall having read of either of the two former before, he now knows that the first deals with viscosity and the Dictionary of Guided Missiles and Space Flight. where the names of Planck, Wien, Stefan and second with surface tension, but that is all. There Edited by G. Merrill. (Van Nostrand. £6 11s. 6d.) Boltmann are all mentioned and their formulae are several entries dealing with servomechanisms alluded to, but except for Wien's Law nowhere but amongst them no reference to the standard Stranded on a desert island or in a hospital bed could the formulae be found. The values of some methods of obtaining frequency responses or with only one book to read, the victim can do far important physical constants are given but not stability criteria. The Nyquist criterion and the worse than have a good dictionary on his favour­ those of some equally important ones. For ex­ Bode chart are described in isolation elsewhere ite subject. You flick over the pages to look up ample, Boltzmann's constant is given (together with no reference to the servomechanism articles. something you want to know, your eye catches an with a reference to a Boltzmann's principle which The Nicholl's chart, one of the most useful adjacent entry which intrigues you and you are is not to be found in the book, although it would methods, and the root locus method, the currently off on the fascinating game of being referred from have been of much interest to know what was fashionable method, get no mention. There are no one entry to another in your pursuit of know­ meant by this), and the constant is correctly de­ references to the various stability criteria for char­ ledge. If the game is not to lead to frustration scribed as equal to the ideal gas constant per mole acteristic equations, nor is there a list of Laplace and anger the book must play fair by you, it divided by the Avogadro number. Although refer­ transforms. There are similar deficiencies in other must leave you with the feeling that you have ence is given to both of these, no entries could be fields. For example, it is not possible to find the really learnt something for your efforts, even if found in the book; the nearest useful entry is following in the dictionary, the Euler equations occasionally this is that the subject is too abstruse 'Ideal gas law' where one learns that the law is for moving axes, the aerodynamic equations for for concise treatment and you are fobbed off with not obeyed exactly by any real gas, nor is the gas missile motion, the definitions of the various a list of references. constant exactly the same for different gases, but aerodynamic coefficients, a summary of the aero­ If in a space age your reviewer were to be one is not told what the ideal value is. dynamic characteristics of various wing and con­ marooned in an earth satellite, he would not wish trol surface shapes, no mention even of the There is no entry under 'Cybernetics'. Is the to have the present book with him. This diction­ linearized theory of supersonic aerodynamics. reader any the wiser on looking up 'Stochastic ary is an expansion of the glossary part of the This is to say the least odd in a dictionary that variable' to be told 'In the mathematics of textbook in the same series entitled Missile quotes Maxwell's equations measurement the stochastic variable is dependent Engineering Handbook, reviewed in AIRCRAFT on the random variable, e.g. a random choice of ENGINEERING, December 1958. It appears to con­ This book cannot be recommended to profes­ ξ will define some value of A'? There are no tain the same errors and deficiencies as the glos­ sional engineers and scientists as a serious work. entries under time stationary, or stationary. It might be of use to journalists, technical sary uncorrected, including entries which are Ferrites are now of enormous importance, yet writers, authors of space fiction and the lay slang terms and which, on this side of the Atlantic there is no worthwhile information. There is no readers thereof. at least, seem out of place in a serious work. reference to Faraday rotation, the only example J. C. The dictionary is extremely uneven. Some en­ given of a rotator in waveguides is 'done very tries are good, such as the list of U.S.A. missiles simply in the case of a rectangular guide by and the list of information on satellites success­ twisting the guide itself. Under 'Gyrator circuit' fully launched to date, but many arc so poor as is the entry 'A circuit element which is so named to be misleading. The cross referencing is particu­ because it violates the reciprocity theorem as does BOOKS RECEIVED larly poor, in many cases one is referred to the gyroscope', is the enquirer any the wiser? another entry which is found to be non-existent. All books received from Publishers arc listed under this Under 'Polarization' topical phenomena only arc For example, under 'Aberration, optical' one is heading. Extended reviews of a selection appear later. dealt with. The only entry to be found dealing Inclusion in this list, therefore, neither precludes, nor referred to 'Chromatic aberration, spherical aber­ with radio or radar applications was 'Plane of implies, in any particular instance, further notice. ration, coma, and distortion of the image', none polarization of a radio wave' where the total entry of which is to be found in the dictionary. Another From Euclid to Eddington. E. Whittaker. 