(1) The Fatigue of Metals (2) Grundbegriffe der mechanischen Technologie der Metalle

Abstract

(1) MR. H. J. GOUGH, a member of the staff in the Engineering Department of the National Physical Laboratory, has written a book on a subject to which he has himself made valuable original contributions. This in itself gives it unusual value, for he writes with first-hand knowledge and authority. The title itself needs some explanation. The phrase “fatigue of metals” has long been used by engineers to denote phenomena leading up to the failure of metals under repeated stresses. The original underlying idea was that, under these conditions, the metal gradually became “crystalline,” and that this was the primary cause of its breakdown. Modern research, however, on the crystalline structure of metals has shown that this is not the case, that no crystallisation occurs, but that the failure takes place because the metal ultimately breaks on a comparatively few planes which, on account of their size, give the appearance of crystal unity. As the author points out, the term is far from ideal, being both indefinite and rather misleading. He tells us that “our ideas of fatigue phenomena must frankly be admitted to be in the melting pot,” and that “no research yet published has been sufficiently fundamental” to characterise satisfactorily this phenomenon.

(1) The Fatigue of Metals.

By H. J. Gough. Pp. xx + 304 + 14 plates. (London: Scott, Greenwood and Son, 1924.) 25s. net.

(2) Grundbegriffe der mechanischen Technologie der Metalle.

Von Dr. Georg Sachs. (Die metallische Werkstoff: Gewinnung, Behandlung, Veredlung. Band 2.) Pp. x + 319. (Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H., 1925.) 13 gold marks.