As We See It . . . On t h e B e n c h . Four papers from t h e Atlantic City A.C.S. spring symposium on bench scale techniques form an interesting group of articles appearing on page 1555 et seq. T h e principal emphasis is on equipment design, and t h e chemical engineer will find many ingenious developments t h a t should stimulate his thinking when he has similar problems. Clark, Golden, Whitehouse, and Storch lead off with the important topic of high pressure reactions. Their equipment was used in work on hydrogénation of coal, and was designed for conditions t h a t are unquestionably rigorous. Pressures ranged from 1000 to 12,000 pounds per square inch a n d temperatures from 300° to 600° C , and the products handled were both corrosive and erosive in nature. T h e authors compare their designs with those evolved in Germany for similar investigations. Instruments and techniques of operation also are discussed. Hemiques next deals with the special needs for bench scale equipment used in s t u d y of vapor phase reactions with solid catalysts. His paper also involves designs for superatmospheric pressures, b u t t h e top of 50 atmospheres is substantially below the range discussed in the previous paper. Sampling techniques, feeding and metering devices, and pumps are considered. Schools and other research organizations t h a t may be required to operate on a limited budget will be especially impressed with the paper by Goldberg. He describes simple and inexpensive equipment for preparation of high molecular weight addition polymers t h a t consists essentially of the conventional bottles, closures, and coolers used for carbonated beverages, yet has been found suitable for pressures of 5 to 10 atmospheres. Polymerization techniques are described. Liquid-liquid and vapor-liquid extraction equipment and techniques are the subject of the fourth paper, authored by Knox, Weeks, Hibshman, and McAteer. Flow sheets of various systems are shown, the design of an 11-inch unit section for a 21-foot extraction tower for countercurrent solvent extraction is given, similar details for a vapor-liquid extraction system are presented, and operating procedures are described.
Peroxide Boom, w
hen they begin shipping it in tank cars, there is little doubt t h a t a chemical product has reached commercial stature. If you had not realized t h a t 9 0 % hydrogen peroxide has attained this position in the United States, a good long look at the lower right corner of page 1537 should be thoroughly convincing. T h e authors, Shanley and Greenspan, start the subject a t its very beginning with the decomposition thermodynamics of hydrogen peroxide and present approximately seven pages of highly useful information about the commercial 9 0 % product, its reactions, and its compounds. T h e aspects of handling hazard and decomposition factors are discussed extensively, and the region of detonable compositions is indicated graphically for the ternary systems containing hydrogen peroxide, water, and either ethanol, acetone, or glycerol. A regrettable omission from the paper is any description of the large scale technology of manufacturing the peroxide. However, the lack will not prove a serious handicap to the industrial chemist or chemical engineer who can utilize the article as a valuable reference guide. D a y - t O - D a y D a t a D a t e . Our new industrial d a t a department, which you should have noticed by now in the rear advertising section, began a t a time when we were so preoccupied with such matters as our materials of construction review t h a t we did not give it the introductory fanfare it deserved. We hope you have discovered it and are finding t h a t it serves a need. I t certainly was not ignored, for in the first two weeks approximately 71 A
360 cards were received expressing interest in a total of 2300 items from the October issue alone. This youngest baby of our family of departments appears destined for a long and healthy life. T h e modus operandi of a d e p a r t m e n t of this type is simple in its basic outline and depends largely upon the knowledge t h a t the enthusiasm of a company for a new product or service it has developed will promptly boil over in the form of a technical press release, usually accompanied by a booklet or folder describing t h e technical features of the development. We cull from this constant, daily stream those items of broadest interest and most practical value and once a month indicate the technical information available. Your comments for improvement of the feature will be heartily welcomed.
Practical benefits of theoretical work
may include adoption in engineering equipment of designs originally necessitated by investigations of a highly theoretical nature. Brown cites as a beautiful example the incorporation of a leakless packing, first developed in a p p a r a t u s used to s t u d y the physics of systems under extremely high pressures, into the design of a commercial high pressure valve. In addition, he describes a portable hydrogénation unit t h a t should be of some interest as a useful and convenient unit in an organic process laboratory.
A short course in instrumentation
t h a t was given at Texas A.&M. in September 1946 is the topic Munch treats this month. He reviews t h e papers presented and commends the course as an effective effort to acquaint the technical man in industry with practical applications in the chemical process industries.
A heat-hardenable stainless steel
is reported by Fontana in the column on corrosion. Described as a " s t a r v e d " 18-8 steel containing titanium as the principal hardening agent, the material hardens upon being held a t 950° F . and then cooled in air. D a t a from comparative corrosion tests with T y p e 304 steel in several acids are tabulated. ContinUOUS prOCeSSeS usually prove preferable to batch operations, says von Pcchmann, and all too frequently an unthinking adherence to traditional methods blinds the plant operator to advances in processing equipment which would allow conversion to the continuous basis. T h e familiar fundamental arguments against the continuous alternative are considered one by one and firmly rejected as illogical.
