CORNELIS DKEBBEL(157S1633). G. Tievie, H. J. Paris, Amsterdam, 1932. vii 124 pp. Illustrated. 24.5 X 17.2 cm. $1.20.
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This is a biography of a great inventor who failed t o he a great scientist because he was not independently wealthy (like Robert Boyle and Christian Huygens). Like other inventors and artists of his dav he was lareelv uoon the favor of .. . deoendent . princes, and was obliged to do everything in his power to maintain hi9 positiou at court. Hc was forced to wrap his inventions in secrecy and t o say very little about his theories. Drebbel studied the effect of pressure and temperature on the volume of air, and in 1598 took out a patent for an automatic pump and far a clock which did not need winding-both of them being operated by the variations in the volume of a confined quantity of air. I n 1600 he huilt a fountain a t Middleburg which operated on the same principle; in 1605while in England he built his perpeluum mobile for James I a t Eltham; and in 1610 while in Bohemia he huilt another fountain for Rudolf I1 a t Prague. The perpetuurn mobile in its simplest form consisted of a glass bulb attached t o a spiral of glass tubing in which there was a small quantity of liquid. The gas in the bulb, expanding by day and contracting by night, produced an ebb and flow of the liquid in the sniral tube. There is some evidence which indicates that L)rchhcl pcrhapq filled his h u h with oxygen gas procured by the heating of s~ltpctrr. On thc same principle he constructed srlfregistering ovens and incubators for the hatching of chicks. He was expert in the manufacture, blowing, and grinding of glass, and invented an ingenious machine for the grinding of lenses. His camera obscure attracted much attention from artists and savants. He is credited with the invention of the microscope with two convex lenses. Drebbel wan much fame with his submarine or diving-boat in which he went under water down the Thames for a considerable distance in the presence of James I and his court. The boat had no bottom and was constructed on the principle of the diving bell. He measured his depth under water by means of a mercury barometer, steered by means of a compass, and renewed the goodness of the air confined in the boat by the use of a gas made from saltpeter, "broken up by the power of fire and so changed in the nature of air." He believed that air is made up of two component parts, the quintessence (oxygen), fit for respiration, and the carcass (nitrogen), unfit for respiration. Soon after his arrival a t the English court, Drebbel helped t o arrange a fireworks display. Later he devoted himself t o the preparation of fulminating gold, a substance which he possibly discovered, which he used in 1628 before La Rochelle as a detonator in his petards and torpedoes. He was the first to use tin salt as a mordant in dyeing with cochineal. After his dismissal from the British Navy in 1629, he lived in poverty in London-and died in the Parish of Trinity in 1633. The book is handsomely printed and illustrated, and is attractively hound in heavy paper. Its price seems low. There is place for the book in libraries of science and in libraries of the h u m m i t i e s a n d in collections of popular works on science which are brought together for the purpose of stimulating the interest of high-school students. TENNEY L. DAVIS
OP WATERSUPPLIES. Murray P . Horwood, THE SANITATION Ph.D.. Associate Professor of the Department of Biology and .Public Health, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Ill., 1932. xi 181 pp. 26 Figs. 15 X 23 cm. $3.00 postpaid.
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The preface states that "The book is designed as a text for students in municipal sanitation and public health, where the subject of water supplies represents an essential item for consideration." . . "Needless t o say, available sources of infomation on all phases of the water supply problem, including textbooks and journals, have been freely consulted. Specific acknowledgment has been made, however, only where direct quotations from published papers or texts have been employed."
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The hook contains in general the standard material on the topics that are discussed. The chapter headings are: The rise of municinal sanitation and nuhlic health: Develonment of municipal water supplies; Sources, uses, and consumption of water; Requirements of a potable water supply; Water as a vehicle of disease; The purification and improvement of water supplies; Water softening; Slow sand filtration; Rapid sand filtration; and The disinfection of public water supplies. There are very few errors and these are mainly statements and implications that were correct ten or fifteen years ago. The statement in the preface with regard t o other publications indicates the main defect of the hook. There are only 24 footnote references in the 172 pages of text. Nearly all of these are incomplete as t o either page number, date, author's initials, or some other feature that should he given t o make the reference easily used. There is little t o guide a reader t o additional material on the different topics except far the "partial list of sources of information on water supplies and water purification" on pages 173 and 174. The list of textbooks does not give names of publishers or dates, nor always the correct name of the hook. Some of the books are recent and generally recognized as reliable; same were published aver fifteen years ago, have been out of print for some time, and are not likely to he revised; some have been reported in published reviews as being so full of errors as to be worse than useless. The list of "journals" is slightly inaccurate as t o some titles and gives no publication addresses, hut is a safer list of sources. The hook is very well printed and the illustrations are mainly from excellent photographs. W. D. COLLINS U. S. G&0~001C*IrSDRYBY WAsmrrcnoN. D. C. APPLIED COLLOIDCHEMISTRY. Wilder D. Bancroft, World War Memorial Professor of Physical Chemistry a t Cornell University. Third edition. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New Yark and London, 1932, ia 544 pp. 24 Figs. 14 X 20.5 cm. $400.
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This edition of Professor Bancroft's well-known book appears eleven years after the first edition. [For review of the second edition of this book see J. C n m . E ~ u c . 3, , 1350 (Nov., 1926).1 The arrangement of subject matter is much the same as in the two previous works but there is incorporation of new material throughout the entire hook. The chapter headings are as follows: adsorption of gas or vapor by solid; chemical reactions; adsorption of vapor by liquid and of liquid and solid by solid and liquid; adsorption from solution; surface tensian-Brownian movements; coalescence; preparation of colloidal solutions; properties of colloidal solutions; stability of colloidal solutions; gelatinous precipitates and jellies; emulsions and foams; nonaqueous colloidal solutions; fog; smoke; gases and solids in solids; thickness of surface films. I n this edition the literature references, which appeared as footnotes in the previous editions, have all been collected in a single section a t the back of the book and there they are arranged in alphabetical order by authors. The book, as stated by the author, was written "for those who are interested in colloid chemistry as chemistry rather than as mathematical physics." I n this the author has succeeded beyond expectations. Here is collected, in a systematic fashion, the vast amount of knowledge about colloids which exists today. Professor Bancroft presents this information in such a simple yet stimulating fashion that the book is entertaining as well as readable. On almost every page one finds something that excites his curiosity. I n fact so many research problems are suggested directly or indirectly that one might almost consider this work a source book for new research ideas. Probably no other author in the field of colloid chemistry has such a wide general knowledge of the subject coupled with the ability to present i t in so concise, yet stimulating, a manner. This hook may certainly be said t o fulfil the author's purpose in writing it. I n the field of chemical education this volume should find an important place as a reference work. It is doubtful
