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curriculum? That remains to be worked out. Undoubtedly it will serve as an introduction to chemical engineering a t the freshman or sophomore level. The material is descriptive and is something that the ohemicd engineer (and chemist destined for industry) must know. Service courses for students in chemistry, pharmacy, business administration could well use this as s. text for a. descriptive course illustrating the teohniques and equipment avdahle to the chemical industry. This book should be available in all libraries. KENNETH A. KOBE TEXAS AUSTIN.TEXAS
U N I Y B R S f l Y OP
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ADSORPTION
C. L. Mantell, Consulting Engineer, New York; Chairman, Department of Chemical Engineering, Newark College of Engineering. Second edition. McGraw-Hill Book Co., hc., New York, 1951. viii 634 pp. 273 figs. 135 tables. 16 X 23.5 om. $9.
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THE present text is a well revised and much enlarged second edition of this widely known work on the industrial and engineering aspects of adsorption. New chapters cover suoh subjects as the fractionation of liquid hydrocarbons, also of gsse-hypersorption; dehydration of liquids; refining of waxes, as well as sugar and related substances; fractionation of ions; and water treatment. There is also considerable new material pertaining to fullers' earth, clays, aluminum oxide base materials, various chars, decolorizing carbons, manufacture of ion exchangers, magnesia and h,ydrous oxides, solvent recovery, gas hydrates, rtnd the dehydration of air and gases. The chapter on specifications and the testing of adsorbents has been revised and brought up to date. Although the theoretical treatment of adsorption remains essentially unchanged, the second edition presents s, considerable amount of added data pertaining to adsorbents and their uses which will be of value to plant designers and operators.
of the older chspters have been thoroughly revised and augmented and several have been completely rewritten. Discussion of the analysis of specific elements and compounds, both inorganic and organic, together with sections on biological applications and amperometric titrations have been reserved for Volume 11. The division of material between the two volumes is alogical one, the development being from a treatment of polarography per se in Valume I to the detailed discussion of individual analyses in Volume 11. Both the neophyte and the experienced polarographer will find the discussion of the Modified Equation for the Dropping Electrode Diffusion Current and the much augmented chapter on Factors That Govern The Diffusion Current useful in theoretical studies as well as in the practical application of the mothod. Chapter XVIII, Common Operations In Polarographic Analysis, can be recommended as a useful guide to those who are about to run their &at polarogram. DAYTON E. CARRITT
JOHNSHOPRIN~UN~VERBITT BAGTIMORE. MARTLAND
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THE MEASUREMENT OF RADIOISOTOPES
Denis Taylor, Head of Electronics Division, Atomic Energy Establishment, HarweU. John Wiley ti Sons, Inc., New York, 118 pp. 11 X 17 cm. 51.SO. 1951. 40 figs. viii
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THISbook is one of Methuen's Monographs an Physical Subjects. Under a. preface date of September, 1950, the author cites in his introduction (Chapter I), the widespread use of radioisotopes in industrial and medical research, and the necessity for understanding the principles of radioisotope measurements and for knowing how to use the various types of measuring instruments. This book is an attempt to present such background information. Fundamental decay equations and activity units are discussed in Chapter 11. Chapter 111 contains a brief summary of radioactive radiations and accompanying nuclear transformations, as well as detection methods. Measurementswith ianizationchamW. W. RUSSELL bers are considered in some detail. Chapter IV i~ devoted entirely ta thecomponents of Geiger-Muller counting systems. Statistical omsiderations are presented in Chapter V while the significance of source geometry snd self-absorption in radioactivity measurements is discussed in Chapter VI. Coincidence corrections, and 0 POLAROGRAPHY. VOLUME I the treatment of radiometric assay data, are illustrated in C h a p I. M. Kolthoff, hafessor of Analytical Chemistry, University of ter VII. Chapter VIII describes the operation of scintillation Minnesota, and Jomes J. Lingane, Professor of Chemistry, Har- and proportional counters. The book is concluded with a 12sard University. Second edition. Interscience Publishers, Inc., page survey of health hazards and radiation monitoring proce420 pp. 147 figs. 27 tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. dures. 1952. xvii The author's objectives are broad, hut he has succeeded in $9. surveying in a compaot manner the various factors and measuring To THORE who have had occasion to use the polaragr~phie devices which contribute to a successful radioactive tracer assay. met,hod, the book "Polarography" by Kolthoff and Lingane is a8 The text is illustrated with many helpful drawings and block diafamiliar tr a bottle of mercury. To these investigators the first grams of equipment, as well as with tables and charts of useful volume of the new edition will need no introduction other than to data. Many basic correction euuations. useful in radiometric say that it contains a thorough discussion of the principles and assay procedures, are derived, and sample ealculations involved technique8 of the field from the time of its discovery by Heyrov- in such procedures are performed. The book is written, far the most part, in clear and succinct sky in 1920 through the developments of 1950. The neod for s, revision of the 12-year-old first edition is em- style, although the American reader may have to pander a maphaeized by the author8 in the preface to the now edition. They ment the meaning of suoh terms as "EHT Power Unit," "head say, "In the dozen years since the first edition of this book a p amplifier," "tim~controlled operations," etc. Similarly, the pared, the polilrographic literature has tripled in size and the British tolerance dose of 0.5-roentgen per week of X- or gamms, rays i8 higher than the 0.3-roentgen limit which applies in this current rate of growth exceeds 200 journal articles per year." Judging by Volume I of the second edition that need has been country. The compactness of the hook is achieved, however, by *-ell filled. the omission of pertinent explanatory matter; and a knowledge The new edition is in ttvo volumes. Volume I discusses: of the properties of radioactive substances and their radiation, Theoretical Principles, and Instrumentation and Technique. including ionization and absorption phenomena, is presupposed Many of the 19 chapter headings will be familiwto theusemof the for the reader. Tttblos are presented without explanatory headfirst edition. There are, however, four new chapters covering: ings, and certain equipment diagrams (Figures 3.9 and 4.6) Polarography in Nonaqueous Media, Unusual Diffusion Current shown without adequate descriptions. Very few literature refPhenomena, Waves Dependent on Reaction Rates, Catalytic erences are given. Waves, and Common Operations in Polarographic Analysis. All Although the typography of the book is good, errors of context
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