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NEW BOOKS
Die Interjerenzen won Rontgen und Elektronenstrahlen. By M. YON LAUE. 22 x 15 cm.; 46 pp. Berlin: Julius Springer, 1935. Price: 3.60 RM. During the autumn of 1935 Professor Laue gave a course of five lectures a t Princeton, N. J., and the admirable suggestion of a wider audience has resulted in the production of this small volume. Laue’s name will always be ass&iated with that of other pioneers in the subject of x-ray interferences, and it is a matter of some interest that his latest work explains not only a newly observed x-ray diffraction effect, but also the elusive phenomenon of the Kikuchi lines in electron diffraction by single crystals. The older theory of x-ray interference, as developed by Laue, Darwin, Ewald, and others, was entirely adequate to explain the positions of the diffraction maxima, but failed in certain little-observed respects with regard to intensities. During 1935 a new phenomenon was observed and reported by Kossel and Voges; the x-rays issuing from a single crystal anticathode act a s a source of radiation within the crystal, and interference effects are observed on a photographic plate placed parallel to the crystal face. The theoretical work of Laue and Kohler joins up the older classical theory with the quantum theory in order to explain these effects, and the bridge between the two is Maxwell’s law of reciprocity. The interesting thing is that the new x-ray patterns are, so far as present results go, entirely similar to the Kikuchi patterns of electron diffraction. Although unexplained details remain, the Kohler-Laue theory work provides a comprehensive theory of these effects. In spite of Professor Laue’s mathematical erudition the reprinted lectures are very readable and deserve translation. J . T. RANDALL. Veroffentlichungen aus dem Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut f u r Silikat Forschung in BerlinDahlem. Siebenter Band. Edited by W. Eitel. 29 x 21 cm.; 203 pp. Braunschweig: F. Vieweg, 1935. The annual reproduction in volume form of the published work of the Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut serves two useful purposes; many of the papers appear in somewhat obscure journals and might otherwise be missed. The volume, apart from the individual merits of the papers, is more useful in indicating the trend of fundamental work on silicates in Germany. The present volume contains twenty-five papers, two of which are concerned with problems of Portland cements; another interesting paper by C. A. Becker contains much information on the physical and chemical properties of complicated glasses containing beryllium oxide. The properties of limesoda-silica glasses containing traces of radium and thorium salts are investigated by &I. Heckter, and this is followed by a long study of the system CaO-SiOa-n;InO with the x-ray identification of solid solutions of pseudo-wollastonite and rhodonite. Biissen gives x-ray data on the coefficients of thermal expansion for magnesia, cristobalite, sillimanite, and carborundum. The volume closes with a very long paper by W. Weyl, giving details of numerous absorption spectra for solutions and glasses. One gets the impression that the workers on this interesting subject are tending increasingly to use physical methods for the study and interpretation of their experiments. J. T. RANDALL. Chemical Discovery and Invention in the Twentieth Century. By SIR WILLIAMA. TILDEN. 492 pp. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1936. Price: $4.00. The sixth edition of this meritorious and semi-popular book has been thoroughly revised by Dr. S. Glasstone of the University of Sheffield. In the preface, Glasstone states that the new material has been selected so as to fit in the structure and con-
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tinuity of the earlier editions. Obsolete material has been dropped. The additional subject matter includes theories of atomic structure and molecular architecture, valency, transmutation and disintegration of the elements, heavy hydrogen and its theoretical significance, and artificial radioactivity. The new descriptive matter includes among other topics: coal and petroleum industries, synthetic rubber, plastics, fixation of nitrogen, vitamins, hormones, and plant colors. The book is divided into four parts. I. (a) British laboratories and their uses (this section will always be of historical value). (b) Apparatus. 11. Modern discoveries and theories. Clear and non-mathematical. 111. Modern applications of chemistry. This includes the more recent work on vitamins, hormones, plastics, rayon, and duprene. IV. Modern progress in organic chemistry. There are over one hundred and forty illustrations, including a dozen portraits. The author has used discrimination and good judgment in the selection and treatment of his topics. There are one or two noticeable typographical errors. For instance, I. Langmuir is called 3. Langmuir (p. 241) and W. S. Harkins is called H . S. Harkins (p. 159). The reviser states that though the book was intended originally for “non technical” readers, it contains much which would appeal t o those who have some knowledge of science. Therefore it is a valuable addition to a chemistry library and can be included as collateral reading for general inorganic chemistry courses. LILLIANCOHEN.
Molelculspektren und ihre Anwendung auf chemische Probleme. Vol. 11, Text. By H. SPONER.21 x 14 cm.; xii 506 pp. Berlin: Springer, 1936. Price: unbound, 36 RM. ;bound, 37.80 RM. Volume I (Tables) of this work was reviewed in the December 1935 issue of this Journal. Its high standard of excellence is fully maintained in the present volume. The first two chapters deal briefly with the earlier quantum theory of atomic spectra and the quantum mechanics. Diatomic and polyatomic molecular spectra occupy the third and longest chapter in the book. Certain branches of the subject, however, are omitted and others treated very briefly, either because they have been adequately described in other well-known books of recent years or because they are of comparatively little significance for the chemical problems to which the four remaining chapters are devoted. Chapter IV deals with the determination of chemically important quantities from the analysis of band spectra, chapter V with chemical binding and valency, chapter VI with excitation of molecules by collision nith electrons, atoms, molecules, and ions, and chapter VI1 with other chemical applications of spectroscopic results. The text is well illustrated with 87 figures, including a few spectrograms; figures 15 to 19 (pp. 51 and 54) and figure 43 (p. 118), however, would be niucb more useful if provided with scales of wave-length or wavenumber. A furtliex table of numerical data and a list of references of papers which appeared up t o the autumn of 1935 are provided, so that the tables and text are equally up-to-date. The complete work may confidently be recommended to physical chemists and spectroscopists alike. W. JEVONS.
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