Yu. B. Khariton and A. I. Shalnikov. Mechanism of Condensation and Formation of Colloids, L.—M., GTTI, 1934, pp. 66, 2000 copies, price 1 ruble.

The monograph under review is divided into two sections, one of which is devoted to the formation and structure of precipitates obtained by condensation of metallic vapors on cooled surfaces, and the other to the formation of disperse systems during the condensation of gaseous mixtures.

The work of the Leningrad Institute of Chemical Physics in these fields, especially in the second, is at present playing a leading role.

It is not surprising that the monograph is devoted almost entirely to an exposition of these works, a considerable part of which was carried out under the direction of, or with the participation of, the authors.

Among the most interesting results achieved in these works, we shall point to the establishment of the dependence of the “critical” temperature in the surface condensation of metallic vapors on their elasticity; the explanation of the fictitious nature of “critical” phenomena in surface condensation and of the role played here by the time factor; the electronographic study of the influence of surface temperature on the dispersity of the deposit; the production of very curious highly dispersed mixtures (the name “molecular mixtures” proposed by the authors seems to us nevertheless unsuccessful); the well-known new method for obtaining metallic organosols, which has now entered all textbooks of colloid chemistry, etc. All these works testify to the very high level of experimental skill at LIKhF.

In theoretical respect, however, the monograph is considerably poorer, since, speaking of the mechanism of surface condensation, the authors confine themselves to setting forth the theories of Frenkel and Semenov, which they themselves consider insufficient for explaining all the observed phenomena. It is very surprising that the monograph makes no mention either of Langmuir’s extremely interesting work* on the mechanism of formation of condensation nuclei, or of the general theory of condensation processes created by Gibbs and Volmer, which is readily applicable also to the phenomena considered in the monograph.

N. Fuks