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Automatic Air Quality Monitoring Systems
BOOK
REVIEW
and ion-exchange) are squeezed into 48 pages, and the remainder of the text (68 pp.) is given over to (mainly classical) laboratory experiments, to appended tables of atomic weights, formula weights, equilibrium constants (including a useful section on metallochromic indicators and their metal complexes) and logarithms, and to a comprehensive subject index. There seem to be very few typographical errors. The detailed treatment of the classical chemical methods is sufficient for self-tuition. However. any student learning analytical chemistry solely fr’om this text would gain a rather curious impression of the subject. Firstly, he would assume that most analysis is done by gravimetry or titrimetry. This arises because the minor portion of the text devoted to instrumental techniques (other than electrochemistry) is out of all proportion to the relative importance of these methods. Gas chromatography, arguably the most used analytical technique today, is discussed in three pages, ion-exchange is allotted a single page, and atomic absorption nothing at all. Why should ionic equilibria and acid-base titrations receive such detailed theorztical treatment whereas the various chromatographic processes get so little? Secondly, the student would be very confused as to the uses of these analytical techniques. There is a great dearth of examples of the applications of all the techniques, classical and instrumental. In some instances, this is extended to a lack of specific examples of even the reagents used. For example, the discussion of solution spectrophotometry is accomplished without reference to one example of an absorbing species; the widespread use of organic reagents for spectrophotometry is not even mentioned. Applications are the raison d’i?tre for analytical chemistry, and any book claiming to discuss the subject without them is very incomplete. In addition to these major faults, one is disappointed to find little mention of masking or catalysis, and such a brief treatment of precipitation from homogeneous solution. The use of volumetry synonymously with titrimetry should be discouraged, as should the use of two systems of nomenclature for oxidation states (for example, mercurous and iron(II)),and the term solubility product constant. N-Benzoylphenylhydroxamic acid should have been included in the list of common organic precipitants (perhaps by excluding quinaldinic acid), and the molybdate masking procedure should have appeared in the periodate oxidation section. Finally, metal ions are trot metallic! A. Townshend
(Birmingham)
Automatic Air Quality Monitqring Systems, Proceedings of the Conference held at the National Institute of Public Health, Bilthoven, The Netherlands, 5-8 June 1973, Edited by T. Schneider, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1974, 267 pp., price Df142.00. At first glance the title of this book might appear to suggest an up-to-date account of analytical procedures for monitoring air pollutants on an automatic basis. Alas, further inspection reveals that the volume actually contains the ’ proceedings of an international conference held in the Netherlands in June 1973.
BOOK
REVIEW
445
This conference was convened as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas and data on automatic air quality monitoring systems among the various countries which are presently concerned with the problem of air pollution., As one would guess the largest contribution in this field has been made by the United States and in the first paper presented at the Symposium, F. J. Burmann, of the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S.A., reviews the overall problems and summarizes the various analytical methods and techniques available for the ‘more common atmospheric pollutants. This is the closest the book gets to the analytical problems. The remaining papers deal largely with the transfer of the data from the site to the data handling centre and the subsequent treatment and application of’the results to such problems as the forecasting of high pollution levels in conjunction with meteorological data. Occasionally one finds in the papers reference to the experimental limitations of the analytical measurements but there seems to be a tendency among those who interpret data on environmental pollutants to overlook these limitations. It is difficult to see which sections of the environmentally aware scientific community would find sufficient interest in this book to justify its purchase, apart, of course, from those who attended the conference. J. A. Kerr
Analysis, Edited by C. A. Anderson, 1973, xi+ 57 1 pp., Price f 12.50.
