Table Of ContentS O L U B LE S I L I C A T ES
Their Properties and Uses
VOLUME 1: CHEMISTRY
BY
JAMES G. VAIL, D.Sc,
Member of the Board of Directors
Assisted by
John H. Wills, PILD.
and the staff of
Philadelphia Qtiartz Company
American Chemical Society
Monograph Series
BOOK D I V I S I ON
R E I N H O LD P U B L I S H I NG C O R P O R A T I ON
330 West Forty-second St., New York 36, U. S. A.
Also Publishers of Chemical Engineering Catalog, Chemical Materials Cata-
log, Materials <£ Methods—the Magazine of Materials Engineering;
Advertising Management for American Chemical Society.
1 952
S O L U B LE S I L I C A T ES
Their Properties and Uses
VOLUME 2: TECHNOLOGY
BY
JAMES G. VAIL, D.Sc,
Member of the Board of Directors
Assisted by
John H. Wills, Ph.D.
and the staff of
Philadelphia Quartz Company
American Chemical Society
Monograph Series
BOOK D I V I S I ON
REINHOLD P U B L I S H I NG C O R P O R A T I ON
330 West Forty-second St., New York 36, U. S. A.
Also Publishers of Chemical Engineering Catalog, Chemical Materials Cata-
log, Materials & Methods—the Magazine of Materials Engineering;
Advertising Management for American Chemical Society.
1 952
Copyright 1952 by
REINHOLD PUBLISHING CORPORATION
Second Printing, September, 1956
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 52-8812
Lithoprinted in U.S.A.
EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Dedicated to the Memory of
JAMES GARRETT VAIL D.Sc.
3
1886-1951
Distinguished Chemist and Chemical Engineer,
Beloved Spiritual Leader and Humanitarian
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
American Chemical Society's Series of Chemical Monographs
By arrangement with the Interallied Conference of Pure and Applied
Chemistry, which met in London and Brussels in July, 1919, the American
Chemical Society was to undertake the production and publication of
Scientific and Technologic Monographs on chemical subjects. At the same
time it was agreed that the National Research Council, in cooperation with
the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society, should
undertake the production and publication of Critical Tables of Chemical
and Physical Constants. The American Chemical Society and the National
Research Council mutually agreed to care for these two fields of chemical
progress. The American Chemical Society named as Trustees, to make the
necessary arrangements of the publication of the Monographs, Charles L.
Parsons, secretary of the Society, Washington, D. C; the late John E.
Teeple, then treasurer of the Society, New York; and the late Professor
Gellert Alleman of Swarthmore College. The Trustees arranged for the pub-
lication of the ACS Series of (a) Scientific and (b) Technological Mono-
graphs by the Chemical Catalog Company, Inc. (Reinhold Publishing
Corporation, successor) of New York.
The Council of the American Chemical Society, acting through its Com-
mittee on National Policy, appointed editors (the present list of whom
appears at the close of this sketch) to select authors of competent authority
in their respective fieldsa nd to consider critically the manuscripts submitted.
The first Monograph of the Series appeared in 1921. After twenty-three
years of experience certain modifications of general policy were indicated.
In the beginning there still remained from the preceding five decades a
distinct though arbitrary differentiation between so-called "pure science"
publications and technologic or applied science literature. By 1944 this
differentiation was fast becoming nebulous. Research in private enterprise
had grown apace and not a little of it was pursued on the frontiers of knowl-
edge. Furthermore, most workers in the sciences were coming to see the
artificiality of the separation. The methods of both groups of workers are
the same. They employ the same instrumentalities, and frankly recogpize
that their objectives are common, namely, the search for new knowledge
for the service of man. The officers of the Society therefore combined the
two editorial Boards in a single Board of twelve representative members.
Also in the beginning of the Series, it seemed expedient to construe
rather broadly the definition of a Monograph. Needs of workers had to be
recognized. Consequently among the first hundred Monographs appeared
works in the form of treatises covering in some instances rather broad areas.
Because such necessary works do not now want for publishers, it is con-
sidered advisable to hew more strictly to the line of the Monograph charac-
ter, which means more complete and critical treatment of relatively re-
stricted areas, and, where a broader field needs coverage, to subdivide it
into logical subareas. The prodigious expansion of new knowledge makes
such a change desirable.
These Monographs are intended to serve two principal purposes: first,
to make available to chemists a thorough treatment of a selected area in
form usable by persons working in more or less unrelated fields to the end
that they may correlate their own work with a larger area of physical
science discipline; second, to stimulate further research in the specific
field treated. To implement this purpose the authors of Monographs are
expected to give extended references to the literature. Where the literature
is of such volume that a complete bibliography is impracticable, the authors
are expected to append a list of references critically selected on the basis of
their relative importance and significance.
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIP]TY
BOARD OF EDITORS
WILLIAM A. HAMOR, Editor of Monographs
Associates
L. W. BASS S. C. LIND
T. H. CHILTON C. H. MATHEWSON
FARRINGTON DANIELS LAWRENCE L. QUILL
J. BENNETT HILL W. T. READ
E. H. HUNTRESS WALTER A. SCHMIDT
C. G. KING E. R. WEIDLEIN
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This book is the product of many minds. Not only in the world-wide
sources of the information it contains but in the small group with whom
the author has been closely associated is it the result of diverse skills,
experiences, and insights.
