Inventions [antikvár]

TO THE READER This book is based on radio talks given by Dr. Hatfield on the National and on the Empire Short Wave. In one of the talks, Doctor C. E. K. Mees of the Kodak Company f | j gives the story of an early invention of his which, more than any other, made possible the great development of camera work in our time, and of one of the latest inventions now widely used for making colour pictures. For all the rest of the book Dr. Hatfield is responsible, naturally with the help of those who have given him the facts about the latest discoveries. Quite a number of the inventions of which he gives an account are still not on the market. Even when there is no one keeping it off the market for fear of competition, a new idea has almost to be forced on the public by advertisement, and so marketed at a price frequently very much greater than the price of producing it. This book is an example of how readily an account of new ideas interesting to the general public and to the expert may be given in the simplest of all languages, Basic English. There is a tendency for the language of science to become unnecessarily complex, but almost all experts are interested in getting as wide a hearing as possible for their ideas. By writing in Basic English, they make it uimecessary for their works to be put into other languages; almost any person of education in any country will be able, with tittle trouble, to get the sense. When men of science become conscious of this fact, they will be much less ready to make up new words for things which may quite well be talked about in language which is clear 7 I:' N Nv' bl ¦