JOURNAL O F CHEMICAL EDUCATION HIGH-TEMPERATURE TECHNOLOGY Edited by I. E. Campbell, Battelle Memorial Institute. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1956. xiv 526 pp. Figures and tables. 15.5 X 23.5cm. $15.
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THIS hook, which is the product of 35 contributors from 19 academic, government, and industrial laboratories, presents in three main sections divided into 19 chapters the recent developments in materials which can withstand t,emperatures over 1500' and the means of examining these materials. After a brief introductory chapter, the first main sect,ion comprising over 40 per cent of the text deals with the preparation and properties of refractory materials and includes separate chapters on metals, oxides, carbon and graphite, carbides, borides, silicides, nitrides, sulfides and the new and useful multieomponent systems called cermets. The latter are composed of ceramics (defined here as carbides, nitrides, borides, and silicides as well as oxides) bonded by a metal or alloy. The reviewer found the discussion of these substances to be unusually lucid and rewarding. Alloys in general are not included in this book bemuse they are not stable above 1500'; however, referenoe is made to the importance of aluminidea. Although fluorides, oxyfluorides, oxysulfides, and phosphides may ultimately be found to be useful as refractories, the editor consciously omitted discussions of these materials due to the meager information available. The second and smallest section is concerned with the technique of sintering and the attainment of high temperatures. Because they are adequately described elsewhere, combustion furnaces are not included. However, high temperature quenching furnaces, heating units containing thorium dioxide resistors, vacuum induction furnaces and hot-pressing furnaces are briefly described; while a separate chapter is devoted to a detailed discussion of arc furnaces. Other techniques for reaching high temperatures such as solm furnaces and electronic torches are reviewed. In the final 165 pages the techniques for making measurements at high temperatures are examined. The chapter on temperature measurement includes pyrometry, thermocouples, and the a b d u t e noise thermometer. A second chapter in this section deals with plastic deform* tion above 110O0,creep studies, and hot hardness measurements. The chapter on physical properties includes techniques for determining melting points, phase-equilibriom, thermal and electrical conductivity, and thermal expansion and shack. Finally, high temperature microscopy and X-ray defraction me discussed. This book, which is well printed and easily read, contains many tahles and charts and includes either photographs or diagrams of all of the equipment de-
scribed. Although the material is presented mainly for the engineer, ceramist, and metallurgist, it will be of value for the inorganic and physical chemist. The latter may he disappointed in not finding a chapter devoted to a discussion of bond types or to a theoretical explsnation of why the materials included in this hook are refractories. However, references to recent papers on these subjects will be found in the extensive bibliographies which are found at the end of each section. RICHARD G. YALMAN Amlooa COLLECE YELLOW SPRIN(IB. Om10
ORGANIC INSECTICWES: THEIR CHEMISTRY AND MODE OF ACTION Robert L. Metcalf, Etomologist, University of California, Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside, California. Interscience Publishers, Inc., New York, 1955. a 392 pp. Figs. and tahles. 16 x 23.5 cm. $8.50.
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ITIS quite unusual that a hook written primarily for the specialist provides so fascinating reading material also for the general reader interested in modern science. The reason for it is not only the lucid style of the author who well understands how to make complicated chemical structures as well as intricate physiological processes intelligible, hut also the fact that there hardly exists a more thrilling spectacle than the chemical warfare between the world's most advanced beings:
ploys all his ingenuity and the most recent scientific discoveries, the insect responds with immediate mobilization of a marvelous enzymatic defense mechanisms which through genetic selection increase its resistance against lethal poisons more than a thousand times. The book provides a deep insight into the biochemistry of animals and plants, the relation between chemical constitution and physiological action, and also discloses heretofore unsuspected hereditary mechanisms. Man's most recent discovery is the development of "systemic insecticides" which, whon applied to any part of a plant, m e rapidly ahsorbed and tmnslocated throughout the plant system thus making each part of it poisonous to insects. But while the author mentions roots, atems, and leaves as possible entrances for toxicants, he omits to mention the most promising way of application, namely the treatment of seeds which m&kes the ensuing plants as insect-proof as if impregnated at full maturity. He also could have added that we are now in a position to protect even higher animals systemically against insect pests inasmuch as a recently synthesized organic phosphate (O,O-dirnethyl-0,2,4,5-triehlora-
phenyl phosphorothionate) which combines high insecticidal with low mammalian toxicity can be dispersed without harm to the animals in their flesh. The greatest value of Metcalf's book is that it not only covers all known classes of organic insecticides in a. most comprc hensive and systematic way, buh beyond that it elucidates involved biochemical relations in their mode of action. It is very commendable that for each class the mammalian toxicity has also been given. Because of greater attention now being paid to harmful residues, this has become a matter of great legal and practical importance. I t is unfortunate that many structural formulas have been far removed from the corresponding text and that in this shuffling of formulas a most important one, namely meta-systax (XXI), has fallen under the printer's desk. I t also would have benefited the general reader who is not a professional entomologist had insects been identified by their common instead of scientific names. All in all, the book must be recommended highly to all those who are interested in the work of chemists and entomologists and their unexcelled success in the protection of man's health and welfare against his most vicious and most prolific enemies. FRANCIS JOSEPH WEISS
U N I T ~STITEB U OPER&TION~ M18810~ TO Nro~amn* M*n*ao*. Nic*n*a"*
R. D. Brown, Senior Lecturer in General Chemistry, and T. A. O'Donnell, Leoturer in General Chemistry, both of University of Melbourne. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1955. ir 185 pp. 19 figs. 25 tables. 12 X 22 Em. $4.75.
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Tars is a laboratory manual for a firs& year chemistry course in Australian nniversities. It comprises 70 pages on inorganic quantitative analysis, 85 on inorganic qualitative analysis, and 26 on organic chemistry, chiefly identification of compounds, in this order. The section on quantitative analysis includes s. chapter on gravimetric work, and four on volumetric processes. These last deal, respectively, with general principles, neutralization, precipitation, and oxidation-reduction methods. Standard hhoratory exercises are included in each category. The chapters on volumetric malysirr contain very concise presentations of those aspects of chemical equilibrium usually found in American texts on elementary quantitative analysis. Extensive use is made of the LomyBr6nsted theory of acids and bases. The section on inorganic quditative
