March, 1931
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
ganic residues are partJy decomposed by time or gentle heating, as in refinery drying. If the temperature is raised sufficiently, the organic compounds appear to be completely destroyed. M i n c e rinsing with brine very largely removes the source of both color and odor, these must be due to some sort of deposit on the crystals as they come from the ponds.
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7-It would appear that on a commercial scale the crude salt could be given a brine wash and a whiter and purer dairy and table salt produced. After washing, only drying a t slightly higher than present used temperatures would be needed. The washing removes the clay and most of the organic film; the heating destroys the remainder of the odorproducing substances.
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES Charles Edward Coates
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T WAS in the fall of 1908 that I first met Doctor Coates at
Church of Baton Rouge, and has devoted much of his spare the old Sugar Experiment Station in Audubon Park, New time to the promotion of Boy Scout activities. His personality has always endeared him t o his students and Orleans. I saw him surrounded by a group of students who the graduates of the Audubon Sugar School, of which he is dean. seemed deeply interested in his every word and gesture. I noted that the earnestness of the conversation was broken a t fre- These men are scattered throughout every cane-sugar country quent intervals by outbursts of merriment, as the teacher di- of both hemispheres. Somebody once said, “The sun never sets on the graduates of the Audubon Sugar gressed for the moment from his lecture to School.” A few years ago the writer atenliven the period by one of his well-chosen tended the congress of the International witticisms. He was then on a visit of inSociety of Sugar Cane T e c h n o l o g i s t s in spection to his fourth-year sugar-engineerHavana, Cuba, one of the features of which ing students who were a t Audubon Park was a tour of the island. On this tour the for their practical training in sugar-factory dean of the Audubon Sugar School would operations. He seemed to me that mornbe greeted a t every central and almost every ing to be more in the role of a head coach station by some of his former graduates. to his students, and throughout the quarter Indeed the first question asked by former of a century which has elapsed since our first meeting, that impression of him has L. S. U.graduates of visitors from Louisiana to Cuba, or any other of the sugar-producseemed the most lasting of the many that ing countries in the tropics, is always, “And contacts with him have left with me. how are Charlie Coates and the Audubon Doctor Coates is the son of C. E. Coates Sugar School?” and Anna Hunter Coates, of Coatesville, Doctor Coates has always maintained and Pa., where his forebears have lived since acted upon the belief that the teacher must 1690. He was born in Baltimore, Md., on do far more for his students than merely August 13, 1866, received his doctor’s deimpart sufficient knowledge to enable them gree from Johns Hopkins University in 1891 to pass with credit, or even distinction, after having studied in Friedberg and Heidelthe examinations leading to the desired deberg, in Germany, in 1888 and 1889. For many years he has s p e c i a l i z e d in grees. He believes that education, no matthe technology of the sugarcane, cotton, ter how specialized its u l t i m a t e object Charles E. Coates and petroleum industries. His D i o n ee r may be, is first and last to make men work on hydrocarbons in Louisiana petroleum is well known. and women capable of becoming good citizens whose influence He is regarded as the dean of sugar chemists in the United and culture may redound to the good of their communities and States. the enrichment of their own individual experiences. To this One might write of the honors that have come to Doctor Coates end he never loses an opportunity to use his influence in developand of the monument that he has erected in the great Depart- ing character among his students. How lavishly he has given ment of Chemistry which he has built a t the Louisiana State of his time in advising and assisting his students, no one but those University in the face of hardships and discouragements which intimately associated with him fully realize. Each year there would have disheartened many. He likes to talk of the days come under his tutelage increasing numbers of freshmen, and when he and his one assistant, Doctor Menville, did all the teach- to each class he seems to address himself with undiminishing ing in the department and handled most of the miscellaneous zeal in order that they may meet the vicissitudes of university analytical work as well. life just a little bit better than their predecessors. Many interBut these glimpses of Doctor Coates leave the best part of esting stories might be related of the innumerable occasions when the picture obscured, for those who know him can never think he has reached out a kind and sympathetic hand to a wavering of him merely as a teacher, or a great scientist, or a student, but student and has sustained him through periods of unrest and deas a man whose influence has touched his fellow men in every pression. One might also write of his lectures, which are so walk of life, and through its warmth and kindness has always illuminating, and yet so artfully interspersed with anecdotes tended to make life more worth while and more enjoyable for and reminiscences, that the students find them far too interesting others. One must think of him in relation to his community, to even wish to “cut.” to the upbuilding of which he has contributed so much of his However, it is in his own home that one comes to know him time and his efforts. Few are the civic, social, or industrial move- best. Here in this inspiring atmosphere, to which the charm of ments in his home city with which he is not closely identified. Mrs. Coates contributes immeasurably, one listens t o discussions He has been for many years a junior warden in the Episcopal of literature, art, science, or affairs of the day, and then realizes
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that the dean has not allowed the making of a distinguished career in chemistry t o interfere in the least with the making of a very human individual. And it is this that brings us to what is perhaps the most delightful sidelight of his personality, and a t the same time explains one of the principal causes of his successful career. Throughout all the years that he has labored as a teacher and a scholar he has never allowed his broad sympathies to become dulled, nor has he become pessimistic regarding the continued progress of society. He has watched its changing ideals and has been confronted with the disquieting restlessness of modem youth, but his kindly sympathy and his innate conviction regarding the permanence of right principles and ideals have made him an optimist in his own home and out of it.
