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INB US TRIAL AND ENGINEERINC CHEMISTRY
5‘01. 23, No. 10
BOOK REVIEWS Artificial Resins. BY J. SCHEIBER AND K. SANDIG.Translated from the German by E. FYLEMAN. 447 pages, 22 figures. Isaac Pitman and Sons, New York, 1931. Price, $9.00, It will be pleasing t o the many people interested in this chemical field to know that this excellent book is now available in English. The translation is well made. The original text is closely followed without the introduction of a certain stiffness in style frequently observed in translations. Minor deviations from the original text are to be noted. For example, the “Table of Contents” has been condensed and the author and patent indexes omitted. The subject matter is divided into three parts: general, theoretical, and practical. The general part contains a discussion of the nature of the resinous state. The theoretical part is written from a chemical viewpoint and should appeal t o all chemists interested in synthetic resins whether students, research workers, or industrialists. The practical part reiterates, to some extent, the subject matter discussed in the theoretical part, but in a manner that correlates both viewpoints. This should appeal to chemical engineers and technicians engaged in the manufacture and use of synthetic resins. For a field in which, a t the time the text was written, the literature consisted largely of patent letters, the authors have produced a commendable scientific presentation. Moreover, they have added, in a number of places, their own comments, thereby increasing the value of their work. This book is to be recommended to all who are engaged in the field of synthetic resins.-R. H. KIENLE The Chemical Activities of Micro-Organisms. BY A . J . KLCYVER. 109 pages. University of London Press, Ltd., London, 1931. Price, 4 s. 6 d. This volume is made up of three lectures delivered by the author at the University of London. He presents the evidence for his views on the chemical mechanisms utilized by a number of bacteria in their metabolic activities. Doctor Kluyver’s hypotheses have the merit of being simpler than many others proposed for these reactions, but there is some question as to whether the complex activities of micro-organisms can be fully explained by means of oxidation-reduction phenomena, consisting solely of inter-molecular and intra-molecular transference of hydrogen. The author believes that there is no essential difference between the transformation of enzymic and vital biochemistry, and that the same types of reactions take place in each case. If this is true, and his chemical changes are of the simpler and universal type claimed by him, the highly developed specificity of enzymes is denied and the number of these substances which has been postulated is greatly decreased. All of which is a step towards the simplification of biochemistry and a consummation devoutly to be desired.-H. T. HERRICK
esting, and gives a very good picture of when, where, and by whom the fundamental developments, out of which modern chemical industry has grown, were made, as well as some idea of the troubles of pioneers. Few, for instance, are probably acquainted with the eight unsuccessful attempts to commercialize the ammonia soda process prior t o Solvay. Chronological diagrams showing the development, respectively, of the heavy chemical industry and the dyestuffs industry in Great Britain give an excellently condensed idea of the nature and extent of the integration of those industries. In general, the book affords a clear and fairly accurate picture of the fields of activity of nearly all the British chemical and allied manufacturers of any importance. This picture is clearest in the chapter on “Drugs and Fine Chemicals,” about half of which is given over to a descriptive list of companies, and vaguest in the chapters on the fermentation industries and cellulose, which are confined largely to an interesting general description of technological advances. Particularly well done are the interspersed though necessarily concise accounts of the careers of outstanding pioneers, both technologists and entrepreneurs, of whom the book contains 33 portraits. Page 110 carries the following statement: “Prior to the year 1909 i t had been found that maize on fermentation yielded a good potable spirit.” I s it possible that the mint julep did not make its appearance in England till just before that date?F. A. LIDBURY
A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry. Volume XI-Te, Cr, Mo, W. BY J. W. MELLOR. 909 pages. Longmans, Green and Co., New York, 1931. Price, $20.00. This, the eleventh volume of Doctor hlellor’s well-known and most comprehensive treatise on inorganic and theoretical chemistry, is fully up to the standard of those that have preceded it. The work covers the chemistry of tellurium, chromium, molybdenum, and tungsten in detail. Not only is the chemistry of these elements quite adequately summarized from the literature, hut each chapter contains, as heretofore, a most excellent bibliography of original references. The volume is so complete that little more can be said in the way of revietl., and so comprehensive that any real review could be little less than an abstract of the book itself. The character and standing of the series among the chemists of the world makes further comment unnecessary.-C. L. PARSONS
