The embedding of semigroup amalgams (Q1175720)

A partial semigroup is a partial groupoid which is embeddable in a semigroup, and a presemigroup is a partial semigroup in which equivalent reduced words have the same length. Using a characterization by \textit{R. Baer} [Am. J. Math. 72, 647--670 (1950; Zbl 0038.15802)] of those partial groupoids which are presemigroups, the author presents a new proof of the results of \textit{J. M. Howie} [Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., III. Ser. 12, 511--534 (1962; Zbl 0111.03702)] that a semigroup amalgam whose core is unitary can be embedded in a semigroup.