Microprobe
John
Wiley
&
(Birmingham)
Sons,
New York,
This book on microprobe analysis is mainly devoted to the electron probe microanalyser but contains, also, sections on the laser microprobe and the ion microprobe. It consists of 17 chapters written by different authors who, with one exception, work in the U.S.A. Thg content of each chapter, presumably planned by the Editor, can hardly be faulted and both the instrumental and application sides of the subject are extremely well covered. In many cases, the choice of author is beyond reproach and these chapters are clear, authoritative and of uniformly high standard; In other cases, the selection of contributor has been less felicitous and this fact more than any other has contributed to the slightly patchy quality of the book as a whole. The Editor in his preface hopes that the book “will help to delineate the special advantages and areas of appiication of each of the techniques and instrumen ts”. A short chapter devoted entirely. to a comparison between the three methods would have contributed greatly to this objective. Apart from this omission, it is also surprising that so little is said about the combined electron microscope/microanalyser. There is one reference in the Index but unhappily it directs the reader to the wrong page. It could be argued that this topic was worth a chapter on its own, but when the actual reference is unearthed it amounts to no more than about two pages in a chapter on analysis of free particulates. Unfortunately, this also happens to be, one of the chapters with no bibliography whatsoever. The book as a whole is produced to a very high standard. With these minor
REVIEW
and ion-exchange) are squeezed into 48 pages, and the remainder of the text (68 pp.) is given over to (mainly classical) laboratory experiments, to appended tables of atomic weights, formula weights, equilibrium constants (including a useful section on metallochromic indicators and their metal complexes) and logarithms, and to a comprehensive subject index. There seem to be very few typographical errors. The detailed treatment of the classical chemical methods is sufficient for self-tuition. However. any student learning analytical chemistry solely fr’om this text would gain a rather curious impression of the subject. Firstly, he would assume that most analysis is done by gravimetry or titrimetry. This arises because the minor portion of the text devoted to instrumental techniques (other than electrochemistry) is out of all proportion to the relative importance of these methods. Gas chromatography, arguably the most used analytical technique today, is discussed in three pages, ion-exchange is allotted a single page, and atomic absorption nothing at all. Why should ionic equilibria and acid-base titrations receive such detailed theorztical treatment whereas the various chromatographic processes get so little? Secondly, the student would be very confused as to the uses of these analytical techniques. There is a great dearth of examples of the applications of all the techniques, classical and instrumental. In some instances, this is extended to a lack of specific examples of even the reagents used. For example, the discussion of solution spectrophotometry is accomplished without reference to one example of an absorbing species; the widespread use of organic reagents for spectrophotometry is not even mentioned. Applications are the raison d’i?tre for analytical chemistry, and any book claiming to discuss the subject without them is very incomplete. In addition to these major faults, one is disappointed to find little mention of masking or catalysis, and such a brief treatment of precipitation from homogeneous solution. The use of volumetry synonymously with titrimetry should be discouraged, as should the use of two systems of nomenclature for oxidation states (for example, mercurous and iron(II)),and the term solubility product constant. N-Benzoylphenylhydroxamic acid should have been included in the list of common organic precipitants (perhaps by excluding quinaldinic acid), and the molybdate masking procedure should have appeared in the periodate oxidation section. Finally, metal ions are trot metallic! A. Townshend
(Birmingham)
Automatic Air Quality Monitqring Systems, Proceedings of the Conference held at the National Institute of Public Health, Bilthoven, The Netherlands, 5-8 June 1973, Edited by T. Schneider, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1974, 267 pp., price Df142.00. At first glance the title of this book might appear to suggest an up-to-date account of analytical procedures for monitoring air pollutants on an automatic basis. Alas, further inspection reveals that the volume actually contains the ’ proceedings of an international conference held in the Netherlands in June 1973.
BOOK
REVIEW
445
This conference was convened as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas and data on automatic air quality monitoring systems among the various countries which are presently concerned with the problem of air pollution., As one would guess the largest contribution in this field has been made by the United States and in the first paper presented at the Symposium, F. J. Burmann, of the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S.A., reviews the overall problems and summarizes the various analytical methods and techniques available for the ‘more common atmospheric pollutants. This is the closest the book gets to the analytical problems. The remaining papers deal largely with the transfer of the data from the site to the data handling centre and the subsequent treatment and application of’the results to such problems as the forecasting of high pollution levels in conjunction with meteorological data. Occasionally one finds in the papers reference to the experimental limitations of the analytical measurements but there seems to be a tendency among those who interpret data on environmental pollutants to overlook these limitations. It is difficult to see which sections of the environmentally aware scientific community would find sufficient interest in this book to justify its purchase, apart, of course, from those who attended the conference. J. A. Kerr
Analysis, Edited by C. A. Anderson, 1973, xi+ 57 1 pp., Price f 12.50.
Microprobe
John
Wiley
&
(Birmingham)
Sons,
New York,
This book on microprobe analysis is mainly devoted to the electron probe microanalyser but contains, also, sections on the laser microprobe and the ion microprobe. It consists of 17 chapters written by different authors who, with one exception, work in the U.S.A. Thg content of each chapter, presumably planned by the Editor, can hardly be faulted and both the instrumental and application sides of the subject are extremely well covered. In many cases, the choice of author is beyond reproach and these chapters are clear, authoritative and of uniformly high standard; In other cases, the selection of contributor has been less felicitous and this fact more than any other has contributed to the slightly patchy quality of the book as a whole. The Editor in his preface hopes that the book “will help to delineate the special advantages and areas of appiication of each of the techniques and instrumen ts”. A short chapter devoted entirely. to a comparison between the three methods would have contributed greatly to this objective. Apart from this omission, it is also surprising that so little is said about the combined electron microscope/microanalyser. There is one reference in the Index but unhappily it directs the reader to the wrong page. It could be argued that this topic was worth a chapter on its own, but when the actual reference is unearthed it amounts to no more than about two pages in a chapter on analysis of free particulates. Unfortunately, this also happens to be, one of the chapters with no bibliography whatsoever. The book as a whole is produced to a very high standard. With these minor