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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 18, No. 1
BOOK REVIEWS Gems and Gem Materials. BY EDWARD HENRYKRAUSAND EDWARD FULLER HOLDEN. 1st edition. vii 222 pages. Illustrated. 16 X 24 X 2.25 cm. Cloth. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1925. Price, $3.00.
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This splendid new work on gems now affords the reading public an opportunity t o sit in on the course of lectures annually given by Professor Kraus a t Michigan and learn from him how t o distinguish the true from the false, the artificial from the natural gem material. This is a rare privilege, as there are very few such courses given in this country and fewer masters of the subject who can put into it what Professor Kraus affords of inspiration and interest as well as of fact and subject matter. This is a book of parts, both figuratively and literally, and in the latter sense Part I deals with the necessary background of optics, crystallography, etc., with occurrence, formation, naming, cutting, and polishing of gems, and with manufactured stones. Part I1 affords a detailed description of each of the many precious and semi-precious stones and with the ornamental stones, and gives a classification of gem materials according to various properties. The latter part of the book contains many useful tables of properties of gems. Sir John Mandeville said more than half a millennium ago, “If a man would buy the diamond it is needful that he know them.” “Caveat Emptor” has not entirely been shorn of its significance. Moral, buy this book. FRANK B. WADE The Chemical Action of Ultra-Violet Rays. BY CARLETON ELLIS AND ALPRED A. WELLS. 362 pages. Illustrated. The Chemical Catalog Co., New York, 1925. Price, $5.00. The scope of this book is much wider than the title suggests, as fully one-quarter of the volume is devoted to biologic and therapeutic effects and miscellaneous applications. The authors have collected a n immense amount of material, which for the most part is presented in the form of brief abstracts of the original papers without comment or discussion. There is evidence of hasty preparation and frequent repetitions occur, which is not surprising considering the enormous number of papers reported. The chief fault of the work is that there is little or no attempt a t classification or criticism. The subjects treated include: Nature of ultra-violet rays and the sources which produce them; mercury arc lamps of various types; protective glasses and filters; observations on photochemical mechanism; reactions of gases in ultra-violet rays; various photochemical and photolytic reactions; the effect of the rays on halogenation reactions; photosynthesis and the formation of carbohydrates and proteins from atmospheric gases; sterilization by ultra-violet rays; biological and therapeutical applications; and miscellaneous observations. I n the chapter on mercury arc lamps sufficient credit is not given t o Arons, who constructed a mercury arc very similar to the Cooper-Hewitt lamp in 1892. I saw this lamp in operation in Arons’ laboratory when I was a student in the University of Berlin in 1895. It was a glass tube about 4 feet long with mercury electrodes and was started by tilting. Some early experiments which I made between 1901 and 1910 and demonstrated at the Royal Institution in London in 1911 appear to have escaped the notice of more recent workers, though they appeared in various scientific publications a t the time. I n this lecture the photography of flowers and other objects by ultra-violet light (quartz lens coated with silver) was described. This the authors have attributed t o Michaud and Tristan. An apparatus attributed t o Andrews for producing ultra-violet light by focal isolation by quartz lenses was described in this lecture and used for the production of phosphorescent effects. It was first used in collaboration with Rubens for the isolation of the longest heat waves known a t t h e time (1910) and is described and illustrated in my “Physical Optics.” The experiment showing t h a t white zinc oxide comes out black (pictured on page 325 and attributed to Nelson and Rundle, 1923) will also be found in the lecture. I n this same lecture the suggestion was made that the ultra-violet rays might prove useful in detecting forgeries, and in the following year I showed that alterations made in documents by chemical ink erasers coul&be
detected in this way, and photographs of such alterations were published in various journals a t the time. In the case of a mortgage submitted by the court in Baltimore the missing words in the document were brought out in the photograph. This use of the rays has been rediscovered and described repeatedly by other investigators. The authors make no mention of the high-power ultra-violet lamp developed during the war-which I have shown in numerous lectures-by which the entire audience in a large auditorium can be rendered phosphorescent in a perfectly dark room; this lamp has been popularized by its employment on the stage in connection with phosphorescent costumes. I n spite of these faults the book will be found of value by many who are working with ultra-violet rays, as a ready means of finding out what has been done on the subject. R. WOOD
