Metallurgy An Elementary Text-book

Abstract

THE author's aim has been to present, within narrow limits, a clear and concise account of metallurgical processes, and he has done his work conscientiously, for much information has been included in the 271 pages of the volume, which also claims to be a “small handy book of reference.” This claim can, however, hardly be sustained, though the publication of the work is amply justified, mainly for the following reason. It is difficult to make the ordinary student of chemistry understand that metallurgical processes differ essentially from those he is taught in a chemical laboratory, for as regards “wet” processes the reactions which occur in large volumes of dilute liquids, held in tanks, are often more complicated than the chemical changes which may be studied with the aid of test-tubes or beakers. In dry processes also the student has to deal with problems which involve a knowledge of the influence exerted by mass and high temperatures, and his laboratory experience is often at fault. The sooner, therefore, that students are taught the need for special instruction in metallurgy the better, and a little volume like this one under review is to be welcomed, more especially as the author is careful to point out “that the equations given for reactions occurring at elevated temperatures only partially express the truth.” He says that “details are only given when necessary for the sake of clearness”; and this reveals the weak point of his scheme. It is impossible to give details as to the extraction of individual metals from their ores in a book of this size, and it would have been better to have limited the range of the little volume to a consideration of the principles on which metallurgy is based.

Metallurgy. An Elementary Text-book.

By E. L. Rhead. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895.)