TUNGSTEN-Its History, Geblogy, Ore DresPing, Metallurgy. Chemistry, Analysis, Applications, and ~conomi& K. C. Li, Commodity Exchange, New York, and Cbung Yu Wong, Columbia University. Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York, 1947. Second Edition. A. C. S. Monograph No. 94. xx 430 pp. 15 X 23 om. $8.50.
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WEREIT NOT for a recent editorial in Chemical and Engilzeering
News1this reviewer might not have expressed so freely the dim view he holds of certain aspects of the revision of this book. It is particulady important, he believes, to call to the attention of the Board of Editors of the A. C. S. Monographs that be finds that they me not exercising a suffioiently vigilant editorial control over the books issued under their aegis. The deficiencies that one may reasonably forgive in the first edition have been accentuated by revision, whereas the reader normdly would expect the reverse to happen. Despite its poor editing, however, this hook remains the definitive work on that most strategic element, tungsten. When the publishers are faced with the decision as to whether to issue a third edition, however, it is respectfully urged that much rewriting of the present edition be effected. The senior author was the discoverer of the extensive Chinese tungsten deposits in 1911,a faot that is brought but in an interesting personal account in the Foreword, and since the time of that most important accident, has been identified with the exploitation of Chinese ores. Tungsten has physd a decisive part in two world wars, primarily as an alloying element far steels. I t isless wall known that projectiles containing tungsten carbide cores, used by Rommel in North Africa, were what nearly finished the British in the early days of the Wsr. Similar antitank, armor-piercing tungsten carbide projectiles were feverishly developed in the United States and England in time to play an important part in the defeat of Von Rundstedt's Army in the Battle of the Bulge. Compared with the tonnages required for such applications, the more familiar use of tungsten for lamp filsments requires only a very small amount, less than 100 tons a year. Recognizing the strategic importance of tungsten, the authors propose, in one of the new sections added in the revisionApendix 111, "Post-War Tungsten Situation7'-that an International Tungsten Pnoducers Research Association he organized and recommend that, %ny discovery made hy the Association should be public property and the results of all research should be published for the benefit of members." As tbosc who are familiar with the first edition are aware, this monograph is a major source hook of information concerning tungsten. The emphasis, however, is not on chemistry. Rather it is on geology, ore dressing, economics, and especially metallurgy. In the preparation of the second edition, data from many recent publications touching on these aspects have been incorporated. For recent information on the chemistry of tungsten, on the other hand, it is disappointing to report that it contains nothing not readily available in the standard handbooks of chemistry cited as references, the latest of which was published in 1933. In the second edition, much of the new material that wss included hag been added bodily with little effort, apparently, to eliminate contradictory statements msde in the first edition. On page 375,to cite only one example of statements that should have been eliminated, several G m a n s are listed as present members of an International Ferra-Tungsten Convention. The twenty pages that are devoted to the topic, "Tungsten Carbides," appear superficislly to he adequate for a book of this soooc. Deficiencies in the treatment. however, are revealed bv
'MURPHY, W. J., Chm. Eng. News.,25,3633(Dec. 8,1947)
close scrutiny. Temperatures are given without mentioning the scale. Strengths are given in kg./mm2 on page 213 and in "psi" on page 216, with no effort to interconvert. The annotated listing of patents is useful only for early work on cementcd carbides, since it contains no references beyond 1933. It is followcd by a. serial list of U. S. patent numbers on the same topic, and this list ends abruptly on June 3, 1941. The thirty odd U. S. patents on cemented carbides issued subsequently are not included. Some of the theories of the structure of cemented tungsten carbides are mentioned, hut not those of Dawihl and Hinnuber published in 1943. Even more surprising, no reference is made to the classic work of Takeda in 1936 on the equilibrium diagram of the W-C-Co system. In the chapter on "Substitution of Tungsten,'' pages 357-358, no mention is made of the adapt* tion by the Germans of vanadium csrhide-titanium carbide tool tips to replace tungsten carbide, a topic discussed in detail in the earlier sections. The usefulness of these sections on cemented carbides, thus, is seriously impaired by the lack of completeness and the rather undigested and unconsolidated manner in which the revision has been accomplished. Readers have a right to expect morein books that have been "revised." Other sections could he taken apart and their deficiencies &milarly revealed, but no additional purpose would be served. Tmoeraohical errors. like the soelline of zireoniurnin on Dare
