Gilbert's Work Research Articles

SPECIAL FEATURE: KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUES—ROBERT DAMELIO AND CARL BINDER

SPECIAL FEATURE: KNOW YOUR COLLEAGUES—ROBERT DAMELIO AND CARL BINDER

An amateur's contribution to the design of Telford's Menai Suspension Bridge: a commentary on Gilbert (1826) 'On the mathematical theory of suspension bridges'.

Davies Gilbert's work on the catenary is notable on two counts. First, it influenced Thomas Telford in formulating his final design for the Menai Strait suspension bridge (1826); and second, it established for the first time the form of the ‘catenary of equal strength’. The classical catenary is a uniform flexible chain or cable hanging freely under gravity between supports. The ‘catenary of equal strength’ is the form of a cable whose cross-sectional area is made proportional to the tension at each point, so that the tensile stress is uniform throughout. In this paper I provide a sketch of the lives and achievements of Gilbert and Telford, and of their interaction over the Menai Bridge. There follows a commentary on Gilbert's 1826 paper, and on his two related publications; and a brief sketch of the earlier history of the catenary. I then describe the development of the suspension bridge up to the present time. Finally, I discuss relations between mathematical analysts and practical engineers. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

Situating slums

This paper comprises two intertwined reflective threads—my own engagements with and perceptions of different phases of Alan Gilbert's work, and a critical perspective on ‘slum(dog) fever’—the recent and often decontextualised fixation on slums, with which Alan has engaged. The first section briefly surveys Alan Gilbert's contributions to the broader Geography, Development and Housing literatures, situating them in the context of evolving debates and policy agendas. This sets the scene for a more detailed discussion of changing definitions and discourses around the concept of ‘slums’ and Alan's recent interventions about the resuscitation or re-emergence of ‘cities without slums’ agendas. The third section of the paper addresses the challenge of scale, exploring how data, (tele)visual depictions, discourses and policy debates about slums and their inhabitants transcend—or perhaps transgress—geographical scales in often simplistic and culturally deterministic ways, not least through popular films like Slumdog Millionaire. Finally, the focus shifts to the uniqueness or distinctiveness of individual slums as places, homes and sites of identity and citizenship formation, citing particular iconic examples from the literature and media.

The Science of Magnetism Before Gilbert Leonardo Garzoni's Treatise on the Loadstone

Summary This paper presents the main features of the treatise on magnetism written by the Jesuit Leonardo Garzoni (1543–92). The treatise was believed to be lost, but a copy of it has been recently recovered. The treatise is briefly described and analysed. The results of a comparison between Garzoni's treatise, Della Porta's Magia Naturalis (1589), and Gilbert's De Magnete (1600) are also summarized. As claimed in the seventeenth century by Niccolò Cabeo and Niccolò Zucchi, the treatise contains quite a lot of the material to be found subsequently in the Magia Naturalis and in the De Magnete. Most importantly, the treatise presents so many interesting features, well before Gilbert's work, which make it the first example of a modern treatment of magnetic phenomena.

Henry F. Gilbert: A Bio-Bibliography (review)

