Books and publications

Principles and Prevention of Corrosion Denny A. Jones Macmillan, 1992, ISBN 0~2-361215-0, £16.95

I have read the whole of this book and found it was well presented and written, easy to read and user friendly. There are numerous good photographs which illus- trate well many of the corrosion pheno- mena described. The diagrams are clear and include both simplified sketches and contributions from research papers.

The student's edition of the book is excellent value for £16.95. The aim of the author to combine the scientific theory and the engineering aspects has been achieved and it is possible to read sections covering the elementary back- ground for those new to the subject or to obtain detailed accounts of the more advanced topics. Many corrosion fai- lures are described, mainly from the USA. Hence the book is equally suited to students as well as lecturers who would find the questions at the end of each chapter useful. Practising engineers should keep the book as a source of help- ful information giving both the back- ground theory and preventative mea- sures.

Although there are some errors in the equations and grammatical as well as spelling mistakes, these detract little from my good impressions of an informative textbook.

Robert Walker University of Surrey

A History of Metallurgy (2nd edition) R. F. Ty&cote The Institute of Materials, 1992, ISBN 0-901462-88-8, 205pp, £35

The first edition of this book was pub- lished in 1976 and is now out of print. This fact and the increased interest in archeometallurgy were reasons for the appearance of a second edition.

To those who have not had the oppor- tunity to aquaint themselves with the first edition, a few introductory words about the author may be of interest. Pro- fessor R.F. Tylecote (1916-1991) was born in Manchester and in 1942 he received his MSc at the University of Manchester. He then entered industry as

a welding research engineer and subse- quently worked on pressure welding of light alloys and on the oxidation of copper, and published many papers on these subjects. He continued his work as an ICI Research Fellow at the University of London, where he took his PhD in 1952.

His interest in archeometallurgy started in 1939 and since then he has excavated on sites all over the world. He became a Reader in Archeometallurgy at the University of Newcastle and later an honorary Professor of Archeometallurgy at the University of London. He was also metallurgical consultant to the Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heri- tage, and was editor of Historical Metal lurgy.

In eleven chapters the book gives a very comprehensive account of the history and development of metallurgy, primarily the extraction part of it, from the earliest times to our days. It takes us through the Neolithic period, the Bronze and Iron ages, the Migration and Medie- val periods, the Industrial Revolution and more recent times until about 1950. All metals used by humans file past: first copper, which was already smelted about 5000 Bc, and then all the others, tin, bronze, zinc, brass, iron and steel, the light metals and finally titanium, not for- getting the noble metals gold, silver and platinum. Extraction, working and use are described in great detail. This refers to the chemical composition of ores, slags, intermediate and final products (about 150 tables) as well as to details of furnaces and other equipment for which even accurate dimensions are often indi- cated.

A comparatively small part of the book is devoted to the development of physical metallurgy, mainly because this side of metallurgy did not really exist until the end of the eighteenth century. The last chapter gives, however, a very good account of this development, including microscopy, atomic theories and radioactivity.

The many people who have contri- buted to the development of metallurgy are well represented in the book but in most cases by not much more than their names. Here it is felt that something is missing among the overwhelming number of facts. Just to mention a few: who were Agricola, Theophilus, Bir- inguccio who are cited on many pages? However, there is one name I really

missed and that is G.F. G6ransson of Sweden, who was the first to make the Bessemer process work satisfactorily in practice. Bessemer's own problems are well described but there is no reference at all to G6ransson's decisive contribution in 1858, which the British were slow to acknowledge. Only in 1898 did the Iron and Steel Institute, at their meeting in Stockholm, officially pay tribute to G6r- ansson. This was also expressed by the journal The Ironmonger in the following brief statement:

The originator of the Sandvik Works is Mr G.F. G6ransson, a merchant of Gefle, who was the first, in 1858, to carry into commercial practice the method of producing steel direct from pig iron, which was the basis of Sir Henry Bessemer's patent of 1855 a patent which at that time had not been practically worked in England.

The book is very well illustrated, with about 150 figures depicting various types of extracting and melting furnaces and equipment for working metals. Each chapter has an extensive list of references (1126 in all!), facilitating further reading and demonstrating how well docu- mented this book is.

At the end of the book there is a tech- nical glossary to assist those readers, e.g. specialists in archeology, who are not so well versed in the metallurgical side of the subject. Without disadvantage, it could have been a little more extensive. There are also helpful appendices con- taining a reference to units used (mainly SI), a table of elements, a chronology and journals and principal works con- sulted as well as a number of maps and, of course, an index.

From what has been said above it clearly appears that this is a scientific treatise of high quality to be recom- mended to archeologists interested in (early) technical and industrial develop- ment and also to metallurgists, primarily smelters and melters, who take an inter- est in the historical development of their technique. It may also be useful to stu- dents for whom a knowledge of previous development often leads to a better understanding of recent technology.

lvar Weibull Link6ping, Sweden

Materials & Design Volume 14 Number 3 1993 207