Handbuch iiber die Herstellung und Verwendung der Druckfarben unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Druckhilfsmittel. BY HANSHADERT. 211 pages. Otto Elmer, Berlin, 1931. Price, 7.50 mafks. This paper-bound book deals with a subject that is very much a specialty: the preparation and use of printing colors. The technology of printing colors is restricted to those who are responsible for making vehicles and pigments and compounding A History of the British Chemical Industry. Bv STEPHEX them for inks, a comparatively small group. Being an art, the information required by its devotees is more or less empirical, MIALL, 273 pages. Ernest Benn, Ltd., London, 1931. Price, and success in this field can come only of a very thorough working 10s. 6 d. knowledge of the properties of printing inks in general and their components in particular. I n such a small space it is obvious This book was “written for the Society of Chemical Industry that little more can be done than outline the general characterison the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of its foundation,” tics of inks and the general methods of making and using them. and has that curiously unsatisfactory quality often met with in The discussion starts with a very brief historical outline of the occasional publications. Attempting, in 273 pages, to be in subject and then continues with a description of the raw mateturn a sort of semi-popular treatise on technology, a chronology, a trade directory, and a set of biographies, it falls between four rials, varnishes, and color bodies, including carbon black. Next, stools, to which a fifth is only lacking because of the almost entire black printing ink, the most used of all, is described. A comparatively long chapter is devoted to the making of avoidance of statistical figures, which leaves one with an empty linseed oil varnish and its standardization, especially with respect feeling on the quantitative side, all the more pronounced because, in most of the cases in which the rule is departed from, $e author to its viscosity. This is followed by a description of colored inks for newspapers, illustrated by cuts of a number of the machines, takes a sudden jump from Britain to the world, thus: Upwards of 20,000 tons of British-made Portland cement were sent to con- then two-tone colors are described and certain special blacks struct the docks a t the port of Le Havre between 1865 and 1871, with recipes. Finally there is a chapter on making carbon black, and since then the industry has grown very rapidly, until now with illustrations showing the type of equipment, etc. (In upwards of sixty million tons of Portland cement are made in this country no maker of printing inks would ever think of producing his own carbon black, and therefore this chapter would be different parts of the world each year.” Nevertheless, if not the thorough and systematic sort of treatise merely informative to him.) The chapter of ink colors has a list that might be expected from its title, the book is extremely inter- of the requirements that should be specially demanded for
October, 1931
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
printing inks, such as covering power, effect on the rate of drying, fastness to oil, etc. The chapter on the preparation of colored lakes occupies 12 pages and obviously again it does no more than give a very brief outline of the general methods together with a few recipes. This is followed by a list of the most important dyes, described by their current trade names in Germany, of course, so that the user in this country would have to be familar with the various nomenclatures or get somebody t o translate the names for him. Recipes are given for the precipitation of the synthetic dyestuffs described previously. There follows a dictionary of colored lakes, again from the point of view of the German trade. Printing colors for use in water are next taken up and then colors for steel and copper engraving. Inks for porcelain, bronzing, and a number of miscellaneous inks are described, but the descriptions are not more than to state that special inks are needed, for instance, for printing Cellophane, and that they are available. There is nothing in the text that would enable the user of these colors to prepare them. The material for making printing rolls is described and a long list covering 28 pages of printing colors and assistants made by German firms is given, all of which would be of no particular value to the American reader. There are two excellent tables: the first describing some difficulties met in using printing inks, their cause, and their treatment; and the second, suggestions for overcoming difficulties that may be encountered in the actual use of the ink in the printing process. These tables, together with a table of compatibles in printing inks, are probably the most useful part of the book to the American reader. All in all it may be said that this little work is excellent but that it is difficult to see how it can be of much service to the American reader. I t is not a textbook; it is more a practical description of the making and use of printing inks taken up empirically and referring entirely to conditions as they are found in Germany. It would be admirable in the hands of a beginner in the art whose future lay in Germany. The material is not fundamental enough to be used internationally. It is practical rather than scientific and suffers from the natural limitation that even the best practical book encounters, that of being restricted rigorously to the field of which it treats.-R. E. ROSE Taschenbuch fur die Farben- und Lackmdustrie sowie fur den ~ ~ SCIILICK, ~ , AND einschliigigen Handel. BY HANS\ % r ~ W. HANSWAGNER.7th edition, 416 pages. