Book excerpt: The first edition of the Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry treated the elements of the periodic system in alphabetical order, with multiple entries for key elements. The articles from the First Edition were written more than 10 years ago and all areas of inorganic chemistry have seen such a vigorous development that it was necessary to update most articles and to add a considerable number of new articles. The result of this major work is the proud Encylopedia of Inorganic Chemistry Second Edition (EIC-2). (Midwest).