Thomas W. Elkinton, President, who saw the need for a source book
on soluble silicates to replace my old monograph of 1928, proposed the
project to me as a fitting termination of forty-six years of service with
the Philadelphia Quartz Company. For me personally it was a happy
suggestion. Beyond the interest of the work per se, the warm human
relationships involved have been precious beyond price.
I have been protected from error and enriched by suggestions through
the generous cooperation of the Chemical Department staff to whom I
owe an enormous debt for caring for the extensive detail inseparable from
a work of this kind. They cannot all be named, but I wish to express sincere
gratitude to the following senior colleagues, each of whom appears in his
own right as an author: Chester L. Baker, Harry L. Bolton; Claire H.
Jeglum, Dr. Newton W. McCready, Alfred H. McKinney, Dr. Reynold
C. Merrill, and Dr. William Stericker.
The help of Dr. George W. Morey in critical reading of the first five
chapters and his generosity in providing unpublished data and interpre-
tation is gratefully acknowledged. Professor J. Fred Hazel likewise has
been generous of his unpublished material and in criticism of Chapters 5, 6,
7, and 9.
To Dr. John H. Wills, who has been intimately and congenially associ-
ated with me at every step, I owe a very special degree of appreciation.
His wide knowledge, clear judgment, and unflagging diligence have brought
the work to a level I could not have achieved alone.
I would commend also the cheerful and accurate performance of tasks
which must often have seemed uninteresting except as necessary parts of a
useful whole by Helen V. Raub, Librarian, who traced many a faulty
reference to its obscure source, and Lois Sherwood, who handled much of
the detail, dictation, and copy work.
Finally to my colleagues of the Board of Directors, my thanks are offered
for patience and support over a period twice as long as was initially fore-
seen.
May each be justified in his faith that a better knowledge of soluble
silicates will constructively serve the people of our day and generation
and be a link of common interest between them, whoever and wherever
they may be.
JAMES G. VAIL
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
August, 1951
FOREWORD
The first volume includes a statement on the aims and structure of the
book as a whole. It describes the beginnings and present state of manu-
facture and details the known physical and chemical properties of the
soluble silicates in their many forms. Those chapters are required reading
for one who would attempt to apply the silicates in divergent processes.
The chapters of this volume include some theoretical statements designed
as a guide to practical use of soluble silicates in particular applications
but, in the main, they describe where and how the soluble silicates have
been found valuable in the past, especially in the more recent years since
the publication of the original monograph. Examples have been chosen to
suggest the variety of possible applications in industry and not necessarily
because of their relative commercial importance.
The division into two volumes was made with Dr. VaiFs knowledge and
consent, but without his active participation so that any irregularities and
disturbance to the text must be my responsibility, as indeed are the errors
of proofreading and checking both references and data.
JOHN H. WILLS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
January Sl 1952
9
PLAN OF THE BOOK
These volumes have been prepared for those who, although not neces-
sarily technically trained, have by virtue of experience or interest a desire
to become better acquainted with soluble silicates. While the reader may
already have encountered soluble silicates in his own work, he will find the
experience of other industries illuminating. Data pertinent to adhesives, for
example, are likely to be significant for coatings and cements. Similar situa-
tions arise as silicates are considered in the role of modified alkali or as
colloids under industrial circumstances of great variety. Therefore, though
it has not been possible to achieve perfection in arrangement of material,
the emphasis is on principles and properties, and information on particular
industries should be located through the copious index. The space allocated
to a subject is not necessarily a measure of its industrial importance.
The subdivision of this Monograph into two volumes, one devoted pri-
marily to the more theoretical work on the properties of the soluble silicates
and a second, larger volume covering the fields of industrial application,
was made in order to issue volumes of a reasonable size for the working
technician. We wished also to provide a smaller book for those interested
only in the chemical and physical properties. The division is quite arbitrary.
One will find material of theoretical character in the volume on uses, and
vice versa.
References to the literature, though extensive, are not complete. The
effort was to eliminate for reasons of space such as are duplicated, ir-
relevant, or misleading. Where direct citations have been omitted, they
are usually to incidental records of the Philadelphia Quartz Company.
Where more information is needed, reference should be made to the original
sources. Reprints are often available from the manufacturers under whose
auspices the work reported has been done.
United States patents, because they are easily obtained, have often
been chosen in preference to those of other countries. The patent literature
of recent years is increasingly rich in reports of technical work, forced by
the necessity of defining the inventors' contribution in arts already highly
developed. Patents are always cited as texts for the information they con-
tain and no account is here taken of their contractual nature or of priority
relations among them. It may easily be that a late patent quoted for lucid
explanations is completely dominated by an early disclosure which has
escaped our mention. Patent rights are the specific field of patent at-
torneys, and inventors should always seek their counsel.
