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Corrosion inhibitors—developments since 1980
Materials Science and Engineering, 67 (1984) 255-256
255
Book Reviews Treatise on Materials Science and Technology, Vol. 24, Preparation and Properties o f Thin Films edited by K. N. Tu and R. Rosenberg; published by Academic Press, New York, 1982; 338 pp.; price, U.S. $48.00
This volume is a collection of eight articles edited by two of the contributors. The eight papers differ enough in style to give the reader an awareness that this is a collection of papers rather than a book in the more traditional sense. The individual articles are all authoritative and well written and constitute a current state of the art with an occasional venture into new areas. The articles each represent an area of the authors' intense interest rather than a comprehensive review of the subject. However, in Parts II and III (Part I really describes what is to be found in Parts II and III) the papers contain reference lists ranging from substantial to exhaustive and the work thus does serve the function of a treatise on the areas of the subject. The inclusion of an outline of the content of each chapter at its beginning is a good idea and certainly helps the reader to locate a subject of immediate and urgent interest quickly. As is to be expected, the individual chapters vary in clarity. Chapter 6 on ion beam modification is an example of outstandingly good clear writing. Others of the chapters were perhaps guilty of overemphasis of a kind that I personally did not find appealing because I expected (hoped) that the articles would be more generally subject oriented. On balance I found the volume to be both worth reading and worth owning. DAVID W. LEVINSON
University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago IL 60680 U.S.A.
Corrosion lnhibitors - Developments Since 1980 edited by M. J. Collie; published by Noyes Data Corporation, Park Ridge, NJ, 1983; 379 pp.; price, U.S. $48.00
In the days of Cecil B. DeMille bible movies, you could avoid a dull evening watching them by claiming that you had read the book or that y o u had heard the abstract recently in church. This loosely organized collection of patent abstracts, a sequel to the book entitled Corrosion Inhibitors --Recent Developments published in 1979, calls forth a similar sentiment, although the films at least were colorful. Collie lists 16 reasons why y o u should read the patent literature. Some of them are infelicitous ("Scrutiny of the patent l i t e r a t u r e . . , has . . . potential."), but others are telling. Without question, the patent literature contains valuable information, much of which is never published in refereed journals, with good reason! Collie claims that he has included almost all U.S. patents issued between January 1981 and March 1983; "there has been no bias in the selection of patents for inclusion", and clearly the volume in no way is a critical review. A U.S. patent consists of drawings, an abstract, a specification (which may include examples) and claims. It is a legal d o c u m e n t written with the same skill used in designing women's clothing and is phrased in "legal jargon and juristic phraseology". Patent language is certainly a nuisance to a scientist but hardly a barrier to his reading it. These are extended abstracts, consisting of the patent abstract plus a few examples (sometimes renumbered), from the specification and reminiscent of a Reader's Digest treatment. Similar means of access to the patent literature include the Official Gazette o f the United States Patent Office (where the original patent abstract is published), Chemical Abstracts Service and others (which publish abstracts of worldwide patents) and CA© Elsevier Sequoia/Printed in The Netherlands
256
Selects: Corrosion (which specializes in the subject and includes all the items covered in this volume). After comparing a few patents with their abstracts in the Gazette, CA and Collie's book, this reviewer feels that the last is of little use. For most purposes the CA abstract is sufficient to determine whether a patent is potentially useful; copies then are cheaply available from major libraries and the Patent Office. If one's budget is limited, most other libraries have the Gazette abstracts for intermediate reference before a copy of the complete patent is ordered. The only possible remaining virtues of this b o o k are its organization and indexes. The organization (chapters and subtitles) appatently is based on a computer-generated list of key words selected from titles and lead sentences from the abstracts. Corporate, inventor and U.S. patent number indexes ate given. Most workers could quickly formulate a casual computer database search which would produce everything included here and more in less than an afternoon. In summary, Collie's volume covers only a short time interval, is limited to U.S. patents and is not a critical review. Thus it does not fulfill any purpose that is not served better b y other sources. While this volume is occupying a valued place on the bookshelf, I am checking the entertainments section to see what's showing. ROBERT SUMMITT Department of Metallurgy, Mechanics and Materials Science Michigan State University East Lansing MI 48824 U.S.A.
Surface Mobilities on Solid Materials Fundamental Concepts and Applications NA TO Advanced Study Institute Series, Series B: Physics, Vol. 86; edited by V. T. Binh; published by Plenum, New York, 1983; vii + 585 pp.; price, U.S. $82.60
This volume covers the Proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held on September 6-19, 1981. Leading workers in the field participated in the meeting and contributed, in many cases, in-depth written contributions to the proceedings. A small fraction of the b o o k (5%) contains abstracts of poster and workshop presentations. Papers concerned with theoretical models of surface diffusion are followed b y a consideration of different experimental approaches used to observe diffusion at both the atomic and the adatom cluster level. Numerous experimental results and references are given. The importance and connection of surface diffusion to processes such as physical adsorption, twodimensional condensation, chemisorption, catalysis, surface nucleation, particle morphology and sintering are then considered. This b o o k will be an important addition to the library of those researchers active in any of the many facets of surface diffusion. P. L. WALKER, Jr. Department of Materials Science and Engineeering The Pennsylvania State University University Park PA 16802 U.S.A.
