A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry

Abstract

AS a notice of the first volume of the new edition of Thorpe's Dictionary appeared in the columns of NATURE for April 18, 1912, it is not necessary on the present occasion to do more than express cordial concurrence in the reviewer's high estimate of the character of the work and of the services rendered to the chemical world by the editor and his staff of contributors. In the two volumes before us the reader rather naturally turns first to those articles which specially illustrate the applications of science to industry, namely, those of which the subjects had not even come into practical existence at the date of the former edition. Metallography, for example, is one of these subjects, and is treated in a thoroughly masterly manner by Dr. Walter Rosenhain, of the National Physical Laboratory. Here is a subject which, originating fifty years ago in the microscopic study of rocks by Sorby, has been largely dependent for the advances already made on the provision of instruments for measuring and recording temperatures above the range of the mercurial thermometer. Without the electrical pyrometer comparatively little would have been accomplished.

A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry.

Revised and enlarged edition. By Sir Edward Thorpe, assisted by eminent contributors. Vol. ii. Pp. viii + 786. Vol. iii. Pp. viii + 789. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1912.) Price 45s. net per volume.