American Chemical Society NEWS Deferments for Young Chemists T H E responsibility for obtaining occupational • deferments for chemists and chemical engineers under 22 years of age rests solely with employers. The men in the 18 to 21 age bracket can do nothing personally to obtain occupational deferments. Employers must prepare for their State Directors DSS Form-42A Special, in triplicate, for men under 22 years of age. So that this particular form may be identified easily, it is printed on green paper. Copies of DSS Form-42A Special can be obtained either from local boards or state directors' offices. L B . M . 115G should be consulted and individual certification secured from a representative of the Army, Navy, or other department or agency of the Federal Government in those special cases of essential war work to which Form-401A applies. Consult L.B.M. 115E and 115G at your local board's office or procure a copy from Selective Service Headquarters. These apply only to rare cases under direct government supervision. Local boards have no jurisdiction over occupational deferments for men under 22 years of age, unless specifically excepted by the action of the state director. Such action is obtained through the endorsement of DSS Form-42A Special by the state director. Once this endorsement is obtained from the state director, the status of the individual under 22 years of age is exactly the same as for individuals 22 years of age or over. This means that all of the avenues of appeal and referral previously closed are then open, viz: (1) Request to the local board to re-open the case. (2) Appeal to the Appeal Board where employed. (3) Appeal to the President, either through the state director or, if on a divided vote, without the state director's intervention. Employers should request that eases be referred b y the local boards t o the local offices of the United States Employment Service. Employers must present evidence, under oath, that the individual is professionally qualified in order to secure such referral. Employers should insist that the local office of the United States Employment Service ask advice of the National Roster. Naturally the procedure outlined immediately above must be followed for individuals 22 years of age and over. What type of evidence must be presented to a state director to obtain his endorsement on DSS Form-42A Special? A complete and detailed statement as t o the training, experience, and responsibility of the individual should be given, under oath, by an officer of the concern or other individual t o whom the registrant directly reports and who is thoroughly familiar with the work which the registrant is doing. I n this declaration the officer who files the document should state V O L U M E
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his professional relationship to the registrant so that the state director will feel confident that the statements made are authoritative. Such statements should be specific but not exaggerated. In many cases of this kind, a survey by the Labor Utilization Division of the War Manpower Commission is helpful. On request made to an area officer, the WMC will survey the technical positions in a plant or laboratory and the utilization of professional manpower therein. Such independent surveys bear weight with state directors. When an employer files his replacement schedule, he should at the same time include DSS Form-42A Special for all men under 22 years of age. Some employers are in effect "bargaining away" young technically trained individuals (18 to 21 age bracket) in the riling of replacement schedules and/ or in discussions with state directors, in an effort to secure or continue occupational deferments for men over 22 years of age. Employers following this policy are short-sighted, not only because such young chemists and chemical engineers are serving essential war industry, but also because it is evident, through the statement of the President raising the critical age limit from 22 to 26, that the situation now existing for those less than 22 may soon apply to a wider range of ages. This is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Some employers are refusing to employ chemists and chemical engineers in the age bracket 18 through 22 because they feel that it is impossible to obtain occupational deferments for such men or that obtaining such deferments involves considerable effort. Unquestionably it does demand work on the part of the employer to hold chemists under 22 years of %ge in the Production Army, but employers must expend this effort as a patriotic duty. Unless employers hire and fight to maintain in the Production Army skilled men 18 to 21 years old, such registrants will be inducted into the Armed Forces and their training, ability, and technical knowledge will be wholly lost to the war effort. Employers who will not seek occupational deferments for chemists and chemical engineers without consideration of age immediately should provide such individuals with certificates of availability so that they can be employed elsewhere in essential war industry. To do otherwise is unpatriotic and sabotages the efforts of the Production Army to supply the Combat Army with the essential weapons of warfare. The state director by the new directive is constituted a judge. I t is his patriotic duty to consider carefully the essentiality of each case. I t is his duty to expedite victory rather than to fill a quota.
