Abstract
WHEN Schonbein first announced his discovery of gun-cotton little could he have foreseen that he was laying the foundation of so many important industries as those, sixty-five years later, associated with cellulose derivatives, for although the acetates and xanthates of this parent substance are daily growing in importance, their introduction has solely been due to the wide and successful application of the nitrocelluloses. One may safely say that the derivatives of no other single chemical substance (if cellulose in its varied forms may be so termed) have proved of such general use to mankind, assisting in the production at a cheap rate of numbers of articles hitherto made from expensive natural products, developing important branches of photography, rendering valuable service to the man of science and medical man, and finally furnishing the base of all the modern smokeless powders. The author has succeeded in these two comprehensive volumes in admirably treating of all the discoveries and applications of these highly important derivatives. The magnitude of such a work and the thoroughness with which it has been carried out may be realised from the fact that more than 8000 literature references and 5000 patent references have been verified.
Nitrocellulose Industry: a Compendium of the History, Chemistry, Manufacture, Commercial Application, and Analysis of Nitrates, Acetates, and Xanthates of Cellulose as Applied to the Peaceful Arts; with a Chapter on Gun-Cotton, Smokeless Powder, and Explosive Cellulose Nitrates.
By Dr. Edward C. Worden. Vol i., pp. xxxiv + 565. Vol. ii., pp. xxviii + 567 ' 1239. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price, two vols., 42s. net.
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B., J. Nitrocellulose Industry: a Compendium of the History, Chemistry, Manufacture, Commercial Application, and Analysis of Nitrates, Acetates, and Xanthates of Cellulose as Applied to the Peaceful Arts; with a Chapter on Gun-Cotton, Smokeless Powder, and Explosive Cellulose Nitrates . Nature 88, 69–70 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/088069a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/088069a0
