The Chemistry and Physics of Clays : and other Ceramic Materials

THIS is the second edition of a book first published ten years ago. The same main divisions and chapter headings are again employed, although much of the contents has been rewritten to include a selection of the vast body of work published in recent years. The physics and chemistry of ceramic materials covers such an extensive ground that it is impossible for any one man to deal completely with it, or even to maintain exactly the same perspective in its different sections; specialists in each of the numerous restricted fields included in this book will, no doubt, find points for criticism. But ceramists, for whom it is primarily intended, are not immediately and directly concerned with current theories; they require information and guidance on practical points, and if they obtain a successful rule-of-thumb from some hypothesis that is incomplete or even wrong in some important particulars, their immediate need is satisfied. When the rule-of-thumb breaks down—as ad hoc solutions inevitably do, sooner or later—the theorist and the practical man are supplied with another point of reference for a more complete theory.The Chemistry and Physics of Clays: and other Ceramic Materials.By Alfred B. Searle. Second edition, revised and enlarged. Pp. xvi + 738. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1933.) 55s. net.