Unit Operations

This textbook is the first to carry the title Unit Operations but it is not the first to treat the subject. Modern practice and equipment are emphasized as well as mathematical interpretations as only by properly designed constructed and operated equipment can mathematical treatment yield useful results. The object is to build the students knowledge and power progressively and continuously until he has a reasonably clear concept of how to approach the problem! Of design and operation of processing equipment. The unit operations are grouped according to similarities in action or in methods of calculation and presented in sequence according to increasing difficulty. The full advantage of the study of unit operations can be realized only if the unit operations are themselves associated and compared so the engineer may more skillfully select the most suitable operation and equipment desired for each step in the process. The tendency of the specialist to treat each unit operation as a specialty having its own peculiar result rationalization and nomenclature is of questionable value in any sustained educational effort and is to be resisted by all means in an undergraduate curriculum. The arrangement in order of increasing difficulty rather than in order of assumed importance continually presents new advanced intriguing problems to the student maintains his interest and encourages him to continue his own development beyond the limitations of the book. The treatment of those operations covering solids in Part I requires little more preparation than is ordinarily given in high school whereas the treatment of mass transfer in Part IV is suitable for a post- graduate course and is presented with a critical attitude tending to develop the research point of view.