BOOK REVIEWS.

PRODIGAL GENIUS, The Life of Nikola Tesla. 326 pages, 15 X 22 cms. New York, Ives
Washburn, Inc., I944. Price $3.75.
This biography of Nikola Tesla was written by the Science Editor of the New York Herald
Tribune, a friend of Tesla's for m a n y years. Data for the work were obtained from many
sources including t h a t from Tesla himself before.his death in 1943 a t the age of 87 years.
Nikola Tesla was born in I856 in the hamlet of Smiljan, in the Austro-Hungarian province
of Lika, now a part of Yugoslavia. The father was pastor of the village church and the mother,
although totally unable to read or write, was nevertheless an intellectually brilliant woman.
The child inherited culture developed and passed on by ancestral families t h a t had been com-
munity leaders for m a n y generations. Early in his life he showed definite signs of ability
which were further developed in his a t t e n d a n c e a t the Gymnasium, the Polytechnic Institute
a t Gratz, Austria, and the University of Prague. Then followed various positions in Europe,
none of which offered opportunity to bring forth and make practical his idea of the generation,
transmission, transformation and utilization of alternating currents. Later, in America, this
opportunity came. It resulted in the sale of his m a n y p a t e n t rights to his polyphase system
to George Westinghouse. In subsequent years, his inventions and discoveries were covered
by more t h a n Ioo patents.
Tesla gave many lectures before scientific and engineering societies in America and Europe.
In I893 , he lectured before the Franklin Institute and in I894 he received the Elliott Cresson
Medal of the Franklin Institute for the development of alternating currents of high frequency.
The author stated t h a t Tesla in I898 demonstrated in Madison Square Garden a boat operated
by radio control, and the first practical system of wireless transmission. This system he had
described fully in 1893 ' anticipating other inventions in the field. In I899 he built a laboratory
in Colorado Springs from which he produced the first bolts of man-made lightning, and trans-
mitted power through the earth without wires to a distance of 26 miles. In I892 he demon-
strated the first electronic tube. He was the pioneer in developing modern phosphorescent,
fluorescent, a n d neon tube types of electric lighting. The Tesla coil is one of his many con-
tributions to the science of radio, and other researches laid the foundations for the modern
science of electronics.
The book is written in a fascinating, narrative style. It provides easy, interesting, and
informative reading.
R. H. OPPERMANN.
TERNARY SYSTEMS, Introduction to the Theory of Three Component Systems by G. Musing.
Translated by B. W. Rogers. I73 pages, drawings, 1,5 X 23 cms. New York, Reinhold
Publishing Corporation, 1944 . Price $4.5 ° .
This is a n exposition of the fundamentals underlying ternary systems, a subject of in-
creasing importance, particularly in the alloying field. Its complexity and diagrammatic means
of representation are inherently more difficult than singularly or binary types which makes it
tess easy to comprehend a problem. The work here covered therefore gives explanations based
on formal thermodynamic laws, and the use of the phase rule.
A t the outset the phase rule is t a k e n up with' a n introduction assuming familiarity with
the simple form of this law as applied to systems of one or two components. I t is shown t h a t
there is the highest n u m b e r of independent variables which can exist in a ternary system a t
constant pressure and from this fact comes the possibility of representing the states of a ternary
system in a space diagram. The variables are the concentrations of two of the constituents and
the temperature. The triangular method of representation is used. Consideration is given
to a ternary system in which the corresponding b i n a r y systems are simple mechanical mixtures
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