- M A R C H
CHARLES L. PARSONS, Secretary 10,
19 4 4
Desertion on Home Front To my fellow members who are subject to the whims of Selective Service Boards and the stinging barbs of misunderstanding: Your true duty is serving, wherever you may best serve, your country. It takes less courage to face the machine guns of our enemies than the malicious gossip of our neighbors. A true patriot will face either with equal d e termination; knowing, full well, that his proper duty, well performed, is, in itself, its own reward. Seek guidance in these immortal words of Thomas Paine: These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of his country/ but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Thomas Midgl@y, Jr. President, American Chemical Society
Borden Award to Clark The Borden Award in the Chemistry of Milk for 1944 is to be presented at the Cleveland meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMI-
William Mansfield Clark
CAL SOCIETY t o William Mansfield Clark foi fundamental physico-chemical investigations that, through application to the study of milk and milk products and t o t h e changes 337
that they undergo, have in many instances been largely instrumental in the replacement of dairy a r t by dairy science. Dr. Clark, D e Lamar professor of physiological chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, is now chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, National Research Council. In 1936 he received the Nichols Medal Doctor Clark's researches on acid-base equilibria, particularly on their measurement in terms of hydrogen-ion concentration by means of differences in electrical potential and by use of the Clark-Lubs color indicators and on their stabilization by means of buffer salts, have been of inestimable value in rationalizing knowledge of the characteristics of milk and in. applying it to the control of dairy manufacturing processes. The results of this work were also applied by him in his chemical studies of the modification of milk for infant feeding, the manufacture of grain-curd casein, and the fermentation processes of the curing of cheese; and are applied today in practically every branch of tlie industry. Doctor Clao-k's investigations on techniques of measurement and on poisoning of oxidation-redutction potential have furnished the dairy industry with another means of studying the ohanges in milk which may be of vital concern in the preservation of its keeping quality.
Eli Lilly a n d Company A w a r d t o Fr&iton Joseph Stewart Fruton has been chosen as recipient of t;he Eli Lilly and Company Award in Biological Chemistry for 1944, which will be presented during t h e Cleveland meeting SOCIETY.
of
the
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
Since 1934 D r . Fruton has been a member of the staff o f t h e Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, where he has worked with Max Bergmaon on the diemistry of proteins and amino acids with particular reference to the proteolytic enzymes. H e has shown ingenuity and outstanding ability in. fundamental studies on the isolation, purification, mode of action, and specificity of proteolytic
enzymes of both plant and anixnal origin. The use of synthetic peptides a s a tool in studying the specificity of erusynaea was d e veloped to a high degree and has. afforded a new insight into the role of enzymes in t h e hydrolysis and synthesis of proteins. These studies afford also a promising method of attacking the complicated problems involved in elucidating the structure of proteins. A simple mathematical formula oxr>ressing t h e quantitative correlation between tlie substrate structure and the rate of enzymatic action and the chemical basis (OE- t h e classification of proteolytic enzymes are among t h e outstanding contributions resulting from this investigation. Dr. Fruton has made other contributions to our knowledge of the chemistry of amino acids, including a study of reacti*vity of cystine and the synthesis of peptides and their derivatives both chomically a n d enzymatically. In addition to bus research publications he has written several review articles on proteolytic enzymes,
Bagley t o Receive Scboellkopf
Medal The Western New York Section of the AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY-
announces
the award of the Jacob F. School I kopf Medal for 1944 to Glen David Bagley, Union Carbide & Carbon Research Laboratories. T h e medal will be presented at the May meeting of the section, which Mr. Bagley "will address. Mr. Bagley, who has been associated with Union Carbide & Carbon Reseoa-ch l a b o r a tories since 1918 and is now le-ader of t h e Experimental Engineering Group of t h e U. C. & C. Research Division, h a s been awarded the medal for outstanding and highly significant work, particularly in t h e commercialization of very active metals. As an example, the dolomite-ferrosilicon reaction for making metallic magnesium has been known for many years but was always considered a laboratory curiosity. Largely through his chemical and engineering skill a process has been developed which produces magnesium in high-temperatiaire vacuum furnaces with capacities which were hitherto considered impossible. Such production is
being carried out by the Electro Metallurgical Co-'s plant a t Spokane, Wash., with a rated capacity of 24,000 tons per year. Mr. Bagley has also overcome another wartime bottleneck. Prior to World War I I metallic calcium came almost exclusively from France where it was made in small cells a t a very high production cost. When this source was cut off, the medalist, in a remarkably short time, was able t o design large automatic cells which are now producing a purer product a t a considerably reduced cost. Without this development metallic calcium might easily have been one of t h e most critical war metals, as there are no other domestic producers. Mr. Bagley has also been exclusively or partially responsible for many highly important chemical and chemical engineering developments of which wartime secrecy regulations ; re vent discussion. The Jacob F. Schoeilkopf Medal has been awarded in the past to Raymond R . Ridgeway, Lawrence H. Fiett, Arthur W. Burwell, W. H. Bradshaw, Charles F. Vaughn, Sterling Temple, James G. Marshall, Albert H. Hooker, F . Austin Lidbury, James C. Downs, Frank A. Hartman, W. Hale Charch, and Frank J. Tone. The 1944 Jury of Award included Albert E. Jennings, chairman, J . Frederick Walker, chairman of the Western New York Section of
the
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY,
Howard W. Post, Wilmer H . Koch, and Nelson Allen.