Henry F. Gilbert: A Bio-Bibliography. By Sherrill V. Martin. (Bio-Bibliographies in Music, 93.) Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. [xii, 296 p. ISBN 0-313-27445-2. $79.95.] Index, discography. During second decade of twentieth century, some writers on music considered Henry Franklin Belknap Gilbert (1868-1928) America's foremost composer. Sherrill V. Martin has revealed in present bio-bibliography riches of MSS 35, Henry Gilbert Papers in Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University (see finding aid at http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/music/gil-col.htm [this and subsequent Web sites accessed 25 May 2005]) and has compiled sufficient information with commentary to help clarify, at chronological distance of many decades, how a composer now little known or performed attained such stature. This publication follows usual format for bio-bibliographies: a brief biography followed by citations with annotations of (1) a list of works and performances; (2) a discography; (3) a general bibliography; (4) a bibliography of subject's writings; (5) a bibliography of works and performances, i.e., mostly reviews and commentaries, and concluded by (6) appendices, and (7) an index. If Gilbert was not universally accepted in his day as successor to Edward A. MacDowell (1860-1908), whom some mentioned as foremost composer in America at turn of twentieth century, he was actually MacDowell's first composition student following elder composer's return from Europe in 1884. And within twenty years after this apprenticeship, Gilbert became generally known as foremost Americanist among composers. In second issue of Musical Quarterly (1, no. 2 [April 1915]: 169-80), Gilbert wrote an article, The American Composer, a manifesto of sorts in which he outlines state of music in America, aesthetic (i.e., pro-European) prejudices and economic difficulties facing composer, and some examples of successful enterprises (the annual festival of Litchfield County Choral Union at Norfolk, Connecticut; MacDowell Memorial Colony at Peterborough, New Hampshire; and High Jinks of San Francisco's Bohemian Club), along with suggestions about appropriate incorporation of folk music (namely, Indian and Negro tunes and rhythms, Spanish-American tunes, and even familiar Foster songs, pp. 178-79). He was hopeful that new paths would be followed, and he saw here and there a gleam of something big and vital (p. 179). This was in 1915. This message resonated with certain critics, above all Olin Downes (1886-1955), who wrote for Boston Post from 1906-1924 and New York Times from 1924 until his death. As a reviewer and commentator, Downes was very influential. He wrote an article for Musical Quarterly, entitled An American (4, no. 1 [January 1918]: 23-36), in which, speaking of Gilbert, he declared: The performance of 'Comedy Overture' appears to me as a more significant event than performance of any other American composition which it has been my fortune to know (p. 36). (Gilbert said in a letter of 1924 that he considered this article best written about him; see of Gilbert's Writings in present bio-bibliography, citation BG137.) Martin cites this and other articles, letters, and reviews by Downes throughout (see especially annotations in citations B95-B117 in General Bibliography section for consistently laudatory quotes). Gilbert's relationships with other contemporaries as well can easily be traced through index (pp. 289-96). Composer Arthur Farwell (1872-1952), for example, included a number of Gilbert's works in his comparatively short-lived serial publication known as Wa Wan Press (quarterly, 1901-06; monthly, 1907-11). two became close associates in 1902. As early as 1907, Farwell observed eloquently, the value for America of Mr. Gilbert's work up to a comparatively recent time lies in its power to liberate us from convention of musical expression which we have come to regard as fixed and final, and to show us new modes, both logical and beautiful, of tonal utterance (see citation B145). …

THE EPIC OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE MYSTERY OF SMALL WORKING MEMORY

Abstract. A partial analogy exists between the lifespan neuropsychological development of individuals and the biological evolution of species: In both of these major categories of growth, progressive emergence of wholes transcends inherently limited part‐processes. The remarkably small purview of each moment of consciousness experienced by an individual may be a crucial aspect of maintaining organization in that individual's cognitive development, protecting it from combinatorial chaos. In this essay I summarize experimental psychology research showing that working memory capacity comprises the so‐called magical number 7±2 items, not only for words and digits but for spatial items and other sorts of cognitive materials, and not only in humans but also in other species. This is so to such an extent that 7±2 may be a “constant of nature.” The small quantity range 7±2 independent items, which builds upon a more elementary, instantaneous working memory capacity of three or four items, is surprisingly independent of the time duration of a cognitive task. Moreover, it is largely independent of ontogeny. Explanations of these powerful facts about working memory are offered here within both a functionalistic framework and a framework of hypothetical neural processes. At the neural level, working memory dynamics may comprise certain brain wave harmonics or topological relationships in the sheetlike cortex. Within the functionalistic framework, I suggest an additional analogy, pertaining to cultural evolution, with Tom Gilbert's work on risk analysis and “the global problematic” that follows from unforeseen consequences of the expansiveness of human ambition. Several connections are drawn with ideas presented by participants in the Chicago Religion and Science Group about how theologies and sciences try to understand the possibility of adaptive exercises of human freedom in the face of the extreme finiteness of each human individual.