11s. is 'The orientation of energy in an electro­ fault is to give inadequate information under one magnetic wave of radio frequency; determined by On Mathematics and Mathematicians. R. E. Moritz. entry, yet fail altogether to refer to another entry 16s. convention to be the direction of the electric field where the information can be found. For example, with respect to the earth's surface.' The Philosophy of Space and Time. H. Reichenbach if you wish to be refreshed on S band, X band, (trans. M. Reichenbach and J. Freund), 16s. Both conical scanning and monopulse radar etc., and look under the entry 'Frequency band' [Dover Publications Inc., Constable & Co., 10-12 are dealt with very briefly and their importance in you will not find these at all. If you look for S, Orange Street, London, W.C.2.] tracking, in beam-riding and in radar homing X, K, etc., band under their own headings you will Handbook of Supersonic Aerodynamics. (Navord heads is not brought out at all. Although shot only find S band. There is no cross reference to Report 1488, Vol. 3, Section 7: Three Dimensional noise and thermal noise are defined there is, 'Radar wavelengths' where L, X, K bands are re­ Airfoils.) [U.S. Government Printing Office, other than a reference to glint, no mention of the ferred to, but not S. A grave defect of the book is Washington 25, D.C., U.S.A. $1.50.] noise sources in R.F. signals which can have a that it very seldom indeed refers the reader to a Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Stress serious effect on the accuracy of homing or beam- standard textbook on the subject or indeed to any Analysis, Vol. XVI, No. 2. [S.E.S.A., Central riding systems. textbook. Your reviewer took a number of en­ Square Station, P.O. Box 168, Cambridge 39, Mass., tries at random, ranging over several fields, with Non-isoelastic (anisoelastic) effects are defined U.S.A. No price stated.] on the whole disappointing results. Examples are as 'A source of drift in gyroscopes caused by mass The Effect of Technological Progress on Education. given in the following paragraphs: unbalance and non-linearities resulting from a A classified bibliography. [Institution of Produc­ lack of isoelasticity in materials', and there is a Under 'Angle, dihedral', one learns that this is tion Engineers, 10 Chesterfield Street, London, W.1. corresponding entry, 'Isoelastic. Experiencing a 14s. 6d.] the angle between two planes; there is no reference strain which is proportional to the stress . . .'. to the entry 'Dihedral angle', where it is also de­ The First Decade of the International Astronautica The first of these is a half truth, the second is fined as the angle which any airfoil surface makes Federation. F. C. Durant. [British Interplanetary incorrect. Society, 12 Bessborough Gardens, London, S.W.I. with the horizontal when viewed from a point in No price stated.] Gaussian and binomial distributions are briefly line with the longitudinal axis of the airframe to described but there is no description of their which it is attached. This is, to say the least, a Boeing 707. M. Caidin. [Ballantine Books Inc., 101 characteristic properties. There is no mention of Fifth Avenue, New York 3, N.Y., U.S.A. $0.50.] loose definition. Anhedral gets no mention at all. the Poisson distribution, nor of the now important Under 'Booster' or 'Booster assembly' there is Moteurs, Réacteurs, Statoréacteurs, Fusées. P. R. J. subject of 'queuing'. The theory of games is not no reference to the standard configurations, such Soissons. [Dunod, 92 rue Bonaparte, Paris, 6e, mentioned. France. F.2,000.] as tandem or wrap-round. Nor do these get an entry in their own right. In many cases the authors have only been able British Civil Aircraft 1919-59, Vol. I. A. J. Jackson. to see a limited set of meanings. For example, un­ Patriots will be surprised to learn that Alber- [Putnam & Co., 42 Great Russell Street, London, porth [sic] is 'A small English guided missile range der 'Window' the only reference is to the radar W.C.1. 63s.] on the Welsh coast'. Woomera is located in north­ counter-measure device. If the reader, who has in Applied Hydrodynamics. H. R. Vallentine. [Butter- west Australia. mind infra-red or radar windows in the atmo­ worths Scientific Publications, 4 and 5 Bell Yard, London, W.C.2. 50s.] sphere, should turn to 'Absorption', the only help The information on infra-red radiation is meagre. From 'Infra-red Detector' where one he gets is that at frequencies above 15,000 Mc/s Indian Skyways Aviation Directory of Asia 1959. absorption becomes serious, and that fog can also learns little, one is referred to 'Bolometer' and [Indian Skyways, Gandhigram Road, Juhu, Bom­ produce serious absorption, if it is dense enough bay 23, India. No price stated.] then on to 'Detector, infra-red' where five classe s to reduce visibility to distances of 100 yards or so. arc listed in a reasonable fashion. There is a refer­ Fundamentals of Radio Telemetry. M. Tepper. [John Again the entry under 'Atmosphere' does not ence to black body and black body radiation F. Rider Publications, Chapman & Hall. 24s.] November 1959 347 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

The Library Shelf

J.C.,
Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , Volume 31 (11): 1 – Nov 1, 1959
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb033180
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Abstract