modernity in the chemical concepts. No attempt is made to correlate the very complex ohemical behavior of tungsten with the structures of its compounds. No advantage has been taken of the rapid strides made in recentyeam in the theories of inorganic chemistry. The reviewer would not turn to this Kook with confidence of finding upto-date answers either of a factual nature or of theoretical interpretations. This should not be true of A. C. S. monographs. LAURENCE S. FOSTER W o ~ n ~ o aA n ~ s e n *L ~ .~ s o ~ ~ ~ o s p W ~ r ~ n r o wM a ,* s a * c a o s m ~ s
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PARAMAGNETIC RELAXATION
C. J. Gorter, hofessar of Experimental Physics in the University of Leyden (Netherlands). Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., 127 pp. 14.5 X 20.5 cm. $2.25. New York, 1947. vii
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Paramagnetic relaxation is shown by the frequency dependence of paramagnetism in transition group substances, especially a t low tempefatures. One never knows when some less familiar branch of physics will emerge a s a useful tool in chemistry, hut certainly the text of this carefully written and scholrtrly little book by Professor Gorter will appeal to no more than a handful of chemists in the world. The recent more speetaeuler advances in nuclear magnetism are not a part of Professor Gorter's subject. But surely this little book should have an honored place in every library in the land; not so much for its subject matter, hut for how it came to he written. It is a monument to those men who kept alive a slender thread of learning when almost all the other attributes of civilization seemed failing. Your reviewer takes the liberty of quoting the first paragraph in Professor Gorter's Preface: The greater part of the present monograph was written during the winter of 1944-45 known in Holland as "starvation winter." At that time the denselv uouulated Western Dart of the Netherlands was cut off from c h i Sbuth by the fighthg-line and from the East by a broad zone of German military posts.
MAY. 1948 Owing to the Gelman drives for slaveworkers it was often risky for men under forty to go about in the streets; only very urgent duties and the necessity to procure food or wood for fuel could indnoe them to leave their houses. In spite of this, howkver, mientifio work was continued here and there. In the Zeeman Laboratory of the University of Amsterdam enough fuel was left for one room to still he heated, so that this building remained one of the few centers where research work was carried on. The news supplied clandestinely by the radio, run on the batteries of the laboratory, constituted a h an attraction to the scientific and technical personnel. Owing to the absence of electricity and gas activities were mostly of a theoretical nature: writing theses, discussing theoretieal problems, designing, calculating and working out previous observations. Though from an objective point of view the value of this work was perhaps not outstanding it helped people to rid themselves for a time of the daily absedion and anxiety about food, warmth and the slow progress of the war and to hold their own as self-respecting seientific workers. P. W. SELWOOD
Aside from a few such matters which impress this writer far more than they would the student, there is nothing to pritieize and much to praise. Wisely, I think, Professor Hildebrand is "not in favor of 'going BrBnsted' in the freshman course." Nevertheless, he devotes an exeellent later chapter to aeid-base systems which it will pay the better student to explore carefully if only to discover for himself that definitions increase in complexity about as the square of the understanding. In a few brief parsgraphs he handles without fanfare the wartime developments in nuclear fission. Graphs, line drawings, tables, and photographs are used only as they serve to clarify the text. The publishers have done a pleasing job even though forced to
words of praise could do. I t need only he added that the new edition enhances in no small measure the very enviable reputat,ion already established by its predecessors. S I D N E Y d. FRENCH
NOPTBWBSTGRN UNIYBBSI~
EVANSION,ILL~NOIS
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PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY
Joel H. ~ i l d e b A n d ,Professor of Chemistry, The University of California. Fifth Edition. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1947. x 446 pp. 77 figs. 51 tables. 14.5 X 22 cm. $4.25.