The Lodestone: History, Physics, and Formation

The lodestone is an extremely rare form of the mineral magnetite (Fe3O4) that occurs naturally as a permanent magnet. It therefore attracts metallic iron as well as fragments of ordinary ‘inert’ magnetite. This ‘magic’ property was known to many ancient cultures, and a powerful lodestone has always commanded a high price. By the eleventh century AD the Chinese had discovered that a freely suspended elongated lodestone would tend to set with its long axis approximately north–south, and utilized this property in the magnetic compass. They also appear to have discovered that this invaluable characteristic could be handed‐on to a steel needle if the latter were contacted with, or stroked by, a lodestone. The magnetism of the lodestone was scientifically investigated by William Gilbert in the sixteenth century, when he defined its ‘poles' and the well‐known rule that ‘like poles repel, unlike attract’. He also studied ‘inclination’ and ‘variation’, and means to aid the preservation of magnetic power. How to concentrate it by ‘arming’ the lodestone with caps or pole‐pieces of soft iron was discovered in the same century. These methods have been repeated, confirmed, and improved. The lodestone occupies a vital place in the history of magnetism, but little beyond Gilbert's work can be reached by historical studies because vastly improved steel or alloy permanent magnets, and electromagnets, replaced it before quantitative measurements were developed. These techniques have therefore been applied retrospectively to both museum specimens and contemporary natural lodestones. A good source of the latter was found to be the igneous complex known as Magnet Cove, Arkansas, and this material has been used as the ‘type example’. All specimens were discrete, well‐rounded, rusty brown pebbles found near the surface. Their unweathered interiors were black titanomagnetite. No significant trace element or crystallographic differences could be found between the lodestones and the magnetically inert material that always accompanied them. The magnetic moment per unit volume (J v) of the ‘as‐found’ Magnet Cove lodestones varied between 6.5 and 11.6 emu cm−3, which compares poorly with the hundreds of units characteritzing modern permanent magnets. Hysteresis loops gave a saturation intensity (J s) of 27–51 emu cm−3, suggesting that intensity has diminished since formation. This agrees with general experience of magnets, especially in the absence of a ‘keeper’. The initial volume susceptibility of Magnet Cove magnetite was about 0.18 for low fields, and always remained <1. This means that a normal terrestrial magnetic field with a maximum vector <1 Oe is unable to induce even the low magnetic moments we see today, while a field approaching 1000 Oe is required for saturation. These parameters, and the rare occurrence of lodestones as near‐surface fragments, support suggestions that they are the product of a lightning strike upon an exposure of a suitable (titanium‐rich?) magnetite. Transient currents averaging 30 000 A have been measured. This would give rise to a zone of potential magnetic saturation at least 12 cm in diameter, to which some of the ejected fragments would be exposed. An attempt to determine the period elapsed since formation of the Magnet Cove lodestone was made by annealing magnetically saturated specimens at temperatures up to 500°C, and measuring J v at weekly intervals for 100 days. The decay curves visually resembled exponential functions, but mathematical tests proved that they were not strictly so. Interpretation was therefore difficult, but a pragmatic procedure involving excessive extrapolation suggested an ‘age’ of about 3500 years.

Cass Gilbert: Life and Work, Architect of the Public Domain

This volume examines Gilbert's work in five unique categories: the building of national practice, an evaluation of his Minnesota State Capitol as a defining moment in American civic architecture, his New York career, his response to civic ideals in his plans for towns and universities, and his work in the public domain.

MARTIN GILBERT, Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century (New York: John Wiley &amp; Sons, 1996). Pp. 428. $16.95 paper.

Much has been written about Jerusalem since the Madrid peace conference in 1991, most of it by partisans on both sides. Sir Martin Gilbert's work is one of the most entertaining, but least objective. Gilbert is a fellow of Merton College, Oxford University, and a biographer of Sir Winston Churchill and historian of World War II. He begins where his earlier volume, Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City, ended—around the turn of the 20th century. He starts his story with the last few years of Ottoman rule; dwells on British rule (1917–48) and the 1948 war; skims over the years between 1948 and 1967, especially the Jordanian rule of East Jerusalem; then gives a long account of the years after 1967. He ends his book with an endorsement of a plan to return part of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Gilbert is a master of the art of compressing an enormous amount of materials about the city's social, architectural, cultural, religious, and political history during the past century into a compelling and readable narrative. His book thus provides a panoramic account of the city, and, because he relies on newspapers, it has an eyewitness quality to it.

