New chemistry.

Review of New Chemistry by Scientific American

CITATION: Scientific American (Editors, Gerard Piel and Dennis Flanagan) (1957). New Chemistry. New York: Simon and Schuster. (A Scientific American book) (Boxed set of five)

REVIEWER: Dr W. P. Palmer

This book is one of a boxed set of five volumes which consists of Lives in Science, New Chemistry, Plant Life, The Planet Earth and The Universe. The Scientific American published five other scientific titles that are not currently being reviewed. It is hoped that the detailed contents of each volume which are included will assist historians of science.

The book consists of a series of articles, published in the Scientific American prior to 1957 written by scientists in their own research areas, who are writing for the lay-person. The general editors were Gerard Piel and Dennis Flanagan and the book is a substantial one of 206 pages in length, without photographs, but containing some diagrams and tables. Biochemistry is not represented in this volume as there is a separate volume on biochemistry. The value of this collection is that all the articles were written in the mid fifties more than half a century ago. Our understanding of chemistry is changing rapidly, so this collection provides an excellent historical record of the views of practitioners of chemistry in the 1950s. The contents of the book (including the descriptors of each chapter) are:

INTRODUCTION

1. NEW REACTIONS
Hot-atom chemistry by Willard F. Libby
High-speed chemistry by Lawrence P. Lessing
High-temperature chemistry by Farrington Daniels
Free radicals by Paul D. Bartlett

Molecules containing radioactive atoms behave in unfamiliar and interesting ways. Other instructive types of chemical behavior, some of which may prove of great practical importance, are coming under scrutiny as the chemist learns to handle reactions taking place at great speeds and high temperatures. The new techniques enable him to interrupt reactions that had been thought to be practically instantaneous, and to study the evanescent free radicals by which the reactions proceed.

2. NEW METHODS
Ultramicrochemistry by Burris B. Cunningham
Chemical analysis by infrared by Bryce Crawford, Jr.
Chelation by Harold F. Walton
Ion exchange by Harold F. Walton
The arts of measurement and analysis are reaching almost incredible degrees of refinement in the modern chemical laboratory. Samples of material too small to be seen are meticulously weighed. Each chemical bond in a complex molecule is identified by a searching beam of infrared radiation. "Chelating agents" are used "like a pair of forceps to pluck out a specific kind of atom from a complex mixture." Substances with virtually identical chemical properties are separated from one another in ion-exchange columns.

3. NEW ELEMENTS
The rare earths by Frank H. Spedding
Synthetic elements by Isadore Perlman and Glenn T. Seaborg
Synthetic elements by Albert Ghiorso and Glenn T. Seaborg
Studies in corrosion by G. H. Cartledge
The rare earths are not rare, they are not earths, and they are not new. However, their availability in pure form and usable quantities is both new and exciting. The synthetic elements are truly something new under the sun, at least so far as man is concerned. One of them, technetium, has already been put to work in basic research on the mechanism of corrosion.

4. NEW COMPOUNDS
Silicones by Eugene G. Rochow
Fluorocarbons by J. H. Simons
Rubber by Harry L. Fisher
Synthetic detergents by Lawrence M. Kushner and James I. Hoffman
The distinction between organic and inorganic substances, like so many other classical distinctions, is breaking down today. Silicones and fluorocarbons are examples of compounds that combine the best features of each. `Rubber' no longer means merely the vulcanized juice of `Hevea brasiliensis', but includes a host of man-made compounds, each tailored to a specific set of requirements. Synthetic detergents can also be adapted to conquer any of a variety of types of dirt.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This is a very interesting collection of articles covering many branches of chemistry, indicating some areas of particular interest in the 1950s.

BILL PALMER