The purpose and scope of this book

In other words, the present book does not aim at being comprehensive in any respect, but is the best compromise the author could achieve between necessary theory and sufficient useful advice. However, here can be found numerous practical, traditional tricks and hints not found elsewhere, because the aim has been to produce a guide and companion for the worker in the laboratory. 

Lest it be thought that the techniques to be described are only for the affluent institution, the author wishes to emphasise that he has only ever worked in under-funded laboratories, was brought up before, during, and after the war in a string-and-sealing wax tradition, and ever heeded Lord Rutherford s exhortation to his team at the Cavendish Laboratory We ve got no money, boys, so we ve got to think. Very many of the author s collaborators came from or went to laboratories far better endowed than his, but were all the better for the lessons learnt in a do it yourself atmosphere. That is also the reason why there are few references to sophisticated, expensive apparatus and why this book may have a slightly old-fashioned look. 

The references given are simply those which are deemed most useful, and there is no pretence that they are comprehensive. The devices quoted are not the earliest nor the most famous, but generally those judged to be of the greatest use and simplicity. 

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