BOOK REV1EW.S volume, the book covers in some detail the existing environmental difficulties inherent within the space effort. The chapter dealing with cryogenics clearly points out the importance of the difference hetween ductility and toughness. This distinction is demonstrated through illustration of a variety of metals, and the design engineer can become more familar with this important metallurgical aspect. This section is particularly necessary since the tendency of engineers who are unfamiliar with this field is to weigh yield and elongation values too heavily. Extremely high temperatures are encountered not only during re-entry, but also in rocket nozzles. The chapters concerned with extreme temperature, thermal protection, and thermal control give little detail into the theoretical aspects of beat flow; however, they do stress the primary modes of heat transfer. Subsequent t o t.he discussion of heat transfer, these sections give examples of material behavior and design insight into the methods of thermal control. With the exception of temperature problems, the majority of the materials problems presented is contained in three chapters on pressure vessels and materials compatibility. These sections adequately discuss and illustrate the corrosion and fracture difficulties which may be encountered in fabrication and service of components. Partioular interest may be placed in these chapters because they give .
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the greater insight into service life which is critical to the design engineer. The area of service life is discussed further in a section on evaporation effects; some corrosion resistant materials have particularly high vapor pressures a t spacecraft service temperatures. Other design problems are presented in sections on direct energy conversion, lubrication, nuclear materials, and economics. These sections complete the evaluation of materials problems. Generally this book will be of interest to design engineers and scientists who are unfamiliar with materials science: researchers in metallurgy and ceramics may view the hook as unenlightening. Joa~ P. ST^ University of Tezas Austin Saline Water Conversion-ll
Edited by Robert F. Gould. Advances in Chemistry Series, No. 38. ACS, 199 pp. Washington, D. C., 1963. ix Figs. and tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. Paperbound. $6.
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This collection of papers, principally of chemical engineering interest, is based on two symposia sponsored by the Division of Water and Waste Chemistry a t the 139th and 141st meetings of the American Chemical Society, March 27, 1961, and March 27-28, 1962. Most of the papers presented consist of reviews of published material or trtbulations of published processes.
At least one paper presents ideas uf interest to chemists in general, however, that by Salutsky and Dunseth on Recovery of Minerals from Sea Water by Phosphate Precipitation. These authors emphasize the importznt fact that magnesium ammonium phosphate could be produced in sizable amounts from sea. water and this compound bas highly desirable properties as a fertilizer. They estimate that 37 tons of fertilizer could be produced from each million gallons of sea water. The first paper, page 2, does not help to remove the misconception that the demonstration plant a t Roswell, N. Mex., dedicated on July 1, 1963, hy officials from the Office of Saline Water, will use a distillation prooess on "brackish" water. Brackish water is generally considered to be of salinity less than 5000 ppm total solids. The water upon which the R o s well distillation plant was designed to operate contains approximately 25,000 ppm total solids, two-thirds as salty as sea water. Thus a distillation process would be a logical one to use. The paper by Volkman gives very interesting information on the operation of one of the largest electrodialysis plants in the world, the Free State Geduld plant designed to produce nearly 3 million gallons per day of desalinized water in South Africa.
JOSEPH A. SCHUFLE
New Mezieo Institute of Mining and Technology somo
