Impact phenomena in textiles

Book Reviews Impact Phenomena in Textiles W. JAMES LYONS M.I.T. Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1963. (xi+180 pp.; 63 in. by 9½ in.), 37s or $5.00 THIS book would be more correctly titled, the Measurement of Impact Phenomena in Textiles. It deals mostly with measurements made by laboratory simulation of the impact phenomena under study. The book is divided into seven chapters; the first introduces the topic, the second gives an outline of the mechanical properties of real materials and the third describes methods and equipment for laboratory and other testing. A short, fourth chapter discusses theories of impact processes in yarns and fabrics and the next chapter digresses to discuss related dynamic elastic properties. The sixth chapter is concerned with the results of tests and the short final chapter discusses future possibilities. There are 119 references extending to 1962. The book has been well illustrated with both half-tone and line drawings. It is difficult to decide at which kind of reader this book is directed. It gives an excellent account of measuring techniques, but includes many pages of very elementary elastic and viscoelastic theory that must already be known to a reader seeking knowledge of such sophisticated techniques. The reader needing the elementary theories will not find descriptions of impact phenomena. F o r anyone wishing to make measurements in this field, and any organization that may be faced with the need to consider impact measurements in textiles, this book is a valuable source and will rapidly earn its cost by a reduction in the time spent in searching the literature. The reviewer notes with pleasure that the author often quotes directly from the work of others. In this way the 'flavour' of the experimental attack is recorded and there is less chance of differences arising through re-interpretation. However, there is the disadvantage that the account of the experimental work takes on the character of a list and ceases to be critical. The repetition that arises from the long introductory chapter is irritating. This chaper is largely devoted to a condensed version of subsequent material so that, having started with the introduction, the reader is subsequently going over the same ground. On page 13 in this chapter the author has written, 'Compressive and shearing stresses play minor roles in the mechanics of textiles'. N o justification for this statement is attempted; the reviewer believes it to be quite unjustifiable, but it has enabled the author to exclude any further reference to non-tensile forces. Chapter 5 on related dynamic properties is the weakest as it is not clear how related these properties are and in any case, much of the material quoted is extremely dated. Reference to polyester fibre as 'fiber V' and acrylic fibre as 'fibre A ' is an unnecessary confusion arising from the early date of the results. Indeed, throughout the text, very little is done to help the reader by unifying the names of the materials tested. The U.S. Federal Code for generic names of textile fibres, whatever commercial failings it m a y have, has simplified the task of authors in providing simple definite terms and these could always be used with advantage. Instead we find, for example, polyester fibre called on different pages: Fiber V, Dacron, Terylene and Fortrel without any indication that these are all commercial names 539

BOOK REVIEWS for polyester fibre. The English reader is warned that the book uses an American definition of tenacity, i.e. load per unit linear density, not the breaking load per unit linear density. The reviewer deplores the introduction on page 53 of units of inches and grains. In the interests o f economy, the book has been produced from typescript but even so is priced at 37s in the U.K., $5.00 in the U.S.A. Pages of print of this type produce more reading strain than those of conventional types. It would help if, in editing such typescript, shorter paragraphs were made to break up the blocks of print. K. W. HILLIER

The Physical Chemistry of Paints P. M. FIsK Leonard Hill: London, 1963. ( i x + 133 pp.; 5 in. by 7½ in.), 25s IN 1961 D r Fisk published a successful Advanced Paint Chemistry and has followed this with the volume under review. In the course of his small book the author deals with (among other topics) crystallograPhY, particle size distribution, various properties of pure liquids, solutions and d_ispersions, surface activity, catalysis, rheology, chemical kinetics and the theory of acids and bases, equilibria, metallic corrosion, and 'light and colour'. Each of these subjects could be (and indeed is) the subject of a large monograph, and obviously extreme compression has been practised, so that the reader tends to get a series of statements or a 'glossary of t e r m s ' - - t h e phase rule, for example, gets about one page. The text is generally very clearly and lucidly written, but the reviewer must doubt if this superficial treatment of so wide a field in so small a compass is of great value even to the audience of young students of paint technology to whom it is addressed. The treatment, within the limits imposed by the author, is commonly correct enough. Two exceptions may be noted. The discussion on the metal catalysis of autoxidation on pages 61-62 is simplified much too far, and the mechanism of Fig. 45 is far from proven in such systems as occur in paint technology, the relevance of the work of Bawn on this mechanism being doubtful. The section on the solution of polymers (page 45) seems unfortunate because it conceals the fact that by an increase in entropy a polymer can dissolve in a solvent in spite of an unfavourable (endothermic) heat of mixing. Notice of this could have led the author into a discussion of the role of entropy in, the mechanical behaviour of polymers, a subject of great importance. Lastly, although this book is called the Physical Chemistry of Paints, paint problems are not really discussed, and we have in effect a brief sketch of physical chemistry, a sort of Glasstone in miniature, and as said before the need for this seems doubtful. Scientists (of whatever age and status) working in the paint industry are basically concerned with polymer science, especially in those aspects of it which impinge on physics and physical chemistry. The great need is to take a classic like Flory's Principles of Polymer Chemistry and show in d e a r and simple ways how these principles may be applied to paint technology--as they can be, and commonly are not. 540