help in this matter. The term 'Insertion loss' is for some reason confined to transducers with no reference to R.F. components at all. Your reviewer found himself wondering what policy decision included entries under 'Grashof's number' and 'Weber number', yet excluded Space Flight and Missiles Prandtl and Fresnel. He did not recall having read of either of the two former before, he now knows that the first deals with viscosity and the Dictionary of Guided Missiles and Space Flight. where the names of Planck, Wien, Stefan and second with surface tension, but that is all. There Edited by G. Merrill. (Van Nostrand. £6 11s. 6d.) Boltmann are all mentioned and their formulae are several entries dealing with servomechanisms alluded to, but except for Wien's Law nowhere but amongst them no reference to the standard Stranded on a desert island or in a hospital bed could the formulae be found. The values of some methods of obtaining frequency responses or with only one book to read, the victim can do far important physical constants are given but not stability criteria. The Nyquist criterion and the worse than have a good dictionary on his favour­ those of some equally important ones. For ex­ Bode chart are described in isolation elsewhere ite subject. You flick over the pages to look up ample, Boltzmann's constant is given (together with no reference to the servomechanism articles. something you want to know, your eye catches an with a reference to a Boltzmann's principle which The Nicholl's chart, one of the most useful adjacent entry which intrigues you and you are is not to be found in the book, although it would methods, and the root locus method, the currently off on the fascinating game of being referred from have been of much interest to know what was fashionable method, get no mention. There are no one entry to another in your pursuit of know­ meant by this), and the constant is correctly de­ references to the various stability criteria for char­ ledge. If the game is not to lead to frustration scribed as equal to the ideal gas constant per mole acteristic equations, nor is there a list of Laplace and anger the book must play fair by you, it divided by the Avogadro number. Although refer­ transforms. There are similar deficiencies in other must leave you with the feeling that you have ence is given to both of these, no entries could be fields. For example, it is not possible to find the really learnt something for your efforts, even if found in the book; the nearest useful entry is following in the dictionary, the Euler equations occasionally this is that the subject is too abstruse 'Ideal gas law' where one learns that the law is for moving axes, the aerodynamic equations for for concise treatment and you are fobbed off with not obeyed exactly by any real gas, nor is the gas missile motion, the definitions of the various a list of references. constant exactly the same for different gases, but aerodynamic coefficients, a summary of the aero­ If in a space age your reviewer were to be one is not told what the ideal value is. dynamic characteristics of various wing and con­ marooned in an earth satellite, he would not wish trol surface shapes, no mention even of the There is no entry under 'Cybernetics'. Is the to have the present book with him. This diction­ linearized theory of supersonic aerodynamics. reader any the wiser on looking up 'Stochastic ary is an expansion of the glossary part of the This is to say the least odd in a dictionary that variable' to be told 'In the mathematics of textbook in the same series entitled Missile quotes Maxwell's equations measurement the stochastic variable is dependent Engineering Handbook, reviewed in AIRCRAFT on the random variable, e.g. a random choice of ENGINEERING, December 1958. It appears to con­ This book cannot be recommended to profes­ ξ will define some value of A'? There are no tain the same errors and deficiencies as the glos­ sional engineers and scientists as a serious work. entries under time stationary, or stationary. It might be of use to journalists, technical sary uncorrected, including entries which are Ferrites are now of enormous importance, yet writers, authors of space fiction and the lay slang terms and which, on this side of the Atlantic there is no worthwhile information. There is no readers thereof. at least, seem out of place in a serious work. reference to Faraday rotation, the only example J. C. The dictionary is extremely uneven. Some en­ given of a rotator in waveguides is 'done very tries are good, such as the list of U.S.A. missiles simply in the case of a rectangular guide by and the list of information on satellites success­ twisting the guide itself. Under 'Gyrator circuit' fully launched to date, but many arc so poor as is the entry 'A circuit element which is so named to be misleading. The cross referencing is particu­ because it violates the reciprocity theorem as does BOOKS RECEIVED larly poor, in many cases one is referred to the gyroscope', is the enquirer any the wiser? another entry which is found to be non-existent. All books received from Publishers arc listed under this Under 'Polarization' topical phenomena only arc For example, under 'Aberration, optical' one is heading. Extended reviews of a selection appear later. dealt with. The only entry to be found dealing Inclusion in this list, therefore, neither precludes, nor referred to 'Chromatic aberration, spherical aber­ with radio or radar applications was 'Plane of implies, in any particular instance, further notice. ration, coma, and distortion of the image', none polarization of a radio wave' where the total entry of which is to be found in the dictionary. Another From Euclid to Eddington. E. Whittaker. 