Jan., 1922
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THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Views of French Chemical Warfare Advisers Reparations! That is the answer of Professor Charles Moureu, president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and one of the leading chemists of France, to the question, “What is the most important factor in France’s chemical situation?” “Ten districts devastated. If the Germans cannot pay, well, what can we do?” Uppermost in the minds of Frenchmen is this question of the German indemnity. Germany must pay. Germany by her reparations must reestablish a large part of France, not alone chemically, but industrially. This is without a doubt one of the all-enveloping thoughts in the minds of the French delegates now in Washington a t the Limitation of Armaments Conference. Professor Moureu is attached to the French delegation as official adviser on chemical warfare. Professor hloureu is enthusiastic over the Havris b’Ewing future of the InterPROFESSOR CHARLES MOUREU national Union of Pure Prolessor Moureu is professor of organic and Applied Chemischemistry at the Collhge de France and he has been a leading figure in chemical,retry. search of that country. Some of his latest Next year when the work has been on the origin of helium. meeting is held a t Lyons, France, in June, he believes that twenty-five nations will be represented a t this gathering of the chemists of all nations. A t the Brussels meeting held this summer twenty-one nations sent representatives. “Will Germany be included?” Emphatically no. Germany, the country that will not pay the indemnity, Germany, the country that devastated France, that Germany cannot be allowed to join the international organization of chemists. This Professor Moureu strongly believes; this seems to be the opinion of most of France, scientific and nonscientific. They are not ready now to fraternize with recent eneHarris & Ewzng mies; they are not PROFESSOR ANDRB MAYER even ready to meet Professor Mayer is now professor at them scientifically. the UniversitC de Strassbourg in repatriated Alsace. He established the tuberProfessor Moureu culosis laboratory at the Puteaux near tells how ten commitParrs which during the war became the tees of the Internationlaboratory of&the American -Chemicdl al Union are a t work. Warfare Servire.
“Two are headed by your countrymen,” he said. “Prof.
F. W. Clarke, of your Geological Survey, is honorary chairman of the committee on chemical elements, which has sub-committees on radioactivity, isotopes, and atomic weights. Your great Professor Richards of Harvard is the chairman of the committee on nomenclature.” But while industrial France, including the chemical industries, is slowed up by German slowness of paying, scientific France is organized. France’s seven chemical societies are affiliated and combined into a federation of chemical societies. Similarly all the biological societies of France are brought together, and also all the physical societies are federated. Those organizations dealing with the law, philosophy and history also come within the category of science, and are all brought together in one federation. These four federations have been fused, and there has emerged the ConfCderation de SociCtCs Scientifques, corresponding in a way to our American Association for the Advancement of Science. Then also there is the National Committee of Research, with four councils of chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics. This organization is official and is supported by the government. It is similar to our National Research Council and is affiliated with the International Research Council. The future of chemical warfare is’ interesting to chemists of America, France, and the rest of the world. Perhaps the Limitation of Armaments Conference will have something to say about it. Professors Moureu and Mayer are here to advise M. Viviani and France’s other representatives on the chemical warfare that was inaugurated in their country by the Germans. But no, they are here officially. They cannot talk about chemical warfare. I must hardly mention it. So I have not.
A Lesson from History-Lest
We
Forget By Charles E. Munroe NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL, WASHINQTON, D. C.
The admirable address by Dr. Haller on the “French Chemical Industry during the War”‘ and “La chimie et la guerre” by Dr. Charles Moureu in Masson et Cie’s series of “Les lecons de la guerre” present most vivid pictures of the almost superhuman efforts by which the enormous and varied demands for war supplies were met; the many ingenious devices by which the splendid organizations created increased the speed of production and effected economies in operation; and the resourcefulness shown in adapting such material as could in any way b e obtained to the many and various needs. They record t h e wonderful achievements of a most brilliant epoch in the application of chemistry to supplying the bitter needs of a nation in great distress. But it is repeatedly emphasized throughout these histories that in 1914 France was, as regards the supplying of its needs for chemical products, a very dependent nation. Yet recalling that the use of picric acid as a fragmentation charge for high explosive shell was developed to complete operativeness by Turpin in France soon after 1885, and that the many other nations which adopted this material as charges for H. E. shell, under the names of Lyddite, shimose and other pseudonyms, patterned their practice on his, it is astonishing to learn that in 1914, notwithstanding that there were then in France a large number of accomplished and most competent chemists and chemical engineers, the supplies of phenol for the manufacture of the picric acid which had been adopted by the French government for its H. E. shell, “came from foreign countries and particularly from Germany.” This is the more remarkable when it is recalled that France had previously passed through severe tr als and been succored 1
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by its chemists, as a t the time of the French Revolution when it was sorely beset by enemies without and within. So strenuous were conditions that the Annales de Chinzie was forced to suspend publication, but when in 1797 the tide of struggle turned and victory was,wrested from the enemy by the armies of France, publication was resumed with Volume 19, which carries the following preface9 The Annales de chimie has been suspended during three years following the publication of volume eighteen. The necessity for each devoting oneself solely to the defense of the Republic; the events of the revolution; and finally the public occupations and functions of its authors have naturally compelled this suspension. But the time has not been entirely lost to science; chemistry, above all, has been cultivated with an activity and success to which all testify; she has developed for the defense of the country truly unexpected resources and expedients. Her ability to relieve immediately the most urgent needs has rendered her most precious and commendable in the eyes of the lovers of mankind, and of all true citizens. Further the number of those becoming students has increased each day; it has become a fundamental topic in all modern schools, and above all in those which seek the higher planes of human knowledge. Among all the civilized nations, where one works without ceasing for the perfection of reason, the sciences which influence territorial and industrial production, and among which chemistry to-day occupies the first rank, are held in general esteem. The cultivation of the fields, the multiplication of animals, the establishment of manufacturers, the exchange of the industrial creations for the products of other people constitute the true source of the prosperity of nations to which all men are called according to their abilities and where they find, in serving their country, their chief pleasure. Chemistry clarifies the practice of the arts; without her neither constancy in products, economy in process, nor perfection in operation can be hoped for. Unable to know in advance and to calculate the results, manufacturers have often made errors which have lost them their establishments. Consequently many chemists have in recent years become manufacturers and already France has ceased to be tributary to other nations for a great number of useful products; the preparation of the mineral acids, different salts, metallic oxides, dyes, and 2
Ann. chim., IS (17971,6.
