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NATURE 



'■[February 12, 1920 



and for which its engineering committee now con- 

 fidently appeals to the citizens of London to provide. 

 A very good start has been made by a contribu- 

 tion of io,oooL from Lord Cowdray, with a 

 promise of another lo.oool. when 70,000!. has 

 been reached. The members of the family of the 

 late Mr. Charles Hawksley have contributed 3000?. 

 towards the extension of the hydraulic laboratory. 

 Other gifts bring the total up to about 30,000!., 

 apart from Lord Cowdray 's contingent promise. 

 London is now offered an excellent opportunity of 

 showing its appreciation of the asset it possesses 

 in the engineering department of the college, and 

 of discharging its obligations to an essential factor 

 of modern progress. We look to men of means 

 in the City and county of London to respond 

 readily and generously to the appeal. Donations 

 should be sent to H.R.H. Prince Arthur of Con- 

 naught, who is president of the Equipment and 

 Endowment Fund, at his residence, 42 Upper 

 Grosvenor Street, W.i. 



INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY. 

 (i) Industrial Gases. By Dr. Harold Cecil Green- 

 wood. (Industrial Chemistry.) Pp. xvii-l-371. 

 (London : Baillifere, Tindall, and Cox, 1920.) 

 Price I2S. 6d. net. 

 (2) The Condensed Chemical Dictionary : A Refer- 

 ence Volume for all requiring Quick Access to a 

 Large Amount of Essential Data regarding 

 Chemicals and other Substances used in Manufac- 

 turing and Laboratory Work. Compiled and 

 edited by the editorial staff of the Chemical En- 

 gineering Catalog. Pp. 525. (New York : The 

 Chemical Catalog Co., Inc., 1919.) Price 

 5 dollars, 

 (i) A MELANCHOLY interest attaches to this 

 J'\ book, which of itself would disarm any 

 adverse criticism, even if such were called for. Its 

 author, a comparatively young man, died on the 

 eve of its publication. After a brilliant career at 

 the University of Manchester, of which he was a 

 Beyer Fellow, and where he graduated as a Doctor 

 of Science, Dr. Greenwood worked as an 185 1 

 Exhibition scholar for some years under Prof. 

 Haber at Karlsruhe on the synthetic production of 

 ammonia. During the war he became connected 

 with the research laboratory of the Ministry of 

 Munitions, and was engaged in the inquiry initiated 

 by the Munitions Inventions Department on the 

 industrial manufacture of synthetic nitrogen pro- 

 ducts. His services were recognised by the O.B.E. 

 awarded to him in 1919. In a foreword to the 

 book. Dr. J. A. Harker, under whom the aythor 

 served, pays a graceful tribute to his memory. 

 NO. 2624, VOL. 104] 



Dr. Greenwood's published work and experience 

 rendered him exceptionally well qualified to under- 

 take the preparation of the book under review. 

 We can unreservedly commend it. It is a well- 

 written, scholarly production, judiciously put 

 together with a conscientious determination to 

 make it an accurate presentation of contemporary 

 knowledge. As the author points out in his pre- 

 face, its title implies a more comprehensive 

 treatise than it actually is ; many industrial 

 gases, such as chlorine, hydrochloric acid, am- 

 monia, acetylene, etc., find no place in it, as these 

 are treated in other books in the same series. He 

 confines himself to the gases of the atmosphere, 

 hydrogen, the oxides of carbon, sulphur dioxide, 

 nitrous oxide, and certain substances which have 

 been used in gas-warfare, and he devotes a special 

 section to fuel gases, on account, as he states, 

 of the intimate connection of their methods of 

 production with the general question of industrial 

 gases. 



The main subject of the book is introduced in a 

 chapter on the more important fundamental physi- 

 cal and physico-chemical principles forming the 

 basis of technical gas reactions, although no 

 attempt is made to give a detailed theoretical treat- 

 ment of the various generalisations to which refer- 

 ence is necessarily made. In this chapter the gases' 

 in general are treated comprehensively, and the 

 numerical values of their various constants are 

 grouped together in a series of tables. This 

 method, no doubt, has certain advantages, as 

 it enables rapid comparison to be made between 

 individual gases, but when we come to their 

 detailed study it involves a good deal of turning 

 backwards and forwards. It would have added 

 little to the size of the book, and would certainly 

 have increased the convenience of handling it, if the 

 various constants and factors had been repeated 

 in the special accounts of the several gases. The 

 author would seem to have been primarily concerned 

 vi'ith the general principles of gas technology and 

 their elucidation rather than with the minute treat- 

 ment of individual gases. As might be expected 

 from his experience, which had been latterly almost 

 wholly directed to problems arising out of the war, 

 such questions as the manufacture of hydrogen for 

 aeronautical purposes and for the synthetic pro- 

 duction of ammonia naturally receive special 

 attention. Naturally also, he devotes much con- 

 sideration to the question of gaseous equilibria and 

 to that of heterogeneous catalytic gas reactions, 

 without doubt among the most important matters 

 in modern chemical technology. The entire chap- 

 ter is worthy of the serious study of all engaged 

 in the technical production of gases and in the 



