Aug., 1922
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BOOK REVIEWS Catalytic Action. By K. GEORGE FALK.The Chemical Catalog Co., Inc., New York. 171 pp. Price, $2.50 net. This is a continuously readable and interesting review of the subject. While the author has covered the whole field from the history, in “General Views,” to visions, in‘‘ Life Processes,” he has kept constantly in mind a useful conception of one way in which catalytic reactions may occur. Whether they all actually occur in that way is much less important than the fact that the reader is given an interesting and up-to-date picture of the subject. To his mind, all catalyses may involve a combination or “addition” of all the different substances present and a subsequent decomposition into the final products, his criterion of catalysis being that the “composition of one of the initial substances is the same as that of one of the end-products.’’ In this way he includes what has been called negative catalysis and visualizes catalytic reactions in which there is no actual change in velocity. He has not hesitated to describe, in a chapter on “Recent Theories,” most of the various attempts to use absorption of radiant energy in chemical reactions, and he discusses the modern papers of Einstein, McLewis, Tolman, Langmuir, Dushman, Baly, etc. He shows how the work of Stieglitz on imido esters contributes to recent advance. The presence of acid accelerates the hydrolysis or decomposition, because these esters are very weak bases which form highly ionized salts. The ion concentration determines the velocity, and this catalysis thus comes under concentration-effects. It is natural t o want to apply such information t o the catalysis by enzymes and to the many complicated cases in which the hydrogen or hydroxyl-ion concentration so enormously affects the different enzymes. The author here points out the present incomplete state of this part of the subject; yet he arouses in the reader an interest in recent research work, such as that of Loeb, on proteins and colloid behavior. In the chapter on “Contact Catalysis,” the thought is induced in the reader’s mind that through further application of the studies of physical or chemical reactions a t surfaces, a new story of general catalysis may be sought. Adsorption has become chemical reaction in a plane, and here other reactions may occur. They are all based on electronic or magnetic field effects, so the application of the resulting laws and statistical atomic mechanics to three dimensions, or mass-action, seems foreshadowed. The gradual application of the results of study of surface catalysis in processes where the colloidal state of a reagent is evident, and then to such less obviously heterogeneous reactions as enzyme catalysis, is now to be expected, and the applications to cases of simple solutions should follow. Each of the eight chapters is an interesting, iastructive entity. The author refers liberally to the recent literature, and he summarizes for the general chemist the present state of knowledge, even where he is obliged to point out its incompleteness. My own feeling, on finishing this book, was that the author had seen in Langmuir’s work the opening wedge to much new physical chemistry which is fundamental to catalysis. I should like to read the book, which he or another will doubtless later write on the subject, beginning where he now leaves off, “Contact Catalysis.” This book will probably begin with the simple chemical reactions in molecular layers, with due deference to the physical or electrical structures which we have for years attributed t o different molecules without apparently believing that they practically or pragmatically exist W. R. WHITNEY
Sewerage and Sewage Treatment. By HAROLDE. BABBITT, Assistant Professor Municipal and Sanitary Engineering, University of Illinois. 512 pp., 186 figs., 103 tables. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1922. Price, $5.00 net. The author states that this book is a development of classroom and lecture notes, prepared for use in his classes a t the University of Illinois. It covers both sewerage and sewage treatment, much the same ground as does the abridgment of Metcalf and Eddy’s treatise, recently published. In its plan, the book is well adapted to teaching and will serve as a reference book for practicing engineers. Among the subjects which the reader will be pleased to find treated are pumps and pumping stations, contracts and specifications, to which 21 pages are devoted, and the newer processes of sewage disposal, even including a section on electrolytic treatment, the focus of so many trials and the producer of so few results in practice. The arrangement of the book is excellent, and the examples from practice are well suited to instruction. Particularly instructive are the chapters on sewer design and construction and those on sedimentation and trickling filters. I t is unfortunate that in a book intended for students there should be so many arithmetical errors. Examples of this are on pp. 56, 130, and 202, but there are others which need correction. Ten pages of the book, or one-sixteenth of the space devoted to sewage treatment, are devoted to sludge disposal. The failure to devote more space to this, the most important part of sewage treatment, is not peculiar to the author, ‘but is in line with the development bf sewage disposal methods, which, as is well known, pay chief attention to the liquid portion of the sewage. The book would gain in value if more attention were paid to the treatment of industrial wastes, a matter of growing importance, particularly in the region between the Penobscot and the Potomac, and in portions of the Middle West. The book can be recommended to any student of the sanitary arts, even those who have graduated into engineering practice.