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Tables and Graphs for Facilitating the Computation of Spectral Energy Distribution by Planck’s Formula. BY M. KATHERINE FREHAFER AND &ESTER L. SNOW. Bureau Of Standards Miscellaneous Publication 56. 7 sheets. 48 X 60 cm. Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1925. Price, 35 cents. Sheet 1 is devoted to a brief discussion of the Planck formula and the values of the constants used in the computations. Sheets 2 to 6 plot the relative energy distribution a t 10 mp intervals from 400 to 720 mp and from 1000° t o 2P,0OO0 K. The energy a t 560 m p is taken as 100, and the maximum error of the plots is about 0.33 per cent. Sheet 7 is devoted t o tables which give the energy distribution a t fixed temperature intervals. “It has been shown t h a t a number of the ordinary illurninants have a spectral energy distribution t h a t approximates very closely that of a Planckian radiator.” If the illuminant can be matched in color with a black body, then the temperature of the black body is by definition the color temperature of the illuminant. This temperature is not difficult t o determine with suitable equipment, and the spectral distribution of the illuminant can be at once recorded by reading from the charts t h e energy values a t the given temperature. The charts will very greatly decrease the labor involved in making such calculations. MERLERANDALL Cellulose Ester Varnishes. BY F. SPROXTON. 178 pages. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1925. Price, $4.50. For nearly fourteen years Warden’s two volumes on nitrocellulose have been the only textbook on the subject in the English language. These volumes, and a more recent one on cellulose acetate, while usually not considered as particularly interesting reading, are a faithful compilation of all available information essentially unedited, and in the field constitute a sort of cursive Beilstein. It has taken developments of note to cause an author to have the temerity t o bring forth a new work on the cellulose esters. These developments have not been lacking in recent times, particularly in the United States, where a vast business in pyroxylin automobile and furniture finishes has followed the appearance of low-viscosity nitrocellulose. In other countries the development has also been considerable, especially in the case of cellulose acetate for airplane dope. During the war there was naturally a decided improvement in the manufacture of guncotton, which is applicable to all nitrocellulose. Clearly, the time is ripe for new works on the cellulose esters and their application t o industry. Sproxton’s book is written in thoroughly interesting style, and in it a distinctly successful attempt has been made to evaluate the various processes and materials considered. It is modern and in every way a scientific treatise. The writer has clearly set forth the principles underlying the behavior of the cellulose esters. The development of the theory of what various solvents have in common (page 68) is particularly interesting and enlightening. Throughout the book the two commercial esters, the nitrate and the acetate, are considered as parallel materials with closely similar properties, differing only as might be expected from the difference in constitution.
January, 1926
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEiMISTRY
A large amount of space has been given t o the theoretical aspects of the subject, a feature which will tend to make this book one t h a t should not be entirely ephemeral. I t is a book dealing with underlying principles. It should prove of particular interest to students of colloid chemistry. The industrial application of pyroxylin is treated, but hardly in a way to be of great value to many American readers. The a r t of pyroxylin manufacture and application is much further advanced in the United States than is apparently the case in England, where the book was written, and technical articles which are constantly appearing in our journals may perhaps be of more direct application to our interests. It must not be thought, however, that this book is not valuable for the development of a broad viewpoint concerning pyroxylin, for it would be hard t o imagine one more educational in this respect. To the American reader i t constitutes a first-class work on cellulose acetate, for the (in the U. S. A.) lesser known acetate is treated together with nitrate. By this critical comparison one may proceed from the more familiar t o the less and secure an excellent working knowledge of the acetate. The writer has treated the subject in a novel manner and has added new material. He has been very successful in setting forth general principles underlying cellulose esters and in comparing the two commercial types. E. C. CROCKER
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their respective initial letters, although all these subjects receive adequate treatment in various parts of the book. The book is a distinct advance over the contact-process portion of the work claimed as its antecedent. It is, perhaps, as nearly up to date as is practically possible in its treatment of modem technical equipment. It gives adequate consideration to American practice, and will be valued as a reference work by all English-speaking chemists and engineers interested in the manufacture of sulfuric acid. ANDREW Irf. FAIRLIE Chemistry in Industry. Volume 11. A Cooperative Work Intended t o Give Examples of the Contributions Made to Industry by Chemistry. Edited by H. E. HOWE. 392 pages. The Chemical Foundation, Inc., New York, 1926. Price, 81.00.
