REVIEWS 333 



Power Alcohol : its Production and Utilisation. By G. W. Monier- Williams, 

 O.B.E., M.C., M.A., Ph.D. [Pp. xii + 323, with illustrations.] 

 (London : Henry Frowde and Hodder & Stoughton, 1922. Price 

 215. net.) 



The title of this book conveys but a very imperfect impression of the com- 

 prehensive nature of the treatment of the subject with which it deals. The 

 book opens with a chapter on the motor fuel question, and discusses the 

 relative merits of petrol and alcohol from the point of view of cost of pro- 

 duction ; it is pointed out in this connection that the advantage is all in 

 favour of petrol so long as supplies keep equal to the demand, but that when 

 this is no longer the case power alcohol Avill begin to be regarded in the first 

 instance as a supplementary rather than as a competitive fuel. In the 

 second chapter entitled, " The Plaint as a Source of Alcohol," the author gives 

 an up-to-date and lucid account of our present knowledge regarding photo- 

 synthesis and the mechanism of alcoholic fermentation. The third chapter 

 deals with the various raw materials and the production on a large scale 

 of alcohol from starch and sugar in the brewery and distiller}'-, together 

 with details of the stills employed in British and foreign practice. The 

 fourth chapter is devoted to the economics of alcohol production from 

 various plants, together with the average yield obtainable from the various 

 sources mentioned. Chapter V contains a comprehensive account of the 

 experiments which have been carried out within the last few years, more 

 especially in Scandinavia and America, upon the production of alcohol from 

 cellulose materials. In Chapter VI is described the production of synthetic 

 alcohol, and Chapter VII deals with Excise Supervision and Denaturation. 

 The ninth chapter, which is one of the longest in the book, contains data 

 concerning the physical properties of alcohol from the motor fuel stand- 

 point, such as calorific values, temperature of spontaneous ignition, explo- 

 sive range, miscibility with other liquids, etc. Chapter IX deals with 

 engine tests, and the book is brought to a close with a few pages on fuel 

 mixtures containing alcohol. It will be seen from the above resume that 

 the book is quite a mine of information, and can be confidently recommended 

 not only to the specialist, but also to the general reader who is anxious to 

 obtain enlightenment upon a number of different aspects of the important 

 question of alcohol production for technical purposes. 



The Metallurgy of Zinc and Cadmium. By H. P. Hofman, Ph.D., Professor 

 of Metallurgy in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [Pp. 

 xii + 341, with many illustrations and diagrams.] (New York : 

 McGraw-HiU Book Company, 1922. Price 20s. net.) 



Prof. Hofman has set himself no slight task in undertaking the prepara- 

 tion of a series of treatises on special metallurgy, of which this is the fourth. 

 There are, of course, a goodly number of works on the metallurgy of zinc, 

 but for the most part these are not now up-to-date, and so much progress 

 has been made in recent years that there is room for a work which deals 

 with the subject both from the chemical and technical points of view, and 

 covers all recent developments. 



Prof. Hofman naturally dwells especially upon the methods of pre- 

 paring and refining the metals which are most in favour in the United States, 

 so that certain references are likely to be of more value over there than 

 in this country. 



The book is well prin-feed and arranged, and the author has obviously 

 been at great pains to produce an up-to-date textbook, so that those whose 

 work deals with the metallurgy of zinc and cadmium would do well to 

 examine the book in detail. 



F. A. M. 



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