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, m. b. H., Stuttgart, 1931. F’rice, 12.50 marks. The new edition of this useful little handbook of the paint and varnish industry has been enlarged and brought further up to date. The general arrangement and classification remains the same. Part 1 lists the raw materials, their properties, and specifications, with special attention given to pigments. Common types of oils, resins, and solvents are also described. Part 2 describes vehicles and wetting agents for paint of the cold-water type. Part 3 deals with materials and formulation of spirit- and cellulose-type lacquers, driers, treated oils, and oil varnishes. Part 4 gives various specifications for pigments and finishes required by the German railway association, etc. Part 5 describes detailed methods of analysis and testing of materials and finishes. I n Part 6 miscellaneous items of interest to the paint and varnish industry are grouped together. Numerous tables are included. The book is interesting to those who are Eollowing the German literature in this field and who will appreciate the dictionary tables of chemical terms to describe scores of proprietary names for plasticizers, solvents, diluents, etc. While some of the subject matter is obsolete so far as American industry is concerned, the volume is a distinct adjunct to a paint and varnish reference library.-ROBERT J. MOORE Technologie der Technischen Ole und Fette. BY JULIUS SWOBODA.460 pages. Ferdinand Enke, Stuttgart, 1931. Price, bound, 32.50 marks; paper, 30 marks. This book is divided into three sections and an appendix. The first section of 298 pages is devoted to technical oils; then follows a section of 6 i pages which treats of technical fats; the third section deals with the testing of the physical and chemical properties of lubricants. The appendix gives specifications for oils and fats in the United States, Austria, Italy, and Rumania, and also specifications set up by certain German firms for the purchasing of lubricants. After an interesting theoretical discussion on lubrication, the volume opens with a general treatment of the various types of
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bearings and the mechanical appliances necessary for introducing lubricants into bearings. This is followed by a description of animal fats and oils, also vegetable fats and oils which may be used as lubricants. There is a very good description of the method of manufacturing synthetic oils by the Voltol process. Then follows a description of mineral oils of all types from those suitable for lubricating machinery from watches to the heaviest kinds. There is also a chapter on special technical oils for a large variety of uses. The section on technical fats and greases describes methods of saponifying various oils and fats and discusses various types of greases, as well as the equipment necessary for their manufacture. I t also discusses a variety of special uses for lubricants of this type. The section on physical and chemical testing of lubricants describes the methods usually employed, as well as the equipment required. The book is profusely illustrated with cuts of equipment used for the manufacture of lubricants and machinery to which the lubricants are applied, almost entirely illustrations of instruments and machinery made in Germany. The various data and constants are given in the units generally employed in Germany, but numerous conversion tables are supplied so that the values may be read off in units employed in other countries, including the United States. The book is written in a clear style and contains a large amount 0. of information useful to manufacturers of lubricants.-C. JOHNS
Erganzungsband zum Laboratoriumsbuch fiir die Glasindustrie. BY L. SPRINGER.119 pages. William Knapp, Halle, Germany, 1931. This volume is, as the title indicates, a supplement to the second edition of the Laboratory Book, published in 1925, and is not a revision of the entire work Additions include new physical and chemical tests of the finished product. Analytical methods for glass have not as yet reached the degree of perfection attained for raw materials and testing the resistivity of the finished product to various agents. In analysis, the investigator still finds it necessary to adopt general analytical methods which fit the particular glass after 3 qualitative determination of its components or constituents has been made. The supplement contains five chapters-namely, I, examination and evaluation of raw materials; 11,examination of batches, composition, decolorizers, and making trial melts; 111, examination of the finished product for chemical composition, chemical properties of the product, physical properties of the product, examination of defective glasses; IV, study of accessories, such as refractories and clays, decoration of the glass, etching, etc.; and V,studies on heating and fuels, such as examination of the fuels, testing of gases used, draft measurement, and temperature measurement. The supplement chapters are numbered the same as those in the second edition of the main book to facilitate reference. The supplement is generously illustrated with up-to-date optical and other physical testing instruments Numerous studies with the microscope are also illustrated. The thoroughness of the author in former publications is again in evidence in this supplement.-rlLExANDER SILVERMAN Dechema Monographien, Band 3 , Nr. 13-37. Die RationaliGESELLsierung in der chemischen Fabrik. BY THE DECTSCHE SCHAFT FUR CHEMISCHES -4PPARATEU’ESEN E. v. 283 pages, 128 illustrations. Yerlag Chemie, Berlin, 1930. Price, paper, 12.50 marks. The idea of “rationalization” in the chemical plant, the central theme of this third volume of industrial chemistry monographs, embraces, by definition, an adjustment of the plant personnel to a time-work plan, conversion of the mechanical processes to automatic and continuous flow, and elimination, so far as possible, of the human element. In harmony with this general scheme, the twenty or more papers contributed by leading engineers and chemists are devoted to the description of new technical processes and appliances, with subjects ranging from the uses of aluminum and its alloys as construction materials in the chemical industries to the recovery of solvents and the purification of drinking waters with activated carbon. These reviews, although brief, are up to date and unquestionably authoritative, and this volume with the others of the series will take its proper place on the reference shelf of the technical library.-H. L. OLIN
