JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
228
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PLASTICS ENGINEERING HANDBOOK
Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. Second edition. 813 Reinhold Publishing Corporation. New YO& 1954. pp. Many figs. Tables. 16 X 2 4 om. $15.
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photographs, crystallite size determination from line broadening, &ressmiasureients in metals, fiber studies, radial distribution analysi8r and sma~l-angle he text is illustrated by not less than 323 figures and the literature is covered hv 663 references. The t ~ o e r a u h vis of high quality. Minor ietails thst may he criticized inclide the absence of references t o some of the postwar work carried out in Germany, and the commonly seen but deplorable corruption of Anders J. AngstrBm's (pronounced ongstrum) name to angstrom, with the corresponding use of the mutilated symbol A. Thc authors express in their foreword the hope that the hook may, with some measure of success, serve both as textbook and as encyclopedia for the plant worker, the graduate student, the research scientist, and others who wish to do experimental work in the field. The uniqueness and high quality of this tent certainly guarantee the realization of the authors' hope. ~~~~~~~
HERE, certainly, is a cooperative effort in which an entire industry has placed its technical know-how a t the dirposd of the S. P. 1:s committees charged with the preparation of the various sections and chapters of this handbook. This second edition is far more comprehensive than the first edition published in 1947, and has about twice as many pages. The present book contains 20 chapters divided into five major sections: I, Materials and Processes (399 pages); 11, Design (212 pages); 111, Finishing and kssemhly (119 pages); IV, Testing (23 pages); and V, S. P. I. Standards (35 pages). The first section, on materials and processes, classifies rigid molding materials and then describes in a technical manner the various-molding and forming processes and equipment. Excellent and ample illustrations and graphs accompany the text material. Included are lenethv chaoters on laminated uroducts and vinyl dispersions. he second section, on design, gives the bssic principles of mechanical design of molded articles, standards for tolerances, design standards for inserts, and mold design. The third section is concerned with the methods of machining, finishing, decorating, cementing, welding, and gluing of the product. I t must then be tested, and section four gives various test methods. Section five gives the voluntary commercial standards of the trade. In addition to ample illustrations in the text material, there are a number of large, foldnut illustrations and tables that give much information so that comparisons can be made. This hzndbook is essential to anyone working in the plastics industry. T o others who desire to know the mechanics of going from the chomical polymer to the finished article, the information in d l svailahle.here. KENNETH A. KOHE
Uh-rvmnsmr or T e a m Aasnr, T E X A ~
X-RAY DIFFRACTION PROCEDURES FOR POLYCRYSTALLINE AND AMORPHOUS MATERIALS Harold P. Klug and Leroy E. Alexander, Mellon Institute. 716 pp. IllusJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. 1954. xiii trated. 15.5 X 23.5 em. $15.
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As rnn as the reviewer knows this is the first attempt a t a modern, comprehensive treatise on X-ray diffraction procedures with the emphasis on powder and fiher methods rather than on singlocrystsl analy~is. Considering the great academic and technological importilnce of structural investigations of polycrystalline and amorphous materials, and the analytical sensitivity and speed made ~ossihleby modern counting techniques, this book certainlv meets a ereat demand. I t is therefore most coverage. The 55-page introductory chapter on elementary crystallography is outstanding in its concise, yet comprehensive form. A number of illustrative examples are given. After rhapters on the production and properties of X-rays, and on fundamental principles of X-ray diffraction, the authors enter into a detailed discussion of ~hotographicand spectrometric powder techniques. The 81-page chapter on spectrometric techniques is of special interest, presenting and organizing material that has previously been scattered throughout the literature. This is true also for large parts of the chapters on interpretation of powder diffraction data and on qualitative and quantitative analysis of crystalline powders. The last five chapters are devoted to special applications such ss precision determination of lattice constants from powder
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GUSTAF ARRHENIUS Senreps I N B T L T ~ OF T ~OCEANOGRAPAI ~N
LA JOLLA, CM.IPORNI*
C. Zwikker, Director of the National Aeronautical Research Institute, Amsterdam. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, 1954. viii 300 pp. Many figs. 16 X 24.5 em. $8.75.
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A S U M ~ R Yof the physiee of solids within 300 pages is a courageous venture; how well the author hos succeeded in reaching his stated g o d depends on the demands of the reader. An cipert in the field would probably complain thst the hook presents a mass of facts with few generalizations, that mathematical rigor is sacrificed for the sake of simplicity, and that the treatment of any one of the subtopics is suporfirial. The author, who is a n expert in the field, anticipates these criticisms in his preface. The hook is intended for those readers to whom the subject as a coherent entity is essentially unfamiliar. Physical chemistry, especially experimental and applied, has many points of contact with the physics of solids, hut most of the information is either mentioned incidentally in our standard books or else is completely ignored. T o give a. practicd example, one of my students wcently told me that he could not gold-solder the seam in a piere of ~ l a t i n u mtuhine which he had made bv bendine olstinum sheet
is in Zwikker's chapter on plasticity. The author's style is clear and concise, and he displays an unusual ability in exposition, as can best he demonstrated by a few quotations. To explain why sulfur is an undesirable impurity in ateel: "If iron or steel contains more than 0.02 per cent sulphur the latter will be in solution as FeS, which, because of its relatively low melting point (1188' C.) solidifies a t a later stagc of the solidifying process, thus enveloping the iron grains. The strength of the material is, therefore, the strength of FeS and not that of iron, so that the material becomes brittle. As n remedy manganese is added; this combines with sulphur even more readily than does iron, forming MnS with a melting point of 1620°C. This melting point is so high that MnS appears in the body of the grains, where it cannot play such an injuriauv role as it would if situated in the grain boundaries." T o explain why metals are opaque: "Metals are opaque as %. result of their electrical conductivity. Incident light, which is an electromagnetic wave, generates eleotric currents in the metal, &8 a result of which energy is consumed. Semiconductors of high conductivity are opaque for the same reason." T o emphasize the significance of the structure of ice: "In practice the fourfold co-ordination of ice moans that deep water remains a t a temperature of 4 T . , to the benefit of fish; that water pipes burst, when the water in the pipes freezes; that water present in the cracks of rocks tends t o split up the stone on freezing, thus contributing considerably t o weathering processes, without which no fertile sedimentation in lowlands would be possible."
