schemes are given, and test reactions recommended for metal and acid ions are clearly outlined. Many practical applications are 6Uggested, and s. complete list of pertinent references implement the use of the book. One of the remarkable results of the development of ring oven methods is the application in semiquantitative analysis, whereby spot tests are not only enhanced in sensitivity, hut me made elegantly useful for spot colorimetry. The book is strongly recommended for the practising analyst and for the teacher of analytical chemistry. The warm recommendations of both the technique and the book by Professor Fritz Feigl serves as a good indication of the merit of this contribution. PHILITW. WEST Lmiaiana State L'niversity B a t n Rouge
Laboratory Management and Techniques
J. A. Edwards, Birmingham University, England. Buttelworth, Inc., Washimg207 pp. ton, D. C., 1960. xvi Figs. and tables. 14.5 X 22 cm. $7.
+
The largest and most important part of this compact volume is that directly suggested by the title, covering equip ment, organization, operational schemes, precautions and limitations in academic chemical laboratory management. The reviewer was even a wee bit nonplused to discover in this manual a scheme or two that he thought he had invented himself, 'way out in California, only to learn that it was an old story back in Birmingham. Random examples of topics include such diverse items as the partial self-service storeroom, specid surface coating for brass laboratory valves, merits of steel versus wood in shelf design, "bulk solutions service," plastic substitute for spiderweb crosshairs, labeling of polythene vessels, electric haeards at different voltages, and training for laboratory management. The chemistry department head on either side of the Atlantic may well get a copy of this informative compendium to pass around to his administrei tive astssistant, laboratory manager, account clerk, chief storekeeper, solutions technician, shop foreman, and instrumental technician, whatever number of persons that may he. On the debit side, an American lahoratory manager will find a few questionable practices or omissions. For example, carbon tetrachloride to fight fire will not meet general appmvd. Use of self-closing safety cans for flammable solvents, fire walllls separating different classes of combustibles, and special techniques for safe recnnning of solvents purchased in dnuns do not seem to have much attention overseas. The minor sections on "building layout" and "design" are fine as far as they go, but it is hopeless to cover this sort of ground in a small volume. Architecture of chemistr~laboratories has now become
Kaese and F. G. A. Stone) is sometimes wordy, but is packed with fact, even to the point of including seven pages of infrared spectra. an pertinent compounds. The fourth chapter (Organoboranes, by H. C. Brown) begins with an engaging and sometimes lyrical account of the discovery of the synthesis of boron alkyls from olefins, sodium horohydride, and aluminum chloride in diglyme. The summary of hydrohoration reactions is some times repetitive, as on page 156, but the account of the hydrohoration reaction and its utilization is well organized and clear. Karl Ziegler's chapter on organoG. Ross ROBERT~ON aluminum compounds, while it suffers a University of California bit from minor difficulties of translation Los Angeles and proofreading, is an admirable and exceedingly comprehensive account of the development, the present application, and the future possibilities of organa-aluminum compounds in the areas of synthesis, catalysis, and determination of structure. Many odd and interesting points, Organornetallis Chemistry usually missed in a. reading of Dr. Ziegler's papers, appear in this ohapter. I t is Edited by H. Z&s, Monsanto Chemical notable a180 that Dr. Ziegler's chapter Company, Dayton, Ohio. ACS Monoincludes the largest number of references graph No. 147. Reinhold Publishing to current work, 382 in number. 549 pp. Corp., New York, 1960. xiv Chapter 6 is a comprehensive, well-orFigs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. ganized review of organosilylmetsllic $17.50. compounds and their applicetion to the synthesis of orgsnometc~lliosubstances by Reviewers for THIS JOWNAL me urged Henry Gilmm and H. J. S. Winkler, and to try to protect its readers from overChapter 7 is an exceedingly interesting enthusiasm on the part of publishers or addiscussion of cyclopentsdienyl metal comvertisers, and to judge the effectivenessof p o u d s (with 222 references) by P. L. s. new book as a reference or as a textbook. Paulson. In Chapter 8 the editor of the In keeping with that responsibility, it volume, Harold Zeiss, writes the first should be minted out that this is not "the oomnlete. account of the historv of org?norhrrmium ~wtnpotrnd~ your reviewer 1 dvmt~gc Us h35 set!", bnd W C ~it 1 0 ~ 0 0 1 u an inrroducri~m10 thr ~rtreral4 , j r c t of vey of organometallic chemistry as its arene complexes of the transition metals. title would indicate, but rather a book The step-by-step solution of the many about the latest research on this popular mysteries which surrounded Hein's work subject, written by those who know most between 1919 and 1940 makes pleasant about it. detectivestory reading. There follou~8 The 14 authors, all acknowledged exvery good account of modem work in the perts in their fields, do their jobs exceedfield, with an excellent array of references. ingly well. Their surveys of their own Chapter 9, entitled Transition Metal work and of all the relsted research supply Alkyls and Aryls, by G. E. Coates and F. a great deal of critical, upto-date inforGlockling, is a. systematic review of the mation which is certain to be of value to great unfolding of organometdlie camthose who give courses on organometallic pounds of the 30 transition elements, chemistry, or intend to include that subthose elements which for many years were ject in a more general discussion of organic regarded as being incapable of forming or inorganic chemistry. any organic compounds. Thelast chapter, The book begins with a chapter on on metal carbonyls m d related compounds carbon-metal bonding by J . W. Richardby J. Chatt, P. L. Paulson and L. M. son, a review of modern moleculsr-orbital Venanzi, has in mmy ways the most diftheory as it applies to organometallic ficult assignment of the book. I t is compounds. Dr. Richardson wisely handled exceedingly well, with good orpoints out near the end of the chapter that garhation and a. text that makes sense "It is quite another problem to prove by from paragraph to paragraph. I t appears computation alone that one bond is that these three authors have made the stronger than another," and he is careful best use of the theoretical develapment of to compare his conclusions with experience. Chapter 1, using it to explain u-hat otherHe explains satisfactorily why mixed wise would be an almost hopeless array of complexes predominate in the organ* strenge facts. metallic chemistry of the transition metals, As a, specialized reference work for those and his predictions of likely areas of adwho want to know about the very latest vancement have been borne out very well developments in orgmometallic chemistry, by later developments which have apwritten by those who should know best peared since the book wrtti written. how to write such an account, this book is The second chapter (Beneyne Chemishighly recommended. try, by Rolf Huisgen) will be of interest primarily to those who study mechanisms of organic reactions in which metala play a temporary but often vital role. The third chapter (Vinylmetallics, by H. D.
so complex that the mere employment of a single local general practitioner to design a university chemistry building is inadequate. A faculty building committee will need far more information to offer as soon as their new structure is authorbed. In spite of these minor details, this volume will be interesting reading, especially to the western manager who may be surprised to h d how many differences there are in the laboratorv vernacular of two peoples who supposedly speak the same language.
+
.
Volume 38, Number
I 1,
November 1961
/
587
