Newark, a city of many and diverse manufactures, has a public library also of the first rank. Scientific books, as received, are brought to public attention through the press, and by means of the monthly bulletin mailed to any one on request. Short lists of selected works on particular branches of applied science are prepared for gratuitous distribution: in each book of a series the full list is pasted as a guide to extended reading. Readers are invited to ask for any book not in the library which they believe would be of service to them.

These are but a few examples of the work the public libraries are doing throughout the Union. At the headquarters of the American Library Association are issued manifold aids for readers and students: a list of them is given on a page following the index to this book. Let us hope that one of these days the Association may establish a bureau through which the literature of applied science, and all other worthy literature, may be passed upon by a staff of the best critics, for the behoof of all the people. Such a service would inure not only to the good of those who borrow books from public libraries, but would afford help to the men and women who buy books for libraries of their own.


INDEX


FLAME, ELECTRICITY AND THE CAMERA

By GEORGE ILES

A concise and brilliant recital of the chief uses of fire, electricity and photography. The steam turbine, the production of utmost cold, the Röntgen ray apparatus, the revelations of the sensitive plate directed to the sky, color photography, the wireless telegraph, are among the inventions depicted and explained.