:62 



NATURE 



[January 9. 1919 



The volume is also very well illustrated 

 with 138 illustrations, which Include twenty-nine 

 folding plates and three diagrams, and it has 

 ii comparative tables. 



Although in a short review full justice cannot 

 be done to a work which is so full of information 

 as this, yet a glance through the contents table 

 shows its comprehensive character. When the 

 design and erection of a refinery for the treatment 

 i.l petroleum arc projected it is very necessarj that 

 the fullest possible information with regard to the 

 crude material should be obtained before anything 

 further is done, and it is significant that the first 

 chapter should deal with this branch. Ii contains 

 a complete scheme with this end in view, which 

 cannot fail to be of great use to all who are inte- 

 rested in the subject. 



Without wishing unduly to criticise a chapter 

 which is so full of necessary information, one 

 would like to suggest that the portion dealing 

 with "flashing points" and "colour" is some- 

 what too fully dealt with, as this branch appears 

 in most text-books on petroleum, and belongs 

 more to the testing of refined products than to 

 the examination of the crude oil. Of special inte- 

 rest, however, is Fig. 30, giving the designs and 

 arrangements for a five-gallon experimental still, 

 and diagrams 1 and 3 of refining operations and 

 yields of products. 



The question of fire risks looms largely in the 

 petroleum industry, and this subject is ablv dealt 

 with in chap, ii., which treats also of the de- 

 partments necessary in refineries, apart from those 

 necessary to actual refining operations. Chaps, 

 iv., v., vi., and vii. discuss exhaustively the 

 actual distillation, refining-, and paraffin extrac- 

 tions, as carried out on the large scale, as well 

 as candle manufacture, which in some refineries 

 attains to large dimensions. The subject- 

 matter of these chapters is exceedingly well 

 handled, due stress being laid on the vital points 

 which make for success in these operations, show- 

 ing the mind of the man who is an fait with the 

 general policy, as well as the detailed operations 

 of the manufacture. 



Chap, iv., on the subject of distillation, is well 

 worthy of close study, embodying as it does all 

 the up-to-date information available ; and in this 

 chapter also attention should be paid to the 

 portion dealing with the question of heat exchange 

 or conservation, as it behoves every oil-refiner to 

 obtain the greatest possible yield from his oil, 

 and by saving fuel a definite conservation 

 results. In the chapter on chemical treatments 

 one would have liked to see more attention 

 paid to 1 he manufacture of lubricants, which 

 is only lightly treated, but is one of the more 

 difficult of the refiners' problems. In this 

 chapter is given a very complete description of 

 the Edeleanu process, which to a large extent 

 lessens the wasteful sulphuric aci'd treatment of 

 oils. The engineering specifications given in 

 chap. viii. will supply a long-felt want to the 

 student, who so rarely has access to these essential 

 1 ! c ■ 1 . 1 1 1 s . 



NO. 2567, VOL. IOJ" 



I In book will undoubtedly kcome the standard 

 work on the subject, and should be in the library 

 ot each and every person interested in petroleum. 



(2) Petrol and petroleum spirits now play such 

 an important part in the economic life of the nation 

 that it is a matter for wonder that so little is 

 known by the general public of their manufacture, 

 constitution, anil properties. In the work under 

 notice Capt. W. E. Guttentag, who has had a 

 unique experience in the last few years, lias 

 endeavoured to enlighten US, and has 6ompiled 

 quite a large proportion of the available know- 

 ledge on the question. 



Capt. Guttentag would have been well advised 

 to leave out of the book altogether chap. ii. 

 on petroleum, (a) characteristics, (f>) origin, 

 (c) geological, (d) exploitation, (c) refining of 

 crude oil, or to handle it much more fully 

 than he has done, for the sketchy account which 

 he lias given is of little use to the serious student, 

 and is only liable to give unbalanced ideas to the 

 general reader. In any case, it would have been 

 well through the whole of the book to give 

 detailed references to original workers, for with- 

 out these a technical work loses much of its value. 

 An illustration of this, showing also how mis-state- 

 ments creep into text-books and are copied and 

 repeated until thev are accepted as axioms, is the 

 passage: "The bad smell of cracked spirits 

 . . . is attributed to small quantities of sulphur 

 and nitrogen compounds." This statement was 

 first made by Rittman and then copied by Bacon 

 and Hamor, whereas now it is a generally accepted 

 fact that the smell of cracked spirits is due to 

 that of the unsaturated bodies of the di-ene class 

 which it contains. 



The chief value of this work is in chap, v., 

 which deals with the question of examination and 

 testing both for routine and special work, in 

 which the author has freely given of his special 

 knowledge. 



The book forms a useful little laboratory guide 

 for those engaged in the testing of petrol. 



WOOL INDUSTRIES, 

 Wool By Frank Ormerod. ("Staple Trades 

 and Industries." Vol. i.) Pp. xii + 218. (Lon- 

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

 65. 6d. net. 



THIS work covers in a general way the wool- 

 growing and wool-manufacturing industries. 

 More space is devoted to the sheep and to the 

 wool trade than to the following manufacturing 

 processes, but in no case can the treatment be 

 considered exhaustive. 



There are a few sins ol omission and ol coin- 

 mission which should be corrected in future editions 

 of the work. For example, in dealing with the 

 development of the wool comb on p. 31 no refer- 

 ence is made to the work of Isaac Holden; neither 

 is there reference to the fact that Lister, in pur- 

 chasing Heilman's English patent, was able to 

 suppress the Ilcilman comb in Great Britain. It 

 was not until tqoo that this comb, as made by 



