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damage cases according to their causes. In conjunction with this, the text examines the prevention of loss and damage in relation to the complete range of engineering activities covering technical facets at the planning and design stage, installation and commissioning procedures, and operation and maintenance measures. By virtue of the broad scope of the book it can only briefly discuss each item of equipment and the associated guidelines for loss/damage prevention. However, the list of references (mainly of German origin) at the end of each section is a useful source of additional informa- tion for those requiring more detailed analysis.

This book, which is both interesting and informative, is intended pri- marily as a means of feedback for practising engineers including designers, planners, manufacturers and installation engineers. Consequently it should find a place in the technical libraries in industry and furthermore would be worthwhile as a reference book in the libraries of colleges and univer- sities. The contents are well presented with the diagrams and photographs graphically supporting and complementing the text.

B.G. SINGER

Mechanisms and Dynamics of Machinery, by Hamilton H. Mabie and Fred W. Ocvirk ISBN 0-471023-80-9, S.I. version, 3rd edition, John Wiley, Chichester, 1978, 616 pp., Cloth £14.25/$27.00, W.I.E. £6.55/$12.25.

At the time I received a copy of this book, I was engaged in the design of a mechanism. The work I was doing involved clarifying the specification, dis- tinguishing between mandatory requirements and desirable characteristics, some reading, some drawing, some computat ion, but, above all, taking decisions. Decisions about when to abandon one approach for another, at what point to produce a drawing or a model, and at what point to decide that the process is over.

The contrast with a t ex tbook , almost any engineering tex tbook , is startling. They lead one to believe that all engineering problems require approximately one half hour for a solution and most frequently a solution that is a number. But this has been noted before and when I exchange my designer's hat for my teacher's hat, I am as guilty as anyone else. Could it have anything to do with the examination system? The need is for realistic case studies bu t the problem is that, for commercial reasons, the best of engineering is rarely revealed in the printed word. To be fair to the authors of this book they have been par- ticularly successful in breaking down the subjects of cams and gears into pro- blems of a size suited to classroom requirements wi thout dodging the major issues that the designer will encounter.

The book now has a dated look. It is rare to find authors referring so gen- erously to other texts competing in the same market, but most references are now over 20 years old. The impression gained is that the constraints imposed by examination questions have been allowed to dictate not only the length

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and nature of the examples but, with the exception of cams and gears, there- by to influence the content of the text itself. To take one example only, six different methods are described for finding velocity and acceleration in link- ages, many of which are now quite uncompetit ive, but nevertheless lead to suitable examination questions. There is a good case for learning two ways of doing things, one a quick, simple spot check; the other powerful, fast and ful- ly computerised. The fact that it is difficult to assess understanding of the latter in an examination should not be a deterrent. We must devise ways to meet this problem, and incidentally thereby to release more time for the deci- sions that must be made before and after such computations.

The prospective purchaser should perhaps be warned that this new SI ver- sion of the 3rd edition differs in only minor ways from the 3rd edition pub- lished in 1975. That 1975 edition itself was almost entirely in SI units. The main change in this new version is that metric gears are included. The book has two parts: part one, on mechanisms, has chapters with the following head- ings; introduction, linkages, cams, spur gears, non-standard spur gears, bevel helical and worm gears, gear trains, computing mechanisms, introduction to synthesis. Part two, entitled dynamics of machinery, has chapters on kine- matics of machinery, force analysis of machinery, balance of machinery, vibra- tion in machines.

TREVOR DAVIES

Structure and Properties of Engineering Materials (Fourth Edition), by R.M. Brick, A.W. Pense and R.B. Gordon. ISBN 07-007721-5, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead, 1 9 7 7 . 5 1 2 pp., 67/16 in by 91A in, hardback £18.75. I.S.E. £7.85.

This edition of the book, formerly entitled "Structure and Properties of Alloys" aims to apply the basic approach of Physical Metallurgy to alloys, ce- ramics and polymers at an introductory level for engineers. The authors have had to delete parts of earlier editions in order to broaden the scope. This has made the task of writing such a basic book even more difficult and the choice of what to exclude is inevitably subjective.

The first six chapters deal with the basic concepts of Physical Metallurgy, dealing in turn with the structure and properties of metals, strengthening mechanisms in single phase and complex alloys. These chapters introduce phase diagrams and choose particular examples of alloy systems to illustrate the various strengthening mechanisms and heat t reatment procedures. The following ten chapters cover the major industrial ferrous and nonferrous al- loys; copper and copper alloys, aluminium alloys, magnesium and beryllium, titanium and zirconium, iron and steel, including tool steels and stainless steels, cast-irons and metals for high temperature use, are all discussed in these ten chapters. The final chapters deal, very briefly, with engineering polymers and ceramics. Four appendices cover metallography, failure of materials, splat