CRC Handbook

CRC Handbook
The Chemical Rubber Company · Public domain · source
Title	CRC Handbook
Publisher	Chemical Rubber Company (CRC) Press
First pub	1913
Language	English
Subject	Reference work

CRC Handbook

The CRC Handbook is a comprehensive reference compendium used across United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and other scientific and engineering communities, relied upon in laboratories associated with National Institutes of Health, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University and corporations such as Boeing, General Electric, Siemens, Shell and Pfizer. Its data underpin work in contexts ranging from standards bodies like American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and International Organization for Standardization to research at institutions including Max Planck Society, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Overview

The Handbook aggregates empirical data, constants and compilation material used by practitioners at National Aeronautics and Space Administration, European Space Agency, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory and industrial research centers such as Bell Labs, IBM Research, DuPont and 3M. It features thermophysical properties, spectral data, material constants and formularies referenced in standards from American Society for Testing and Materials and Underwriters Laboratories. Engineers at Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies and chemists at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline consult it alongside manuals from Society of Automotive Engineers and texts used at California Institute of Technology and University of Cambridge.

History and Publication

First issued by the Chemical Rubber Company established in the early 20th century, the Handbook's early printings circulated among firms in Cleveland, Ohio, New York City publishers and technical libraries at Carnegie Mellon University. Editors and contributors included figures connected to National Academy of Sciences, Royal Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science and university departments at Columbia University, University of Chicago and Yale University. Throughout the 20th century it evolved alongside events such as World War I, World War II, the Cold War and the Space Race, influencing curricula at Princeton University and University of Oxford and being cited in government laboratories like Argonne National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

Content and Structure

Sections organize data on materials, fluids, gases, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, thermodynamics and transport properties used by teams at NASA Glenn Research Center, European Southern Observatory, Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute of Standards and Technology. Individual chapters are prepared by contributors from ETH Zurich, Imperial College London, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Seoul National University and Australian National University. Tables include melting points, boiling points, refractive indices and heat capacities referenced in patents filed at United States Patent and Trademark Office and standards drafted by American National Standards Institute and British Standards Institution. Appendices often reproduce formulations related to Good Laboratory Practice and measurement protocols used at Johns Hopkins University and McGill University.

Editions and Special Volumes

Major editions and specialized volumes have been produced for chemistry, physics, engineering, environmental science and biochemistry, with editorial oversight from scholars connected to University of California, Berkeley, Brown University, Duke University, University of Michigan and University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. Regional and subject-specific spin-offs align with topics covered by conferences like American Chemical Society National Meeting, Materials Research Society symposia, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics meetings and proceedings from International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. Special volumes address polymer data, biochemical parameters and industrial safety data sheets used in facilities such as Dow Chemical Company and BASF.

Influence and Reception

The Handbook is cited in publications from journals such as Nature, Science, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Physical Review Letters and Analytical Chemistry and influences textbooks adopted at Cornell University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Pennsylvania and Ohio State University. Librarians at Library of Congress and curators at Smithsonian Institution collections note its role in preserving experimental standards. It has been reviewed and critiqued in forums associated with the Royal Society of Chemistry, European Federation of Chemical Engineering and national academies including Royal Society and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Access and Formats

Available in print holdings at university libraries such as Princeton Theological Seminary library collections, research libraries at University of British Columbia and national libraries including Bibliothèque nationale de France, it is also distributed digitally through platforms used by subscribers at Wiley, Taylor & Francis and institutional portals of ProQuest and JSTOR. Digital editions integrate with laboratory information management systems deployed at Pfizer, Roche and AstraZeneca and are cross-referenced in databases maintained by PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. Formats include hardcover multi-volume sets, looseleaf updates and searchable online interfaces licensed by corporations, universities and government agencies such as United States Geological Survey and Environmental Protection Agency.

Category:Reference works