Bibliography

Charles A. Kraus. The Properties of Electrically Conducting Systems, including Electrolytes and Metals, pp. 415, Chemical Catalog Co. New-York. 1922, pp. 415.

Charles Kraus. Properties of electrically conducting systems.

This book is a monograph in a series published by the American Chemical Society. Its author, an excellent expert in this field, is known for his work on the electrical conductivity of solutions, both aqueous and non-aqueous, which led him to formulate an empirical dilution formula encompassing a considerable number of the most varied systems, as well as for his investigations of solutions of alkali metals in liquid ammonia, lying on the boundary between electrolytic and electronic (metallic) conductivity.

Accordingly, the contents of the book extend to the conductivity of systems of both electrolytic and metallic character. The richness of its contents may be judged from the list of its chapters: 1) Introduction (the nature of conducting systems, ionic theory). 2) Elementary theory of the passage of current through electrolytes. 3) Conductivity of electrolytes in various solvents. 4) Electrical conductivity as a function of concentration and of the ionizing power of the solvent. 5) Electrical conductivity and viscosity. 6) Electrical conductivity and temperature. 7) Electrical conductivity in mixtures of solvents. 8) The nature of the carriers of electricity in electrolyte solutions. (Solvation and complex formation.) 9) Homogeneous equilibria in electrolyte solutions (isohydry, hydrolysis). 10) Heterogeneous equilibria involving electrolytes. (Depression of the freezing point, effect on solubility.) 11) Other properties of electrolyte solutions. (Diffusion, density, catalytic and optical properties, concentration cells, thermochemistry of solutions, chemical structure and dissociation.) 12) Theories of electrolytic conductivity. 13) Individual electrolytes in the molten and solid state. 14) Systems constituting the transition from electrolytes to metals. 15) Electrical conductivity of metals.

In presenting all this extensive material, the author does not strive for bibliographic completeness, but selects a number of the most striking examples—

measures, examines them in comparatively great detail, with the presentation of a large number of tables and drawings, and then draws theoretical conclusions from them. The exposition gains in clarity and coherence, but loses in completeness. In this respect Kraus’s monograph represents the opposite of P. Walden’s monumental work, Die Elektrochemie nichtwässeriger Lösungen, differing from it also in the author’s peculiar nationalism: he cites a large number of American works and does not mention far more significant investigations by European scholars. Nor can one always agree with the somewhat hasty criticism of such important achievements of electrochemistry as Walden’s law of the constancy of \(\lambda_{\infty}\eta\), Nernst’s equation for concentration cells, and such promising theories as the hypothesis of the complete dissociation of strong electrolytes.

If these shortcomings are not counted, Kraus’s monograph is an extremely fresh and original book, one that moreover covers a much broader field than is customary in most books on electrochemistry: included here are the electrical conductivity of metals and of intermediate systems, and the most interesting part, describing the author’s investigations (the electrical conductivity of systems near their critical temperature, the most recent investigations by American authors, Lewis and others) on activity, etc.

All this makes Kraus’s book extremely interesting, especially for the Russian reader, who has not had the opportunity to follow the American journal literature on physical chemistry, which has grown enormously in recent years.

A. Rabinovich.