Val. 14,No. 1
glass, multiplied in France during the last five years, are authentic proof of the inestimable advantages of chemistry. Without the light of this science from where would have come the quantities of saltpeter and powder for our armies which was made in the last four years? From where the copper, iron, steel, potash, soda, leather, and all the other precious materids which have enabled us to conquer our enemies and to maintain our existence? Without chemistry we would have been helpless. At the moment when victory has crowned our efforts, when talent has been recognized and called t o the service of the State; a t the moment, above all, when new schools have been opened in the Departments which seek to spread knowledge and make known its needs, the authors of the Annales de chimie believe it a pressing duty to go on again with the circulation of this journal. Their aim is to carry the torch of science into all workshops; to make known the new processes; to describe the little known or unused arts; to improve bad practices; t o correct errors which occur too often in many of our factories; to describe means for the utilization of neglected or wasted . by-products; t o expose the often misleading trade secrets and the perfidious charlatanism; t o establish lucid theories of the most obscure operations; to direct the nearly always unassured or uncertain steps of the manufacturer; to destroy mystery, and to repress fraud. In a word, t o serve science in the most exact manner and to increase the varieties of national industry. We believe that, without neglecting chemical philosophy, it is its special applications to the useful arts that will clarify and improve those arts. Brilliant and ingenious theories will not be refused, particularly if they have useful applications. It is for intelligent and reliable artists, manufacturers, workmen, and merchants that this work is especially designed. At the same time savants and philosophers will find records of the progress of physics and the march of human events. It is fine to be able to view the improvement in the arts and also in well doing among a great people. It is hardly necessary to say that all possible effort will be made to join to the discoveries made in France those made by other nations where chemistry and the chemical arts are cultivated with success, and especially Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy, and England. The authors of the Annales de chimie having undertaken t o continue their work propose t o present in the nineteenth and twentieth volumes the principal discoveries and most remarkable achievements in chemistry made in France between September 1795 and January 1797.
SOCIAL INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Waste in Industry By H. W. Jordan SYRACUSE, N. Y.
The report upon the research made this year by the Federated American Engineering Societies, under leadership of Herbert Hoover, is issued as the book “Waste in Industry,” published by the Societies.‘ The research marks a new phase of engineering in that the creators of modern industry, the engineers, have applied their methods of investigation by research and mathematical analysis to industrial management and industrial contact with the public. This research upon six typical branches of industry, building, men’s clothing, shoe manufacturing, printing, metal trades and textile manufacturing, disclosed that on the average labor is responsible for 16 per cent of the waste, defective relations with the public for 16 per cent, and management answerable for 68 per cent. THESE SUMMARY FIGURES ARE BASED ON THE FOUR MAIN CAUSES OF WASTE : I-Low production caused by f a d t y management of materials, plant, equipment, and men. %Interrupted production, caused by idle men, idle materials, idle plants, idle equipment. 3-Restricted production intebtionally caused by owners, management, or labor. 1 “Waste
in Industry,” McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 409 pages. Price, $4.00.
N. Y., 1921. xi
+
&Lost
production caused by ill health, physical defects, and industrial
accidents
As Mr. Hoover says in the foreword of the book, “We have probably the highest ingenuity and efficiency in the operation of our industries of any nation. Yet our industrial machine is far from perfect. The wastes of unemployment during depressions; from speculation and overproduction in booms; from labor-turnover; from labor conflicts; from intermittent failure of transportation of supplies of fuel and power; from excessive seasonal operation; from lack of standardization; from loss in our processes and materials-all combine to represent a huge deduction from the goods and services that we might all enjoy if we could do a better job of it.” THE SURVEY SHOWS SUCH STRIKING SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE SIX INDUSTRIES that it indicates the existence of universal
laws that govern industrial mass action. Although equipment of the several industries varies widely, five of the six showed close approximation to the above average distribution of waste. Textile manufacture, the oldest American industry, showed but 50 per cent of its waste due to management. Its greater losses, 40 per cent, are due to outside contacts. Interrupted production caused by seasonal conditions, com-
