Februabt 5, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



231 



tory. The brief reference to such an im- 

 portant subject as the constitution of steel 

 is to be regretted. 



The subject of crystallography, which was 

 formerly given in the volume of the non- 

 metals, has been transferred to this volume 

 and occupies fifty pages. It is fully believed 

 that such special subjects as this and spec- 

 trum analysis (25 pages) might be condensed 

 into much smaller space without injuring the 

 value of the book. 



The metallurgical and technical processes, 

 as in previous editions, have been satis- 

 factorily treated, and have been brought up to 

 date. 



While the chemists will be pleased to have 

 ■so excellent a statement of his science as this 

 book, he will regret that the author has not 

 •drawn more largely from his long experience 

 and given more attention to criticism and 

 generalization. 



Henry Fay 



Iiead and Zinc in the United States, Com- 

 prising an Economic History of the Mining 

 and Smelting of the Metals, and the Con- 

 ditions which have affected the Develop- 

 ment of the Industries. By Walter Een- 

 TON Ingalls. Pp. s + 368, illustrated. 

 New York, Hill Publishing Co. 1908. $4. 

 Most publications dealing with the histories 

 ■of metals have mainly an antiquarian in- 

 terest. The two leading exceptions to this 

 general rule are found in the great work of 

 Beck on iron, and the more general book of 

 Neumann on the leading industrial metals, 

 as both authors have taken up the statistical, 

 industrial and technical sides, and added 

 them to the usual chronological treatment of 

 the subject. 



The present work deals with lead and zinc 

 only, the ores of which frequently occur to- 

 gether and therefore influence each other in 

 treatment. The new departure of this publi- 

 cation lies in the fact that, restricting the 

 field to the United States, it considers the 

 American methods of treatment of the metals 

 irom the mine through the smelter to the 

 market of the finished product. The technical 

 processes are given with sufficient details to be 



clear even to the reader not especially versed 

 in this branch of engineering. 



The time of writing such a work is oppor- 

 tune, as some of the founders of the modern 

 American lead-smelting practise are still 

 actively engaged in their profession, and as 

 the fathers of the first industrial production 

 of zinc are still living; nor could the work 

 have fallen into better hands than those of 

 the author, who is well-known to the mining 

 and metallurgical profession as an engineer, 

 as a writer on subjects relating to lead and 

 zinc, and as the editor of one of our leading 

 technical journals and annuals. 



The introduction gives a brief and concise 

 review of the history of the two metals in 

 this country. The first part, which deals 

 with lead, is much longer than the second, 

 devoted to zinc. This was to have been ex- 

 pected, as while lead was first mined in the 

 early part of the seventeenth century, zinc 

 was not produced until two centuries later. 



The history of lead begins with an account 

 of the occurrence of lead ores. The discus- 

 sion outlines the leading geological features 

 of the deposits, but dwells more upon the 

 character and grade of the ores, and upon the 

 industrial conditions which governed the 

 mining operations. This is followed by the 

 chronology of the history of lead-mining, 

 which starts from the first record of 1621, 

 when lead was mined and smelted near Fall- 

 ing Creek, Va., and records the leading events 

 down to 1906. Chapter III. gives a valuable 

 resume of the development of the blast- 

 furnace practise of smelting silver-bearing 

 lead ores, and of the treatment of silver-free 

 lead ores in the ore-hearth and the reverbera- 

 tory furnace. It shows how blast-furnace 

 smelting developed from crude beginnings 

 into its present unsurpassed excellence by the 

 application of science to art, and by concen- 

 tration of operations into large, centrally 

 located plants. In the account of the ore- 

 hearth work the increase in yield by the 

 recovery of fumes receives due consideration. 

 While in smelting the work of Arents, Filers, 

 Hahn, Eaht and others is recorded, in the 

 chapter on refining we should have liked to see 

 mentioned the invention of the Steitz siphon. 



