INTRODUCTION TO CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
0
Walter L. Badger, Consulting Engineer, and lulius T. Banchero, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 753 pp. 418 figs. Tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. 59.50. 1955. ix
+
RECENTLYthe near disruption of the comedy team, Dean e many oolumna of newspaper Martin and Jerry Lewis, gave r i ~ to diaeussions and much consternation smong the younger set. The dissolution of the chemical engineering team, W. L. Badger and W. L. McCabe, went almost unnoticed until the appearance of this new hook by Badger and Banchero. In 1931 Badger and McCabe published their "Elements of Chemioal Engineering," followed in 1936 by the second edition. The book was immediately popular and was used widely in the chemical engineering unit operations oourse, usually for instruotion during the junior yew. Theory and practice advanced a t a rapid rate and the 1936 edition was out of date in many places by the end of the war. When both Badger and McCabe left the University of Michigan, i t appeared that this successful writing team would do no mare with "Elements." Now i t appears that each has selected a. new coauthor and two new books ~ lbe lpuhlished on unit operations, of which this is the first. .4 comparison of the tables of contents of "Elements" and "Introduetion" show that exactly the same unit operations m e covered in both books. There has been a complete rewriting and modernization in the new book. The arrangement of c h a p ters is approximately the same: Introduction, Flow of Fluids, Transportation of Fluids, Flow of Heat, Evaporation. The two chapters on Distillation and Extraction are moved forward because of their similar basis in phase equilibria, and they are followed by the diffusional operations of Humidity and Air Conditioning, Gas Absorption, Drying, and Crystallization. The minor unit operations fallow: Filtration, Mixing, Siae Separation, Crushing and Grinding, and Conveying. Because the hook is a n introductory text it does not attempt to cover all phases of each unit operation. In the Flow of Fluids, the flow of compressible fluids is not discussed, but fluids of constant density are covered very well. I n Distillation, both the Ponohon and the McCabe-Thiele methods are diseussed and compared. Extraction requires the use of phase diagrams and graphical methads. Gas Absorption introduces modern coefficients of mass transfer and transfer units. The chapters on Crystallization, Filtration, and Mixing are based on recently published papers, while the book footnotes cite references to the important papers from which the material was drawn. The illustrations in Badger's hooks have always been noteworthy, and this book is no exception. Some are the same figures used in "Elements" to illustrste principles which have not changed; many are new and show new gmphieal methods and equipment designs. All are drawings to illustrate something worthwhile; there iwe no "pictures" of chemiesl plants or other spacsfillers. Because this is an engineering text i t describes equipment in terms of engineering construction and operation. Reasons for given.. as are the imnortsnt const~uetionaldetails are freoueritlv . ... fields of application of the various types of equipment. T h i a honk i s not nn introduet,ion t,o chemical eneineerine. I t is -~.. a texthoak in the unit operations of chemical engineering, and t,o use it with ease the student should have been introduced to chemical engineering by way of stoieh~ometry, material balances, enorgy halancos, and related physical chcmistry. Why not admit ~~~
.~
~~~~~~~~~
~~
~
that the unit operations are s. section of chemical engineering, rather than eive the im~ressionthat thev are chemical enplineerins? The umurze of chemical eneineerine science belies this. Badger and Bsnchero have done an excellent job. Their book is worthwhile and certainly is now the best available introduction to unit operations that the student has. ~
-
.-
-
KENNETH A. KOBE U ~ t v e ~ s mOP r TEXAR AOBTIN. T E X * ~
0
QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN HISTOLOGY AND MICROSCOPIC HISTOCHEMISTRY
Olavi ErZnk6, in oollaboration with J a a k o Kihlberg, both of the University of Helsinki. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1955. 160 pp. 49 figs. 16.5 X 23.5 cm. 55.50. THISbook is not a laboratory manual, but rather a review of methods that have interested the author. I t is not a. textbook, hut is suited to the advanced worker who may have had some qualms about the accuracy of some of his numerical results, or who welcomes another seleeted assortment of abstracts in the hope that i t may contain something he has mi~sedelsewhere. Few of the procedures briefly described could be used without referenee to the original papers cited in the extensive hibliography. Two chapters, and other portions, itre the work of the collaborator on statistios. They include discussions of sampling, variability, averaging, and distribution, with occasional easmples from hiology. Other chapters deal with animal experiments, preparation of specimens and measurement of their thickness, areal anrsly~is,.psrticle?siae determination, photometry, and optics of some mmascopical methods. ~
~
C. W. MASON conrem U ~ r v ~ n s l r r ITHACA, NSW YORK
0
A TEXT-BOOK OF MACRO AND SEMIMICRO QUALITATIVE INORGANIC ANALYSIS
Arthur I. Vogel, Head of Chemistry Department, Woolwich Polytechnic. Fourth edition. Longmans, Green and Co., Inc., New York, 1954. rv 663 pp. 7 9 figs. 117 tables. 22.5 X 14.5 cm. $4.50.
+
(,TEE text has been exhaustively revised, considerably e w lerged and completely reset in the present edition." The first 140 pages deal with "the theoretical basis of qualitative analysis." The techniques of semimiem itnalysis are now presented in Chapter 11. Chapter111 deals with the reactions of the cations, while Chnptel. 17' pl.esents the reactions of the anions. In Chapter V, the author sets aside 24 pages containing an abbreviated course of "syst,ematic macro qualitative inorganic analysis for elementary students." This is followed in Chapter VI with an "introduction to systematic semimicro qualitative inorganic anal.vsis." In Chapter VII, a very thorough "systematic qualitative inorganic analysis" is given, based on the assumption that the student has familiarized himself with thc tests and teehnique~described in the preceding chapters. Chapt,er VIII deal8 with modifications in inorgenic annlysis necoasitated by tho presence of organic acids, silicates, horates, fluorides, and phosphates. The author is high in his pmiae of the
