The Analysis of Steel-Works Materials

Abstract

ANALYSIS in the laboratories attached to works necessarily differs widely from the analysis of schools or that of research. To compare them is to compare the work of professionals with that of amateurs. The works chemist is already familiar with the methods he has to use, as well as with the general principles on which they are based, before he begins his daily round of endless determinations. Consequently, the best book for him will, in general, be shorn of philosophic considerations, of lengthy descriptions of ordinary manipulations, and of accounts of obsolete processes, though they may be of great educational value and historical interest. He needs a terse, accurate description of processes that he can use, with references to the difficulties that may be encountered and to the limitations that cannot be avoided. H? must be able to find out quicklyall that he wants to know, and he must not be misled. It is difficult to imagine a book which would be equally suitable for schools and works, but most treatises on analysis are compromises. Tfee book now under review, which, by the way, is the second on the subject that has emanated from Sheffield, is no exception to the rule, though certainly better adapted for steel-works chemists than for students.

The Analysis of Steel-Works Materials.

By Harry Brearley Fred Ibbotson. With Illustrations. Pp. xv + 501. Price 14s. net. (London, New York and Bombay: Longmans, Green and Co., 1902.)