Metals and Alloys Dictionary

PREFACE -
Any new book, certainly one dealing with technical matters, ought to
submit something akin to a "certificate of necessity." While "necessity"
is highly subjective, and capable of many shades of meaning, the plain
fact of this case is that no concise dictionary of metallurgical terms,
adapted to American needs, has hitherto been available. And so, if the
need but be granted, the author may be permitted to hope that this
volume, in greater or lesser measure, fills the void.
Not that perfection is expected-the ideal may not even be prayed
for in this all-too-imperfect world. Indeed, I realize that this book
must inevitably contain at least a normal quota of error-sins of omission
and commission both. For such, ignorance and/or carelessness
must take full responsibility; in the interest of future editions, I shall
be grateful for such corrections as may appear justified to the reader.
No defense can be made, nor is any intended, for positive errors of
commission. In a volume of this type, however, omissions may frequently
reflect differing opinions as to what ought to be included. Probably
no two students of metallurgy would quite agree on the scope of
material to be presented. The problem here has been further complicated
by a desire to serve, in this volume, lay workers at the bench
and behind the torch no less than technologists with university training.
As a consequence of this desire, many words and phrases in sciences
peripheral to metallurgy have been included; setting a proper course
has frequently been most difficult, threatened at once by the Scylla of
incompleteness and the Charybdis of undue bulk. In its final form, this
dictionary represents one man's effort at intelligent compromise.
By its very nature, a dictionary can present little of new content.
So many sources of information have found reflection in this volume
that I am prevented from adequately acknowledging them; wherever
possible, in fact, I have checked one source against another. Such
metallurgical "demi-bibles" as Metals Handbook, Engineering Alloys
(by Woldman and Dornblatt), and The Making, Shaping and Treating
of Steel (by Camp and Francis) have served extensively as guides,
and the reader is urged to refer to them and their technical congeners
for amplification wherever this dictionary proves inadequate. The remarkably
inclusive Engineering Alloys is particularly recommended
for its listing and description of thousands of alloys which have not
seemed important enough for description in this dictionary.
There is only one exception to the generalization that nothing new
has been presented. In the realm of the rare metals, where some of the
published data are fragmentary, and some erroneous, I have drawn
directly on my own specialized experience, and have included some
amount of data hitherto un-blackened by printers' ink.