Chemistry Books

At last an excellent book on gunshot residues. In Europe Dr. Wallace is very well known in the forensic family interested in GSR (by the way, in the UK they are called FDR, Firearms Discharge Residues) for his researches on the subject, on ammunition and on primers chemical composition. I have met him several times in Belfast, at the NIFS Laboratory, and I was constantly impressed by his work and by his encyclopaedic knowledge of the topic.
His book apparently was written in two different periods and probably the first part was ready in the early nineteen's and, later, the Particle Classification Scheme has been updated: we cannot but agree with him when, at page 272, the author affirms that "No longer can a 'unique' FDR particle be described as such as they occur from nonfirearms sources."
Two personal remarks. I feel the absence of a paragraph describing the formation of GSP and the absence of a general bibliography.
In my opinion it is an highly recommended book for forensic scientists seriously working on Gunshot Residues.

It is somewhat difficult to understand this book at the first time. However, higher researcher will be satisfied with this incisive and clear explantion of classical analytical chemistry. Although this book was written about 40 years ago(for 1st edition), still it shows brilliant idea for the real experiment.

Chapter 1 is well written by a upcoming scientist Eric Schulze. He makes complex ideas easy enough for even an armchair stem-cell biologist to understand! A MUST READ!

This is the definitive work on that time period. I've done some research in the area and taught courses on it and Rocke's book taught me more than I've ever learned. It seems he's read not just every published work from the period, but also the private correspondence of the principals. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear he interviewed them or even read their minds. Maybe he held a séance or something. Seriously, if you want to know 19th-century chemistry, buy this.

This book is so hilarious and at the same time you can learn tons of information. The comics by Tone De Saulles are excellent.
This book is a muct read.

This excellent book with a lot of beautiful pictures is very useful for teachers whom use the lecture and demonstration method in teaching chemistry. The reading is so easy and the paper is of a very good quality. I recommend it so much.

Well worth the money. I found some excellent demos to do in High School Chemistry. Fantastic!

Dr. Dressler did an excellent job in editing this book about the chemical dynamics in extreme environments, covering the areas of this subject in both theories and experiments. The chapters are written by some of the leading experts in the field, and together they will be of great interest to experts and newcomers, both of whom will benefit from the in-depth discussions of the latest models, methods and results. The whole book is informative and organized. 5 stars.

The 2007 edition of the book is thoroughly revised and includes information not only for the PE examination, but also for doing everyday process engineering calculations. I strongly recommend anyone engaged in process engineering or preparing for P.E. examination to buy this book along with the companion book on Problems and Solutions.

This book, comprising twenty chapters, has nearly 800 pages: a voluminous book. The chapters include Units and Dimensions (22 pages), Material Balances (54 pages), Energy Balance and Thermodynamics (53 pages), Fluid Mechanics(78 pages), Heat Transfer(69 pages), Evaporation(14 pages), Filtration (16 pages), Membrane Separation(9 pages), Mass Transfer Fundamentals(52 pages), Distillation(64 pages), Absorption(25 pages), Liquid-Liquid Extraction and Leaching(33 pages), Adsorption(18 pages), Psychrometry, Humidification, and Drying(23 pages), Chemical Reaction Engineering(78 pages), Process Control(25 pages), Corrosion and Materials of Construction(16 pages), Equipment Design(40 Pages), Engineering Economics(24 pages), and Plant Safety and Environmental Consideration(59 pages), Index(16 pages).

Each chapter has numerous example problems to illustrate the application. The Introduction of the book, not mentioned above, gives information about how to become a professional engineer, examination structure, the website and telephone number of various State Authorities, and practical hints like what to take to examinations.

Chapter 1 discusses the various units including the US Customary unit and SI, and the conversion factors. Chapter 2 starts with material properties, discusses mass balances, phase behavior, ideal and real gases, fuels and combustion. Chapter 3 deals with thermodynamic properties, three laws of thermodynamics, thermo-chemistry, power cycles and refrigeration. Chapter 4 deals with Fluid Mechanics. This is a very strong chapter not only for P.E. examination, but also for regular process design. It deals with fluid mechanics application including parallel and branched systems, compressible fluid, and two-phase flow, the 3-K method of calculating fluid flow resistance, and pump hydraulics. The line-sizing guideline table 4.2 is very handy and demonstrates practical wisdom of the authors.

The chapter 5 on heat transfer is another very good chapter. All modes of heat transfer including conduction, convection, and radiation, and unit operations of sublimation, batch heat exchanger design, nonmetallic heat exchangers, extended surface heat exchanger, and effectiveness NTU method have been covered. Chapters 6 and 7 cover both fundamentals and applications through worked out problems in evaporator and filter design. Chapter 8 covers the unit operation of reverse osmosis. The mathematical model for batch reverse osmosis is quite handy. Chapter 9 shows an elaborate treatment of mass transfer fundamentals including molecular diffusion, convective and turbulent mass transfer, inter-phase mass transfer, VLE, and mass transfer in packed beds.

Chapter 10 on distillation is a well written chapter covering flash distillation, differential distillation, McCabe-Thiele method, short-cut methods on multi-component distillations etc. Chapter 11 on absorption is very handy with step-by-step procedure of designing an absorption column with a lot of practical tips. Chapter 12 on liquid-liquid extraction and leaching demonstrates an excellent application of right triangular diagram on extraction and determination of minimum reflux ratio, and design of packed column in extraction service. Similar comments apply to Chapter 13 which deals with adsorption and design of fixed bed adsorption. Chapter 14 addresses Psychrometry, Humidification, and Drying. It explains well such terms as humid volume, humid heat capacity, wet and dry bulb temperature, adiabatic saturation temperature, and demonstrate the use of humidity chart very well through examples.

Chapter 15 is thorough on Chemical Reaction Engineering, interpretation of kinetic data and the constants of the rate equation, reactor design, mass and energy balance, product distribution and its dependence on temperature, batch reactor, CSTR, packed bed reactor, catalytic reactor, ignition-extinction curve and multiple steady states in heat transfer, and is followed by numerous example problems. Chapter 16 addresses the basic aspects of process control including feedback and feed forward control, application of Laplace transforms, control actions, first and second order systems, and concepts of stability criteria. Chapter 17 outlines the eight forms of corrosion and has good tips on how to avoid corrosion by a good mechanical design. Chapter 18 on Equipment Design has a wealth of practical knowledge not taught in school. I understood for the first time the difference between the design pressure and maximum allowable working pressure as defined in ASME Code. It instructs on how to develop the mechanical design parameters of equipment.

Chapter 19 on Engineering Economics deals with time value of money, depreciation calculations, and cost comparison of alternatives, Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index, break-even analysis, optimization, and many solved problems. Chapter 20 on Plant Safety and Environmental Consideration is another chapter full of practical knowledge not taught in many schools. It deals with toxicology and industrial hygiene, fire and explosion issues, hazard and operability studies, environmental considerations including air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution, and noise abatement. It also gives guidelines of sizing emergency relief devices for various over pressure scenarios including runaway reactions per established codes and standards. Finally, it includes a sixteen-page subject index to locate a subject very quickly.

There are some areas that the authors should consider to improve. There has been some duplication of efforts. For example, the generalized pressure drop correlation is duplicated in Chapter 10 and Chapter 11, the former having the latest one. There are some errors which the reader can quickly figure out: hopefully they will be eliminated in the next edition. Overall, this is an excellent study book for P.E. Exam, and a book I would like to have as a companion in my chemical engineering career.

The book was as described and also arrived in a very good time. I could not have asked for more from any Seller