Metalogue 4: On philosophy

Performance ImprovementVolume 38, Issue 10 p. 41-42 Article Metalogue 4: On philosophy Timm J. Esque, Timm J. Esque Timm J. Esque: is an independent management consultant specializing in setting up sustainable performance systems for organizations, large projects, and teams. Timm frequently publishes and presents for both performance improvement and product development audiences. He co-edited Getting Results: Case Studies in Performance Improvement and is currently writing a book on improving new product development (and other project-oriented work) through the effective use of performance systems. Timm began his career in 1981 writing training objectives and collecting and analyzing data (and delivering packages) for minimum wage at a small consulting firm in the Phoenix area, In 1983, Timm joined Intel Corp. as an Instructional Designer, where he also held positions as Industrial Engineer and Project Manager. Timm discovered Tom Gilbert's work in 1984 while working on a literature review in task analysis. In 1989, he enticed Tom to present at a local ISPI meeting and then later at Intel. By 1993, Timm and Tom were working on a project together at Intel. This project launched Timm into an internal consultant role for product development teams, which he continued until his departure in mid-1998. Timm enjoys reading and writing, recreational sports, music, traveling, and the theater. His favorite pastime is escaping to the mountains with his wife Shelly, his daughter Jacquelin, and his unruly dog Jas. Timm may be reached at Esque Consulting by email at tjesque@yahoo.com, or by phone at (480) 456-5240.Search for more papers by this author Timm J. Esque, Timm J. Esque Timm J. Esque: is an independent management consultant specializing in setting up sustainable performance systems for organizations, large projects, and teams. Timm frequently publishes and presents for both performance improvement and product development audiences. He co-edited Getting Results: Case Studies in Performance Improvement and is currently writing a book on improving new product development (and other project-oriented work) through the effective use of performance systems. Timm began his career in 1981 writing training objectives and collecting and analyzing data (and delivering packages) for minimum wage at a small consulting firm in the Phoenix area, In 1983, Timm joined Intel Corp. as an Instructional Designer, where he also held positions as Industrial Engineer and Project Manager. Timm discovered Tom Gilbert's work in 1984 while working on a literature review in task analysis. In 1989, he enticed Tom to present at a local ISPI meeting and then later at Intel. By 1993, Timm and Tom were working on a project together at Intel. This project launched Timm into an internal consultant role for product development teams, which he continued until his departure in mid-1998. Timm enjoys reading and writing, recreational sports, music, traveling, and the theater. His favorite pastime is escaping to the mountains with his wife Shelly, his daughter Jacquelin, and his unruly dog Jas. Timm may be reached at Esque Consulting by email at tjesque@yahoo.com, or by phone at (480) 456-5240.Search for more papers by this author First published: 07 February 2007 https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.4140381010 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume38, Issue10November/December 1999Pages 41-42 RelatedInformation

Back to school. (Musings on education reform)

Performance ImprovementVolume 38, Issue 8 p. 44-47 Article Back to school. (Musings on education reform) Timm J. Esque, Timm J. Esque: is an independent management consultant specializing in setting up sustainable performance systems for organizations, large projects, and teams. Timm frequently publishes and presents for both performance improvement and product development audiences. He co-edited Getting Results: Case Studies in Performance Improvement and is currently writing a book on improving new product development (and other project-oriented work) through the effective use of performance systems. Timm began his career in 1981 writing training objectives and collecting and analyzing data (and delivering packages) for minimum wage at a small consulting firm in the Phoenix area. In 1983, Timm joined Intel Corp. as an Instructional Designer, where he also held positions as Industrial Engineer and Project Manager. Timm discovered Tom Gilbert's work in 1984 while working on a literature review in task analysis. In 1989, he enticed Tom to present at a local ISPI meeting and then later at Intel. By 1993, Timm and Tom were working on a project together at Intel. This project launched Timm into an internal consultant role for product development teams, which he continued until his departure in mid-1998. Timm enjoys reading and writing, recreational sports, music, traveling, and the theater. His favorite pastime is escaping to the mountains with his wife Shelly, his daughter Jacquelin, and his unruly dog Jas. Timm may be reached at Esque Consulting by email at tjesque@yahoo.com, or by phone at (480) 456-5240. Timm Esque's essays are a regular feature in PI. Through entertaining but thought-provoking essays, the author hopes to stimulate discussion rather than provide answers.Search for more papers by this author Timm J. Esque, Timm J. Esque: is an independent management consultant specializing in setting up sustainable performance systems for organizations, large projects, and teams. Timm frequently publishes and presents for both performance improvement and product development audiences. He co-edited Getting Results: Case Studies in Performance Improvement and is currently writing a book on improving new product development (and other project-oriented work) through the effective use of performance systems. Timm began his career in 1981 writing training objectives and collecting and analyzing data (and delivering packages) for minimum wage at a small consulting firm in the Phoenix area. In 1983, Timm joined Intel Corp. as an Instructional Designer, where he also held positions as Industrial Engineer and Project Manager. Timm discovered Tom Gilbert's work in 1984 while working on a literature review in task analysis. In 1989, he enticed Tom to present at a local ISPI meeting and then later at Intel. By 1993, Timm and Tom were working on a project together at Intel. This project launched Timm into an internal consultant role for product development teams, which he continued until his departure in mid-1998. Timm enjoys reading and writing, recreational sports, music, traveling, and the theater. His favorite pastime is escaping to the mountains with his wife Shelly, his daughter Jacquelin, and his unruly dog Jas. Timm may be reached at Esque Consulting by email at tjesque@yahoo.com, or by phone at (480) 456-5240. Timm Esque's essays are a regular feature in PI. Through entertaining but thought-provoking essays, the author hopes to stimulate discussion rather than provide answers.Search for more papers by this author First published: 07 February 2007 https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.4140380810 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume38, Issue8September 1999Pages 44-47 RelatedInformation

