F. E. Bailey Jr. is a Senior Research Scientist at Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastics Company Inc., in South Charleston, West Virginia. He is the coauthor or coeditor of five books and 68 journal articles and book chapters, and holds 50 U.S. patents on polymer syntheses and processes. Dr. Bailey is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and New York Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Physical Society and Society of Rheology, and a Director of the American Chemical Society. In 1987 he was given the American Institute of Chemists' Chemical Pioneer Award for his work on poly(alkylene oxides). Dr. Bailey received the AB. (1948) degree from Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, and M.S. (1950) and Ph.D. (1952) degrees from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Joseph V. Koleske, a consultant in Charleston, West Virginia, was a Corporate Research Fellow at Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastics Company Inc. for nearly three decades. He holds 76 U.S. patents in the field and is the author or coauthor of more than 80 journal articles and book chapters-including chapters in two Marcel Dekker, Inc. books: Nonionic Surfactants and Nonionic Surfactants: Physical Chemistry, both edited by M. Schick. Dr. Koleske is a member of the Journal of Coatings Technology Editorial Review Board, RadTech International, and Federated Society for Coatings Technology. He received the B.S. degree (1958) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and M.S. (1960) and Ph.D. (1963) degrees from the Institute of Paper Chemistry, Lawrence College, Appleton, Wisconsin.

• 1. INTRODUCTION: THE POLY (ALKYLENE OXIDE)S. 2. ALKYLENE OXIDES: MANUFACTURE, CHEMISTRY, AND APPLICATIONS. 3. EARLY HISTORY OF THE POLY (ALKYLENE OXIDE)S. References. 4. POLYMERIZATION OF 1,2-EPOXIDES. 5. CHEMISTRY OF THE POLY (ALKYLENE OXIDE)S. 6. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF POLY (ALKYLENE OXIDE)S. 7. UTILITY OF THE POLY (ALKYLENE OXIDE)S