escribes some mineral deposits in humans and animals;

and scale is also used to describe oxidation products that

result from heating metals.
In industry there has been a tendency to separate the
various terms to denote differences in composition as well as
physical properties and adherence. The general usage of the
term scale denotes hard, adherent deposits of inorganic
mineral constituents of water that formed in place.
Deposits, sludges, sediments, precipitates, foulants, etc., all
describe less adherent deposits that may be formed in place
or may be transported from some other source and
redeposited.
The word descaling is normally used to describe the
removal of a previously formed scale. Conversely, one finds
it also used to describe the removal of potential scaleforming constituents from
water.
In searching abstracts, it is not unusual to find mineral
names such as gypsum used as a keyword. If one is
searching under calcium sulfate alone, it is possible to
overlook pertinent material since all abstracting services do
not necessarily cross-index under the various chemical and
mineralogical names. In some instances the word incrustation is spelled
encrustation, and one has to observe both
spellings to find all the literature. Searching the literature is
no easy task-at this writing there are forty-two water
resources indexing and abstracting services devoted to making �keeping up with
literature�� a simple job for the
engineer or scientist.6
Since all deposits, regardless of their nature, create
similar problems, we have taken liberty to use the term
scale, deposits, and scale deposits interchangeably
throughout the text in order to emphasize similarities. The
Keyword List in Table 1.2 will be helpful to those engaged
in future literature searches concerning scale and deposit
problems. It represents those words the authors found useful
in compiling source material for this book.