SeDt.. 1922
T H E JOURNAL OF I,\’DUSTRIAL
A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
785
A Department Store Laboratory By E. B. Millard CONSULTING CHEXIST,MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECANOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
P
ERHAPS it is because the chemist has been such a He is a Chemist, and he should realize the compliment impoor salesman of his services, even though he is work- plied by the capital letter; he should be far more ready ing in a productive field where he should be of great than he is now to say, “I will find out for you,” and less ready value to his employer, that so few department or retail to say, “That isn’t in my line.” A department store chemist stores have chemical laboratories of their own, or regularly must be in addition an informal microscopist, a physicist of a kind, something of a skilled quesseek .the advice of a chemist as to the tioner, a laundryman when need presents quality of the merchandise they buy. itself, and an ever-ready consultant h’early all such stores have college-trained of the chemical literature to find out what mechanical or architectural engineers in is wanted. More often than not the charge of their engineering problenis; all questions presented to him are vague, of them have specialized advertising men. poorly put, or indefinite; many times Yet neither the mechanical features and they do not concern what a chemist attractiveness of the building and its conwould call chemistry at all. But the tents nor the selling value of advertising is nearly so important as a reputation for man who comes to a chemist with these questions has faith in his science or he handling all the time a dependable line of wouldn’t come with the quertion. If the goods. Such a reputation depends upon chemist can answer the question, or the ability of the buying staff to judge partly answer it, or even appear to be merchandise; but “judging” as applied to answering it while the conversation brings materials is practically a matter of the out what the other fellow is trying to ask “feel” of materials, a mixture of intuition in the first place, he has made a friend and previous experience with other similar material which has given more or less for chemistry. If he laughs at the question, or rules it out of the field of chemsatisfaction. When stocks are to be mainistry because he is too lazy to look tained steadily a t certain standards, esit up, he might better give up chemispecially if this must be done by purchasing from several sources, these standards try and turn to a trade which is conshould be carefully defined in terms of tent to limit itself to that which is measurable quantities, and deliveries of already known. E . B ilKILLARD merchandise checked constantly to see On the day our laboratory mas inthat they meet t h e established standards. The merchant who stalled, a boy came up from the wash dresscs department and really knows his goods are all wool, or all silk, fast to per- asked the chemist, “Can you analyze this dress for fading?” spiration, and of a specified weight or strength, consults a Ask yourself as a chemist, what you would have told him? chemist constantly. IJnless facilities for testing are con- Would you have asked him to leave it for a while and tried stantly and quickly available, it is a rare merchant who will to find out for him, or would you have ruled that problem not take his chances or accept the word of a salesman as out of chemistry? The laboratory had a wash pan, a bar of to what he buys to sell to his customers. Yet his reputa- soap, and hot water; with such “apparatus” the chemist tion as a dealer in reliable merchandise, the good will of “analyzed” the dress, dried it on a piece of string, took i t his trade, is at stake on every sale he makes. to the alteration room and had it pressed. The color was The writer has been for some years in charge of a chemical the same as before and the dress showed an average shrinkage laboratory maintained in a department store as an aid to of 2 or 3 per cent in the half dozen places where it had been its buying staff in the selection of supplies for its own use measured before and and after. To the man who sent up and for sale to its customers. The testing facilities of the the dress that was an analysis, but “the separation of a laboratory are available without charge to any buyer who substance, by chemical processes, into its constituents” wants them; the laboratory has no authority over any (Wcbster) would have been a catastrophe. A chemist purchases on which it passes. It gives an opinion as to the must daily choose his words very carefully, on account percentage of wool or silk, based upon an analysis of a sample, of such differences as between chlorates, chlorides, chlorites, or as to the fastness of a color, or the probable wear to be etc., but he should remember that a questioner of nonexpected of a material of a given mechanical strength. chemical training knows hardly more than that a chemist The buyer may or may not be guided by this opinion. When performs in his laboratory a variety of mysterious opergoods of any kind are purchased from a sample, it is custom- ations which the outsider doesn’t hope to understand, but ary for the buyer to send a specimen of the material deliv- which he thinks of as “analysis.” ered to the laboratory, where comparative tests are made The ordinary work of a department store laboratory for him to see if the delivery is of the same grade as consists largely of determinations of the wool or silk in mathe sample. Checking of this kind has often eliminated terials, and especially the detection of artificial silks, together material from stock which would not have given the service with tests of the fnstnes8 of dyed fabrics to perspiration, expected of it. sunlight,, washing or water spots. For such pervice it is It should be understood by all chemists, as it is not now of tremendous advantage to have the laboratory located understood, that to the layman there is no such thing as an within the store building and immediately accessible to all organic chemist, a physical chemist, or a biological chemist. departments by telephone or messenger boy at all times. a
