February 25, 1892J 



NA TURE 



;87 



iron and steel. The ores are stated to be roasted in 

 heaps and in special kilns, but no description is given of 

 the process. The blast-furnace to which the longest 

 description is devoted is an open-top furnace of forty 

 years ago. No figure is given of a modern English blast- 

 furnace ; the form shown in the cut, and dismissed in eight 

 lines of text, is not to be seen in this country. The cup 

 and cone charger, general in Great Britain, is not even 

 mentioned. There is no straightforward account of the 

 successive chemical changes which are supposed to take 

 place as the charge descends in the furnace, but, without 

 introduction, the reader is plunged into a disproportion- 

 ately long discussion of the " heat conditions of the blast- 

 furnace." There is no description of the tuyeres, though 

 it is mentioned that they are cooled by water, nor of the 

 sand casting-bed, nor of the resulting pigs. In the 

 account of " crude " iron, as it is called, it is surely not 

 enough to say that, " according to the nature of the 

 carbon, it is distinguished as white and grey crude iron," 

 and then to give just six lines to each of these two 

 varieties, without so much as mentioning the various 

 grades distinguished by the numbers familiar in every 

 ironworks, or the purposes in the forge or the foundry 

 to which they are severally applicable. Following the 

 description of " crude " iron is a section occupying about 

 three-quarters of a page on the examination of iron and 

 steel, which might as well have been omitted, as it is 

 quite useless. The same inadequate treatment is notice- 

 able throughout the article, and to an English reader it 

 must appear strange that English metallurgists, with the 

 exception of Bessemer, Thomas and Gilchrist, and Bell, 

 whose name appears once, are generally ignored. This 

 seems to be one of the articles in which the English 

 editor has not been sufficiently careful to supply the 

 modifications indicated in the preface as requisite in 

 order to adapt the book to the conditions prevailing in 

 this country. 



Turning now to subjects of a different character, there 

 is the vast field of coal-tar and the colours derived from 

 the tar hydrocarbons. The colours are dealt with in 

 sixty-seven pages. In comparison, therefore, with other 

 subjects in the same volume, this important and interest- 

 ing department of applied chemistry receives perhaps its 

 fair share of space ; but, recalling the fact that in another 

 book on applied chemistry recently published nearly the 

 same number of pages is devoted to naphthalene and its 

 derivatives alone, it is obvious that considerable con- 

 densation must have been effected in the work before us. 

 In connection with this article, every chemist who has 

 any feeling for consistency in chemical nomenclature 

 must protest against the playful variety of spelling which 

 the editor permits in the names of the hydrocarbons. 

 On the same pages we have paraffi/ie, henzo/, naphthal- 

 z'ne, anthrac^«^, triphenyl mtthan. This is really too 

 bad! 



Referring to the thirty pages devoted to dyeing and 

 tissue-printing, we find a practical acknowledgment of 

 the inadequacy of the treatment which many subjects 

 receive by the insertion of a list of books to which the 

 reader is referred for further information. And this 

 recalls the fact that elsewhere throughout the volume 

 references to authorities in the shape of original memoirs, 

 books, or patent specifications are rarely given. This is 

 NO. I 165, VOL. 45] 



an omission which might with great advantage be re- 

 paired in a future edition, not only because further 

 information is often essential, but because there are, 

 necessarily, scattered up and down the pages of such a 

 comprehensive work as this a good many statements 

 which require some qualification, or, at any rate, some 

 positive evidence to make them completely acceptable, 

 as well as others which are manifestly antiquated and 

 obsolete. For example, the statements (p. 223) as to the 

 influence of the addition of aluminium to iron and steel 

 ought not to be put forward without proof. Certainly 

 the fact that the manufacture of pure aluminium is now 

 practically abandoned tends to show that it has not been 

 found so valuable in connection with iron and steel as 

 was at one time asserted. 



There is no very pressing necessity fxjr introducing 

 photometry into a book on chemical technology ; but if 

 there is a reason for its introduction, there must be a still 

 stronger reason for making the description practical. It 

 is not so in this case, for while Bunsen's photometer is 

 referred to, rather than described, in eight lines, Violle's 

 attempt to utilize the light emitted from melted platinum 

 as a photometric unit is described at length, with a 

 figure, and the article concludes with the statement that 

 the amyl acetate lamp will probably in time supersede 

 the other units. We think not. 



Manufacturers who have managed to keep the details 

 of their plant and their processes practically secret must 

 derive some amusement from books which profess to 

 describe their manufactures. The successful English 

 monopolists of phosphorus-making (Messrs. Albright 

 and Wilson) are represented, no doubt correctly, as 

 making more phosphorus than anybody else : but we can 

 imagine the quiet smile with which they would regard 

 the pictures of apparatus said to have been invented and 

 employed by themselves, as well as such ridiculous 

 statements as (p. 410) that " bone ash is now the only 

 material used by phosphorus-makers," &c. If it were 

 not for the lofty air of knowledge with which such things 

 are described, it would not matter greatly ; but it would 

 be more candid towards the reader if the writer of such 

 an article as that on phosphorus would begin by declaring 

 roundly that he does not know, but only imagines, that 

 the following is the process likely to be employed. 



The difificulty of purifying the pages of successive 

 editions of so large and complex a book of phraseology 

 which is obsolete or inappropriate is illustrated on p. 398, 

 where a brief exposition is given of the views entertained 

 by " the late Dr. Gerhardt " concerning the constitution 

 of fulminating mercury. Not a word is mentioned of 

 more recent chemical discussions on the fulminates, 

 though they have been renewed more than once in the 

 five-and-thirty years which have elapsed since the death 

 of the distinguished French chemist. 



The editors have produced a volume which contains 

 much entertaining and instructive reading. From what 

 has been said, however, it is obvious that the reader 

 must not expect to find the whole truth, and nothing but 

 the truth, set forth in any such cyclopaedic production. 

 It is not possible for any one man, or any three men, to 

 array, without mistake, the accumulated stores of human 

 knowledge and experience in such a subject as applied 

 ! chemistry. W\ A. T. 