11s. is 'The orientation of energy in an electro­ fault is to give inadequate information under one magnetic wave of radio frequency; determined by On Mathematics and Mathematicians. R. E. Moritz. entry, yet fail altogether to refer to another entry 16s. convention to be the direction of the electric field where the information can be found. For example, with respect to the earth's surface.' The Philosophy of Space and Time. H. Reichenbach if you wish to be refreshed on S band, X band, (trans. M. Reichenbach and J. Freund), 16s. Both conical scanning and monopulse radar etc., and look under the entry 'Frequency band' [Dover Publications Inc., Constable & Co., 10-12 are dealt with very briefly and their importance in you will not find these at all. If you look for S, Orange Street, London, W.C.2.] tracking, in beam-riding and in radar homing X, K, etc., band under their own headings you will Handbook of Supersonic Aerodynamics. (Navord heads is not brought out at all. Although shot only find S band. There is no cross reference to Report 1488, Vol. 3, Section 7: Three Dimensional noise and thermal noise are defined there is, 'Radar wavelengths' where L, X, K bands are re­ Airfoils.) [U.S. Government Printing Office, other than a reference to glint, no mention of the ferred to, but not S. A grave defect of the book is Washington 25, D.C., U.S.A. $1.50.] noise sources in R.F. signals which can have a that it very seldom indeed refers the reader to a Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Stress serious effect on the accuracy of homing or beam- standard textbook on the subject or indeed to any Analysis, Vol. XVI, No. 2. [S.E.S.A., Central riding systems. textbook. Your reviewer took a number of en­ Square Station, P.O. Box 168, Cambridge 39, Mass., tries at random, ranging over several fields, with Non-isoelastic (anisoelastic) effects are defined U.S.A. No price stated.] on the whole disappointing results. Examples are as 'A source of drift in gyroscopes caused by mass The Effect of Technological Progress on Education. given in the following paragraphs: unbalance and non-linearities resulting from a A classified bibliography. [Institution of Produc­ lack of isoelasticity in materials', and there is a Under 'Angle, dihedral', one learns that this is tion Engineers, 10 Chesterfield Street, London, W.1. corresponding entry, 'Isoelastic. Experiencing a 14s. 6d.] the angle between two planes; there is no reference strain which is proportional to the stress . . .'. to the entry 'Dihedral angle', where it is also de­ The First Decade of the International Astronautica The first of these is a half truth, the second is fined as the angle which any airfoil surface makes Federation. F. C. Durant. [British Interplanetary incorrect. Society, 12 Bessborough Gardens, London, S.W.I. with the horizontal when viewed from a point in No price stated.] Gaussian and binomial distributions are briefly line with the longitudinal axis of the airframe to described but there is no description of their which it is attached. This is, to say the least, a Boeing 707. M. Caidin. [Ballantine Books Inc., 101 characteristic properties. There is no mention of Fifth Avenue, New York 3, N.Y., U.S.A. $0.50.] loose definition. Anhedral gets no mention at all. the Poisson distribution, nor of the now important Under 'Booster' or 'Booster assembly' there is Moteurs, Réacteurs, Statoréacteurs, Fusées. P. R. J. subject of 'queuing'. The theory of games is not no reference to the standard configurations, such Soissons. [Dunod, 92 rue Bonaparte, Paris, 6e, mentioned. France. F.2,000.] as tandem or wrap-round. Nor do these get an entry in their own right. In many cases the authors have only been able British Civil Aircraft 1919-59, Vol. I. A. J. Jackson. to see a limited set of meanings. For example, un­ Patriots will be surprised to learn that Alber- [Putnam & Co., 42 Great Russell Street, London, porth [sic] is 'A small English guided missile range der 'Window' the only reference is to the radar W.C.1. 63s.] on the Welsh coast'. Woomera is located in north­ counter-measure device. If the reader, who has in Applied Hydrodynamics. H. R. Vallentine. [Butter- west Australia. mind infra-red or radar windows in the atmo­ worths Scientific Publications, 4 and 5 Bell Yard, London, W.C.2. 50s.] sphere, should turn to 'Absorption', the only help The information on infra-red radiation is meagre. From 'Infra-red Detector' where one he gets is that at frequencies above 15,000 Mc/s Indian Skyways Aviation Directory of Asia 1959. absorption becomes serious, and that fog can also learns little, one is referred to 'Bolometer' and [Indian Skyways, Gandhigram Road, Juhu, Bom­ produce serious absorption, if it is dense enough bay 23, India. No price stated.] then on to 'Detector, infra-red' where five classe s to reduce visibility to distances of 100 yards or so. arc listed in a reasonable fashion. There is a refer­ Fundamentals of Radio Telemetry. M. Tepper. [John Again the entry under 'Atmosphere' does not ence to black body and black body radiation F. Rider Publications, Chapman & Hall. 24s.] November 1959 347

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology – Emerald Publishing

Published: Nov 1, 1959

There are no references for this article.