Rapist or "Regular Guy": Explanatory Coherence in the Construction of Mental Models of Others

A model is presented of how people construct coherent representations of others. It integrates work on knowledge representations with Kintsch's construction-integration model of discourse comprehension and Thagard's model of explanatory coherence. A major claim is that parallel constraint satisfaction processes, fundamental to connectionist modeling, play a major role in the development of coherent representations. Several topics are examined: (a) the role of making goal inferences in trait inferences, (b) how people combine apparently inconsistent traits to arrive at a coherent impression, and (c) how this parallel process model can account for findings that have been given a serial interpretation in Trope's two-stage model of dispositional inference and Gilbert's work on cognitive busyness. It is argued that this model provides a more parsimonious but broader explanation for attributions than alternatives.

Extraterrestrial geomorphology: science and philosophy of Earthlike planetary landscapes

Newly discovered extraterrestrial landscapes afford an opportunity for adventitious change in the discipline of geomorphology. This opportunity contrasts with the various programs of stipulative change to the discipline initiated over the past century and leading to the present Systems-Process-Functional-Modeling (SPFM) paradigm among Anglo-American geomorphologists. Planetary geomorphology has been largely irrelevant to this paradigm and has found its home almost exclusively within geology. As exemplified by Grove Karl Gilbert's classic 1893 study of the moon's surface, planetary geomorphology affords a remarkable interplay of inference and observation in understanding nature. The balanced approach to scientific understanding, illustrated by Gilbert's work, has been lacking in some of the puzzle-solving exercises of modern SPFM geomorphology. Recent discoveries concerning Mars and Venus illustrate the role of extraterrestrial studies for enhancing the science of Earthlike planets and particularly Earth itself.

