New Books - Industrial & Engineering Chemistry (ACS Publications)

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June, 1925

INDUSTRIAL AND ElVGIiVEERIiYG CHEMISTRY

has always had broad interests as well as the imagination which has enabled him to predict scientific discoveries. His love of music, art, literature, and history, are famous here, as is also his marvelous conversational ability. He is constantly in demand at social functions and, with a good cigar, is the most delightful of companions. Although always an admirer of the gentler sex, h e remains a confirmed bachelor, and now occupies “The Monastery” alone, his colleagues having deserted him one by one for t h e married life, He has definite notions, however, as t o how children should be brought up. His feeling is that the present generation is not well disciplined, that, as he pithily puts it, the average boy should be “lathered with a cowhide.” Dr. McCay’s love for Wagner and knowledge of his art-work is very great. Everything written about them he reads with deep interest. After finishing the Wesendonck Letters he perpetrated the following: Richard Wagner became once so bold he Said Minna was passee and moldy; So with dynamic brazen honk He exalted the Wesendonck I n his opera Tristan und Isolde.

Such respect has Dr. McCay for everything Wagnerian that t h e platinum dishes used by him in his hydrofluoric acid work have been dubbed Isolde, Briinnehilde, and Elsa. Dean West having suggested to him that the term “brain storm” be called “psychotyphosis,” McCay wrote:

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If spiritual truth is called gnosis, And disease of the bones the necrosis, As has rightly been said A mad swirl in the head Were best called the psychotyphosis.

These are examples of some hundred or more of his limericks. Many imitations of Swinburne and Rossetti, as well as original poems, have flowed from his facile pen. Like Swinburne, he is “a master of the phrase.” Always a great reader of history and the Scriptures, he has shown in a remarkable essay that Jezebel, Queen of Israel, was related to Queen Dido, immortalized by the poet Virgil. According to his reasoning Dido was a grandniece of Jezebel. Dr. McCay displayed his playful humor in an article written to the editor of The Analyst in 1887, entitled “Oleomargarine and iMice.” He relates that he left two specimens of pure butter and two of oleo in his laboratory overnight; the mice dined on the butters, but completely ignored the oleos. “How would it do to make this extraordinary acuteness on the part of mice the basis of a rough method for testing butter?” In the following number of The Analyst, Professor Harris, of England, not only admires the ingenuity of the “mouse test,” but suggests how it might be made puantitatizie. A mind of alert, versatile, and searching power, deeply grounded in the best scientific knowledge, a living interest in the word of fact and fancy outside the “domain of chemistry,” a keen social instinct, and a rare gift of comradeship-these are the WILLIAMFOSTER traits of Professor McCay.

New Books CLAEIENCEE. John Wiley &

American Red Cross Abridged Text-Book on First Aid. Industrial LYNCHAND M. J. SHIELDS.3rd revised edition. 262 Edition, CHARLES pp. Illustrated. P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., Philadelphia. Price, 60 cents.

Laboratory Manual-Direct and Alternating Current. CLEWELL. 3rd edition, revised. 112 pp. Illustrated. Sons, Inc., New York. Price, $1.25.

Author’s Book. On the Preparation of Manuscripts, the Reading of Proofs, and on Dealing with Publishers. 73 pp. The Macmillan Co., S e w York. Price, 50 cents.

