Book Description

Excerpt from A Scientific French Reader: Edited With Introduction, Notes And Vocabulary There is scarcely a science wherein the French do not occupy a leading position. To introduce the American student of science to that rich technical literature of which France is so justifiably proud is the design of this Reader. Having but this purpose in view, I do not, of course, claim to supply in my selections the wants of all scientific schools. But since it is undoubtedly needful for our students to acquire some general familiarity with French technical terms and style, the selections I have made bear chiefly on subjects representative of those branches with which the student as well as the teacher is best acquainted. Electricity has received the largest share of attention in the following pages; its ever-widening future and its daily increasing sphere of usefulness to mankind seeming to warrant the prominence given it. Next come mechanics, physics, chemistry and their various industrial applications. The source from which most of the passages have been drawn is the Revue Encyclopedique, a periodical whose lucid style has done much to popularize recent scientific discoveries and inventions. It is my hope that the cuts inserted will aid the student to grasp more easily the theoretical portions of the text, and at the same time increase his interest in what may appear the more practical selections. While explaining the comparatively few idiomatic constructions met with in the text, from the nature of the case the notes contain references chiefly scientific or biographical in character. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.