Notes Toward a Translation of L'Étranger

Notes Toward a Translation of L'Étranger LEON LEWIS In April, 1946, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., published Stuart Gilbert's translation of Albert Camus's L'Étranger. Gilbert's work is still the only version of Camus's masterpiece available in the English language in the United States. Like many Americans, I can trace the beginning of my serious affection for Camus to Gilbert's text, but an examination of Camus's writing in his own language has led me to consider some of the limitations of Gilbert's work, and then to attempt to capture the style and spirit of L'Étranger in relatively contemporary American English. For me, the primary difficulty of Gilbert's version is that he has chosen to present die voice and mind of Meursault in a kind of midTwentiedi Century British English. The language with which Meursault dius presents his life is often inappropriate for a French Algerian living in the Mediterranean sun. The vocabulary Gilbert uses locates bodi die logistical and psychological action of die book in a milieu diat does not correspond to die cultural framework of Camus's basic conception . As a typical example, one might consider Gilbert's translation of "répondais toujours à côte" widi die locution "shilly-shallied"; or his translation of "si elle le voulait" with the colloquial "if she was keen on it."1 The conclusion of Part I of L'Étranger is Meursault's passionate reflection on the moment that shattered the structure of his life. Camus presents Meursault's thoughts in a kind of "continuous past" tense that converts the experience of the past into an ongoing narrative present. Leon Lewis teaches literature and directs the Film Program at Appalachian State University. His translation of Valéry's Helene appeared in a recent issue of Cold Mountain Review. 1 Albert Camus, The Stranger, trans. Stuart Gilbert (New York, 1954), p. 52. 18TOWARD A TRANSLATION OF L'ÉTRANGER As Meursault recalls the events of that crucial day in his life, he is attempting to understand what happened by re-creating (perhaps even re-living) the incidents that led to his shooting the Arab. In diis part of Meursault's account, Camus's narrative is driven forward by the pressure and immediacy of the "present" in which the action originally took place. To convey this "present/past" amalgam, I have chosen to make considerable use of the participial form, using the ing ending extensively in the central section of my translation. There are a number of passages in which I have chosen to forsake an absolutely literal reproduction of Camus's words in order to render the sense of the text as I see it. Every translator is compelled to act with similar arrogance on certain occasions, and I believe that die logic of my choices is apparent in most cases. For instance, in my second paragraph (Camus uses only one paragraph for the entire section, while Gilbert divides the passage into four paragraphs), I have translated "vacillé," as "spin," and dien continued the image two sentences later by translating "le ciel s'ouvrait," as "the sky spun open." However, I acted almost out of instinct in translating "détruit l'équilibre du jour," as "destroyed the equilibrium of my life." The word "jour" would seem inescapably to demand the translation "day," but I believe that Camus has developed a conception of Meursault in Part I as a character who lives in a sort of perpetual present in which each day is a conspectus for an entire life, and each moment the epitome of an existence. In this sense, life seems to carry the meaning of the phrase more completely . In addition, as Judith Rothschild has pointed out to me, there is an echo in the word in this context of the "poetic plural" jours, which specifically suggests one's life as an accumulation of one's days.2 My goal is to make it possible for one to say that he has truly read Camus even if he cannot read French. *Dr. Judith Rothchild is the Chairman of the Department of Romance Languages at Appalachian State University. ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW19 The Stranger BY ALBERT CAMUS...

William Gilbert of Colchester: a Sketch of his Magnetic Philosophy

THE immediate occasion of the appearance of this little book is the issue to the subscribers of the Gilbert Club of the English translation of “De Magnete.” The author has attempted, and with real success, to show what manner of man Gilbert was, wherein lay his genius, what were his merits, and what also were his faults and failings. Mr. Benham dwells on the circumstance that, although Gilbert's actual discoveries were few and crude, he must be judged rather by the spirit of his work. “He was not the builder of sciences, but the architect of a truly scientific spirit; and his life-work consisted in the doctrine, new to England, that all scientific knowledge must be. founded on practical experiment and observation alone, instead of upon speculations and theories evolved out of inner consciousness.” The successive chapters of the book deal with the old magnetic philosophies, magnetic motions and electric force, the magnet's “directive virtue,” the variation of the compass, the dip and “orbes of virtue” of the magnet, the life of the Universe (in which Gilbert, although no Manichean, was clearly a believer) and the Copernican theory. The author is particularly happy in his treatment of this last topic; but throughout the analysis of Gilbert's work is accurate and discriminating. The book is illustrated with a picture of Gilbert's terrella, and another of his tombstone in the church of Holy Trinity, Colchester. William Gilbert of Colchester: a Sketch of his Magnetic Philosophy. By Charles E. Benham. Pp. 96. (Colchester: Benham and Co., 1902.) Price 2s. net.

William Gilbert of Colchester, Physician of London, on the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies, and on the Great Magnet the Earth A New Physiology, Demonstrated with Many Arguments and Experiments

AMONG men of science there is no difference of opinion as to the value of the original Latin work, “De Magnete,” of which this is a translation. Some time ago (NATURE, vol. xlii. p. 279) we gave an account of a meeting held at Colchester by members of the Essex Field Club and the Gilbert Club, for the purpose of doing honour to the memory of Gilbert, who was born there in 1540. In a speech delivered at this festival Lord Rayleigh not only spoke highly of Gilbert's work, but went on to say that although we owe to an investigator who lived so long ago the theory that the earth is a great magnet, we are not much in advance of that position at the present time, as nobody has yet explained the origin of terrestrial magnetism. It was most desirable that a work which may be said to have marked a definite stage in the evolution of physical science should be presented in an English form, and this has now been done by an American scholar, who, as he himself explains, has “translated with latitude, keeping in view the author's sense more particularly than his words, and amplifying without altering the former.” Mr. Mottelay has also brought together in a short biographical memoir the leading facts relating to Gilbert's career. The volume is well printed on good paper, and will be very welcome to students of the history of scientific ideas.