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NEW BOOKS
hundred and fifty pages to brief reviews of several hundred pateqts, most of them issued in 1939. The company which puts forth this most useful r6sum6 has also, under the direction of Dr. Egloff, been one of the foremost in the prosecution of research in the catalytic cracking of hydrocarbons, the practical results of which are well known. S. C. LIND. Abridged Scientific Publications from the Kodak Research Laboratories, Volume XXI. 380 pp. Rochester, New York: Eastman Kodak Company, 1939. Abstracts of forty-five researches by forty members of the research staff, which were published during 1939 in twenty-seven different periodicals. S. C. LIXD.
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Heat and Thermodynamics. By J . K . ROBERTS.Third edition. 6 x 9 in.; xvi 488 pp.; 153 figures; 55 tables. London: Blackie and Son,Ltd., 1941. New York: Interscience Publishers, Inc., 1941. Price: $5.00. This admirable text was written for the use of British students taking a University Honors Course in physics; i t seems eminently suitable for physics students everywhere. I t is written from the experimental point of view, and the development of thermodynamical theory is strictly classical. In those sections where results from statistical mechanics and quantum theory are needed, the author introduces these results with brief comment and without attempting to derive them. Although the principles of thermodynamics are presented very lucidly and carefully, the main emphasis is put on experiment. I t is this outstanding characteristic which should make the book invaluable to students of physics and of engineering thermodynamics. It should also be a welcome reference book t o all students who may want to become acquainted with the chief features of the numerous experimental methods employed in connection with heat and thermodynamics. T o illustrate the author’s attention to experimental methods, I might mention the list of topics in Chapter XIV, which deals with power cycles. The subjects discussed are as follows: the working substance, steam engines, the reciprocating steam engine, the Rankine cycle, the entropy-temperature diagram, the Rankine cycle with superheated steam, the calculation of the efficiency of the Rankine cycle, the use of steam tables, numerical calculations,Mollier’s total heat-entropy diagram, the measurement of the performance of a steam engine, multiple-expansion engines, the steam turbine, the reaction turbine, the work obtainable from a turbine, the theory of jets, internal-combustion engines, actual cycles, the Otto cycle, the Diesel cycle, heat losses, refrigeration, the working substance, the cycle of an actual refrigerating machine, the use of the Mollier diagram, numerical calculations, and the Electrolux refrigerator. The chapters dealing with temperature, quantity of heat, production of low temperatures, heat capacity, vaporization, fusion, heat transfer, and radiation contain full descriptions and discussions of the appropriate experimental methods and of the apparatus devised and used by experienced investigators. The chapter on chemical equilibrium, although good as far as i t goes, does not go far enough nor into sufficient detail to satisfy the needs of chemists. Barely B page and a half are devoted to the activity function, and virtually nothing is said about the thermodynamics of solutions, a highly important field t o chemists. Nevertheless, I am convinced that chemists, even though well trained in chemical thermodynamics, would derive great benefit from reading this book by Dr. Roberts; for one thing, they would become much better acquainted with the experimental foundations of thermodynamics. F. H. MACDOUQALL.
