PREFACE - Any new book, certainly one dealing with technical matters, ought tosubmit something akin to a "certificate of necessity." While "necessity"is highly subjective, and capable of many shades of meaning, the plainfact of this case is that no concise dictionary of metallurgical terms,adapted to American needs, has hitherto been available. And so, if theneed but be granted, the author may be permitted to hope that thisvolume, in greater or lesser measure, fills the void.Not that perfection is expected-the ideal may not even be prayedfor in this all-too-imperfect world. Indeed, I realize that this bookmust inevitably contain at least a normal quota of error-sins of omissionand commission both. For such, ignorance and/or carelessnessmust take full responsibility; in the interest of future editions, I shallbe grateful for such corrections as may appear justified to the reader.No defense can be made, nor is any intended, for positive errors ofcommission. In a volume of this type, however, omissions may frequentlyreflect differing opinions as to what ought to be included. Probablyno two students of metallurgy would quite agree on the scope ofmaterial to be presented. The problem here has been further complicatedby a desire to serve, in this volume, lay workers at the benchand behind the torch no less than technologists with university training.As a consequence of this desire, many words and phrases in sciencesperipheral to metallurgy have been included; setting a proper coursehas frequently been most difficult, threatened at once by the Scylla ofincompleteness and the Charybdis of undue bulk. In its final form, thisdictionary 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 volumethat I am prevented from adequately acknowledging them; whereverpossible, in fact, I have checked one source against another. Suchmetallurgical "demi-bibles" as Metals Handbook, Engineering Alloys(by Woldman and Dornblatt), and The Making, Shaping and Treatingof Steel (by Camp and Francis) have served extensively as guides,and the reader is urged to refer to them and their technical congenersfor amplification wherever this dictionary proves inadequate. The remarkablyinclusive Engineering Alloys is particularly recommendedfor its listing and description of thousands of alloys which have notseemed important enough for description in this dictionary.There is only one exception to the generalization that nothing newhas been presented. In the realm of the rare metals, where some of thepublished data are fragmentary, and some erroneous, I have drawndirectly on my own specialized experience, and have included someamount of data hitherto un-blackened by printers' ink.
