Boston Did It Again!
I n t h e k i t c h e n o£ t h i s h o u s e i n W o b u r n , M a s s . . C h a r l e s Goodyear discovered t h e secret of rubber v u l c a n i z a t i o n .
o ACCOUNT, however expert, could give absentees the feeling of the Boston meeting- Hence none is attempted here. Those who attended know that the program was followed as published, that many interesting events occurred, some of which were on the program; and that the Northeastern Section handled the meeting with consummate skill.
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RΜΥ-ΝΑVY football games have nothing on Boston when it comes t o a sell-out. At the high point of the 98th meeting of the SOCIETY, the Goodyear Centenary Banquet, the gathering of 960 a t the Copley-Plaza was supplemented by an overflow a t the Statler at which some 300 heard music, speeches, breaking dishes, and other sound effects by direct wire and amplifier system from the banquet. Even that did not prevent the usual numbers of small parties all over Boston and environs.
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EGISTRATION, as well as load on hotels, was successfully distributed by adopting the Central Day plan in making up the program. Bets were placed and paid on the basis of 4000. Actual registration crept toward this figure. Bulging of hotel walls was never really serious; it merely seemed s o .
chariot at home, for walking around Bos ton streets brought many directly back t o their starting places without bringing them any nearer, apparently, to their ob jective. At the close of the meeting no decision was possible on the question of whether this result was produced by the peculiarities of Boston's geography or by the earnestness of corridor conferences continued on the streets. APPILY the banquet was in charge of H the Division of Rubber Chemistry accustomed t o make things stretch.
OSTON and the Northeastern Section B have a way with the weatherman other sections would do well t o investigate. The contrast to the lack of control at Mil waukee and Baltimore was striking.
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ASSACHUSETTS conferred the doubtful honor on the A. C. S. of raising its tax on liquor just prior to the meeting. N o report from the State Treasurer was available t o show the result, but estimates by informed chemists placed state reve nues from cigaret taxes in the lead.
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RTHOORAPHERS were interested in the local committee's ruling that the word for the mass transportation units
S some events lacked the elasticity of rubber. Even group dinners, luncheons, ELL-OUT was the order of the day
and
etc., played to capacity crowds.
B
OSTONIANS realized the prospect of traffic congestion and provided both leaders and followers for groups conducted by subway.
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PECIAL guides for sight-seeing parties proved exceptionally well informed and interested in instructing barbarians from the hinterland in the culture and his tory of the New England milieu.
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ONSTERNATION was observed in hotel clerks (or should it be clarks?) when women chemists (Lucy Stoners) used their own names in signing the register with their husbands. The clerk always played safe by asking: "Husband and wife?
HE high point for aggravation was T reached when Secretary Parsons found, after three-quarters of an hour of dictation to a machine, that the recording button had not been properly pushed before he started.
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HE absent-minded professor was pres ent and performed by admitting that h e had left essential baggage a t a coastal summer resort from which he departed to come to Boston.
HE method used to elect certain divi T sion officers could be well copied by Tammany Hall. Only the nominees were present to vote.
HOSE who elected to drive their own cars t o the meeting found new highs T in congested streets and insoluble riddles in the Boston system of traffic lights. Nor did they get relief by leaving the family
employed be spelled "buses," and not "busses," as in the rest of the United States. The committee would not permit visitors to prefix its spelling with an "a," as some desired t o do when bus drivers got lost with their charges on the way t o Swampscott Monday evening.
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& T e c h corner 593
N eminent horticultural chemist i turned red without benefit of cos metics when a woman chemist was under stood to say that she was interested in his pants. The answer was finally found in
President Coxiant at tho Harvard Lawn Party Disembarking at the Now Ocaan House
Harvard L a w n Party
John Harvard Statue Schmidt, Vtfeidlein, Dodge, Thomas, and Sharpies at the speakers' table, luncheon of the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
Gathering at Swampscott 594
Divisional Officers Breakfast
Imposing portico where M. I. T. served tea
G. R. Boggs, Chairman Kinshaw, and P . W. Litchfield at the Banc/uet
Local Section Officers Breakfast
One of the numerous discussion groups
Historic Rubber Exhibit, CopleyPlaza
Groups a t Swampscott
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VOL. 17, N O . 1®
I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G CHEMISTRY
landers who sought to explain their defection by claiming allergies t o ssa foods were baffled t o find that Boetonians also suffered. N o uniformity in the incidence of the disease could be discerned and blame could not be laid on any doorstep. House physicians in the hotels lost much sleep over chemists Tuesday night.
her inability t o pronounce properly the second letter, "l", of the word she intended to use. OBSY'S paper on the legal aspects of T industrial wastes was voted required reading for members of t h e Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry as well as all others in industry.
HE naval display announced for MonT day evening at Swampscott was not a striptease as some anticipated and the
b y candid camera fans, whose [OWLS number grows meeting by meeting,
reason it was not held was that the naval vessels expected were called away for other duty.
have accomplished nothing. Boston hotels continued previous black-outs in their lobbies and other public rooms and made them so effective tnat even the warring countries in Europe might envy their success.
cΓ ο one took literally the program anN i nouncement that only black ties were to be worn at the banquet. All chemists wore clothes as well.