Vol. 23, No. 3
Doctor Coates has published a large number of valuable papers, but these publications represent but a fragment of his contributions in the form of collaborations with committees and individuals in various chemical fields. I n the Audubon Sugar School he formulated what was possibly the first course in chemical engineering offered in this country. He was probably the first to publish work on the “air activation of chars.” For many years Doctor Coates has been Councilor for the Louisiana Section of the AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY. He is an honorary member of Alpha Chi Sigma, a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and of the A. A. A. S., and a member of most of the chemical societies. u’.I,. OWEN
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE History and Development of the Modern Yeast Industry
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Cs = 0.300 0.00120t” C. This formula is probably better than Mr. Schaphorst’s for extrapolation purposes, since it is known that the specific heat Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: of the liquid rises rapidly as the critical temperature is approached. I n his interesting paper under the above title ~ I x DENG. . H. 0. FORREST CHEM.,22,1154 (1930)], C. N. Frey discusses the use of molasses E. W. BRUGMANN as a source of carbohydrates, which, in his opinion, had not L. W. CCMMINGS been successful until 1915, when Hayduck and also Wohl investiRESEARCH LABORATORY OF APPLIEDCHEMISTRY gated the production of yeast from molasses and ammonia. MASSACHUSETTS ‘INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY I wish t o draw the attention to the fact that, more than twenty CAMBRIDGE, MASS. years before, H. Elion, of The Hague, succeeded in devising a January 24, 1931 process for producing a baker’s yeast of high quality from molasses. This process, Which was patented in several countries in 1895, is employed industrially on a large scale and was of especial use during the war [compare 2. angev. Chem., 39, 1584 Editor o j Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: (1926); J. Inst. Brewing, 36, 334 (1930)l. L. ELION The article under this title by M. J. Dorcas in the Novem’ber, 8 YPERSCAESTRAAT 1930, issue has a paragraph on the “Importance of Selecting SCHEVENINGEN, HOLLAND January 10, 1931 Proper Light Source,” which seems to give an incorrect impression of probable industrial conditions. Dorcas states that “most reactions have a uniform quantum efficiency,” and calculates that under this condition the energy requirement will be a minimum a t the lowest effective frequency (longest wave length). He concludes that “if cost of energy is an important Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: factor in the process, efficiency demands that the energy be I n reading the article by H. 0. Forrest, E. W. Brugmann, and L. W. T. Cummings [IND. ENG.CHEM.,23,37 (1931)], it seemed supplied with radiation of the longest wave length capable of causing the reaction.” to me that a good approximate formula on the specific heat of This statement is justified only when there is a constant quandiphenyl would be welcome. Consequently, I propose the following based on the curve of test results, Figure 5, shown on tum efficiency and a constant absorption of radiation energy, both independent of wave length, since the energy required by page 39: the reaction must be calculated on the basis of quanta absorbed, 0.001t 0.32 = specific heat while the cost is determined by the energy incident on the syswhere t = temperature of diphenyl in degrees Centigrade. tem. For example, the formation of vitamin D from ergosterol Of course this formula applies only to the temperature range has been shown by Marshall and Knudson [ J . Am. Chem. Soc., between SO” and 360” C., as shown on the curve. 52, 2303 (1930)] to have a constant efficiency of about 0.3 mol W. F. SCHAPHORSTpa- quantum absorbed over the range 3022 to 2300 A,; but 4 5 ACADEMY ST. because of variation in absorption, Fosbinder, Daniels, and NEWARK, N. J. January 9, 1931 Steenbock [ J . Am. Chem. Soc., 50, 923 (1928)l found that the incident energy necessary forothe same effect was eleven times as great a t 3020 as a t 2650 A. Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: Constant quantum efficiency, independent of wave length, The formula which Mr. Schaphorst proposed lies below the can hardly be said to be characteristic of most reactions. The data through practically the whole temperature range, and in following extracts from Kistiakowsky’s “Photochemical Procthe worst case, a t 260’ C., gives a value of the specific heat of ess” summarize the evidence: diphenyl which is 7.2 per cent too low. We suggest the following linear formula for the specific heat According to the Einstein-Stark equivalence law, the rate in the range 80’ to 300” C., which agrees with the data within of a photochemical reaction in light of different wave lengths the experimental error: must vary as the number of absorbed light energy quanta. Ex-
Ultra-VioletRadiation in Industry
A Formula for the Specific Heat of Diphenyl
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