R.s. WESTON Dyes Classified by Intermediates. By R. NORRISSHREVE, with the collaboration of W. N. WATSONAND A. R. WILLIS 631 pp. The Chemical Catalog Co., Inc., New York, 1922. Price, $10.00. The justification for any scientific book is the need it fills in research, manufacture, and commerce. From this standpoint, Mr. Shreve has succeeded in placing before the public a book which is unique because it fills a need which no other book known to the writer has attempted to fill. There is probably no large dyestuffs manufacturer in America who has not been forced to face the problem of orientation in installing and operating intermediate plants. The proper correlation of intermediate and dyestuffs manufacture with the ultimate needs of the consuming industries lies a t the root of the successful development of the American dyestuffs industry. Any compilation of facts which aids in the establishment of such correlation is of first aid to the industry, and, irrespective of its scope, will be welcomed because it fills a real need. In the matter of intermediate nomenclature, Mr. Shreve has elected to steer a middle course between the scientific system sanctioned by Chemical Abstracts, and the popular or “trivial” nomenclature common to manufacturing and commercial parlance. For example, the data for 8-amino-l-naphthol-3,6-disulfonic acid are given under “H-Acid,” with cross indexing under the scientific
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name. For technical and commercial use, this is no doubt justifiable, but may retard the adoption of that pure scientific nomenclature for which the author pleads in his introduction. In the glossary of dyestuffs of German and Swiss origin, it is unfortunate that all the current American and English marks were not included. A careful review of the dyes listed under each intermediate reveals the fact that to each dye is assigned a “Schultz” number. The book is therefore an inverted “Schultz Tabellen.” As is well known, many important commercial types are not listed in Schultz, because the composition of such dyes is a commercial secret. If any one of these “unknown” dyes had been included in the new classification by intermediates, it would have been impossible to assign a Schultz number t o it. We are hence forced t o conclude that Mr. Shreve’sbook is primarily a retabulation of Schultz data, with several valuable additions, such as the American import and manufacturing statistics, the intermediate formulas and glossary, the methods of formation of intermediates, and new literature references. Even with such limitations, the book should find a wide field of usefulness. The book is well arranged, and both the author and the publishers are to be congratulated on the general appearance and clear typographic work. CHARLES L. REESE
Vol. 14,No. 8
Practical Tanning. By ALLEN ROGERS,PH.D. 23 X 15 cm. xxvi 4- 699 pp., 124 figs. Henry Carey Baird Co., Inc., 28 West 45th St., New York. Price, $10.00 net.