VEN Secretary Parsons was shocked by the smoothness and brevity of the E Council meeting which adjourned in one
ACKING Goodyear for the Hall of B Fame was voted by the Directors to correct an omission of long standing.
hour and fifteen minutes in spite of having no less than three matters of sharp disagreement on its agenda. The moral, to be on time, was learned by several eminent and vigorous partisans on the issues who arrived barely in time to hear the motion for adjournment passed.
AL step to provide for the continuance of the A. C. S. Award in Pure Chemistry ini LPHA C H I SIGMA has taken the
L i q u i d a n d solid Hydro» çyon
tiated by A. C. Langmuir. The fraternity has agreed to continue the award for 1940 and hopes to care for subsequent years later.
clearly that the Northeastern Section knows how t o choose its allies when expecting a mass attack.
OLDERS of souvenirs from the banquet H were warned that the copy of Goodyear's hook was made in true Chinese
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XCEPTIONAL smoothness in the operation of all meeting machinery testified to careful and painstaking preparation by local committee members in au phases of their work. EATING some 2300 at supper at the S Ocean House, Swampscott, on Monday evening, and handling an even larger number at the reception and tea in Harvard Yard on Tuesday afternoon was accomplished without a hitch, indicating
first
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NSOLVED is the mystery of the sudden malady which, beginning Sunday, decimated the invading chemical ranks at the height of the meeting. In-
style, including all errors in the original. Chairman Bierer also warned them that the sterling silver vessels supplied were in tended for the shaking of milk and not cocktails as some suspected. However, the material from which they were fabri cated was silver, having well understood ability to resist alcohol and other con stituents of the stronger drinks, to guard against hazard any who mistake t h e pur pose of the utensil. ÉÉTVTO research really deserves the name 1^1 if its result could be foretold when it began."—Compton. PEAKERS at the Symposium on IndusS trial Wastes were warned not to talk through Chairman Schmidt's hat. Each had t o use his own. OOPÉRATION between Μ. Ι. Τ. and Har C vard was demonstrated when the president of the former omitted from hie address at the banquet a story included also in the address of the president of the latter. Φ
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OSTON'S prize bull was made by Chair man Hinshaw of the General Meeting when he sympathized with those who had been "unfortunate" enough to secure tickets for the banquet. Φ Φ Φ
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LAIRVOYANTS must modernize b y adopt ing synthetic resins as the material of their scrying globes, the fashion in this re spect having been set by a no less eminent server than the president of Μ. Ι. Τ . « «
T L s c t u r e t a b l e ezp@?iment e q u i p m e n t u s e d b y F . G. K®y©s
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H E Division of Microchemistry will be micro no longer if it accepts the ana lysts offered it by the Division of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry.
H chemist vacationist tried to hitch a ride for his whole family, including an infant, to Virginia. As the meeting ÎTCH-HÎKÎNQ reached & new high when an earnest non-
drew to a close, ne had not yet succeeded.
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STIMATES placed cancellations a t the last minute at about 10 per cent of those expecting to attend the meeting and the explanation offered was that potential developments from the war in Europe required cancellers to stay a t their posts.
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MPLOYMENT matters kept the force in the Employment Clearing Bureau unusually busy. Tabulation of interviews showed that some 120 employers were inquiring, and that they had nearly 400 talks with applicants.
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GRICULTURE and Food had difficulty in holding an elec.. tion when the report of the nominating committee failed to appear. The chairman blamed the secretary and vice versa b u t no such report was forthcoming.
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OR t h e record: 568 papers by 869 authors before 18 divisions. From the old rule that should give a registration of 4345, or five listeners per author, which tnis time is a little high on account, shall we say, of the war in Europe.
T o p t o b o t t o m . Secretary P a r s o n s a n d M r s . Edgar F. S m i t h ; Miss Williams and Ξ. C Williams; Miss A r m s t r o n g , Mrs. Edgar F . S m i t h , a n d C . A . B r o w n e
Harvard L a w n P a r t y 597
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INDUSTRIAL A N D E N G I N E E R I N G CHEMISTRY
VOL. 17. N O . 18
N the eleven years since the Northeastern Section was last host t o the SOCIETY, its members have not lost their skill in taking care of a big meeting.