255
Book Reviews Treatise on Materials Science and Technology, Vol. 24, Preparation and Properties o f Thin Films edited by K. N. Tu and R. Rosenberg; published by Academic Press, New York, 1982; 338 pp.; price, U.S. $48.00
This volume is a collection of eight articles edited by two of the contributors. The eight papers differ enough in style to give the reader an awareness that this is a collection of papers rather than a book in the more traditional sense. The individual articles are all authoritative and well written and constitute a current state of the art with an occasional venture into new areas. The articles each represent an area of the authors' intense interest rather than a comprehensive review of the subject. However, in Parts II and III (Part I really describes what is to be found in Parts II and III) the papers contain reference lists ranging from substantial to exhaustive and the work thus does serve the function of a treatise on the areas of the subject. The inclusion of an outline of the content of each chapter at its beginning is a good idea and certainly helps the reader to locate a subject of immediate and urgent interest quickly. As is to be expected, the individual chapters vary in clarity. Chapter 6 on ion beam modification is an example of outstandingly good clear writing. Others of the chapters were perhaps guilty of overemphasis of a kind that I personally did not find appealing because I expected (hoped) that the articles would be more generally subject oriented. On balance I found the volume to be both worth reading and worth owning. DAVID W. LEVINSON
University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago IL 60680 U.S.A.
Corrosion lnhibitors - Developments Since 1980 edited by M. J. Collie; published by Noyes Data Corporation, Park Ridge, NJ, 1983; 379 pp.; price, U.S. $48.00
In the days of Cecil B. DeMille bible movies, you could avoid a dull evening watching them by claiming that you had read the book or that y o u had heard the abstract recently in church. This loosely organized collection of patent abstracts, a sequel to the book entitled Corrosion Inhibitors --Recent Developments published in 1979, calls forth a similar sentiment, although the films at least were colorful. Collie lists 16 reasons why y o u should read the patent literature. Some of them are infelicitous ("Scrutiny of the patent l i t e r a t u r e . . , has . . . potential."), but others are telling. Without question, the patent literature contains valuable information, much of which is never published in refereed journals, with good reason! Collie claims that he has included almost all U.S. patents issued between January 1981 and March 1983; "there has been no bias in the selection of patents for inclusion", and clearly the volume in no way is a critical review. A U.S. patent consists of drawings, an abstract, a specification (which may include examples) and claims. It is a legal d o c u m e n t written with the same skill used in designing women's clothing and is phrased in "legal jargon and juristic phraseology". Patent language is certainly a nuisance to a scientist but hardly a barrier to his reading it. These are extended abstracts, consisting of the patent abstract plus a few examples (sometimes renumbered), from the specification and reminiscent of a Reader's Digest treatment. Similar means of access to the patent literature include the Official Gazette o f the United States Patent Office (where the original patent abstract is published), Chemical Abstracts Service and others (which publish abstracts of worldwide patents) and CA© Elsevier Sequoia/Printed in The Netherlands
256
Selects: Corrosion (which specializes in the subject and includes all the items covered in this volume). After comparing a few patents with their abstracts in the Gazette, CA and Collie's book, this reviewer feels that the last is of little use. For most purposes the CA abstract is sufficient to determine whether a patent is potentially useful; copies then are cheaply available from major libraries and the Patent Office. If one's budget is limited, most other libraries have the Gazette abstracts for intermediate reference before a copy of the complete patent is ordered. The only possible remaining virtues of this b o o k are its organization and indexes. The organization (chapters and subtitles) appatently is based on a computer-generated list of key words selected from titles and lead sentences from the abstracts. Corporate, inventor and U.S. patent number indexes ate given. Most workers could quickly formulate a casual computer database search which would produce everything included here and more in less than an afternoon. In summary, Collie's volume covers only a short time interval, is limited to U.S. patents and is not a critical review. Thus it does not fulfill any purpose that is not served better b y other sources. While this volume is occupying a valued place on the bookshelf, I am checking the entertainments section to see what's showing. ROBERT SUMMITT Department of Metallurgy, Mechanics and Materials Science Michigan State University East Lansing MI 48824 U.S.A.
Surface Mobilities on Solid Materials Fundamental Concepts and Applications NA TO Advanced Study Institute Series, Series B: Physics, Vol. 86; edited by V. T. Binh; published by Plenum, New York, 1983; vii + 585 pp.; price, U.S. $82.60
This volume covers the Proceedings of a NATO Advanced Study Institute held on September 6-19, 1981. Leading workers in the field participated in the meeting and contributed, in many cases, in-depth written contributions to the proceedings. A small fraction of the b o o k (5%) contains abstracts of poster and workshop presentations. Papers concerned with theoretical models of surface diffusion are followed b y a consideration of different experimental approaches used to observe diffusion at both the atomic and the adatom cluster level. Numerous experimental results and references are given. The importance and connection of surface diffusion to processes such as physical adsorption, twodimensional condensation, chemisorption, catalysis, surface nucleation, particle morphology and sintering are then considered. This b o o k will be an important addition to the library of those researchers active in any of the many facets of surface diffusion. P. L. WALKER, Jr. Department of Materials Science and Engineeering The Pennsylvania State University University Park PA 16802 U.S.A.