Handbooks

"Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" edited by DR Lide.

This is the "Mother of all reference books," the CRC Handbook. The 87th edition of this classic reference book for chemists has over 2500 pages of info. There's a little bit on electrochemistry, but the real utilities are the tables of properties of inorganics and organics. 

Every chemist needs to get two or three editions over their scientific lifetime. I still have (and still use!) my 44th edition of The Handbook. It has a section on Arts and Recipes that has lots of useful (now forgotten) concoctions. Alas, that section has been removed from the more recent editions of this book!

A CDROM version of this Handbook is also available!

More Information

"Lange's Handbook of Chemistry, 15/e" edited by John A. Dean.

This is the 15-th edition of another popular handbook found on chemist's bookshelves: Lange's is certainly on mine! Although it has only about half the number of pages of the CRC Handbook, Lange's  has information that is not in the CRC. The section on "Practical Laboratory Information" organizes useful tidbits that are scattered in my old 12-th edition of Lange's. I need this new edition!