Abstract
A COMPENDIUM should at least be compendious, that is to say it should be comprehensive, complete, and compact; the information it contains should be accurate. This bulky volume fails to justify its title when tested by any of these criteria. General statistics and statutory requirements relating to the gas industry, gas-making coals, retort settings, purifiers, gas-holders, gas producers, by-products, flow of gases in pipes, and data relating to gas distribution generally, the mechanical characteristics of steel beams, etc. of various cross sections are amongst the subjects upon which information and useful particulars are given. We have failed to find tables referring to values of the elastic moduli of materials (and these are required in connexion with certain formulae contained in the book), data referring to viscosities of gases, coefficients of expansion of substances, vapour pressures and numerous other physical data with which the gas engineer is intimately concerned. Room could be found for ihese if the thirteen blank pages, blank parts of pages, and wide marginal spaces characterising the volume were utilised; Kaye and Laby's Tables would serve as an example of the type and format of a volume much needed by the gas industry.
Gas Engineers' Compendium: a Collection of Statistics, Formul”, Rules and Data for the Everyday Use of Gasworks' Officials and Students.
Compiled by Experts. Pp. 292. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1924.) 32s. 6d. net.
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T., J. Gas Engineers' Compendium: a Collection of Statistics, Formul”, Rules and Data for the Everyday Use of Gasworks' Officials and Students. Nature 114, 461 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114461a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/114461a0