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patent office. The photographs of the Department of Cammeroe Building, Washington, where the Patent Office is now housed and the picture of Blodgett's Hotel, circa 1820, where the Patent Office started, will give some idea of the impressive growth and immense present proportion of this national enterprise. What cannot be conveyed by book or reviewer is the informality of the great reading room, open 14 hours a day to all comers-tramps may sit there indefinitely if they will shuffle a few papers-and the friendliness of the examiners. The inveterate patentee, called to Washington for an interference, may meet for the first time a courteous officialwho ha8 had to ~truggle with his applications for s. dozen years and is already an old friend or a confirmed skeptic. We will close this necessarily incomplete review by satisfying the reader's curiosity an the Atom question; Mr. Calvert has covered it. Already there is experience and precept in the handling of fissionable materid and, in the country's best interests, patents may not be taken out for: (1) production of fissionable material, (2) utilization for energy or military purposes. This book will not be essential to the patent lawyer, although it will be useful. I t will be indispensable-since it now existsto the executive, and we should like to see a copy on every inventor's desk. Younger men could avoid plagiarism and many hurt feelings if they could read frequently what Mr. Calvert has to say about authorship of invention. K. C. D. HICKMAN 58 THACXERAY ROAD
Rocassm~..Nsw Yoaa
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by the use of the words spectrophotometry, spectrography, spectroscopy, and spectrometry in four of these chapter titles. The reviewer ventures again to succumb to the temptation to raise the question of what analysts (and physicists) mean by the designation physicsl method. To him confusion in general nomenclature and usage seems widespread. He has convinced himself, if no one else, that andytical methods for many multicomponent materials, such its a granite rock, consist of three rather distinct kinds of unit aoeratitions. Some. such as fusion.
electrodeposition, and extraction, are separative treatments required to isolate the desired coustituent(s) for measurement. Up to this point all of these items are largely chemical in nature, in that they involve more or less material transformation. And finally, some are measuring processes. The last group seems to be physical, since measurement consists in finding the number of times a standard goes into the unknown. From this viewpoint, then, gravimetry (weighing) seems just as much physical as is, for example, absorptimetry. This volume, along with the projected outline for Volume 2, indicates that only p a t of all such physical methods is to be included. As a general evaluation of this work, the presentation in the individual chapters is roughly compsrable to that for tbe same subject (if included) in Weissherger's "Physical Methods of Organic Chemistry." Fortunately, there is not the possible implication of the latter work that the methods are peculiar to organic chemistry. The reviewer recommends this book for the purpose of which it was intended, namely to give a reasonable perspective of the contemporary status of the subjects treated. M. G. MELLON
PHYSICAL METHODS IN CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. VOLUME I
Edited by Walter G. Berl, Johns H o p h s University, Silver Springs, Maryland. Academic Press Inc., Publishers, New York, 1950. d i i 664 pp. 234 figs. 6S tables. 16 X 24 cm. 512.
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Tms new work is the first part of the projected two-volume set being edited by W. G. Berl. The stated objective is "to describe those physicsl methods that have either proved themselves of considerable vslue in quantitative analytical work or are destined to play an important role in the future." The following chapters are included: Absorption Phenomena of X-Rays m d of ?Rays (15 p.), by G. L. Clark; X-Ray Diffraction Methods as Applied to Powders and Metals (89 p.), by W. L. Davidson; X-Ray Diffraction ss Applied to Fibers (59 p.), by J. A. Howsmon; Electron Diffraction (24 p.), by L. 0. Brockway; Spectrophotometry and Colorimetry (60 p.), by W. R. Brode; Emission Spectragraphy (77 p.), by J . Sherman; Infrared Spectroscopy (71 p.), by H. H. Nielsen and R. A. Oetjen; Raman Spectra (17 p.), J. H. Hibben; Polariscopic and Polarimetric Examination of Materials by Transmitted Light (58 p.), by C. D. West; Refractive Index Measurement (50 p.), by L. W. Tilton and J. K. Taylor; Electron Microscopy (51 p.), by R. D. Heidenreich: and Mass Spectrometry (52 p.), by H. W. Washburn. In the space allotted it is obvious that each contributor could present only a general perspective of his subject, with emphasis upon its current status. In the preface the editor carefully defined the limitation of the presentation as follows: (1) the theoretical basis of the method; (2) the kinds of apparatus and procedures used; (3) the general possibilities of application; and (4) the selected references (some 900) to supplement the material in,:luded. Although the rrviewr profrssr to no proficiency in all these fields, rhr stared objectives seem to him to have been adequ:uely met. Onh. an individual iurim~telviumiliar sirh the vn*t lilcrature available for any particulrtr subject is in a position to judge critically the quality and the balance of the selections made. Anyway, probably no two such "experts" would agree. Divergence of viewpoint may extend even to nomenclature, as shown
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TECHNIQUE OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, VOL. I11
Edited by Arnold Weissberger, Research Laboratories, Eadman KodaL, Rochester, New York. Interscience Publishers, Inc., 661 pp. 324 figs. 42 tables. 16 X 24 New York, 1950. ix cm. 510.
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ONE of the least satisfying experiences of modern research is to leap across the chasm of experimental difficulties in several jumps. Accordingly, m y work which presumes to diminish these unpleasantries is worthy of our anxious curiosity. This volume ventures to set forth the essential and useful information on the subjects of: Heating and cooling, by Richard S. Egly, Commercial Solvents Corporation; Mixing, by J. H. Rushton, Illinois Institute of Technology, m d M. P. Hofmann, Troy Engine & Machine Co.; Centrifuging, by H. B. Golding. International Equipment Company; Extraction and distribution, by Lyman C. Craig, Rockefeller Institute, and David Craig, B. F. Goodrich Company; Dialysis and electrodialysis, by R. E. Stauffer, Eastman Kodak Company; Crystallizl~tion,by R. S. Tipson, Mellon Institute; Filtration, by A. B. Cummins, JohnsManville Corporation; and Solvent removal, evaporation and drying, by G. Broughton, Lowell Textile Institute. The authors have handled these subjects with unfailing intellectural zest and have produced a work that richly deserves the attention and applause of both the chemist and the chemical engineer. A serious effort is made in each section to analyze and appmiae the physical and mathematical backgrounds of the field in order that the results of laboratory experiences may he more readily trsnslated into the pilot plant stage of development. As a result of this treatment, the subject is viewed in greater depth and range than is customary in books of this character. Accordingly, this volume will appeal to a. large audience and should be accorded a generous reception. GEORGE HOLMES RICHTER THEIbcn I a m n n H o o a ~ o s ,TEXM