Edwards Receives Pittsburgh Awerd Junius D . Edwards, assistant director of research of the Aluminum Research Laboratories, Aluminum Co. of America, received this year's Pittsburgh Award from the Pittsburgh Section of t h e AMERICAN CHEMICAL
SOCIETY a t a dinner meeting Feb. 17. T h e basis on which it was made is contained in the citation: " I n recognition of his distinguished service t o chemistry, through his fundamental contributions in the fields of gas chemistry, the chemical and physical metallurgy of alurniuurn a n d aluminum paint, and the practical application of these CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 7 2
Joseph Stewart Fryton 338
Glen David Bagley CH I M I C A L
Junius D. Edwards A N D
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Edwards Receives Pittsburgh Award
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Hewark 4 f N. J» CHEMICAL
developments for the betterment of mankind through his activities as inventor, author, and editor." W. P. Y ant, director of research of the Mine Safety Appliances Co., presided. He introduced C. S. Taylor, chief of the physical chemistry division of the Aluminum Research Laboratories, who spoke briefly on "The Medalist as Co-Worker". H. V. Churchill, chief of the Aluminum Research Labora tories' analytical chemistry division, fol lowed Mr. Taylor with remarks covering th© medalist as a friend, and H. E. Bakken, associate director of research of the Alumi num Research Laboratories, spoke on "Th© Medalist as Writer". Webster N. Jones, dean of the college of engineering of Carnegie Institute of Technology, discussed the work of Mr. Edwards and its impact on science in general. H. H. Schrenk, of the Bureau of Mines, chairman of the Pittsburgh Section of th© AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY and
of
th®
award committee, then presented the candi date to W. A. Gruse, senior fellow of the Gulf Research and Development Co.'s fellowship at Mellon Institute, who became chairman of the Pittsburgh Section Jan. 1, and who presented the award. The evening was concluded by an address from Mr. Edwards concerning his scientific career. The award committee included Dr. Schrenk and Dr. Gruse, R . W. Bridges, Ε. Κ. Wallace, Bruce Ashcraft, H . K. Work, F. W. Adams, and E . P. Partridge. The tangible form of the award is an aluminum plaque, about a foot high, which has been given to persons who have mad© prominent contributions to science in th© Pittsburgh district. The first award was made in 1933. Mr. Edwards himself was on the committee which selected the design, th© work of Frederick Fisher Florig. Mrs. Loia Whitcomb Rhead was the sculptor. Both Mr. Florig and Mrs. Rhead are members of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. The awards to date have been made to th© following: 1933, Ralph E. Hall, Hall Laboratories; 1934, Charles Edward Ne©bitt, Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp.; 1936, Andrew W. Mellon and Richard B. Mellon; 1937, Francis C. Frary, Aluminum Research Laboratories; 1938, George H. Clapp, Pittsburgh industrialist, 1939, E. R. Weidlein, Mellon Institute; 1940, Alexander Silverman, University of Pittsburgh; 1941, Webster N. Jones, Carnegie Institute of Technology; 1942, Charles G. King, Uni versity of Pittsburgh. The presentation almost coincides with Mr. Edwards' 25 th anniversary in th© aluminum industry. H e joined the Alumi num Co. April 1,1919, as chief of the physical chemistry division, and "was promoted to hia present position of assistant director of re search two years later. Donald Price, formerly technical director, | Organic Research Laboratory, National Oil Products Co., Harrison, N. J., has Joined Interchemical Corp.'s research staff to co ordinate research projects in the pharmaceu tical and fine chemical fields.
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