November, 1930
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Artificial Tests HE superior service of many modern manufactured products is traceable to the development of methods of testing and analysis. These begin with the selection of the raw materials and continue step by step through every stage of the process. The finished product is likewise subject to test and an accompanying factor is the specification properly drawn on the basis of tests and experience. It is difficult to devise ways of determining in advance the significant factors in wear and to obtain in a few hours results which represent what may be expected over a period of months or years in actual service. Some of our most useful research has had as its objective the perfection of tests that would give significant acceptable data. It is not surprising that in all this development certain artificial tests have arisen. I s the test in any particular case one which will yield significant data, or is it merely a breakdown placing the emphasis in the wrong direction? There are instances where new products of merit have been retarded in their introduction or actually kept out of use because of breakdown tests arbitrarily applied. The real merits of the product were insufficiently appreciated and an actual trial in service denied on the basis of preliminary results. The small manufacturer has naturally relied to a considerable extent on his bigger brother for his research m d on the public for his actual testing. If a new product is offered such a manufacturer, he is somewhat a t sea, is unable to make his own tests, is disinclined to accept the statements of the producer, and is very liable to refuse to look into the matter. All parties lose thereby, including the public. Our plea is for meticulous attention to every factor involved in testing, and the greatest correlation of test with service data, that artificial tests may thereby he avoided and new products, however evolutionary in character, given their full opportunity without prejudice.
Mail Delays I T H greater frequency than we could wish, complaints are received of delays in the delivery of some one of the editions of INDUSTRIaL AND EKGINEERING CHEWSTRY. Under the regulations of the Post Office Department preference in handling printed matter is confined to publications of the strictly news type. Newspapers are delivered with a promptness second only to first-class mail itself. However, to minimize delay in distribution by mail, the black Printing Company cooperates t o the minutest detail with the Post Office Department. Publications for various cities are put in separate bags provided by the Post Office Department and are labeled as specified. M'here the number of subscribers in one city is too small t o justify a separate sack, the journals are bundled together to facilitate handling. This minimizes the possible error of sorting on the mail train. These bags are delivered by the Mack Printing Company to the mail trucks a t the railway platform according to the trains-north, south, east, or west-designated to serve the various areas and feeding other distributing centers. R i t h the exception of slight delays that may occur a t transfer points, there is reason to believe that our publications proceed with reasonable promptness to their destination. After discussing the matter with post office authorities, with the local postmaster a t Easton, and with the Mack Printing Company, we are convinced that everything is being done to accelerate delivery up to the point of local distribution. I n local postoffices the procedure is to deliver the first-class mail first, but on a subsequent delivery the same day the second-class mail should be cleared, and in no case should the delivery be delayed beyond twenty-four hours.
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If your publications reach you late, the chances are investigation will prove the whole fault to lie with some factor in local distribution. Your copy left Easton promptly, was handled quickly en route, but somewhere in your local distribution system it struck a snag. I n large organizations where mail is delivered to a central point and redistributed, the fault may lie with some individual close a t hand. If you find this is not the case and the trouble persists, then a complaint with details should be made to the First Assistant Postmaster-General, Washington, D. C . It is gratifying that tardiness in receipt of our publications is a cause of complaint, and we wish we could do more absolutely to guarantee quick delivery. We want our readers to know the procedure, what has been done in their interests, and what they can do to help clear a situation which is often aggravating and might even be a source of financial loss.
Beating a Path U N D E R the auspices of the Division of Engineering and Industrial Research of the National Research Council, men with a wide variety of interests have made a path to several research institutions. They wanted to see a t close range whether the importance and value of research to industry are as great as its devotees maintain. They wanted, by personal observation, to study the philosophy of operation and to compare the different research organizations, the problems they have selected, and the methods developed for their solution. They chose the Bell Telephone Laboratories, the Division of Engineering of the United States Air Service a t Kright Field near Dayton, Ohio, the Research Laboratories of the General Electric Company at Schenectady, those of the General Motors Corporation at Detroit, the American Rolling Mill Company a t Middletown, Ohio, the Aluminum Company of America a t Pittsburgh, the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, the United States Bureau of Standards, and the National Canners Association in M'ashington. These various laboratories not only threw open their doors but nrranged demonstrations, that the visitors might see for themselves something of their program, methods, equipment, and what it was all about. To us this seems to have been a brilliantly conceived expedition, and that it attracted a hundred leading industrial executives and bankers from various sections of the country attests to the real interest which is developing generally in science, both pure and applied. An examination of the list of those making the tour discloses a surprising variety of interests. Bankers and publishers, chemists and transportation experts, statisticians, and manufacturers of all sorts are to be found; those who make opticaI products, metals and textiles, soap makers, rubber products manufacturers, workers in graphite, foundry operators, gas manufacturers, typewriter builders, paper makers: consultants and chemical engineers, insurance people, and a few educators. We predict that from this more intimate contact with the laboratory will come a greater conviction of its utility, investment possibilities, and successful insurance against destruction through ignorance. The visit of these hundred important people marks a new path which deserves to be well beaten. We predict it will be, and that paths will be begun to other laboratories. The result will be support and appreciation for the work of science, upon which depends the successful maintenance of our standard of civilization. I n achieving this, the continuous effort to have the public appreciate through language it can understand where science fits in the scheme of things will be a major contribution.
