E. Sedov

What does this book deal with? Radio? Radar? Television? Electronic Computers?
Any of the above subjects merits a separate book. What is more, such books have already been written. These include special and popular books, big ones and small ones, books for beginners and students, for pupils and for engineers to suit any level of knowledge and any taste. In addition to radar, television, radio communication and computing techniques, electronic devices are used in a number of other fields. Take, for example, such fields as remote control and measurement, the study of molecules, atoms and nuclei, radio astronomy, modern biology and medicine, electronic technology for processing metals, converting thermal energy into electrical energy with the aid of semiconductors.
And all this pertains to electronics, because all fields of technology are in need of electronic devices, and the toiler in them, the one that is untiring, mobile and always ready to serve, is the electron.
Is it possible to then to tell about all this in a single book on electronics and in such a way that the reader would not only become aware that all this exists in the world (which he, probably, already knows without this book), but would understand the principles and operation of various electronic devices, the essence of the methods and ideas?
The structure of this book is somewhat unusual. Those conceptions without which it is impossible to understand the essence of electronics are given in the form of drawings and in the text under the general title "This Lies at the Basis". These sections alternate with short stories which tell of the birth of the conceptions, elements, devices, and what came of it all and what led to what.… (mer)