The great favor with which the first edition of this little work has been received and the steadily growing interest in its subject, together with many valuable improvements and researches, may be given as the reasons for this new edition. The book has been thoroughly revised, partly rewritten, and considerable new matter, with twenty-six new illustrations, added. It has been brought up to date as far as electrical science has gone. To detail all that has been done is too great a task for a preface; we may briefly mention the following new matter: Coils for gas and automobile engines; medical coils, concise directions for operation and repairs; new forms of contact breakers, including electrolytic and mechani cal; gas-lighting apparatus; primary and secondary batteries. The chapter on X-Ray Apparatus has been entirely rewritten, and is thoroughly practical; and an entire chapter on Wireless Telegraphy has been added. In a book of this size it is not feasible to give specific directions and full dimensions for the manufacture of all the apparatus described. Indeed, much of the latter must be adapted to the particular purpose for which it is to be utilized. Again, the same amount of material will not always produce the same results. A little closer winding, greater pressure applied to the cooling wax of a condenser, and the output or capacity of either is changed. Matters purely of design or taste are to be governed by the creative faculty of the worker; but such general details and rules are given as will be sufficient to enable one possessing ordinary constructive ability to make his own apparatus. The whole process of coil-making does not require high mechanical skill, but chiefly patience and attention to details; and, perhaps best of all, but few tools are needed, all of a simple kind. We beg to acknowledge courtesies received from Messrs. Queen & Co., the Scientific American for frontispiece and Fig. 13, Mr. Goldingham's book on Oil Engines for Fig. 12, and others who have been of assistance to the author. The best American and English practice has been adopted; the American standard gauges and sizes of wires are used, except where noted. A list of works, particularly of value to the coil worker, will be found following the index. H. S. Norrie (Norman H. Schneider.) April, 1901. I - Coil Construction In commencing a description of the Ruhmkorff coil and its uses, a brief mention of the fundamental laws of induction directly bearing on its action will assist in obtaining an intelligent conception of the proper manner in which it should be constructed and handled. Any variation or cessation of a current of electricity flowing in one conductor will induce a momentary current in an adjacent conductor; and if the second conductor be an insulated wire coiled around the first conductor, also a coil of insulated wire, the effect is heightened. The intensity of the secondary or induced current increases with the number of turns of its conductor, the abruptness and com pleteness of the variation of current in the first or primary coil, and the proximity of the coils. And the insertion of a mass of soft iron within the primary coil by its consequent magnetization and demagnetization augments still further the inductive effect. There are other contributing causes which cannot be treated of here, but are of not so much importance as the foregoing.