The general reader who wants to keep up with the progress of the world finds the greatest difficulty in getting recent and reliable information as t o industrial processes. New materials suddenly appear as though by magic in his home, office, or shop, and he does not know where they come from or how they are made. The textbooks and encyclopedias are a decade or two behind time, and those who are intimately concerned in the The Manufacture of Sulfuric Acid (Contact Process). Vol. IV industries are apt to be unwilling t o make public the secret of their achievements. Particularly confusing is the fact that new of the Lunge and Cumming series on the Manufacture of materials for the most part appear in public a t first in disguise, Acids and Alkalis. BY FRANK DOUGLAS MILES. 427 pages. like the princes in fairy tales. Celluloid introduces itself in the 133 figures. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1925. Price, guise of ivory, bakelite camouflages as amber, and rayon parades as silk. This habit of introducing new and unknown things $12.00. under the mask of old and familiar things is not so much the fault This work is virtually a new book-not a revised edition of of the chemist as it is of the public, which is unwilling t o credit Lunge. This is evident from the mere fact t h a t the fourth the chemist with the power to surpass nature in any respect, edition of Lunge disposes of the contact processes in 182 pages, and the education of the public t o the use of a new substance, whereas in this new’volume 408 pages, exclusive of the index, or even of a new word, is a slow and very expensive process. are devoted to this subject. Perusal of the work confirms the Consequently “Chemistry in Industry,” of which the second impression t h a t here we have a new treatise on the contact volume has just appeared, fills a very real need, and should take processes for the manufacture of sulfuric acid. The treatise its place a t once upon the open shelf o f any public and college is both theoretical and practical, and the scientific and technical library. aspects of the subject are evenly balanced and have received The editor, H. E. Howe, occupies a strategic position t h a t puts adequate treatment by a competent author. Much obsolete him in touch with scientific research and industrial progress in matter in the Lunge editions has been omitted, and modern all fields of chemistry, and the twenty-two chapters are written practice has received its full share of space. The importance by experts in each subject. Naturally they differ greatly in their of physical chemistry t o the subject is duly recognized. conception of what the reader knows, and wants to know, and The illustrations have been appropriately chosen, and the in their ability to present their subject in a vivid and attractive nomographic charts will be of real use to technical chemists way. But if there is any person who can run over the pages engaged in this field. Chapters VIII, IX, and X, devoted t o of this volume and not find anything that interests him, he must consideration of the Grillo, Tentelew, and Mannheim processes, be a n individual of exceedingly limited interests and a very unrespectively, present with commendable precision the points interesting personage himself. of difference between these several processes. For it is a marvelous story of chemical progress that is presented Appreciating the great labor and the profound study and in these snapshots of various factories, and the processes and thought involved in the preparation o f an authoritative work of products here described have entered into the common life of this character, one hesitates to criticize adversely a t all; but every person in the land. I t is impossible to understand modern to be fair some adverse criticism seems necessary, and is offered civilization unless one knows something of its foundations which in the hope t h a t it may be helpful in the improvement of future lie in applied science, and particularly in chemical manufactures. editions. It is chemistry that is making history nowadays, and the political, Some data of doubtful value are included-for example, social, and international questions of the day are in many cases Winkler’s and Messel’s specific gravity tables on page 45. Some determined by some chemical factor, often unseen and unrealized important relevant matter is omitted; for instance, no detailed by the statesmen who consider themselves to be in control of the description was found of the electro-titrimeter or Wheatstone world’s affairs. bridge apparatus for continuous automatic indication of the For instance, aviation is commonly recognized as the destrength ot the acid circulating over the final absorber, by means cisive factor in national power. Yet few people realize in how of which the quantity of drip, or “feed,” acid can be readily far the airplane and the airship are dependent upon chemical controlled. Scant reference t o a similar apparatus was found materials, as is here explained by C. W. Seibel of the Helium on page 71, but even this could not be located by the index. Division of the Bureau of Mines. The same importance atDigests of patents encumber the text. They should have been taches to the chapter on Military and Industrial Explosives, relegated t o an appendix, especially as many of the patents by Charles L. Reese of du Pont de Nemours & Company. cited were useless and were never worked. This idea of grouping the subjects by industries instead of The reviewer noticed a number of errors, mostly oversights according t o chemical composition is a useful one, because i t of the proof-reader, which could be corrected in a subsequent brings together the varied chemical contributions to any branch edition. of business or human activity, and shows how materials from The arrangement of the component parts of the book is per- widely different sources may supplement and support one another. haps a question of taste. Chapter VI, on Gas Puriiication, For instance, one would hardly realize what a wide range of novel seems t o belong ahead of both Chapter IV, on Catalysis and and rare elements is utilized in the manufacture of incandescent Contact-Mass, and Chapter V, on Converters. Admitting lamps for illumination and radio, until he has read the chapter t h a t burners and burner gas received full treatment in Volume 1 on that subject by Mary R. Andrews, of the General Electric of this series, some brief mention of these topics, with references Company. t o the more complete discussion in Volume I, would seem useful Personally, the chapters that have interested me most are following Chapter 111. I n Chapter VI1 i t would seem logical those on Casein and on Glues and Gelatins, probably because t o place the discussion of the cooling of the sulfur trioxide gases they contain the most that I did not know, or a t least did not before the description of the sulfur trioxide absorbers, rather realize. The chapter on Paints, Varnishes, and Colors, by Henry not A. Gardner, will be a revelation to every one except those who are than at the end of the chapter. Apparently the index particularly good; for example, the words “Analysis,” Con- closely connected with the industry. Another of the amazing trol,” “Estimation,” and “Sampling,” do not appear under achievements of modern chemistry is the manufacture of syn-
