April, 1923
I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
their capacity. They need education like that given at Tuskegee to prepare them for constructive, creative life. Churches and Masonic lodges could do a work of sublime Christianity by helping able-bodied English mechanics and craftsmen to come over and settle in America. Two hundred dollars judiciously spent would bring a man here and establish him so that he could pay back the money or use it to bring over others. We have lost our immigration contacts with the northern people of our own blood. We should start the stream westward again and fill our quota with our sort of folks. Pastors and masters abroad would cooperate with us in selecting sturdy young men from the three million unemployed of England. These are some of the reasons why bricklayers and chemists are a t the ratio of 16 to 1 and $72 to $30 per week. H. W. JORDAN 133 STOLP AVE. SYRACUSE, N. Y. March 14, 1923
A Letter from Germany Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: Germany is still suffering from the lack of necessities of life, foods and raw materials, which a land as rich in these materials as America can hardly comprehend. Even the outlook for the future still is very gloomy, chiefly because the prices of the raw materials and the products made from them have already practically reached the world’s market price. For several months Germany, which in former years exported chemicals all over the world, has had to import from other countries such important products as sulfuric acid and chromium salts. Considered purely superficially-that is, according to their dividends and business budgets--certain industries appear to be in excellent condition; but if these are changed to a gold basis, they amount, in most instances, to a very small percentage. For example, a big company recently distributed a dividend of half a gold mark. The only outlook For improvement offered to Germany is through eastern and southeastern Europe, to which the whole German economic life will have to turn gradually. In the meantime, German chemical industry is trying to continue in the same way in which it has made its greatest progress-namely, to carry on manufacturing processes in a scientific spirit. Recently, therefore, the interest of chemical research and science has turned to the textile industry. The textile industry of Germany was, until lately, somewhat inferior to that of other countries, although in the field of dyes Germany was able to compete with other nations in the world’s production. For about ten years there has been in existence the “Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Wissenschaften,” and by this was founded in December of last year the “Kaiser Wilhelm Institut fiir Gaserstoffchemie,” which will make a thorough study of the structure of textile fibers and from this draw conclusions regarding the handling of such fibers. Glycylalanine anhydride, which has been found in proteins, seems to be an inportant constituent of silk. Several methods have also been worked out which make possible a factory control in the textile industry; up to this time it was thought that this problem could not be solved. Germany is a poor country in raw materials. This was shown especially during the war, when efforts were made to obtain sulfur and sulfuric acid from gypsum and other sulfates. I n this connection the sulfur patents of the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik and of other firms may be mentioned, in which, for example, barium sulfate is mixed with coal and heated in the electric furnace; the primarily formed barium sulfide, reacting with the excess of barium sulfate, forms sulfur dioxide. Recently F. Martin and 0. Fuchs made the very important observation
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that if iron, instead of coal, is used as a reducing agent, the alkaliearth sulfates can be readily reduced to the sulfides with the formation of sulfuric acid. The highest yields are obtained from calcium sulfate using the mixture CaSOe 4- 16/15 Fe, giving theoretically 80 per cent sulfur dioxide, and from strontium sulfate using the mixture SrSOc 4-8/9 Fe, giving theoretically 88.9 per cent of sulfur dioxide. In practice pyrites is used for the reduction of gypsum. Besides the production of sulfur dioxide the formation of small amounts of sulfur was observed, and without doubt the development of this process will be important for the industry. A certain sensation was created in chemical and medical circles by the new preparation, “Bayer 205,” which forms anew class of trypanosome medicines. It does not contain mercury, arsenic, antimony, or other ordinary therapeutic agents, but belongs to a new class of highly complicated, organic synthetic compounds. After the medicine was tested with good results in the laboratories of the dye factories formerly belonging to Friedrich Bayer & Company in Leverkusen, the English government permitted a German expedition under Professor Kleine to test the medicine in Rhodesia on monkeys, other animals, and men. According to the experimental data published a short time ago, the medicine has proved a success in sleeping sickness and nagana, and this has been contirmed recently by the English physicians. The endeavors in the medico-chemical field to combat cancer are also worth mentioning. Research has been turned to the study of selenium compounds and has been carried out especially by Professor Wassermann. Bismuth compounds . also have been applied by Wassermann and his collaborators to combat syphilis. WALTERROTH GBTHEN,GERMANY February 1, 1923
The Rapid Determination of Potash in Acid-Insoluble Silicates-Addendum Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: In a recent article in THISJOURNAL, 15 (1923), 163, under the above title, I failed to make any reference to a publication in THIS JOURNAL,13 (1921), 225, by Prof. Jerome J. Morgan, entitled “A New Method for the Determination of Potassium in Silicates,” in which he also used perchloric acid as a substitute for sulfuric acid in silicate analysis. My work was completed and published in ignorance of Professor Morgan’s article. He has called my attention to it in a private communication, however, and was evidently the first to decide on perchloric acid as a substitute for sulfuric acid in the determination of potash in silicates. MANUEL M. GREEN DEPARTMENT VF CHEMISTRY MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CAMBRIDGE, MASS. February 26, 1923
A New Bottle for Carbon Dioxide and Moisture-Correction In the article under the title above [THIS JOURNAL, 15 (1923), 2661, in the second table, under date of December 14, the figure for grams of carbon dioxide should read 0.4357.
WILLIAME. MORGAN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY N E W YORK,N. Y. March 8, 1923
