Pulse Generators

THIS volume of the well-known Radiation Laboratory Series is primarily concerned with high-power pulse generators, or modulators as they are generally termed in Britain. The general policy with regard to this series has led inevitably to a concentration on American practice. This is not a defect, so long as the book is not taken to be a balanced, representative and historical account of the work of the Allies in the modulator field. Typical instances are : (a) A dismissal of mercury thyratrons in a few lines. No hint is given that the British were more successful in developing a 1-5-megawatt valve (C.V.12), and others which were standard in naval and other sets throughout the War. These valves will doubtless be replaced by hydrogen tubes- but they worked at the time, (b) The Americans during the War carried out a great deal of work on rotary spark-gaps, and the space devoted to these and to two-electrode enclosed gaps is again characteristic of their design practice rather than that in Britain. Air-blown three-electrode gaps, for example, are not mentioned, though the British naval 274/5 (1·5 MW.) main gunnery sets used a three-electrode air-blown gap.Pulse Generators Edited by Prof. G. N. Glasoe Asst. Prof. J. V. Lebacqz. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Radiation Laboratory Series, Vol. 5.) Pp. xiv+741. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1948.) 54s.