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Boston, we learned, the Sidewalk ItheirNSuperintendents become Overseers and club for watching excavations and building operations is an Overseers' Observatory. VEN natives of Massachusetts have difficulty with their own traffic conE trol systems, as witness the several automobile accidents seen on the road between the Statler and the Ocean House on Monday evening. ECULIARITIES of colloid chemistry have P apparently increased. The division planned its dinner for members only and to ensure the effectiveness of its plan selected Cohasset, 25 miles away, as its site. OUSE detectives at the Statler called H chemists "the cleanest crowd they had ever seen". Picked pockets and petty thefts reached a new low of zero for the week. T HARVARD, one of the ladies lost her A - shoes, of all things. They were subsequently found and returned to her. HE appreciation of good music by the T members was well illustrated in the large attendance at Symphony Hall on Thursday evening when 80 members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Arthur Fiedler conducting, presented the following program: Overture t o "Oberon". Weber: four movements from Beetnoven's Fifth Symphony in C Minor, Opus 67; the Concerto for Pianoforte N o . 2 in C minor. Opus 18, by Rachmaninoff with Miss Selma Kramer as soloist; and the well-known Ouverture Solennelle, "1812" by Tchaikowsky.
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OTH Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology thoughtfully supplied maps of their campuses at the time of registration. These were of great assistance to those who were interested in making a better acquaintance with these institutions.
Harvard L a w n Party
H e a d T a b l e S c e n e s a t tKo B a n q u e t
HE experimental lecture on the properT ties of matter at very low temperatures given by F. G. Keyes was a feature of the
NEWS EDITION
S E P T E M B E R 20, 1939
B i g F o u r o f t h e Banc^uet. open house at Μ. Ι. Τ . on Thursday. T o the best of our knowledge, his are the only lecture table experiments showing the actual production of liquids from oxygen and hydrogen and the complete freezing of these gases t o solids. OT to be outdone by Harvard and N Tech, Wellesley College held open house and many enjoyed the hospitality of the ladies.
The beautiful campus was
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Litchfield, Bierer, C o n a n t , a n d C o m p t o n
much admired and tea served with the aid of laboratory apparatus brought forth many compliments.
taining the addresses of the celebration will be cheered to know that they will appear in full in the October Industrial Edition of INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY.
HE committee for the Boston meeting HE Northeastern Section provided an T was one of the most efficient in the T attractive souvenir program contain history of the SOCIETY. A splendid ex ing much information and well illustrated, ample of team work, there was an evident tendency for each chairman to insist that others, not he, were responsible for the success.
bound in a product of the chemical in dustry—Fabrikoid.
HE: Mezzanine of the T Hotel Stat 1er was particularly well adapted to registration requirements and afforded space so t h a t the registration cards could be conveniently accessible and i n addition a series of rooms used for conf e r e n c e s a n d offices, ladies' h e a d q u a r t e r s , and some of the meetings made a happy arrangement. The press room of the A. C. S. News Service was perhaps the m o s t satisfactory in its history at our national meetings. attend the banquet T and BO failed to receive HOSE w h o could not
Past Président Whitmore and " G a s o l i n e G u s " Egloff l e a v i n g t h e L o c a l S e c t i o n Officers B r e a k f a s t
the attractive book con-
P r e s i d e n t K r a u s , J e n n i n g s , a n d Buorris
S c e n e s a t tho s t u d e n t breakfast
60€*
VOS* 17, N O . 18
ÎNDUSTRIAX, A N D E N G I N E E R I N G CHEMISTRY
E. WILSON, donor of the Wilson cup, • finally won his third victory and seR cured thereby permanent possession thereof. NOTB. Before witnesses, he has placed himself on record as promising to supply another cup. Mrs. Harvey F. Mack won the Kicker's Prize at golf. Some 5 0 players participated but scores of amany were not fit to report. ΗΒ dinner of the Division of Petro leum Chemistry filled the banquet room Γ of &he Engineers' Club. It adhered to its tradition of no speeches and was enter tained b y Charles S. Venable, T. H. Rogers, and W. H. McAdams under the direction of Walter G. Whitman.
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HE Division of Rubber Chemistry gathered many interesting objects from the earïy rubber industry, both American anc2 British, for display at the CopleyPlaza. Goodyear and Hancock were well represented with machines and manufactures of their pioneering. The first steamengine-driven Hancock masticator was shown and this, like other exhibits in the Hancock display, was made possible through the courtesy and generosity of Sir Walrond Sinclair, managing director, and his son, Alan Sinclair, director of the British Tyre and Rubber Co. of London. HE banquet held Wednesday evening was made possible by the generous and enthusiastic support of the following companies:
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American Cyanamid & Chemical Corporation American Zinc Sales Company Η. A. A^stlett & Company Robert Badenhop Corporation T h e Barrett Company Bibb Manufacturing Company Biruney & Smith Company Boston Woven Hose & Rubber Company Godfrey L. Cabot, Inc. Callaway Mills Cleveland Liner & Mfg. Company Columbian Carbon Company Converse Rubber Company T h e Dill Manufacturing Company E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Imc. Eagle-Picher Lead Company Emerson Apparatus Company Farrel-Birmingham Company, Inc. Firestone Tire & Rubber Company T h e Fisk Rubber Corporation T h e Flintkote Company Foxboro Company Ceneral Atlas Carbon Company Oivaudan-Delawanna, Inc. T h e B. F . Goodrich Company T h e Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company R. 'W. Greeff & Company, Inc.
