In the Spring of I944 as the first phase in the development of a High Polymer program at Wayne University, Detroit, there was presented a Symposium on High Polymers. This fieht is one of rapid development and there is need of correlation of recent and divers experimental information. The lectures are an attempt at such correlation, presenting unified concepts of certain phases of the polymerization problem as they are understood and interpreted by various experts in the field.
There are ten lectures in all, each having a different author. The first three are fundamental, dealing with molecular structure and the applications of catalysis to hydrocarbon reactions of importance in the synthesis of high polymers. The next two give a review of the direct and indirect evidence for the free radical mechanism of addition polymerization. Molecular size distribution in high polymers and the effect of chain length on physical properties of cellulose derivatives is discussed as is the study of the geometry of long chain molecules and the effect of inter-molecular forces as illuminated by X-ray diffraction studies. Recent work on the problem of orientation of chain polymers and their mobility in the liquid state is given through a study of the mechanical properties of their concentrated solutions. The last chapter of the book presents a discussion on some concepts of textile fibres--properties which make fibres useful and emphasize the dependence of some of these properties on the high polymer structures or molecular architectures of a number of the fibre systems.
There is a logical sequence to the arrangement of the lectures, and there is much food for thought and facts as a basis for further work presented here. R. H. OPPERMANN.