INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
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it is thought ethyl alcohol is or may be present. If the number of such mixtures could be diminished and if the label could truthfully state that the solution contains no ethyl alcohol, but does contain something which, if taken internally, may cause serious sickness-if, for example, the public ceased to expect to find an intoxicant in the automobile radiator--conditions might be improved. It must be admitted that the attempts to provide industrial or “non-beverage” ethyl alcohol are failing in many instances; the recent appalling results in connection with “ginger paralysis” seem to be a case in point. REID HUNT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL BOSTON,MASS. July 11, 1930
Decomposition of Steam b y Copper Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: The correspondence appearing on page 402 of the April issue, concerning the question of the decomposition of steam by metallic copper, may be answered by direct experimental evidence or by thermodynamic calculations. Some time ago the Pacific Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines undertook t o make direct determinations of the equilibria between hydrogen, cuprous oxide, water vapor, and copper. Because of lack of certain specific heat determinations, a published exposition of the results obtained may not be given until these heats are determined. Measurements of the specific heat of copper and its oxides are now under way a t this station, but I may perhaps anticipate the publication of our work by summarizing the results of direct equilibrium measurements. When steam at 1 atmosphere pressure comes to equilibrium with copper, there are found the following concentrations of
Vol. 22, No. 8
hydrogen gas: a t 900” C., PHZ = 0.0104mm.; a t 950’ C., 0.0150; at 1000’ C., 0.0207; at 1050” C., 0.0283. It is obvious from the above that, if a stationary atmosphere of steam is maintained over copper a t these temperatures, the oxidation produced will be so small as t o escape notice, provided the steam has been freed from the air content of water from which it was made. However, if a continuous stream of steam is passed over copper, oxidation will take place. The amount of oxide produced will, however, be minute compared with the amount of steam used. The magnitude of the hydrogen pressures given above is confirmed by calculation from the free energy of cuprous oxide, which is now known. When our specific heat measurements are complete, detailed description of our results is planned for publication. CHARLES G. MAIER PACIFICEXPERIMENT STATION u. s. BVREAUOF MINES BERKELEZ,CALIF. April 9, 1930
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Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: The letter from Charles G. Maier, of the Bureau of Mines Pacific Experiment Station, at Berkeley, Calif., is a welcome contribution to the consideration of this question. We certainly appreciate very much the information that Mr. Maier has contributed and feel that the results he has obtained are, quite in harmony with practical observation. It has been found that copper may be annealed in a n atmosphere of steam that is quiescent, and that the surface will remain bright. I n a flowing atmosphere, however, this seems to be quite impossible. We appreciate very much the contribution that Mr. Maier has made and will await with considerable interest the further publication of the results of his work. R. J. COWAN THESWRFACE COMBUSTION Co., INC. TOLEDO, OHIO June 23, 1930
BOOK REVIEWS The Condensed Chemical Dictionary.
Compiled and edited by the editorial staff of the Chemical Engineering Catalog. FRANCIS M. TURNER,Editor. 2nd edition, completely revised and enlarged under supervision of Thomas C. Gregory, Editor, and Isabelle M. Welch, Assistant Editor. 551 pages. The Chemical Catalog Company, Inc., New York, 1930. Price, $10.00.
Inasmuch as eleven years have elapsed since the last edition of the Condensed Chemical Dictionary was published, it was believed that the new book would be a considerable improvement upon the old one. In height and width the book is the same size as the former edition, but it is only three-quarters as thick. It is available in two bindin s, the stiff and flexible, both of which have thumb indexes. !‘he editors state that it contains approximately 12,000 items as compared with 7000 in the former edition. The large increase in items and the decrease in size have been accomplished by adopting a much smaller type size, together with the elimination of waste space on the pages. In this form the book is easy to handle and occupies a minimum of room on a library shelf. All of the old items have been retained and a very large number of the chemicals and solvents developed in the last decade have been added. The style of the arrangement of the data on chemicals has been retained, but container sizes are now given and the data on applications have been materially increased. It is also noted that more information on grades has been given. As in the earlier edition, many of the data have been taken from the literature and a list of the books and periodicals consulted is given. The editors add that many of the items have either
been contributed by specialists or reviewed by them and also that most of the prominent chemical manufacturers have cooperated by supplying data on products of their manufacture. Many of these data have not heretofore been published. Those who have used the old edition will undoubtedly be pleased by the discovery of an encyclopedic treatment of raw materials, chemicals, and trade terms. This feature has been restricted rigidly to the fundamentals of each subject. Illustrative of the scope of this treatment are such items as chromium plate, dyes, Prussian blues, natural gas, tin plate, waxes, fuel oil, activated carbon, rayon, glue, gun powder, etc. The important corrosion-resisting alloys are covered by statements as to their composition and resistivity to various corrosives. The treatment of the common commercial metals has been altered somewhat and very complete commercial applications are given. The text includes much tabular matter giving analyses and other pertinent data. The appendix has been expanded to over 63 pages as compared to 23 pages in the earlier edition. It contains tables which will be of value, not only to technologists, but to many others connected with the chemical and allied industries. A feature of interest to all those who store, pack, and ship chemicals and raw materials is a complete revision of the information on fire hazards and methods of shipping hazardous materials. This section of the work has been done by C. P. Beistle, chief chemist of the Bureau of Explosives. The editors evidently have restricted the items to chemicals, raw materials, and materials of construction used in the chemical and allied industries, The information given is a combination of technical and commercial data which will be of practical use both to the technologist and the layman. It will also be welcomed by college professors because the encyclopedic data pro-
