A Text-book of Thermochemistry and Thermodynamics

Abstract

AT the present time, when considerable attention is being given to the industrial importance and value of chemistry, it is very necessary to emphasise the factors which not alone place chemical technology on a scientific basis, but are absolutely essential for real industrial progress. That much has been accomplished by more or less empirical methods is undoubted, and in certam cases, as a matter of fact, “theory” lags considerably behind “practice.” This, however, is not an argument for relegating theoretical principles to the background. Empiricism, which is unavoidable when an industry is in an undeveloped state, is ultimately the greatest bar to further progress. modern synthetic chemistry, in its widest sense, includes much more than the purely descriptive. The success of a chemical operation rests not only on whether the process can be carried out at all, but also on the careful elucidation of the best conditions under which to carry it out. The discovery of these conditions does not, or, rather, should not, be merely a matter of trial and error. The rational control of a process is determined by considerations of a wide and general nature applicable to processes of the most varied kind. To take an illustration. The problems of rapidity of working, of yield and efficiency, are intimately bound up with uch general considerations as reaction-speed and its dependence upon concentration, temperature, pressure, and the catalytic effects of the surroundings, with the question of the equilibrium state as defined by the equilibrium constant, and the variation of this quantity with temperature and pressure. Problems such as these represent some of the technical applications of the principles of physical chemistry. To go no further, it is evident that the technical chemist must be acquainted with the principles of chemical kinetics and chemical thermodynamics, especially the latter.

A Text-book of Thermochemistry and Thermodynamics.

By Prof. Otto Sackur. Translated and revised by Dr. G. E. Gibson. Pp. xvi + 439. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1917.) Price 12s. net.