Metals Handbook: Vol. 1, Properties and Selections of Metals (8th Edition), 1961, 1961

Document Type: Book (Technical Reference).

Purpose: Authoritative Reference.

Authority: Manufacturer.

Scope (from the Preface): "This is the first of a series of volumes that will supersede and expand the single-volume 7th edition of the Metals Handbook. In this new volume, the aim of the Metals Handbook Committee and the authors is twofold: to present significant data on the properties of metals in an orderly way, and to provide practical information that will help readers to select the most suitable metals for specific purposes."

Contents (from the Foreword):

"The ever-increasing changes and complexities that characterize present-day world economic and political conditions have forced a growing demand for usable technical information about metals. Such a demand presents a strong challenge to the American Society for Metals, in its role of disseminator of metals information.

The appearance of this book is a formidable response by ASM to that challenge, on the part of the Metals Handbook Committee and its 83 author committees, the 1300 contributors to the articles contained here, and the editorial staff. In no previous publication has such great attention been paid to bringing the reader genuinely usable information and precise and accurate data that will help him solve his immediate problems concerning metal selection. And, although the subject matter dealt with in the area defined by this volume's title supersedes comparable material that occupied only two fifths of the 7th edition, greatly expanded coverage has resulted in a book almost as large as the previous single-volume edition.

Projected companion volumes of the 8th edition of the Metals Handbook will present similarly expanded and improved information on processing and fabrication of metals; metals engineering design; testing, inspection and metallography; and on basic physical metallurgy, including equilibrium phase diagrams."