NATURE 



1 1 )e( ember 19. 19 1 8 



'Hi-! authors of this book are respectively 

 the steel-maker and works manager at 



doubted whether she will ever again attain the 

 ascendancy in certain departments which she has 

 now sacrificed by Iter unscrupulous greed, bad 

 faith, and insatiable rapacity. It now rests with 

 the manufacturers and workers in this country to 

 determine how far they mean to share that pros- 

 perity with America and Japan. 



MODERN DEVELOPMENTS l\ 

 METALLURGY. 



(1) Ingots and Ingot Moulds. B) V W. Brearley 

 and H. Brearley. Pp. xv + 218. (London: 

 Longmans, Green, and Co., [918.) Price 16s. net. 



(2) Industrial Electro-metallurgy, including Elec- 

 trolytic and Electro-thermal Processes. By 

 Dr. E. K. Rideal. Pp. xii + 247. ("Industrial 

 Chemistry.") (London: Bailliere, Tindall, and 

 Cox, 191S.) Price ys. 6d. net. 



'y 



one of the large Sheffield steel works, and their 

 book is dedicated to the workmen in appreciation 

 of their efforts to reach the ideal in actual work. 

 They state that a considerable part of it was 

 prepared for teaching purposes, and that the 

 manuscript sheets have been freely criticised by 

 men whose business it is to make steel ingots. 

 As they point out, there is no way of studying 

 the conditions which lead to the production of 

 good and bad ingots more instructive than that 

 of making ingots themselves, according to well- 

 defined variations of the processes of ingot- 

 making, and cutting or breaking them in order 

 to observe their qualities. In former days a good 

 opportunity for such observations was enjoyed 

 at negligible cost by the crucible steel melter, 

 when ingots were "topped " down until the pipe 

 or other evidences of unsoundness were broken 

 away. Such a man knew what the conditions of 

 casting were; he was familiar with the state of 

 the ingot mould ; he saw daily perhaps from 

 twenty to forty ingots "topped " down to nearly 

 half their length, and his eye was trained to 

 notice minute differences in the appearance of 

 the fractured surfaces. Such opportunities 

 scarcely exist to-day, because ingots are only 

 rarely "topped." 



L T ndoubtedly the most trustworthy way of 

 ascertaining the changes which occur in the cast- 

 ing, freezing, and cooling of steel ingots would 

 be to experiment with the steel itself. Such a 

 method, however, involves a costly plant and an 

 expensive material which would require handling 

 by an experienced person. The authors, there- 

 fore, set about discovering a material which is 

 considerably more manageable, and they finally 

 fixed on stearin wax, which, they maintain, ex- 

 hibits a close resemblance to steel in much of its 

 behaviour. They say: "With a few pounds of 

 stearin, a pan of water, .1 beaker, a Hunsen 

 burner, a spirit lamp, a few tin moulds, and a 

 lot of patience, a great number of observations 

 can be made to illustrate, extend, and also in 

 some respects to correct prevailing notions about 

 steel ingots "; and one of the objects of their book 

 NO. 2564, VOL. I02] 



is to commend the use of stearin for teaching 

 purposes and to show how it may be applied to 

 elucidate many of the difficulties relating to ingots 

 and ingot moulds. By its aid they have studied 

 the formation of pipe and secondary shrinkage 

 cavities, the influence exerted on these by the 

 shape and dimensions of the mould, the advantage 

 or otherwise of feeder heads, the influence of cast- 

 ing temperatures on the soundness and strength 

 of the ingots, and the location and effects of 

 segregation. Their use of stearin has been freely 

 criticised by other steel experts, but it appears 

 to the present writer that the authors realise the 

 limitations .of the use of this material, and it is 

 difficult to be otherwise than favourably impressed 

 by the confession in their preface that they are 

 "less confident than formerly that they are quali- 

 fied to elucidate the art of ingot-making." 



The book deals with the following subjects : 

 (1) Crystalline structure and its effects; (2) shrink- 

 age and contraction cavities ; (3) casting tempera- 

 tures ; (4) ingot moulds; (5) methods of casting: 

 (I.) sound ingots; (7) blowholes; (8) segregation; 

 (9) slag occlusions; (10) influence of ingot defects 

 on forged steel. It is well written, plentifully 

 illustrated, and deserving of careful study by 

 those who desire to familiarise themselves w-ith 

 the subject. 



(2) Dr. Rideal's book gives in succinct and 

 well-written form an outline of modern industrial 

 electro-metallurgy; in fact, the scope of the work- 

 is even wider than the title suggests, for three 

 out of its eight sections deal with products which 

 are not metallic. After a brief scientific intro- 

 duction the author deals with electrolysis first in 

 aqueous solutions, and then in fused electrolytes. 

 Then follows a brief section on the electrolytic 

 preparation of the rarer metals, succeeded by one 

 on electro-thermal processes, in which, as the title 

 indicates, only the heat generated by an electric 

 current is used in the extraction of the metal. 

 Alter this comes a section on the preparation of 

 carborundum, and the oxy-silicides of carbon, the 

 carbides, and the electro-thermal fixation of 

 nitrogen by metals and metallic compounds. The 

 concluding section deals with iron and the ferro- 

 alloy. Electro-metallurgy has undergone very 

 important technical developments in recent years, 

 and Dr. Rideal is to be warmly commended for 

 his attempt to indicate the limits and the possi- 

 bilities of the application of electrolytic and electro- 

 thermal methods in the industry. 



H. C. H. C. 



A NATURAL HISTORY OF PHEASANTS. 



.1 Monograph of the Pheasants. By William 

 Beebe. In four volumes. Vol. i- Pp. xlix-f- 

 [98. (Published in England under the auspices 

 01 tiie \ew York Zoological Society by 

 Witherby and Co., London, 191S.) Price 

 12/. IOS. per volume. 



THIS stately volume is the first of four to be 

 devoted io the life-histories of the beautiful 

 and interesting birds included in the pheasant 

 family. Its outstanding merits an- the beauty ot 



