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Electromagnetic waves and light
522
BOOK REVIEWS.
[J. F. I
An introduction to advanced quantum mechanics, consisting of chapters devoted to the relativistic wave equations, the quantlzation of wave fields, and quantum electrodynamics closes the volume. Numerous problems are included at the close of each chapter which illustrate or amplify the text material. The many original research papers referred to throughout the book serve as further references for the serious reader. S. CHARP.
ISOTOPIC CARBON, by Melvin Calvin and others. 376 pages, 15 )< 24 cm., illustrations. York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; London, Chapman & Hall; 1949. Price, $5.50.
New
With the advent of the uranium pile and its neutron flux of a hitherto unavailable magnitude, radioactive elements became obtainable in quantities and at prices satisfactory to most demands. Carbon, the basic element of organic chemistry, and a sine qua non of animate matter, was soon being produced as a radioactive isotope of mass 14 and as rapidly employed wherever tracer work involving carbon compounds was being pursued. Concomitant with these effects, the literature dealing with the synthesis and use of isotopic carbon compounds has grown tremendously and created a definite need for an up-to-date laboratory manual for chemists employing C14 or Cn. Isotopic Carbon, written to satisfy this need, presents first an applicable presentation of the techniques necessary and extant today for tracer research with radioactive carbon. Second, it gives detailed directions for all isotopic carbon syntheses obtainable and considered important by the authors. After a brief discussion of the nuclear properties and radiation characteristics of C14 and Cn, and the use of Cu, the authors present an informative and practicable description of the instruments available today for the counting and detection, in the gaseous, liquid or solid phase, of the emanations of radioactive carbon. There is sufficient detail to enable most experimenters to reach some conclusion concerning their own needs. The problem of preparing samples for counting with these instruments is well covered with a wide variety of methods gleaned from all sources available to the authors. The directions for performing the syntheses of Cl* compounds are in practically all cases sufficiently detailed and lucid, and arranged in a logical manner. In general, the preparations are intended for employment of the small quantities (for example, 2 to 10 millimotes) necessary to obtain products of optimum specific activity and economy. However, large enough quantities are entailed by some of these preparations, that they may be considered as only part of the realm of regular organic syntheses. This section of the book includes an interesting chapter of biosyntheses. The appendices include a short exposition on the statistical interpretation of counting d a t a , and various bits of information of interest to the radiochemist. This book or manual, a pioneer in its specific field, should be extremely valuable to any chemist employing radioactive carbon. I t accomplishes its purpose and serves as a new rallying point for the great era of radioactivity that has now begnn. AI,BERT L. MYERSON.
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES AND LIGHT, First Part, by Charles F. Meyer. 83 pages, 14 X 22 cm., drawings, tables and illustrations. Michigan, Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1948. N o price (paper). This book is to be highly recommended as an analysis in a qualitative nature of the principles of electromagnetic waves and in the interpretation of some of the physical properties of light. The principles involved are presented from the experimental rather than the theoretical point of view. The author tells the story behind the wave equations without presenting these equations. H a d the a u t h o r extended the text to include Maxwell's equations and solved them with the necessary boundary conditions about which the description centers, this would have been a very powerful piece of work.
May, I949.]
BOOK REVIEWS.
