Books For Engineers

Metallurgical Engineering Volume I, by Reinhardt Schuhmann, Jr. Addison-Wesley Press. $7.50, 390 pp., 1952. -This first volume, engineering principles, of a two volume work, is intended by the author to meet a need for reorganization of instruction in extractive metallurgy. Its three main objectives are to organize the subject matter according to basic principles and unit processes; to integrate the underlying science of physical chemistry with metallurgical engineering; and to put greater emphasis on analysis and quantitative solution of engineering problems. Vol. I deals with unit processes, stoichiometry, thermodynamics, fuels, fluid flow, heat transfer, pyrometallurgical systems and refractories. Vol. II will take up the individual unit processes. Initiation and Growth of Explosion in Liquids and Solids, by F. P. Bowden and A. D. Yoffe. Cambridge University Press. $4.50, 104 pp., 1952.-The book is a study of decomposition by impact and by friction of explosive substances and deals mainly with the work of the authors and their collaborators. Research is still in progress but results thus far indicate that the mechanism of initiation is relatively simple. Findings are thoroughly discussed, and the latter part of the monograph describes the way in which a small nucleus of decomposition can grow into a large scale explosion.