NATURE 



221 



THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1919. 



APPLIED CHEMISTRY. 



(ij Coal-tar Dyes and Intermediates. By E. de 

 Barry Barnett. (Industrial Chemistry Series.) 

 Pp. xviii + 213. (London: Bailli^re, Tindall, 

 and Cox, 1919.) Price 105. 6d. net. 



(2) Coal-tar and some of its Products. By 

 Arthur R. Warnes. (Pitman's Common Com- 

 modities and Industries.) Pp. xxii + 105. (Lon- 

 don : Sir I. Pitman and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) Price 

 25. 6d. net. 



(3) Van Nostrand's Chemical Annual. Fourth 

 issue, 1918. Thoroughly revised and enlarged. 

 Edited by Prof. John C. Olsen. Assistant 

 editor, M. P. Matthias. Pp. xviii + 778. (Lon- 

 don : Constable and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 

 155. net. 



(i) 'T'HIS volume, by Mr. E. de B. Barnett, 

 -'■ is one of the series of works on indus- 

 trial chemistry now being published under the 

 editorship of Dr. Samuel Rideal. The series aims 

 at giving a comprehensive survey of the present 

 condition of the chemical industries, the various 

 subjects being treated from the chemical rather 

 than from the engineering point of view. The 

 books appeal mainly to the advanced student, 

 whose mind, in the opinion of the editor, "is 

 often crammed with the hard facts and details 

 of his subject which crowd out the power of 

 realising the industry as a whole," and who, "on 

 commencing his industrial career, is positively 

 handicapped by his academic knowledge because 

 of his lack of information on current industrial 

 conditions." There is, no doubt, room for differ- 

 ence of opinion as to the best course of instruc- 

 tion to be pursued in the case of one who is being 

 prepared for a career in applied science, and it 

 may be that the change from the purely academic 

 side to that of application has hitherto been too 

 abrupt, and that something in the nature of an 

 intermediate course on the principles of techno- 

 logy is desirable. This fact, indeed, is now gene- 

 rally recognised, and we have the evidence for it 

 in the creation of such places as the Imperial 

 <"'ollege at South Kensington, and in the exten- 

 on of the newer universities, such as Man- 

 iiester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham, all 

 of which have largely developed their techno- 

 logical side, either by the establishment of new 

 liairs or, as in the cases of Manchester and Glas- 

 • )w, by uniting themselves with schools of tech- 

 nology already existing. Conditions arising out 

 of the war will no doubt accelerate this movement, 

 not only in this country, but also throughout the 

 'itish Dominions. As we know, it has given 

 n enormous impetus to technical education in 

 America and in Japan, and bids fair to jeopardise 

 the industrial future of Germany, at least in the 

 hemical arts. Whatever the future may have in 

 lore for our defeated enemy, there can be no 

 )ubt whatever that her supremacy in certain 

 NO. 2586, VOL. IO3I 



branches of manufacturing chemistry is irretriev- 

 ably gone. 



The book under review appears, therefore, at 

 an opportune time, and it is one of many similar 

 productions which aim at rousing British chemical 

 manufacturers to a sense of their present oppor- 

 tunity. It deals with an industry which took 

 its rise in this country, but was in large 

 measure lost to us through a variety of causes, not 

 the least of which was our deplorable educational 

 system and the supine inactivity of public opinion 

 which failed to insist upon its betterment. We 

 are, however, quickly changing all that, and we 

 may confidently hope that the coming generation 

 will see a marked improvement. The manufac- 

 ture of the so-called coal-tar dyes has already 

 received a great extension in this country, and 

 is rapidly assuming the position of a staple in- 

 dustry. It is bound to pass through many a 

 critical phase in the near future, but the conjoint 

 efforts of our schools of instruction, with wise 

 management on the part of our producers, 

 together with the benevolent attitude of Parlia- 

 ment, will, we trust, serve to steer it safely 

 through its difficulties. This country will never 

 again have such an opportunity to recover its lost 

 position in this industry, and it would now be 

 the height of unwisdom for it to neglect its 

 chance. 



The book before us, of course, makes no pre- 

 tension to be a complete treatise on the subject 

 with which it deals. It can scarcely be expected 

 that a volume of some 200 pages would adequately 

 cover so vast a field. It gives, however, a fairly 

 satisfactory apergu of the various processes in- 

 I volved in the manufacture of what are known as 

 I " intermediates "—that is, of compounds em- 

 I ployed in the manufacture of actual dyestuffs, 

 such as nitration, amidation, sulphonation, 

 i hydroxylation, etc. — and describes the mode of 

 I production and uses of the more important of 

 j these substances and of their main chemical and 

 physical properties. This constitutes part i. of 

 I the book, and is made up of five sections, extend- 

 i ing in all to some eighty-three pages. It is natu- 

 rally highly condensed, and no attempt is made 

 to illustrate it by any figures of the plant jn 

 actual use, which we consider an unfortunate 

 omission. Drawings of plant, such as an engineer 

 would make, do more to present what the editor 

 calls "the reality of the living industry " than 

 whole pages of verbal description. 



Part ii., which constitutes the bulk of 

 the work, is divided into fourteen sections, 

 each dealing with a special group of dyestuffs. 

 These sections are naturally of very unequal 

 length, such groups as the azo-dyes, the triphenyl- 

 methane dyes, the azines, the indigoid dyestuffs, 

 and the anthraquinone dyes — among the more 

 important of the synthetic dyes — extending over 

 several pages, whilst the nitroso- and nitro-dyes, 

 the indamines and indophenols, oxazines, thi- 

 azines, quinolines, acridines, and sulphide dyes are 

 somewhat summarily dismissed. A valuable 



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