This book is “partly based on the third edition of ‘Practical Tanning’ by Louis A. Flemming” and, as its title indicates, is concerned almost entirely with the practical details of the conversion of hides and skins into leather. The description of processes is full and complete, and the tanner will find a great number of recipes and formulas from which to choose. There are occasional slips, e. g., roller leather is very rarely “made from lambskins;” sheep are used almost exclusively (p. 231). I n quoting from English sources the author has failed to correct for the difference between the Imperial and the American gallon. Omissions which should be rectified are the recent mechanical methods in liming and the utilization of by-products. The chemist wishing to understand the mechanism of the processes will find only the barest discussion of principles, and then often in so general terms as to be misleading. The descriptions of the formation of sodium hydroxide by electrolysis of the chloride (pp. 85 to 86) and of the theory of chrome tanning (pp. 198 to 201) are confusing, and the theory of arsenic limes is scarcely in accord with the classic research of Stiasny. Analytical methods occupy 80 pages and comprise those in general use in this country. Some discussion of water softening should have been included and also a brief description of recent analytical methods, those of W. R. Atkin and co-workers for lime liquors, Wilson and Kern for tannin, and A. W. Thomas for A Textbook of Chemical Engineering. By EDWARD HART, free mineral acid in leather. PH.D. xiv 241pp. 2ndedition. The Chemical PublishThe book is well printed on good paper, there are only a few ing Co., Easton, Pa., 1922. Price, $4.00. misprints, and the illustrations of tannery processes are refreshIn the preface to the first edition the author writes, “If future ingly modern. I?. L. SEYMOUR-JONES editions should be called for I hope****to prepare a much better treatise on the subject.” The second edition has appeared and differs but little from the first. In the preface to the second Modern Gas Works Practice. By ALWYNEMEADE. 815 pp. edition, Dr. Hart states, “As in the first edition, I have obtained Published by Benn Brothers, Ztd., London, 1921. Price, considerable information not otherwise obtainable from the 55s. net. manufacturers of apparatus whose names are mentioned in the The second edition of this excellent English review of the gas text.” This statement is truly indicative of much of the reading a r t is considerably larger than the first. Chapters on high temmatter offered in the book. There can be no objection to the proper use of .information perature measurement, naphthalene, and the complete gasificagleaned from manufacturers of apparatus, but there is an obvious tion of coal have been added. The portions of the book devoted to coal gas have received danger in using such information in a textbook for the chemical engineering student unless the information is accompanied by a the greatest attention and the detailed descriptions of the vadiscussion of the principles involved and of the relative advan- rious modern types of carbonizing plant should prove extremely valuable to all gas engineers. The chapter on the complete gastages of the different types of apparatus. We find that Chapter I offers a net total of 15 pages on mate- ification of coal is the first concise review of a problem that promrials, including iron, steel, various ferrous and nonferrous alloys, ises to be of greater importance in the near future. The author has added a considerable number of literature refas well as glass, silica, stoneware, cement, paints, etc. Chapter 11, on corrosion, is allowed 5 pages, two of which are tables and er,ences that were entirely lacking in the first edition. In view of one of which complains of the “paucity of information” and the completeness of the work, it is rather curious that practically “obstacles to publication.” Chapter I11 is entitled “Location no mention is made of methods of metering the gas. From an American viewpoint, there are a number of matters of Works.” Chapter IV totals 3 pages on industrial management. Chapters V and VI, on Boilers and Prime Movers, that have not been covered. The statement that “water gas respectively, might well be replaced-such subjects are properly must be looked upon essentially as an auxiliary to coal gas” will covered in mechanical engineering textbooks. Chapters VI1 sound rather curious to American readers, as will the statement and VIII, on plumbing and Qn pumps, might have been made that “Humphrey and Glasgow developed and improved the Lowe apparatus for the manufacture of water gas.” very valuable for the chemical engineer. Air meters on water-gas sets, we are told, are a luxury and the The following chapters (IX to XXI) take up successively some of the unit operations in chemical engineering practice, uiz., automatic control of water-gas apparatus which ha? been so crushing, mechanical handling of materials, dissolving, filtration, successfully used in America has apparently not reached England. In view of the general high standard of the work with the extanks, evaporation, crystallization, drying, distillation, abcellent illustrations and typographical work, these are probably sorption of gases, mixing and kneading, autoclaves, and containers. Of the total 241 pages of material offered in Dr. Hart’s text- minor criticisms. In general, the author is far happier in his book, 5 are allotted to index, and 110 to cuts and illustrations discussion of the engineering features of the design, construction, mostly available in trade catalogs. The remainder of the and operation of the apparatus than in his discussion of the thetext is, in general, descriptive, and very little attempt is made to oretical considerations. It is to be regretted that we have no book covering American practice in this same fashion. discuss fundamentals or basic principles.
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R. S. TOUR
W. H. FULWEILER
