“Mess Management.” By Lieut. Colonel William E. Dunn, U. S. Army. 106 pages. (Philadelphia: Published by the J. B. Lippincott Company.)
Mess management too frequently is mismanagement. The really successfully managed messes in army, navy or marine corps can be counted on tbc fingers of one hand. Any information on the methods of subsisting men in large groups, or on the manner of accounting for issues of stores with the means to arrive at a correct balance at the end of every working day, should be exceedingly welcome to any person engaged in this work.
Not only has tbc author of “Mess Management” devised a simple scheme of computing costs, but he has devoted 50 and more pages to a tabulation of menus with the weights of all stores used in preparing the meals.
While the text of the book has particular application to messes of the army, rationed under a different system from that used in the navy and marine corps, a little ingenuity on the part of anyone interested could adapt most of the suggestions to the navy ration.
The book is recommended to all officers, petty officers, and non-commissioned officers who are plagued with tbc duty of arranging menus and devising meals for the usual enlisted men’s mess and who are not averse to accepting some mighty good dope on the number of pounds of the various things it takes to feed 100 men, more or less, three good meals a day.
J. M.
“ Recruit Manual.” By Colonel George C. Thorpe, U. S. Marine Corps. 168 pages. (Philadelphia: Published by the J. B. Lippincott Company.)
A small manual with satisfactory explanations of all the important things a recruit should know. While the preface seems to indicate that the book is intended for any recruit, it has been prepared chiefly for recruits of the marine corps and it is to these young men that the volume will be particularly valuable.
Officers and non-commissioned officers on duty at recruit depots will find their not always unruffled course considerably smoothed if this manual can be placed in the hands of every newly arrived recruit.
The section devoted to the explanation of military and naval law in its particular application to enlisted men should go a long way toward reducing the number of “sea-lawyers” in the marine corps.
The manual would be improved by a brief index and a few illustrations in the sections on signals, the manual of arms and squad and company drills. The inclusion of illustrations would merely be an extension of the plan of “ visual ” instruction, upon which Colonel Thorpe, with adequate reasons, lays so much stress.
J. M.
“ The Air Propeller.” By Frederick Bedell, Ph. D., Professor of Physics, Cornell University. Price $1.00 net. (New York: Published by D. Van Nostrand Company.)
This is a pamphlet of some 90 pages, including about 20 pages of diagrams and sketches, intended to give in simple words a practical working knowledge of propeller characteristics, a general knowledge of its theory, and to serve as an introduction to a more detailed study of the propeller, practically or theoretically.
The author first discusses the characteristics of airplane engines that hear on power available for (light, and then proceeds to treat the air propeller, its operation, characteristics, and theory as a rotating areofoil.
The explanation of terms used in connection with propeller operation, and characteristics, and the discussion of the areofoil theory for propellers, are clear and concise, and the subject is well handled.
As an elementary text-book, or for general reading by those interested in aerodynamics, the pamphlet should prove of considerable value.
W. G. D.
“ The Dover Patrol, 1915-17.” By Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon. (George IT. Doran Company.)
From the day early in 1915 when Admiral Bacon took over the command at Dover from Rear Admiral Horace Hood, afterwards lost while leading his battle-cruiser division at Jutland, until late in 1917 when he was himself superseded by Sir Roger Keyes, Admiral Bacon was engaged in what was perhaps the most interesting and stimulating work that fell to the lot of any British flag officer during the entire war.
The Dover Patrol had surveillance of that strategic area between the North Sea and the English Channel, veritably the neck of a bottle through which the vast and vital tonnage of Allied shipping must be kept flowing uninterruptedly and from which the raider and the submarine must be excluded. Across the channel moved a steady stream of transports. During Admiral Bacon’s tenure in office, 120,000 merchantmen were passed through and 5,600,000 troops were carried across without accident to a single man.
The varied activities of the command included besides the management and convoy of this enormous traffic, constant patrol, bombardments of the enemy’s positions, laying of mine barrages, landing and transporting heavy ordnance in Flanders, preparations for the descents on Zeebrugge and Ostend, and many other urgent demands.
Naturally one would expect to find the very best materiel assigned to the Dover Patrol.
Far from it. The bulk of the work was of a defensive character in this water area of 4000 square miles and destroyers were the chief factors of this defense. These were sadly lacking in numbers, for rarely more than nine were available and all were of the older types. On a certain occasion there was but one, and dummy radio signals were made to those absent to make the enemy believe that there were destroyers in the Straits. Units of the force were at all times disposed so as to deny knowledge of their scarcity. Trawler and drifters, as everywhere else, performed yeoman service. Certainly Great Britain properly takes pride in the war work of her fisher folk and the drifter “ skippers.” At Dover they were the main reliance.
Admiral Bacon realized that the needs of the Grand Fleet were paramount and that the Admiralty had full knowledge of the “whole requirements of the navy.” lie says it was his "business to do the best I could with such forces as I had and not grumble.” It was impossible to explain to the British public the inadequacy of the defense of the Straits “ since that piece of information would have been invaluable to the enemy.”
In this theater of war Germany had the initiative. She failed to use it. At other times and in other places, also, was this too apparent. It can be explained in the light of subsequent events that the German Navy had no sea instincts. In Admiral Bacon’s words, “ Naval operations are to a great degree governed by instinct, and instinct is a matter of heredity.” No naval traditions, English sailors said when they beheld that pitiful surrender in the Forth. Nothing to fight for, the Americans put it.
Many times all of us would have liked to change places with the enemy and play the game over again.
It was a great game and the way it was played at Dover is most readable. The accounts of the operations on the Belgian coast, the work with the French, the air patrol, the barrages in the channel, the “incomparable" Sixth Flotilla—all of these are stirring experiences which will live as long as there arc tales to tell of land and sky and sea.
W. T. C.
“ Internal Combustion Engines.” By Wallace L. Lind, Lieut. Commander, U. S. Navy; M. S., Columbia University. 218 pages. Price, $2.20. (Published by Ginn & Co.)
The purpose of the author as expressed in the preface, “ to provide a practical and up-to-date text on internal combustion engines” has been accomplished very successfully.
Briefly relating the history of the subject in the opening chapter, the book goes on to treat in a clear and concise manner the elementary considerations which have led to the development of this common type of power plant, its principal parts, the thermodynamic considerations which are important to its being completely understood and a comparison of the different fundamental types of engines.
Later chapters deal in detail with the engine and appurtenances, carburetion, ignition, lubrication and cooling systems.
The three adaptations of the engine, for automobile, aeroplane and marine use arc given separate consideration, and examples of each type are discussed.
Three principal features of the hook especially commend it: the Trouble Chart which is invaluable to an operating engineer, the excellence of the diagrams and illustrations, and the unusual clarity of the presentation.
F. V. V.