THE TOOLSOP THE CHEMIST,Their Ancestry and American Evolution. E. Child. Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York City, 1940. 220 pp. 104 figs. 14.5 X 22 cm. 83.50. The present baak-being an account of the history of the American chemical apparatus industry, with a sufficient discussion of its beginnings and background in Europe and of the American inventors and men of science who devised or made use of the equipment-nstitutes an important contribution to the more general history of American chemistry. I t is easy and interesting to read, stimulating t o a further inquiry into the history of chemistry, and attractively illustrated with one hundred four pictures, two of them full-page color plates and many of them portraits of chemists or pictures of historic apparatus. A foreword (pp. 5-8) by C. A. Browne is followed by Part I (pp. 17-67), "People and Events in American Chemistry," by Part I1 (pp. 71-170), "Ancestry and Development of American Chemical Laboratory Apparatus." subdivided into sections (1) "Balances," (2) "Glassware." (3) "Porcelain Ware," (4) "Silica Ware," (5) "Filter Paper," (6) "Heating Apparatus," (7) "Metal Laboratory Ware," (8) "Platinum," (9) "Aluminum," (10) "Rubber Ware," and (11) "Optical Ware," by Part 111 (pp. 173-206). "Distributors of Laboratory Apparatus," and by an Index (pp. 207-20). The boak is the result of what must h a w been slaw and difficult research, the setting down of a history much of which is not t o be found in the printed records but was only t o be gleaned from conversations and from the remrds of business houses. It contains information which is not to be found elsewhere, and the information is made easily wailable by an excellent index. It is a book which ought to find its place in libraries which are interested in the history of chemistry, in chemical industry, in the history of American business and manufacturing, and, we believe also, in libraries which are interested in the popularization of science and technology. TENNEY L. DAVIS MASSACRUSBTTS INSTITUTE OF TBCHNOL(IDY
THE KINETICSOP CHEMICAL CHANGE.C. N. Hinsh~lwood,University of Oxford. Oxford University Press, Oxford a t the Clarendon Press, England, 1940. vii 274 pp. 35 figs. 15 X 24 cm. THE KINETICS08 CHEMICALCHANGEis completely rewritten since earlier editions and has also been shortened. The point of view taken all through the book is essentially the one to which the author has contributed so much. The author has attempted to outline the general theory of chemical reactions and to this end gives a good elementary treatment of statistical mechanics, a treatment of activation energies both from the classical standooint of ootential surfaces. and a treatment of the collision theorv of which he ha* hem a n exponent. No ottcmpt srtmr to have been made to rover a largc number of reactions but rather to take certain specific examples and show the applications of the theory t o them. As will always be true in this field, objections may be raised in some instances to mechanisms proposed, but on the whole the author seems t o have dealt with data in an impartial manner. The hook does contain the method of calculating activation enereies as develmed hv Polanvi. . . Evrine. . ... and others. but contains no discussion of thr. more recent point of view concerning the rteric factor ns developed particularly by liyring. l'herdorr the treatment in a sense may be ralkd ~lassicaland is hared on the old collision picture to a large extent in some inslanccs a more critical evaluatiun of the data might he wlled for. but a n the whole the book is worth reading by students of the subject. and the early chapters would serveas a useful treatment t o advanced students who wished to make a beginning in it. W. ALBERT NOYES,JR.
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THBU N I M P S ~OF Y ROCBBSIBR ROCBBSTBB. NEW YORK
HANDBOOK oa CHEMICALMICROSCOPY, Volume 11, Chemical Methods and Inorganic Qualitative Analysis. E . M , Charnot and C. W. Mason, Cornell University. Second Edition. John 438 pp. Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York City, 1940. xii C*I(BRIDOB. MASSAEHULBTTS 233 figs. 15 X 23 cm. 55.00. While no significant changes in technic or apparatus appear REFEmNCB BOOKOR INORGANIC CHEMISTRY.W . M . Lalim~r, Ph.D., and JGH . Hildehrand, Ph.D., University of California. t o have been made in the nine years since the appearance of the Revised Edition. The Macmillan Co., New York City, 1940. first edition, new microchemical tests have been discovered. The second edition, has been completely reset and enlarged to include xii 563 pp. 14 X 21 cm. $4.00. these newer tests. This revised edition, which has appeared after a ten-year Some changes in order or arrangement were made in certain interval, is a thorough modernization of a well-known baok. sections, though in general the plan of the original volume has As in the first edition the contents comprise twenty-two chap- been maintained. An appendix on the preparation of reagents ters covering the descriptive chemistry of the elements, a glossary, and a short general bibliography and subject index conclude this and nineteen appendices. The arrangement is the same as in the hook. Nearly all tests are illustrated with excellent photomicrofirst edition and the chapter headings are unchanged, except that graphs. the chemistry of rhenium is included in the chapter on manganese. This handbook will be of value t o analytical chemists and to I n the appendices, "Structure of ~ o l e c u l &and Ions" takes the research workers in chemistry, mineralogy, and allied fields. place of "Borax Bead Tests" in Appendix',Seven: "Acid IonizaEvery laboratory possessing a polarizing microscope, and this tion Constants" have been included along with "Solubility Prod- should include every chemical laboratory, will have need of this ucts" in Appendix Eleven; and "Covalent Band Energies and volume. I t is an admirable text and can be recommended for Atomic Radii" have been substituted for the Table of Cceffi- specialized courses in chemical microscopy. dents of Linear Expansion in Appendix Sixteen. The inclusion F. J. PETTIJOHN of new material and the use of a more readable type have inT R B UNIYB%SIIY OF CA~CADO CHIC*UO, ILLINOlL creased the size of the volume from four hundred forty-two to five hundred sixty-three pages. The revision is unusually complete with regard t o thennody- A NEW DICTIONARY OF CHEMISTRY.Stephen M d l , LL.D., namical data, such as oxidation-reduction potentials, equilibrium B.Sc., Editor. Longmans, Green and Co., New York City. constants, and free energy values. Much discrimination has been 1940. xv 575 pp. 15 X 23 cm. 515.00. exercised in assembling these data. New discoveries in the genAs a handy, concise book of reference, the NEW DICTIONARY eral field of chemical facts have been brought up-to-date. The oa CHEMISTRY seems to answer a need experienced by all those chapter on the radioactive elements has been largely rewritten t o interested in the historical and technical developments of cheminclude the discoveries aver the past ten years in nuclear physics. istry and the allied sciences. Not only a dictionary of chemical The selection of material, a difficult task in the preparation of a one-volume reference baok, has been given careful consideration, processes and materials, the dictionary contains biographical and data are available for dealing with most of the problems material on notable chemists.
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arising in inorganic chemistry. Those acquainted with the first edition will find the usefulness THE CHEMISTS'YEARBOOK. Founded by F. W. Atack, edited of the book greatly increased. by E . Hope. The 1940 Revised Edition. Chemical PublishG. C. C R A ~ L E E ing Company, Inc., New York City, 1940. 1257 pp. 9.5 X Tm P B N N 8 n Y A N r A STATECOLLBOS 15 cm. $6.00. STAPBCOLLBSB, PBNNSYLYANKA
