Engineers as writers: Growth of a literature

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JOURNAL O F CHEMICAL EDUCATION

a meeting place where the latest advances in virological research e m be presented. The editors, too, deserve thanks for insisting that all branches of virology he represented with the focus of a& tenbion limited to the virus itself. Clearly, this series will become an indi~pensableaid to all those interested in general virological mattern. S. G. WILDMAN U N ~ V E B S ~O T F ~YA L I P O B N I * Los ANEELEQ.C*~,~FOBNI&

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LABORATORY MANUAL FOR A SHORT COURSE IN ORGANIC CKEMISTRY

E. Campaigne, Indiana University, and Harold H a r t and Robert D. Schuetz, Michigan State College. Second edition. Houghton Mifflin Ca., Boston, 1953. 153 pp. 11 figs. 20.5 X 27.5 cm. $2.50. THISmanual is intended for use in the one-semester or onequarter course taught to majors in agriculture, nursing, home economics, ete. It includes 27 experiments, each designed to be completed in a. three-hour laboratory period. Of necessity such a manual must be slender, both in the amount of chemistry covered and in the depth of penetration into chemical phenomena. In the present case, the slenderizing has been done well, for the manual has a lightness of touch but a t thesame time a. firm emphasis on fundamental chemical principles. Besides many experiments of the tesetube variety, there are several novel small-scale preparative experiments, most of which involve reaction times of less than thirty minutes. These include a Grignard reaction run in an open test tube. Two experiments call for work with molecular models: Experiment 2 involves exploration of the geometrical character of organic molecules and of the relationships of three-dimensional models to two-dimensional structural formulas; Experiment 24 deals with stereoisomerism. Each experiment is followed by a perforated report sheet, with ouestions and blanks for answers.

of writing by engineers from the earliest times, are thirteen c h a p ters, each limited to an authoritative piece of writing. The first three-Vitruvius on architecture (27 B.c.), Frontinus on aqueducts, Agricols. on mining-are in the best awildde translations from the original Latin. Others represented are Smeaton on his lighthouse, McAdam on road-building, Rankine of the model manuals, Wellington on railways; and, nearer our own time, Lamme on electric power, Parsons on steam power, Taylor on scientific management, Pupin, Ammann, Hoover, Benediet and Rubin, and finally, Raymond's classic, "The Well-Tempered Aircraft" (1951). An enormous amount of research and thoughtful planning have gone into this book. The well chosen selections make widely varied reading: some interesting-occasionally fascinatingsome aridly factud, mme boring. Each is preceded by a short sketch about the author, his work, and the background of the piece that iollows. At the end of each chapter the reader is ierked back bv the nuthors' comments on whv the niem in mod. ;hat is the matter with it and why, and tieir suggest,ions for further study of each topic. Came to the epilogue, the student or other reader is given suggestions for appraising the book. One cannot fail to note that it has given examples of almost every form of composition that may be demanded of engineers: letters, formal and informal reports, discussional and expository papers, addresses to technical and nontechnical audiences, manuals of instruction. Anyone who tries to make the critical evaluation as outlined can easily understand why some of the selections make a stronger appeal than others. The book is well made. I t has an excellent bihlioghphy, an adequate index, and a helpful table inside the back cover for the speedy locating of certain topics. Any teacher of either technical subjects or technical writing should find it most valuable. And any student that uses it in school will probably be tempted to annotate it with his own comments and keep it for ready reference during his professional career.

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FLORENCE E. WALL NETTYonn. NEW YORR

JOSEPH F. BUNNETT U ~ r v ~ n s OF ~ rN v O B TCAROLINA ~

C a * ~ = r .H I W N o n ~ nC A ~ O L I W *

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ENGINEERS AS WRITERS: GROWTH OF A LITERATmE

Edited by Walterl. Miller and Leo E. A. Saidla, Department of English, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. D. Van Noatrand Co., 340 pp. 16 figs. 15 X 22.5 cm. Inc., New York, 1953. xii $4.25.

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THIS is a most ununual-a unique-book. Maybe not actually discouraged, but frankly dissatisfied with the results of trying to teach students in engineering hoar to write by cramming them full of grammatical rules and mechanical Do%and Don't's, these teachers of English in the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn decided to follow the example of their teaching brethren in their own field. Inspired by the methods used and the sources available in analogous study of other forms of writing, e. g., poetry, drama, jpurnillism, the authors have assembled a splendid collection of wntmgs by eminent en~neers,each skilled in his own branch. Ever since Aydelotte's "English and Engineering0 (McGrawHill, 1923) waa allowed to go out of print, there has been a gap in the lists of literarv offerines to technical students. Whereas the older "reader" aimed to teach by precept and by example, this new one concentrates on examples, confident that students wlll be able to derive the precepts from them. I t is well subtitled "Growth of a Literature." Following an interesting introductory chapter on the historical development ~

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THE HANDBOOK OF SOLVENTS

Leopold Scheflan, Technical Manager, B. Scheflan, Ltd., and Morris B. Jacobs, Director of Laboratory, Department of Air Pollution Control, New Yak City. D. Van Nastmnd Co., Inc., 728 pp. 17 figs. 17 X 25 em. $10. 1953. v i i i

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AN INTRODUCTORY section of 78 pages discusses the clsssification of solvents, their safe handling, solvent power, vapor pree sure, dilution ratios, flammability limits, and recovery by absorption and adsorption methods. Tabulated data are given for 2740 organic solvents, mostly nure comnounds. but commercial solvents are also included. Tio to scientific names.

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DISTILLATION LTTERAWRE: INDEX STRACTS. 194652. INCLUSIVE

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AB.

Arthur Rose and Elizabeth Rose, Applied Science Laboratories, Inc., and Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania. Applied Science Laboratories, Inc., 1953. 600 pp. 18.5 X 26 cm. $25. A COMPLETE index and abstracts of the literature an distillation for the years 1946 to 1952 (a previous volume covered 1941 to 1945). A condensed list of subject index headings in followed by the abstracts arranged according to this index. There is an author index. Patents are included.