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REVIEWINQ the fifth edition of Professor Hildebmnd's distinctive hook is like coming home after a long journey. Even before looking inside one knows the modern warmth, light, and eompaetness he will find. Inside, one is far from disappointed; new furnishings are there, carefully placed to blend with, complement, or replace the old. The warmth, light and compactness are there, too, with the same broad windows looking out over clear vistas. Professor Hildebrand summarizes his teaching philosophy in discussing, on pages 80 and 81, the three ways of presenting the subject: The logical, the ehnologieal, and the psyehologieal. I t is implicit in a further statement of his appearing elsewhere, ". .. the ability (of the student) to do something difficult is developed not by having it expounded but by firsehsnd effort and The role of the learner must he an active one." Here, one cannot miss the opportunity to express a vigorous "Amen2'-and the hope as well that before another generation of eollege teachers has passed we will hrtve implemented this philosophy on a far broader front in allof college education. The psychological approaeh is used as the best means of making the student's role an active one. While one might take issue with the implied assumption that a. psychological approach disbars, a priori, either the logical or the chronological, the fact remains that he has developed and used it with more than noteworthy suocess. As in previous editions the emphmis is on the "structure" of chemistry. This is sound pedagogy, particularly in a day when it has become hopelem to "cover" descri~tivechemistrv as well as "structure'! ih a first course. T ~ book, Q indee2, comes humanly close to "perfection as a goal" even though the author modestly denies the achievement. While the handling of historical material is necessarily restrieted,.it is nevertheless not neglected and is used where it will contribute to better understanding. One might question, however, the interpretation of the Chemical Revolution presented on page 12. Although Priestley is a discoverer of oxygen, it is indeed a new interpretation to say that he discovered it. "by forming mercuric oxide by heating mercury in air then decomposing it in a vacuum a t higher temperatures.. .." Nor did the assumption that phlogiston might have a negative weight play any significant part in Lavoisier's great work. Again, on page 64, it might be helpful to the student to understand a little of why Avogadro's great work was not accepted until revived by Canniezaro in 1858.
COL.*TEUNIYBRBITY HAMILTON. N E WYORK
YALE SCIENCE, THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS, U011801 Louis W. McKeehon, Professor of Physics and Qireotor of the Sloan Physics Laboratory, Yale University. Henry Sehuman, Inc., New York, 1947. x 82 pp. 12.5 X 18.5 om. $2.50.
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IN TEE early days of the oldest universities in this country presidentsand tutors were primarily concerned with preparing young men for the ministry. However, as centers of culture in the communities they served, these clergymen were interested in astronomy, Newtonian mechanics, and the compilation of almanacs. Dr. McKeehao presents the story of the beginnings of interest in science a t Yale College using material gathered from original sources. His book will serve well as a prelude to the study of the development of science in this country. JOHN A. T I M M
ORGANIC SYNTHESES. VOLUME 28 R. L Shriner, Editor-in-Chief. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New 121 pp. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. $2.25. York, 1947. vi
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THIS is the 27th annual publication of the series of reeommended methods for the preparation of selected orgsnic eompounds, whieh illustrates useful and practical methods of synthesis. This volume, as previous ones, gives the equations for the reactions, procedures for production with accompanying notes, and other methods of preparation for 39 different orgauio compounds. The directions have been contributed by 52 ditIerent eollaborator8 in addition to members of the Editorial Board. The suggested directions have been further checked or verified by competent referees. Preparations are listed under the names whieh are used commonly for the compounds. For the convenience of those who wish to make ra complete survey of the literature on any preparation, the Chemical Abstracts indexing name for eseh compound is given as a subtitle where that name differs from the title of the preparation. The cumulative subject index comprises all material included in Volumes 20 to 27, inclusive, of this series. Methods for the preparation of the following compounds are included: 6-ahnine, 8-aminopmpionitrile and bis-(Scyrtnoethy1)smine, benzalaeetone dibromide, biallyl, a-bromohenzalaeetone, tert-hutylamine, csrboxymethoxylrtminehemihydrochloride, deeamethylenediamine, diethylaminoacetanitrile, dihydroresorcinol, 3,5-dimethyl4oarbethoxy-2oyclohexen-1-0and 3,5-dimethyl2-eyelahexen-l-one, 1,5-dimethyl-2-pyrrolidone, 2,bdiphenylindone (2,Miphenyl-l-indenone), 2,4dipbenylpyrrole ethyl a-
