By Phil Danielson
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By Phil Danielson
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Capture Pumping Technology, An Introduction This is one of those books that falls into the category of being directed toward a particular area of vacuum technology. In this case, as is obvious from the title, that particular area is capture pumps. The capture pump category includes getter, sputter-ion, cryo, and cryosorption pumps in which the pumped gas is trapped and held within the pump either permanently or temporarily, as opposed to momentum transfer pumps where the gases are merely compressed and then transferred to a secondary pump for expulsion into the atmosphere. Until recently, this was the only book that covered the subject area in the detail presented here. Although it’s not really a textbook, it can be considered a teaching book in that it includes exercises or “problem sets” at the end of each chapter to help the reader work through the concepts that have been explained. This book appears to be an outgrowth of the author’s many years of teaching vacuum technology courses. As usual, the author has the problem of handling the subject matter such that it can communicate with readers or students coming to the subject from many backgrounds and levels. This is dealt with acceptably, and certainly better than many other vacuum technology books. It does, however, present a problem peculiar to this book. It’s written, unabashedly, in the first person, and this can be a bit jarring to a reader accustomed to third person passive. The text contains a good deal of “I did this” and “I developed that” that will be taken as offensive by some readers since it could easily be interpreted as an ego trip or an attempt to hype the author’s reputation. On the other hand, many readers will find the approach to be quirkily accessible since the author explains that the intention is to reproduce the atmosphere of a classroom teacher-to-student interaction. A section called “Basic Theory” in the book, occupies about 20% of the total pages. It’s questionable whether or not the basics are required in a book that aims at a specific area of the technology. After all, a total beginner would not opt for a more advanced book such as this as a starting point. This observation should not, however, be taken as criticism since every author is faced with the conundrum of just where to start and how many basics need to be supplied. In this case, the basic theory section gives a useful, and possibly necessary, basis for following the development of the specific pump sections. It’s well done. Useful, and certainly does no harm. As is usual in books in this category, the coverage of each section reflects the author’s experience, and this results in a slightly uneven depth. This is, by no means, a problem for most readers, but be aware that some subjects will delve into more detail than others. The one overall problem that reaches throughout the book is the way in which the necessary mathematics are handled. Physicists always seem to think that non-physicists also think in mathematics and then make the jump to workaday arithmetic seamlessly. This results in following a derivation up to some point and suddenly discovering a jump has been made to a point farther down the mathematical line. A better transitional flow would benefit the non-physicist readers, but this is a common problem and this book should not be singled out. The book is well supplied with graphics, both graphs and drawings that work well with the text and provide enough useful information. The drawings are simple enough that they aren’t cluttered with detail, but are not so simple that they lack the necessary information to make them useful. In all, this is a book that will be used effectively by anyone using capture pumps. Remember, though, that it is a book about a category of pumps and not about a specific type of pump, and it might not have the detail to be found in a book about that single type of pump. |
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