" Chemical Engineering-A New Consensus?"

Note: In lieu of an abstract, this is the article's first page. Click to increase image size Free first page. View: PDF. Related Content. Article Opti...
0 downloads 0 Views 137KB Size
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

EDITORIAL

Editor, D A V I D E. G U S H E E Editorial Headquarters 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D. C. 20036 Phone 202-737-3337 Teletype W A 23 Assistant Editors: Elspeth Mainland, Joseph H. S. Haggin, John A. King Manager, Research Results Service: Stella Anderson

Chemical EngineeringA New Consensus?

Layout and Production Joseph Jacobs, Art Director, Lero Corcoran, Assistant Art Director Bill Zaldwell (Lqvout) Production-Easton, Pa. Associate Editor: Charlotte C. Sayre Editorial Assistant: Jane M. Andrews International Editorial Bureaus Frankfurt/Main, West Germany Grosse Bockenheimerstrasse 32 H. Clifford Neely London, W.C.2,England 27 J o h n A d a m St. Dermot A. O’Sullivan Tokyo J a p a n Apt. 3b6, 47 Dai-machi Akasaka, Minato-ku Patrick P. McCurdy A D V I S O R Y B O A R D T h o m a s Baron, R. B. Beckm a n n C. 0. Bennett E. G. Bobalek, F. G. Cia etta, J. J. ’Fischer, Brage’ Golding, John Ha pel, F. Johnson, A. A. Jonke, F. C . McGrew, A. Rescorla, A r t h u r Rose, B. H. Sage, Joseph Stewart, T. J. Williams

fi. E.

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS 7155 Sixtccnth St., N. W., Washington, D.C. 20036 Director of Publications, Richard L. Kenyon Assistant Director of Publications, Richard H. Belknap Director of Business Operations, Joseph H. Kuney Executive Assistant to the Director of Publications, Rodney N. H a d e r Assistant to the Director of Publications, William 0. Hull Advertising Management REINHOLD PUBLISHING CORP.

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE: All communications rclated to handlin of subscriptions, including CHANGE OF ADDRESS, should f e sent to Subscription Service Department, American Chcmicnl Society. 1155 16th SI., N.W., Washington, D. C. 20036. Change of address notification should include both old and new addresses and a mailing label from a recent h u e . Allow four weeks for change to become effective. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY, published monthly, IS sold snh i n c o d i n 8 tion with one or more of the following I&EC uaerlies: I&EC Process Design and Development; I&EC Fun!amentals; ILEC Product Research and Devclopment; at these combination rates: Cmadian PO,r#p

1 9 0 SUBSCRIPTION

(Pi, Y w ) 1 jmr

XATBS

2jram 3 j w r l

Anrricrin Chrmical Sociity M i d i r J onh:

I&EC and 1 Quarterly I&EC and2 Quarterlies I&EC and 3 Quarterlies

$1.50 2.00 2.50

5 4.00 5 6.00 $ 8.00 7.00 10.00 13.00 10.00 14.00 18.00

$1.50 2.00

$ 5.00 $ 7.00 $ 9.00

N o n m i d f r r far rubmiptionr

zeins ro U.S.and Gmda: ILECand 1 Quarterly I%EC and 2 Quartcrlies I&ECand 3Quarterlics

2.50

8.50 12.00

11.50 16.00

14.50 20.00

uring the past 15 years or so, the profession of chemical engineering

D has been swinging to and fro like a weathervane in a tornado. Significant advances in understanding of fundamental physical and chemical phenomena, coupled with general availability of computers and the sharp rise in federally financed engineering research, have put us all under stresses that have come close to destroying the professionor at least fragmenting it into groups of specialists out of touch with each other. Chemical engineering, of course, is not unique in undergoing this period of stress. Other branches of engineering, as well as most of the physical and social sciences, are having their problems as well. And to complicate the situation, the chemical industry is beginning to look like a mature industry rather than the growth industry it has been up to a few years ago. This change is forcing chemical engineers into a greater emphasis on efficiency and reliability and less on innovation and daring. It appears now, though, that chemical engineering is beginning to find itself again as a self-aware entity, although not as the same entity it was before these recent stresses were put upon it. The right and left hands (transport phenomena and pump specifying, for example) show signs of being willing to admit once again that they belong to the same body. But the new entity encompasses more territory and is consequently easier to misrepresent or see only part of than was the case 20 years ago. Hence the divisive pressures remain strong. Because the entity is multifaceted, the definition of value depends on the point of view. For example, the pecking order of status (the closer to Science, the greater the Status), too obvious today to remain unspoken, tends to place a premium on scientific, rather than pragmatic, orientation. The different intellectual, temporal, and economic demands of research, process and product development, design, construction, and operation of chemical plants call for different kinds of people-all called chemical engineers. The increasingly sharp questions put by Congress relative to the assumed self-justification of Science are helping the other aspects of chemical engineering-the profit- or utility-oriented in particularto gain a hearing for their claims for social and professional significance, as well as economic utility. And the greater numbers of engineers in operating rather than scientific functions support the broader view of engineering as more than applied Science.

Basic subscription to monthly INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY is valucd as follows: ACS membcrs. 1 ycar, $2.50; 2 years, $3.50; 3 years, $4.50; tlonmembers, 1 ycar, $3.00; 2 years, $4.00; 3 years, $5.00. However, separate

subscriptions to either thc monthly or the quattcrliea will not be accepted. Single Copies: current, $2.00(includes copy of this month‘s quartcrly). Postage: Canada.50.15. Rates for backissues and ~olumesare available from Spccial Issues Sales Department, 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W Washington, D. C. 20036. Claims for missing numbers wiii not bc nilowed if received more than €0 days from date of mailing plus time normally required for postal dclivcry of journal and claim. No claims allowed because of failure to notify the Subscription Service Department of a change of addrcss, or bccausc copy is “missingfmm files.“ Published monthly by the American Chemical Society, from 20th and Norchampton Sts., Easton, Pa. 18043. Second class postage paid a t Easton. P*.

VOL. 5 7

NO. 1 2

DECEMBER 1 9 6 5

5