A CONTEST FOR HIGH-SCHOOL AND FRESHMAN STUDENTS On this page is reproduced the second of a series of drawings prepared for us by Prof. John J. Condon of William Nottingham High School, Syracuse, New York. Write a brief statement, telling what is wrong with the picture. Use complete sentences; do not merely list mistakes. Type your manuscript, if possible; if not, be sure that you write legibly. Type or write on one side of the paper only. Make a correct drawing, showing the picture as you think it should be. Use black India ink and white drawing paper. (If you believe that you can draw better on coordinate paper, white paper with blue rulings must be used.) Drawings should be approximately 4" X 6" or 8" X 12".
Place your name a t the top of each page of your manuscript and a t the top of your drawing. On a separate sheet accompanying your manuscript write your own name, the name and address of the institution a t which you are a student, the ndme of your chemistry instructor, and the name of the chemistry club a t your institution (if there is one). Address your paper to: The Associate Editor, JOURNAL OP CHEMICAL EDUCATION, The Johns Hopkins University, Homewood, Baltimore, Md. Your contribution to this month's contest must be postmarked not later than November 15th. Awards The best contribution received will be awarded a prize of five dollars and will be published in the January JOURNAL. The five next best
V ~ L6.. No. 11
T HE CHEMISTRY STUDBNT
2021
papers will receive awards of one dollar each and the names of the winners will be printed in the January number. Contributions will be judged on the basis of: 1. Correctness from a chemical standpoint 2. Neatness and correctness of drawing 3. English 4. Neatness and legibility of manuscript. Papers which do not comply with all of the rules of the contest will not be considered.
Burn Alumh~umDust for Intense Flame. A flame so intense as to melt its way through any known solid substance is produced by a new type of blowpipe, employing finely . powdered aluminum instead of the more familiar hydrogen or acetylene gases. The new invention was described recently by Dr. Frank M. .Strong of ~ & c u s e ~ n i versity, speaking before members of the American Chemical Society meeting a t Minneapolis. Dr. Strong described his device as follows: "A screw conveyor carries a dow stream of aluminum dust from the bottom of a hopper out through the open end of a brass pipe. The dust is here met by a swift cross-stream of oxygen, with which i t forms a fine and uniform suspension. From this point the mixture is passed forward through a larger tube, which a little farther along is dwided up into eight smaller tubes. The Latter diverge from the central tube for a short distance, and are then curved back inward so as t o come to a sharp focus. The aluminum-oxypen flame can he liahted a t this focus point with a match or Bunsen . burner." , ,. Dr. Strong's blowpipe combinis the principles of the familiar oxyhydrogen or oxyacetylene blowpipes with that of thprmite, a powder used for the generation of intense heat on a limited area, such as the ends of rails in welding. Thermite consists of aluminum powder mixed with another chemical which on heating yields free oxygen a t a rapid rate. I n the new blowpipe the oxygen is supplicd directly in the form of a gas instead of being generated on the spot from a chemical.-Science SeNice Kansas Professor Makes Artificial Diamonds. Artificial diamonds were promised the world by Prof. J. Willard Hershey of McPherson College, Kansas, who spoke reccntly before the American Chemical Society a t Minneapolis. The most promising modern attempts a t achieving this much-sought-for end, Prof. Hershey said, were made about thirty years ago by a French scientist named Moissan. Taking up the work where Moissan left off, the Kansas chemist has made some improvements in his technic and is hopeful of eventually producing good diamonds in the lahoratory. His process consists of melting pure carbon with filings of various metals in an electric furnace, and then plunging the white-hot mass into an ice-cold saturated salt solution. The cooled mass is subjected t o further chemical treatment, and then tested for diamond particles. "I have not yet succeeded in all that I hope to accomplish," said Prof. Hershey, "hut the largest diamonds produced a t McPhersan Collcge are the largest genuine synthetic diamonds on rccord. It is no longer an unattainable goal t o produce artificial diamonds in the laboratory, and it is believed that the difficulties that prewnt the preparation of large and beautiful diamonds are only technical."-Science Service ~
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