Another "Outline"

People laugh at Sir Francis Bacon nowadays because he said: "I take all learning to be my province." Yet, if anyone has in his library the series of "Outlines" published nowadays--The Outline of History, The Outline of Science, The Outline of Literature, The Outline of Art* he has set out rather definitely to follow Bacon's mindsteps. The latest addition to this type of library is A Popular History of American Invention published in two volumes by Charles Scribner's Sons and sold for $10. The editor is Waldemar Kaempffert, formerly of the Scientific American, now of Popular Science Monthly. A whole series of scientific writers contribute a whole series of articles, readable and comprehensive, profusely illustrated under five major headings comprising groups of special histories: 1) TRANSPORTATION : railroads, waterpower, electric cars, automobiles airplanes; 2) COMMUNICATION: printing, typewriting, telegraphy, telephony, radio, photography, motion pictures, phonographs; 3) POWER: steam, electricity, illumination; 4) EXPLOITING RESOURCES : iron and steel, copper and "nobler metals," oil, coal, lumbering, cotton, agriculture; 5) LABOR SAVING DEVICES: automatic tools, pneumatic devices, sewing machines, shoemaking machines.

*THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY--H. G. Wells --Macmillan (2 vols., $10.50; 1 vol., $5.00). THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE--T. Arthur Thomson--Putnam (4 vols., $18.00). THE OUTLINE OF SCIENCE--J. Arthur water--Putnam (3 vols., $13.50). Putnam (2 vols., $9.00). THE OUTLINE OF ART--William Orpen--Putnam (2 vols., $9,00).