464 



NA TURE 



[September 6, 1906 



TREATMENT OF WATER FOR STEAM 

 BOILERS AND MANUFACTURES. 

 Water Softening and Treatment. By W. H. Booth. 

 Pp. xvi + 308. (London: Archibald Constable and 

 Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 75. 6d. net. 



THE primary object of this book is the softening 

 of hard water for use in steam boilers and for 

 manufacturing purposes, but, in fact, it deals largely 

 with other matters relating to the supply of water to 

 the boilers of steam engines. Thus it is divided into 

 five sections, the first only of which relates to the 

 treatment of water by softening, together with the 

 separation of oil and filtration, and occupies about 

 half the book; whereas the four other sections, con- 

 stituting the second half of the book, consist of 

 " Section II., Air Pumps, Condensers, and Circulating 

 Pumps"; "Section III., Feed Heating and Stage 

 Heating"; "Section IV., Water Cooling"; and 

 " Section V., Feed Pumps and Injectors." .Accord- 

 ingly, the volume ranges over the whole subject of 

 the treatment of water supplied to steam boilers, 

 though dealing more expressly with the all-important 

 point of securing, so far as practicable, the purity of 

 the water employed for raising steam. 



Comparatively few towns are able to obtain a pure 

 water-supply by storing up the flow of rain off 

 jjrimitive rocks in an uninhabited mountain valley, 

 and conveying it at considerable expense to a distance, 

 as has been accomplished for Liverpool, Manchester, 

 Glasgow, Birmingham, and New York. Waters 

 derived from underground sources, such as springs, 

 rivers fed by springs, or wells, are impregnated more 

 or less with the soluble salts contained in the strata 

 through which they have passed; and when steam is 

 driven off from a boiler fed with such water, these 

 soluble impurities are deposited as scale on the sides 

 of the boiler. This incrustation, being a bad con- 

 ductor of heat, reduces the efficiency of the boiler, and 

 when very thick may lead to an injurious heating of 

 the metal ; whilst the necessary periodical removal of 

 the deposit is tedious and costly, and is liable to 

 damage the inner surface of the boiler. Accordingly, 

 in selecting a site for a factory, the available water- 

 supply should be carefully considered ; and where a 

 bored tube well proves the most economical, and an 

 adequate source of supply, the geology of the district 

 should be studied to secure the best site, and ascer- 

 tain the requisite depth for the well. In such cases 

 some softening process is generally expedient — and 

 often even when water from a river or stream is 

 available — to avoid incrustation of boilers, to prevent 

 a great waste of soap in laundries, and manufactories 

 where washing is resorted to, and to obtain the soft 

 water which is essential in dye works, paper mills, 

 and tanneries. 



The author deals successively with the sources and 

 impurities of water, the salts contained in it, the re- 

 agents used for softening and their reactions, water- 

 softening apparatus of various kinds, filters, com- 

 pounds added to the feed-water for preventing or re- 

 moving scale from boilers, corrosion of boilers, 

 incrustation of pipes, and the chemical and mechanical 

 NO. 1923, VOL. 74] 



removal of oil from condensed steam. The contents 

 of the second half of the book have been sufficiently 

 indicated by the headings of the four sections given 

 above ; and the descriptions of apparatus are elucidated 

 by one hundred figures in the text. Altogether, the 

 book contains complete information with respect to 

 the purification and supply of water to steam boilers, 

 which will be valuable to users of steam ; whilst the 

 first portion, on water softening, will be very useful 

 in indicating the methods by which hard water may 

 be rendered available for various manufactures requir- 

 ing pure water. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 

 Studies in Anatoiny from the Anatomical Department 



of the University of Manchester. Vol. iii. Edited 



by Prof. Alfred H. Young. Pp. 289; 23 plates. 



(Manchester ; University Press, 1906.) Price 10s. 



net. 

 In the struggle to build and equip laboratories for 

 research, the provision of means to secure the full 

 publication of the fruits of discovery has been to* 

 often left out of sight. If the best work is to be- 

 obtained from those who devote themselves to investi- 

 gation, and progress made by collective effort, the 

 means of publication become almost as important as 

 those of investigation. The University of Manchester 

 has recognised this fact. The present collection of 

 studies in anatomy — the third issued since Prof. 

 Young occupied the chair in the Owens College — 

 appears as the first volume of the anatomical series- 

 of the publications now being issued by the Uni- 

 versity of Manchester. In this volume there are ten 

 papers by men who work or have worked in the 

 anatomical department under Prof. Young. 



A number of the papers in this volume, such as 

 those by Profs. Robinson and Thompson, are re- 

 printed from the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 

 but all of them, old and new alike, are real additions 

 to the knowledge of the subject with which they deal. 

 Dr. J. Cameron's observations on the development of 

 the optic nerves in amphibians deal with a subject 

 which has been keenly discussed during the last 

 thirtv 3'ears, viz. the manner in which nerve fibres 

 are developed. From a study of the appearances 

 presented bv the developing fibres in the optic nerve 

 of amphibians. Dr. Cameron concludes that the fibres 

 begin as outgrowths from the ganglion cells of the 

 retina, but that their further growth towards the 

 brain is obtained by the cooperation of the cells of 

 the optic stalk, the growing point of the nerve fibre 

 being formed from substance derived from the optic 

 stalk cells. 



The longest paper in the collection is Dr. C. W. S. 

 Saberton's study of the nerve plexuses of four 

 chimpanzees, an accurate and very useful contribu- 

 tion to the data which must be collected before we 

 can finally settle the problem of man's origin. 

 Evervone who has worked at this problem is fully 

 aware that it cannot be settled by the examination 

 of single specimens of each species, but by dissection 

 of large numbers; the difficulty in obtaining anthro- 

 poids, the degree of individual variation, the great 

 labour entailed by dissection, and the expense entailed 

 bv publication, have kept us from reaching a definite 

 conception of the exact relationship of man and the 

 higher primates to one another. Hence Dr. Saber- 

 ton's contribution to available data is very welcome. 

 In his paper on the development and morphology of 

 the sternum, Dr. Licklev has reverted to the older 



