RECENT BOOKS SEMIMICRO Q ~ A L ~ T A TANALYSIS ~VE OR INORGANIC
MATEFZALS. homes and industry and has made it necessary to devise constantly new and more efficient means of fighting fires from these new as well as old hazards. Although water is still employed today, the use of chemicals of various types has been of great Chemistry. University of New Hampshire. American Book aid to the modern fire fighter in his never-ending struggle against 354 pp. 22 figs. this destructive force. It has been the object of this hook to Company, New York City, 1939. xiv 14 X 22 cm. $2.75. describe all these methods in which chemical compounds or Texts of qualitative analysis have been appearing in such elements are used, either directly or indirectly after chemical quick succession that the interest of chemistry teachers and of transformation, t o combat fires. I n this attempt the author chemists in general can be aroused only when some definitely has been remarkably successful. The parts played by solids, new features, methods or points of view are presented. This was liquids, gases, vapors, and chemical foam as well as the more recent development known as air foam (sometimescalled mechanicertainly the case with the QUALITATIVE ANn~ysrsOP INORGANIC MATERIALS by the lirst two of the p m e n t three authors, a book cal foam) in our modem methods of lire extinguishment, are which has been reported on by another reviewer in the December, discussed fully in different chapters from the beginning of their 1938, issue of THISJ o m & and the main feature of which was use u p t o the present time. The German and foreign scientific a new systematic analysis of the anions. The m a n o methods and patent literature is considered in detail, and modern commerexpounded in the previous b w k are now transformed into semi- cial fire extinguishers and lire fighting installations marketed in m i n o methods without any change in their chemistry. Quan- Germany are shown in many illustrations. Various types of tities of materials are usually one-tenth or less of their values in fire extinguishers approved for use in Germany by the "Feuerthe macro methods. Precipitations are carried out in 3-ml. wehrbeirat" are listed in tables. Following the descriptive conical centrifuge tubes. Separations are accomplished in a section of the baok there is given a patent index, a list of patencentrifuge of 1.500 R.P.M., the supernatant liquid being removed tees, literature references, a list of important fire hazards, and by means of a dropper pipet. The whole technic of semimicro a subject index. Although this h w k was evidently written principally for use manipulations is presented in four pages (pages 170-3). Large portions of the two bwks are identical word for word. in Germany, the American reader will obtain from it an excellent Part I, devoted t o Fundamental Principles, now occupies one description of the use of chemicals in our current firedghting hundred fifty-seven pages instead of eighty-six and can be re- operations. However, he will lcuk in vain for information congarded as a sound and satisfactory account of the elements cerning American methods and American applications of the of the physical chemistry of solutions. Several additions t o chemical facts discussed. American extinguishers and firethe previous text are welcome, for instance the paragraph on fighting installations are neither described nor shown, in spite of hydroxide complex ions (pages 1324). We would have liked the fact that research laboratories of various American manufacto authors- use the evidence in favor of these ions (Zn- turers are constantly making contributions to the science of fire ~- see -~~ the ~-~ fighting. Likewise the part played by such organizations as the (OH),- for H%nOt-, and so forth) instead of leaving the ma'tter undecided. We fail, moreover, to see why only the formulas of Underwriters' Laboratories, Inc., the Inspection Department of the HZnOt- type correspond to the amphoteric behavior of the Associated F&tory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies. The National Bureau of Standards in Washington. D. C., and Zn(OH),, since the two equilibria others in the establishment of minimum standards far modern Zn++ 20HZn(OH), H+ HZnOrfire protection is not described. The format of the baok has been well chosen. The printing can, in the new interpretation, be written as is g w d and the clear, distinctive illustcations are quite satisZn(ItO),++ 20H- $ Zn(OH)n 4Hz0*20HsC Zn(OH).factory. The reviewer found only a very few typographical Part 11, devoted t o Laboratory Work, occu$ies one hundred errors of minor significance. It would be helpful if in subsequent seventeen pages instead of one hundred fourteen, but the Re- editions the year of issue he given for each patent cited. actions of the Ions, previously included in this section, are now LEG POL^ ScmaLna P Y ~ B NMB A N ~ A C T O COWPINY ~NO more clearly presented in a separate section of farty-three pages. N s a A m . Nsw Jeasiiv The Appendix is largely similar to that of the previous hook. A useful addition is a list of references for special reagents TnsRanoouNmrcs nm, CHEMISTRY. F. H. MacDougnll, M.A. (pages 3424). PLD.. Professor of Physical Chemistry. University of MinI t is interesting t o note that all the methods and particularly nesota. Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New the new analysis of the anions have been thoroughly and satis491 pp. 53 figs. 15 X 23 cm. $5.00. York City, 1939. ix factorily tested in their semimicro form in the classes of one of Those who are familiar with earlier editions of this book the authors. Repeated testing of this type is highly desirable in order to regulate and guidethe trend toward the general use will find the third edition practically an independent work. I t has been almost entirely rewritten and enlarged about twentyof semimicro methods in elementary college courses. P I E ~ VAN E RYSSELBERGAE five per cent.. yet the excellence of style, order, and so forth, Srnmoao Uxrvsasm has been retained. Professor MacDougall has succeeded in S m s r o ~ oU-m.slru. CALlaoaaU giving life and warmth t o the ordinarily cold abstractions of thermodynamics. The purist will be disturbed by the inclusion DAS CH~MISCWE FEUERL~~SCHWBSEN. Dr. 01kW K Q U S C ~ .of such extra-thermodynamic subjects as Debye-Huckel theory Volume21 of theSeries CWEMIE m n TECHN~KDER GEGENWAUT and quantum and statistical mechanics, but the value and inedited by Dr. H. Carlsohn. Professor a t the University of terest of the book is undoubtedly Mhanced thereby. These 283 pp. 89 figs. subjects, as well as heat, fugacity, activity and activity coeffiLeipzig. S. Hirzel, Leipzig, 1939. xi 15 X 25 em. Paper cover, R.M. 17; cloth bound R.M. cients, electromotive force and electrical potential, have been 18.50 ($5.35, plus postage. New York City). discussed very much more extensively. Entirely new are chapThe manufacture, storage, and industrial, as well as domestic ters on mathematical procedures and the thermodynamics of applications of the large variety of intlammable solids, liquids. gravitational, centrifugal. and electrical fields and surface tension. and eases used todav has increased areatly the fire hazard in New also is the statistical interpretation of entropy Unusual
W. B . Meldrum, Professor of Chemistry, Haverford College; E. W. Flosdorf, Assistant Professor of Bacteriology, University of Pennsylvania; and A. F. Dnggctt, Assistant Professor of
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