Abstract
THIS handbook is a useful compilation from catalogues, journals, year-books, etc. There is little or no attempt to show the original sources, and special work like that due to Mr. Bernard Moore is incorporated without reference to the discoverer. For the protection of the author himself, it would have been better had he given the authorities for some of the extraordinary statements made. There are so many of these that the book wants using with some caution. For example, it is said that “ball clay should not leave any residue on a sieve of 120 holes per linear inch.” Anyone familiar with ball clays knows that this is wrong, and anyone not familiar with those clays would appear foolish if he rejected a delivery on this authority. We are also told that “enamels are always opaque,” and there are several other misleading statements of like calibre. The table of common chemicals and their scientific names and formulae would be much improved if it was revised by a chemist, for some of the scientific qames are hopeless, likewise the formulae. For example, “sodalite” (common term) is “a felspar” (scientific term); gypsum and plaster are both given the formula CaSO4.2H2O, and the same mistake is made higher up the page, while flint is given as amorphous silica. Some of the names of defects are translated literally from the German, instead of into the terms generally employed in this country.
The Clayworker's Handbook.
By A. B. Searle. Third edition, revised, enlarged, and largely rewritten. Pp. viii + 381. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 21s.
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The Clayworker's Handbook . Nature 108, 398 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/108398a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/108398a0