523
However, the text develops descriptively in a n elementary logical fashion the origin and properties of electromagnetic waves and the experimental evidence of such with emphasis on propagation, polarization, time and space variations. More detailed study is made of polarization, particularly circular and elliptical polarization. Also spectral results are analyzed. There are included various charts or electromagnetic spectra and particular analysis of radio, X-rays, a n d g a m m a rays. ALECK GOLDBERG. ELEMENTS OF MECHANICAL VIBI~TION, by C. R. Freborg and Emory N. Kemler. Second edition, 227 pages, 15 X 24 cm., illustrations and tables. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1949. Price, $3.75. The problems of vibration analysis which occur in many branches of engineering are the subjects of this new elementary, undergraduate-level textbook, now in its second edition. This is no work greatly dependent upon higher mathematics; rather, it is presented in as simple a manner as possible from a n engineering point of view. The elementary phases of this subject are covered in a form which allows immediate application to a variety of practical problems. The numberof engineering problems which can be and are golved by an elementary approach is surprisingly large, and for these, the simpler forms of differential equations are developed and solutions obtained. Typical of a general class of common problems are those pertaining to vibration analysis and elimination, and the determination of natural frequencies for many different types of systems. The approach which the authors have continued in this edition is that of stressing the basic analysis of vibration problems, then following the theoretical development with illustrative problems worked out with detailed explanations of the physical phenomena. In many cases, these sections are followed by others devoted to a review of the methods and formulas which can be applied to other related problems with a minimum of complication and further reference to either this texbook or to some of the more complete treatises on the subject of mechanical vibration. This second edition has ten chapters, two more than in the previous one. A short introduction includes a discussion of important definitions and symbols and units. The practical problems chosen as examples throughout the book require the use of the commonly used engineering units, and to this end the authors have chosen the inch-pound-second system as a standard. This chapter is followed by those which consider single degree of freedom vibrations with and without damping, and free and forced vibrations. Of interest is the wide variety of simple engineering examples pertaining to: the manometer; the pendulum; the disk and shaft; the torsional pendulum; and others. The large number of problems is sufficient justification for the amount of space devoted to them. The broader field of vibrating systems with several degrees of freedom, being a more complex phase, has only one chapter devoted to it, the discussion being centered primarily upon the analytical solution of some common cases of several degrees of freedom, with illustrations for tabulation and graphical methods of obtaining solutions to problems of this type. The remainder of the book is devoted a h n o s t entirely to problems of engineering application, the chapters having emphasis upon: vibration isolation and absorption; beams; sound; mechanical and electrical models of vibration systems and equivalent systems; and the mobility method of solving vibration problems first introduced by Firestone in 1938. A wide variety of problems useful for class room and home study are included in each chapter, the answers to many of which the authors have thoughtfully included. S. CHARP. AN INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILE BLEACHING, by J. T . Marsh. 512 pages, 14 X 22 cm., illustrations, plates. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1949. Price, $5.50. Contrary to its title, this book covers much more than the limited subject of textile bleaching, and its scope is much broader because of the necessity of informing the student of
BOOK REVIEWS.
[J. F. I
An introduction to advanced quantum mechanics, consisting of chapters devoted to the relativistic wave equations, the quantlzation of wave fields, and quantum electrodynamics closes the volume. Numerous problems are included at the close of each chapter which illustrate or amplify the text material. The many original research papers referred to throughout the book serve as further references for the serious reader. S. CHARP.
ISOTOPIC CARBON, by Melvin Calvin and others. 376 pages, 15 )< 24 cm., illustrations. York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; London, Chapman & Hall; 1949. Price, $5.50.
New
With the advent of the uranium pile and its neutron flux of a hitherto unavailable magnitude, radioactive elements became obtainable in quantities and at prices satisfactory to most demands. Carbon, the basic element of organic chemistry, and a sine qua non of animate matter, was soon being produced as a radioactive isotope of mass 14 and as rapidly employed wherever tracer work involving carbon compounds was being pursued. Concomitant with these effects, the literature dealing with the synthesis and use of isotopic carbon compounds has grown tremendously and created a definite need for an up-to-date laboratory manual for chemists employing C14 or Cn. Isotopic Carbon, written to satisfy this need, presents first an applicable presentation of the techniques necessary and extant today for tracer research with radioactive carbon. Second, it gives detailed directions for all isotopic carbon syntheses obtainable and considered important by the authors. After a brief discussion of the nuclear properties and radiation characteristics of C14 and Cn, and the use of Cu, the authors present an informative and practicable description of the instruments available today for the counting and detection, in the gaseous, liquid or solid phase, of the emanations of radioactive carbon. There is sufficient detail to enable most experimenters to reach some conclusion concerning their own needs. The problem of preparing samples for counting with these instruments is well covered with a wide variety of methods gleaned from all sources available to the authors. The directions for performing the syntheses of Cl* compounds are in practically all cases sufficiently detailed and lucid, and arranged in a logical manner. In general, the preparations are intended for employment of the small quantities (for example, 2 to 10 millimotes) necessary to obtain products of optimum specific activity and economy. However, large enough quantities are entailed by some of these preparations, that they may be considered as only part of the realm of regular organic syntheses. This section of the book includes an interesting chapter of biosyntheses. The appendices include a short exposition on the statistical interpretation of counting d a t a , and various bits of information of interest to the radiochemist. This book or manual, a pioneer in its specific field, should be extremely valuable to any chemist employing radioactive carbon. I t accomplishes its purpose and serves as a new rallying point for the great era of radioactivity that has now begnn. AI,BERT L. MYERSON.
ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES AND LIGHT, First Part, by Charles F. Meyer. 83 pages, 14 X 22 cm., drawings, tables and illustrations. Michigan, Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1948. N o price (paper). This book is to be highly recommended as an analysis in a qualitative nature of the principles of electromagnetic waves and in the interpretation of some of the physical properties of light. The principles involved are presented from the experimental rather than the theoretical point of view. The author tells the story behind the wave equations without presenting these equations. H a d the a u t h o r extended the text to include Maxwell's equations and solved them with the necessary boundary conditions about which the description centers, this would have been a very powerful piece of work.
May, I949.]
BOOK REVIEWS.
523
However, the text develops descriptively in a n elementary logical fashion the origin and properties of electromagnetic waves and the experimental evidence of such with emphasis on propagation, polarization, time and space variations. More detailed study is made of polarization, particularly circular and elliptical polarization. Also spectral results are analyzed. There are included various charts or electromagnetic spectra and particular analysis of radio, X-rays, a n d g a m m a rays. ALECK GOLDBERG. ELEMENTS OF MECHANICAL VIBI~TION, by C. R. Freborg and Emory N. Kemler. Second edition, 227 pages, 15 X 24 cm., illustrations and tables. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1949. Price, $3.75. The problems of vibration analysis which occur in many branches of engineering are the subjects of this new elementary, undergraduate-level textbook, now in its second edition. This is no work greatly dependent upon higher mathematics; rather, it is presented in as simple a manner as possible from a n engineering point of view. The elementary phases of this subject are covered in a form which allows immediate application to a variety of practical problems. The numberof engineering problems which can be and are golved by an elementary approach is surprisingly large, and for these, the simpler forms of differential equations are developed and solutions obtained. Typical of a general class of common problems are those pertaining to vibration analysis and elimination, and the determination of natural frequencies for many different types of systems. The approach which the authors have continued in this edition is that of stressing the basic analysis of vibration problems, then following the theoretical development with illustrative problems worked out with detailed explanations of the physical phenomena. In many cases, these sections are followed by others devoted to a review of the methods and formulas which can be applied to other related problems with a minimum of complication and further reference to either this texbook or to some of the more complete treatises on the subject of mechanical vibration. This second edition has ten chapters, two more than in the previous one. A short introduction includes a discussion of important definitions and symbols and units. The practical problems chosen as examples throughout the book require the use of the commonly used engineering units, and to this end the authors have chosen the inch-pound-second system as a standard. This chapter is followed by those which consider single degree of freedom vibrations with and without damping, and free and forced vibrations. Of interest is the wide variety of simple engineering examples pertaining to: the manometer; the pendulum; the disk and shaft; the torsional pendulum; and others. The large number of problems is sufficient justification for the amount of space devoted to them. The broader field of vibrating systems with several degrees of freedom, being a more complex phase, has only one chapter devoted to it, the discussion being centered primarily upon the analytical solution of some common cases of several degrees of freedom, with illustrations for tabulation and graphical methods of obtaining solutions to problems of this type. The remainder of the book is devoted a h n o s t entirely to problems of engineering application, the chapters having emphasis upon: vibration isolation and absorption; beams; sound; mechanical and electrical models of vibration systems and equivalent systems; and the mobility method of solving vibration problems first introduced by Firestone in 1938. A wide variety of problems useful for class room and home study are included in each chapter, the answers to many of which the authors have thoughtfully included. S. CHARP. AN INTRODUCTION TO TEXTILE BLEACHING, by J. T . Marsh. 512 pages, 14 X 22 cm., illustrations, plates. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1949. Price, $5.50. Contrary to its title, this book covers much more than the limited subject of textile bleaching, and its scope is much broader because of the necessity of informing the student of