a changing technology, and industrial location. Kenneth Warren, who is a lecturer in geography a t the Oxford University, recanstructs the past by interweaving themes from geography, economic history, and the history of technology. His primary assertion is that shifts in plant site location were a coasequence of the changing economic and technological conditions in the alkah industry. T h e methods of large scale alkali production determined raw material and labor requirements. established the oroduct cost.. and.. therefore. imnosed discrete " eeo. ~ ~ ,.ultimatelv .~~~~~~~~~ ~.-~ graphic limitations upon the manufacturers. By analyzing changes in wages, tariff rates, chemical technology, costs of raw materials, production and transportation costs, the author interprets the dynamics of a nineteenth century industry in transition. T h e alkali trade resorted to business rnereers, mechanizatinn of hoth old and new orocesses. ~
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cation in an effort to combat falling prices, fluctuating demand, and rising wage rates. Warren perceives the development of the nineteenth century alkali industry as a stepwise evolutionary process. Simpler levels of technology and business organization were gradually displaced by increasingly more complex chemical processes and larger firms. T h e author distinguishes three distinct historical stages of development, during which a characteristic made of production predominated. T h e first phase of alkali produetian took place from 1800 to 1825 and was concentrated on the northwest shores of
cess, a fuel intensive chemical process with numerous hy-products, was the dominant method employed in Britain between 1825 and 1875.T h e Tyneside region, with its vast supplies of coal, became the center of the alkali industry during this stage. The Leblanc process slowly gave way to a third phase of development in which the majority of products were a result of the fuel efficient Solvay and electrolytic processes. As these newer processes were implemented in Brltain, regional supremacy shifted from the Tyneside reeion in the northeast to Mersevside in the n&hwest of Britain. Although the focus of Warren's study is based on the hypothesis that there is a eorrelation between technology and industrial
author brieflv discusses the role of science
conservatism of the owner-managers, and the large amounts of capital invested in obsolete equipment as major factors leading to the decline of the alkali trade. Even though Kenneth Warren is a geographer by profession, he has shown a remarkable ability to understand the chemical A276
Journal of Chemical Education
technology associated with the British alkali industry. His work forms a foundation from which more detailed and more technical studies should follow. T h e role of the chemical engineer and the nature of technological innovation practiced by those associated with the older Leblanc process and the newer Solvav oroeess should be camoared and of thumbmethods tooneguided by scientific principles would add much to Warren's already clear understanding of the economic and geographic conditions which affected this industry. "Chemical Foundations" can be enjoyed by both the technical and non-technical reader, and it can be used effectively as supplementary reading in either an undergraduate or graduate course in the history of chemistry, histary of technology, or economic history. On the whole, Warren has produced a sound piece of historical scholarship that can be of value to economic historians, historians of technology, and geographers alike. John A. Heitrnann Tne Oepanmenl of :he ri stor) of Sc ence The .oh"\ hopkms .n w s l , Ball more MD 2 1218
Information Theory as Applied to C h e m i c a l Analysis K. Eckschlager, V. Stepanek. John Wiley 8 Sons.. Somerset, NJ. 1979. v 186 pp. Figs. and tables. 23.6 X 15.8 cm. 519.50.
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vey applications of these concepts in analysis, the authors have written a concise manograph which serves both as a primer and a review. Applications of information theory in chemistrv is a fleddineof about adecade. and the authbrs are among the leaders in the area uf incorporating information theory concepts in analytical chemistry. Many of the authors' research publications in this field are not in English, so that in this book the authors' ideas are assembled and presented in English for the first time. Since relatively few chemists have applied basic information concepts in chemical analysis, this volume is useful in explaining basic ideas and in illustrating chemical analysis application areas. Puhlication of a text which develops the applieation of information in chemical analysis is badly needed, and this one should be valuable in stimulating others to extend the field. Comprised af six chapters and an appendix, the text is devoted primarily to establishing quantitative approaches to the evaluation and selection of an analytical method or the optimization of a n analytical p r o w dure. Beginning with a mathematical view of chemical analysis as a means of generating information, the authors formulate classical analysis properties in terms of information encoding, content, and decoding. In three chapters, basic concepts of probability theory, information theory, and some methods of statistical inference are presented. In the main and final chapter,"Evaluation and Optimization of Analytical Results and Methods," the authors illustrate the in for^ mation content of qualitative and quantitative analyses. They also describe the influence of the number of observations, precision,
information content in higher-precision analysis, of trace-analysis results, of twodimensional instrumental methods, and the information obtained by combining analytical methods and of results in analytical quality control are developed quantitatively as well. Eckschlager and Stepanek also c o w sider the assessment of analytical methods temporally as "information flow" and "information performance" and economically as "specific information price" and i in for ma^ tion prnfitability." These concepts are then evaluated in illustrating the choice of the cintimum anahtical method. Ootimization of
chemistry complete this chapter. This volume isnot a text-book, although it might well have heen expanded to become one, and some yet underdeveloped concepts such as the problems ofseleetivityand specificity of analytical methods are passed over when they could have been extended. All chemists concerned with qualitative and quantitative measurements will find this book worthy in acquiring the concepts of in^ formation theory and stimulating in extending them in chemical analysis. Ramon M. Barnes University of Massachusetts Amherst. MA 01003 C o n d e n s e d Matter Physics: Dynamic Correlations Stephen Lovesey, Benjamin/Curnrnings. Inc.. Reading. MA. 1980, xiv 191 pp., Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $14.50 paper. $26.50 hardbound,
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This hook is a graduate level text dealing with selected modern methods of statistical physics applied to some models of the dynamic properties of condensed phases close to thermal equilibrium. T h e volume is the latest entry i#49) in the extensive Frontiers in Physics series. T h e book reflects well the philosophy behind the series, namely communication to a wider audience the state of the a r t in a rapidly developing field. T h e organization is excellent. The general framework of the correlation function approach is set forth in the Introductim (Chapter I). Each of the remaining five chapters deals with a particular cumputational method. Macroscopic (continuum) models are treated in Chaoters 11.111. and IV: whereas, in Chapters V and VI the d;namics is deduced from micmseopic properties via Hamiltanians. Examples to illustrate the formalism appear throughout and the reader is invited to fill in the details tu test his understanding of the particular methods employed. Most chemists will find the reading heavv
the examples range widely over physical phenomena. T h e author has provided ass is^ t a m e by furnishing a large relevant bibliog~ raphy. One is rewarded for slogginx through the aleebra since the statistical methods are irontinucd on page A2781
