January, 1926
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEiMISTRY
A large amount of space has been given t o the theoretical aspects of the subject, a feature which will tend to make this book one t h a t should not be entirely ephemeral. I t is a book dealing with underlying principles. It should prove of particular interest to students of colloid chemistry. The industrial application of pyroxylin is treated, but hardly in a way to be of great value to many American readers. The a r t of pyroxylin manufacture and application is much further advanced in the United States than is apparently the case in England, where the book was written, and technical articles which are constantly appearing in our journals may perhaps be of more direct application to our interests. It must not be thought, however, that this book is not valuable for the development of a broad viewpoint concerning pyroxylin, for it would be hard t o imagine one more educational in this respect. To the American reader i t constitutes a first-class work on cellulose acetate, for the (in the U. S. A.) lesser known acetate is treated together with nitrate. By this critical comparison one may proceed from the more familiar t o the less and secure an excellent working knowledge of the acetate. The writer has treated the subject in a novel manner and has added new material. He has been very successful in setting forth general principles underlying cellulose esters and in comparing the two commercial types. E. C. CROCKER
105
their respective initial letters, although all these subjects receive adequate treatment in various parts of the book. The book is a distinct advance over the contact-process portion of the work claimed as its antecedent. It is, perhaps, as nearly up to date as is practically possible in its treatment of modem technical equipment. It gives adequate consideration to American practice, and will be valued as a reference work by all English-speaking chemists and engineers interested in the manufacture of sulfuric acid. ANDREW Irf. FAIRLIE Chemistry in Industry. Volume 11. A Cooperative Work Intended t o Give Examples of the Contributions Made to Industry by Chemistry. Edited by H. E. HOWE. 392 pages. The Chemical Foundation, Inc., New York, 1926. Price, 81.00.
The general reader who wants to keep up with the progress of the world finds the greatest difficulty in getting recent and reliable information as t o industrial processes. New materials suddenly appear as though by magic in his home, office, or shop, and he does not know where they come from or how they are made. The textbooks and encyclopedias are a decade or two behind time, and those who are intimately concerned in the The Manufacture of Sulfuric Acid (Contact Process). Vol. IV industries are apt to be unwilling t o make public the secret of their achievements. Particularly confusing is the fact that new of the Lunge and Cumming series on the Manufacture of materials for the most part appear in public a t first in disguise, Acids and Alkalis. BY FRANK DOUGLAS MILES. 427 pages. like the princes in fairy tales. Celluloid introduces itself in the 133 figures. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1925. Price, guise of ivory, bakelite camouflages as amber, and rayon parades as silk. This habit of introducing new and unknown things $12.00. under the mask of old and familiar things is not so much the fault This work is virtually a new book-not a revised edition of of the chemist as it is of the public, which is unwilling t o credit Lunge. This is evident from the mere fact t h a t the fourth the chemist with the power to surpass nature in any respect, edition of Lunge disposes of the contact processes in 182 pages, and the education of the public t o the use of a new substance, whereas in this new’volume 408 pages, exclusive of the index, or even of a new word, is a slow and very expensive process. are devoted to this subject. Perusal of the work confirms the Consequently “Chemistry in Industry,” of which the second impression t h a t here we have a new treatise on the contact volume has just appeared, fills a very real need, and should take processes for the manufacture of sulfuric acid. The treatise its place a t once upon the open shelf o f any public and college is both theoretical and practical, and the scientific and technical library. aspects of the subject are evenly balanced and have received The editor, H. E. Howe, occupies a strategic position t h a t puts adequate treatment by a competent author. Much obsolete him in touch with scientific research and industrial progress in matter in the Lunge editions has been omitted, and modern all fields of chemistry, and the twenty-two chapters are written practice has received its full share of space. The importance by experts in each subject. Naturally they differ greatly in their of physical chemistry t o the subject is duly recognized. conception of what the reader knows, and wants to know, and The illustrations have been appropriately chosen, and the in their ability to present their subject in a vivid and attractive nomographic charts will be of real use to technical chemists way. But if there is any person who can run over the pages engaged in this field. Chapters VIII, IX, and X, devoted t o of this volume and not find anything that interests him, he must consideration of the Grillo, Tentelew, and Mannheim processes, be a n individual of exceedingly limited interests and a very unrespectively, present with commendable precision the points interesting personage himself. of difference between these several processes. For it is a marvelous story of chemical progress that is presented Appreciating the great labor and the profound study and in these snapshots of various factories, and the processes and thought involved in the preparation o f an authoritative work of products here described have entered into the common life of this character, one hesitates to criticize adversely a t all; but every person in the land. I t is impossible to understand modern to be fair some adverse criticism seems necessary, and is offered civilization unless one knows something of its foundations which in the hope t h a t it may be helpful in the improvement of future lie in applied science, and particularly in chemical manufactures. editions. It is chemistry that is making history nowadays, and the political, Some data of doubtful value are included-for example, social, and international questions of the day are in many cases Winkler’s and Messel’s specific gravity tables on page 45. Some determined by some chemical factor, often unseen and unrealized important relevant matter is omitted; for instance, no detailed by the statesmen who consider themselves to be in control of the description was found of the electro-titrimeter or Wheatstone world’s affairs. bridge apparatus for continuous automatic indication of the For instance, aviation is commonly recognized as the destrength ot the acid circulating over the final absorber, by means cisive factor in national power. Yet few people realize in how of which the quantity of drip, or “feed,” acid can be readily far the airplane and the airship are dependent upon chemical controlled. Scant reference t o a similar apparatus was found materials, as is here explained by C. W. Seibel of the Helium on page 71, but even this could not be located by the index. Division of the Bureau of Mines. The same importance atDigests of patents encumber the text. They should have been taches to the chapter on Military and Industrial Explosives, relegated t o an appendix, especially as many of the patents by Charles L. Reese of du Pont de Nemours & Company. cited were useless and were never worked. This idea of grouping the subjects by industries instead of The reviewer noticed a number of errors, mostly oversights according t o chemical composition is a useful one, because i t of the proof-reader, which could be corrected in a subsequent brings together the varied chemical contributions to any branch edition. of business or human activity, and shows how materials from The arrangement of the component parts of the book is per- widely different sources may supplement and support one another. haps a question of taste. Chapter VI, on Gas Puriiication, For instance, one would hardly realize what a wide range of novel seems t o belong ahead of both Chapter IV, on Catalysis and and rare elements is utilized in the manufacture of incandescent Contact-Mass, and Chapter V, on Converters. Admitting lamps for illumination and radio, until he has read the chapter t h a t burners and burner gas received full treatment in Volume 1 on that subject by Mary R. Andrews, of the General Electric of this series, some brief mention of these topics, with references Company. t o the more complete discussion in Volume I, would seem useful Personally, the chapters that have interested me most are following Chapter 111. I n Chapter VI1 i t would seem logical those on Casein and on Glues and Gelatins, probably because t o place the discussion of the cooling of the sulfur trioxide gases they contain the most that I did not know, or a t least did not before the description of the sulfur trioxide absorbers, rather realize. The chapter on Paints, Varnishes, and Colors, by Henry not A. Gardner, will be a revelation to every one except those who are than at the end of the chapter. Apparently the index particularly good; for example, the words “Analysis,” Con- closely connected with the industry. Another of the amazing trol,” “Estimation,” and “Sampling,” do not appear under achievements of modern chemistry is the manufacture of syn-
