Notices and reviews of professional publications may be inserted under this heading, provided a copy to be deposited in the library of the Institute is sent to the Corresponding Secretary. All reviews must be signed by the reviewer.
Nautisch-technisches Wörterbuch der Marine, by P. E. Dabovich. Published by the editors of the Mittheilungen aus dem Gebiete des Seewesens, Pola, Austria.
The Institute is indebted to the courtesy of the publishers for a copy of the sixth part of this nautical technical dictionary. According to the prospectus the first volume is to give the terms in German, Italian, French and English, and also in Italian, German, French and English. It is to be issued in about twelve parts (Lieferung) of eighty pages each at a cost of two marks each. In the preparation of this dictionary the latest naval works and the official publications of the naval departments of these countries have been consulted. In English, for example, some of the authorities cited are Capt. Nares on orthography of Naval terms; Reed, Rankin and White on naval architecture and machinery; Lloyd’s Rules etc. The German and Italian words are introduced in alphabetical order and are distiguished from each other by the type, full-faced type being used for the German words and italics for the Italian. The typographical execution is excellent, the paper being good, the type clear and the form of the volume convenient. The field which this dictionary seeks to cover being comparatively narrow it admits of greater fullness, and on comparison we find that while this work devotes seventy-nine pages to words from El to Fr, von Albert’s Technologisches Worten-buch gives but forty-three pages of the same size to this division. The rules of the road are given at length under their appropriate heads. It would be manifestly unfair for us to pass judgment upon the whole work from the part before us, yet we cannot refrain from calling attention to the fact that many of the English renderings while literal are not idiomatic, that numerous errors in orthography are committed, and that occasionally French words are used in English sentences. Some examples of the first are der Hochofenguss rendered Iron cast out of the high-furnace; der verdächtige Gesundheitspass, touched bill of health; Fensterschiebe, glass square; Feuerwirkung, performance of the fire; die Eisentheile zur Leitung des Tauwerks, iron works for leading the ropes; and unter Hand fieren, To ease off hand under hand. Examples of the second errors are; serge of the cable; afriction, pledgeds ; heckled and speckless. As this work must be of value to all English speaking officers it is to be hoped that the future parts may be revised by some officers, whose mother tongue is English, before publication.
Almanach für die k. k. kriegs-marine, 1881. New series, 1st year. Published by the editors of the Mittheilungen aus dem Gebiete des Seewesens; Pola.
From the same source we have received a copy of this admirable little pocket book containing a register of the Austro-Hungarian navy, pay tables, extracts from the laws and regulations for the navy, tables, a formula for use in navigation and descriptions of the methods employed, useful tables upon the consumption of coal, the calorific power of coal, strength of material, dimensions of ships and machinery, electrical tables, tables of time, money, and measures, tables of the navies of the world and their armaments and armor, and many other useful tables making it a valuable pocket compendium. It is amusing to find at the end of the table devoted to the United States Navy, “that all data upon the American Navy is little to be depended on.”
C. E. Monroe, Prof. U. S. N. A.