Low Temperature Distillation, Home Oil Supply and the Utilisation of “Waste” Coal. S. H. NORTH. 216 pp. Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd.. London. Price, 15 s. Materials of Construction. J. B. JOHNSON. Rewritten by M 0. WITHBY AND JAMES ASTON. 6th revised edition. 865 pp. Illustrated. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Price, $6.00 net. Notions Fondamentales d’E18ment Chimique et d’Atome. GEOROES URBAIN. 179 pp. Gauthier-Villars e t Cie.. Paris. Price, 10 fr. Optical Measuring Instruments. Their Construction, Theory, and Use. L. C. MARTIN. 278 pp. Illustrated. D. Van h-ostrand Co., New York. Price, SR.00. Power Plant Machinery. Vol. 11-Details and Accessories. WALTERH J A M E S A N D MYRONw. DOLE. 267 PP. John Wiky & Sons, IOC., New York. Price, $3.00. Production of Petroleum in 1924. Papers presented a t the Symposium on Petroleum and Gas, February, 1925. 247 pp. American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, Inc., New York. Public and Its Utilities. WILLIAMG. RAYMOND.339 pp. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Price, $3.50. Resistance of Materials. FREDB. SEELEY. 442 pp. Illustrated. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Price, $3.73. Scientific Organization of Gas Distribution and Gas Sales Departments. ARTHURCOR. 390 pp. Illustrated. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York. Price, $10.00. Scientific Papers. Mainly on Electrodynamics and Natural Radiation, Including the Substance of an Adams Prize Essay in the University of Cambridge. SAMUELBRUCE MCLAREX. 112 pp. Illustrated. The Macmillan Co., New York. Price, $3.00. Steam Power Plant Engineering. GEORGEF. GEBRARDT.6th edition, revised. 1012 pp. Illustrated. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Price, $6.00. Steam Turbines. A Practical and Theoretical Treatise for Engineers and Students. JAMES A. MOYER. 5th edition, revised and enlarged. 515 pp. 231 figures. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Price, f4.00. Technical Mechanics. EDWARD R. MAURER AND RAYMOND J. ROARK. 5th edition, revised and reset. 364 pp. 424 figures. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Price, $3.50.

British Chemicals, Their Manufacturers and Uses, Being the Official Directory of the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers for 1925. 262 pp. Ernest Benn, Ltd., London. Price, 10 s. 6 d. net. Carbid und Acetylen. J . H. VOCELA N D ARMINSCHULZE.130 pp. Otto Spamer, Leipzig. Price, paper, 5 goldmarks; bound, 6.5 goldmarks. Chemical Engineering Library. Second Series. The Dust Hazard in Industry. W. E. GIBES. 168 pp. Price, 6 s . Mechanical Mixing Machinery. LEONARD CARPENTER. 136 pp, Price, 6 s, Acid Resisting J. TUNGAY. 136 pp. Price, 6 a. Agitating and StirMetals. SYDNEY ring Machinery. HARTLAND SEYMOUR. 140 pp. Price, 6 s. Ernest B a n , L t d . , London. Citrus Fruits. An Account of the Citrus Fruit Industry, with Special Reference to California Requirements and Practices and Similar Conditions. Rural Science Series. J. ELIOTCOIT. 520 pp. Reissue. Illustrations. The Macmillan Co., S e w York. Price, $3.00. .Engineering Geology. HEINRICHRIES A N D THOMAS L. WATSON. 3rd cdition, revised and rewritten, 708 pp. 253 figures. John Wiley & Price, $5.00. Sons, Inc., S e w York. $tudes sur la Chaleur. CH. ROSZAK. 304 pp, Illustrated. Dunod, Paris. Price, 35 fr. Patigue of Metals. H. J. GOUGH. 324 PD. Illustrated. D. Van Nostrand Co., New York. Price, $1000. Field Engineering. \VII,LIAM H. SEARLESA N D HOWARDCHAPIN IvES. Vol. I-Text. 335 pp. Vol. 11-Tables. 348 p p , 19th edition, revised and enlarged. Illustrated. John Wiley & Sons, Inc , New York. Price, $2.50 each, $4 00 complete. Forty-ninth Annual Report of His Majesty’s Inspectors of Explosives, 1924. 51 pp. H . M. Stationary Office, London. Price, 1 s. net. Home and Farm Food Preservation. WILLIAM V. CRUESS. Revised edition. 270 pp. The Macmillan Co., New York. Price, $2.50. E. CADYAND HENZYB.DATES,Editors. Illuminating Engineering. FRANCIS 486 pp. 162 figures. John Wiley &Sons, Inc., New York. Price, $5.00. Industry and Civilisation. C. DELISLEBURNS. 278 pp, The Macmillan Co., K e n York. Price, $3.50.