JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
106 tions. The constitution of t,he vsrious types is discussed, uith chemical formulas and with examples in many instances of tradename products. These d m a on both American and European products but are meant to be illustrative rather than inclusive. The raw materials ured and methods of manufacture developed
to all those intereski in t,he fec'hnical aspects of surfactants. CORNELIA T. SNELL
F o m m D. S m m , Iac. NEW Yon% NEW YORX
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CHEMISTRY OF WOOD
Erik HGggIund, Swedish Forest Produds Research Laboratory Stockholm. Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1951. x 16 X 23.5 cm. $13.50.
pp. 86 figs.
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A BOOK reviewer always s b r t s with the preface: and, indeed, b e may lean as heavily on t.hose pages numbered with Roman numerals a t the beginning as he does on the bulk of the writing :itself in a much larger total of Arabically numbered pages. The old Latin books started with an "apologia" but no apology is necessary here. However, Dr. Hsgglund begins his preface: "This b w k is a new, revised English edition of 'Halschemie,' the fimt edition of which was published in 1928. Since the second German edition was published in 1939 great strides have been made in the various fielda of wood chemistry. The results of this new ~-~~~ research have ereatlv " widened our knowledee and have necessitated a revision of many concepts held formehy. A comp a r b n hetween this book and the previous edition clearly illus trates this fact." One additional interesting comparison is that, whereas before World \Tar I1 the text was published exclusively in German in two dit~on.i,the poctwr PC*UIL~h:tw hrcrr rrinfrd in csccllrttt t The ~clntivcgro~~thof inq10rl:tnw E:.ltpli+hIn H I , ~ ( . ~ < i rSwtdcn. ~ ~ of t l w I.:ndi~11I ~ Z&.U ~ E Lin. tIw lirld of tcdonolorv -.of a . ~ i*~ tl~tts indicated. No one is better fitted nor more competent to write a book on this subjeot matter than the author, with his outstanding years of eupe~ienceand direction in the Swedish Forest Produch Researrh Laboratory, one of the great research institutions of the world. Fortunately also, while the title of the book is "Chemistry" the subject matter of the book does not have the pure soientific approach that might thereby be expected; it is almost entirely written from tbe aspect of the industrial utilization and processing of wood along the many avenues which has made this material such an important raw material in the last century from the chemical and semichemical standpoint. Throughout the entire history of mankind's manufactures, or his conversion of raw materials into marc valuable finished products, wood has been the most frequent and versatile raw rasterial for mechanical conversion; and in these more recent years the chemical approach has been an important additional method of utilising wood in an even larger number of ways, and of forming even more valuable finished products. It is this scientific bsckground of this multibillion-dollar industry which is described. The outline of the field of interest, as indicated by the table of contents and by the subject material, follow8 a perfectly scientific exposition of the chemistry, the properties, the reactions with reagents, and the chemical processing involved in the conversion of woody substance to other products. Following the first four chapters (389 pages) on the physical and chemical properties of wood (considering in order the fundamenhl components of wood! there follows one chapter on the saccharification of wood, i. e., the decomposition and dissolution of the cellulose by hydrolysis with acids, while the lignin is relatively nonreacted. The next four chapters (116 pages) are concerned primarily with the pulping of wood and the chomicsl dimolution therefrom of the lignin by all of the different methods which have been proposed and which leave the cellulose relatively nunrracted. ~
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Chapter 9 relates to wood carbonization: Chapter 10 covers caustic fusion ttnd miscellaneous other treatments with alkalies, tars, or phenols; and in all of these both cellulm and lignin are entirely reduc~d-in the one case to give solid charcoal, and in the other liquids or solutions. Finally there are two chapters, 11 and 12, on thebehavior of wood during storage and the natural decomposition of wood by enzymes and microorganisms to give humus, coal, etc. One of the best features of the book is the extremely complete bibliography of references to workers in all countries and in all languages relating to this field. Using Sweden as a center, Professor Hagglund is in an excellent position to survey the contributions to this field of all countries of the world, and he appears unbiased in his inclusion or exclusion of material covered. Most of the important American references are covered. This treatise is primarily concerned with industrial chemistry rather than technology and there are no figures, ffawsheets, or photographs of processing operations. The 86 figures are somewhat fewer t,han a wcll-illustrated book on industrial chemistry would require, but these are, however, excellent graphs of physical d.zt,rtrepresentation and line drawings and photoqraphs of the fiber qtructures and related mechanical aspects of molepular and component organization. The excellent and scientific approach to the coverage of the field is shown by the 50 pages of author index and 16 pager of subject index, giving a comprehensive and carefully organized background for ready reference to almost any subjeot point or publicstion in the field. In addition there is a bibliography a t the end of each chapter or section. As should be expected of a book on wood which has been printed .. . in Sweden, the paper, type, format, and binding are excellent.
While a treatise rather than a textbook. this will be uml h r a r ~ ~ l u natudcntn te (and by e v w y n e clse interested in the liphi) u* r~quircdrcndir~a,and aa a ready point of departure ior the twnendously wlunhous litrr.lrurc in this fiold. ~ l 0
PREPARATION, PROPERTIES, AND TECHNOLOGY OF FLUORINE AND ORGANIC FLUORO COM. POUNDS
Edited by Charles Slesser end Stuart R. Schrarn, Director and Consultant, respectively, Division of Technical Information and DecIassification Service. New York Operations Office. MeGrawHill Book Co., Ine., New York, 1951. xxiii 868 pp. Illustrated. 16 X 23.5 em. $IO.SO.
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T m s book is one volume of z aeries prepared its a record of work done under the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Energy Commission. It is divided into five parts, containing a total of 40 chapters written by 60 different authors, and the editors' names do not appear in the list of authors. The work was done at ra numher of locations, and the chapters are mare or less the summary reports of the different research and development teams. The reader can therefore expect to find considerable variation in style and quality of the different chapters, as well as a considerable amount of duplication. The book is an historical record of development activities done under the stress of war and is an account of technical accompli~hmentsof high order that at their start appeared to be on the verge of the impossible. That much of this is not suitable for industrial use, or has subsequently been made obsolete, does not detract from its greatness or the value of having it available in a written record. Despite the unavoidable duplications in Parts I and 11, they contain much useful information about the preparation and handling of elementary fluorine on an industrial scale. A number of chapters in the other parts of the volume have considerable merit as, for example, chapters 32 and 39. The object of the development activities was the preparation of n varicty of fluorocarbons having different phvsioal properties
