August, 1929
ILVDL-STRIAL AiYD E.L’GINEERING CHEMISTRY
And this is not all, for in supporting such work as here noted, Mr. Garvan and the Chemical Foundation have been able to interest others in similar causes. This has resulted now in the support of a productive individual that his work may go forward with greater rapidity; now in the provision of equipment needed in some laboratory; and again in providing generous endowment or whole new laboratory plants. If one could but bring together all of the bona fide instances of students supported because of the Prize Essay Contest, all students of ability who have chosen chemistry as a career, and all the culture added in homes as a result of the books distributed. it would make a total quite beyond ordinary measure. It is evident that RiIr. Garvan did not take up chemistry as a mere fad. He has seen in it potentialities that, if known to its devotees, were not explained to the nontechnically trained. He has seen visions and dreamed dreams, and has been in position to make some of these dreams come true. Small wonder that in casting about for the third recipient of the Priestley Medal the committee found no one more entitled to this, the highest honor which the national SOCIETY can bestow for “distinguished services to chemistry.” The award will be the outstanding event at Minneapolis.
Reagents in Industry OW that our readers have had ample opportunity to N familiarize themselves with the information contained in our July issue, we wish to emphasize the importance of two of the accomplishments reported therein. Some one has said that one of the numerous methods for measuring the civilization of a country is by its production and consumption of sulfuric acid, and chemical technologists require no figures to convince them of the importance of this basic reagent. Sotwithstanding the introduction of the contact process, chamber plants have continued to be installed and improved, and from time to time we have published discussions relative thereto. These have included new methods for the introduction of oxides of’ nitrogen. Certain strengths of acid have been produced in the lead chambers a t a price lower than was possible by the contact process until the newer types of catalysts were devised. It is predicted that, with the latest type of contact rnass which so successfully resists poisoning and which is said to effect such a satisfactory percentage of conversion, a t last lead chambers are to be superseded, since the acid can be produced cheaply enough to permit dilution and still show a substantial saving over chamber acid. To reduce the cost of such an important industrial reagent as sulfuric acid should mean much for the chemical industry. I n many a laboratory the long list of Friedel and Crafts syntheses, worked out and described some fifty years ago, will now be reinvestigated from the standpoint of commercial utility, since at last aluminum chloride is available in carload lots. This reagent has been in use for years in substantial quantities for the manufacture of high-grade gasoline from high-boiling petroleum oils and has found further application in the refining of lubricating oils. The more extended use of this reagent was delayed, pending patent litigation which was but recently settled in thc1 Supreme Court. Fortunately, this obstacle has been renioved and aluminum chloride becomes an industrial chemical available a t prices much lower than was ever anticipated. Perhaps still greater demand may make possible production on an even larger scale with consequent savings and, in turn, new avenues of utilization. Those who make fundamental reagents available to industry a t a cost permitting more extensive use perform
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services the beneficial effects of which will be felt for many a year to come.
B y Their Fruits
13’Finance T H E printed record of the hearings before the Senate Committee considering the Tariff Act of 1929, there appears, beginning a t page 150, the testimony of a man who, in stating whom he represented, skilfully failed t o indicate his real interest and those for whom he actually spoke. He gave as his principals, organizations with American addresses, but left it to the American manufacturers and the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association of the United States to inform the committee that he really appeared on behalf of the I. G. and its controlled American plants. The purpose of his appearance was to argue the desirability of greatly reducing tariff rates, and he undertook to show that the American industry, which he does not represent, no longer needs the assistance which only a proper tariff can give. According t o his testimony, our domestic dyestuff industry now supplies 97.8 per cent by poundage and 92.8 per cent by value of the domestic consumption of dyes of the class and kind which are manufactured in the United States. Disregarding some of the pertinent facts in the situation, he argued that American valuation on dyestuffs is cumbersome and no longer necessary, and that the multiple specific duty system should be eliminated. He made no mention of the fact that, under the present tariff, which was the method adopted by the United States to insure an American coaltar industry, our domestic manufacturers have made highly creditable progress in both variety and quantity of dyes produced and with prices continually declining, nor that competition has been severe among domestic producers, with dye consumers reaping the benefit. He particularly avoided reference to the work which still lies before us, especially with respect to r a t dyes, in the development and production of which protection similar to that which is now enjoyed is imperative. The charge is made that the present tariff plan is unsatisfactory in its operation. The witness overlooked that it has been in effect for six and one-half years, that according to his own testimony it affects but 25 per cent of the dyes imported, and that under it imports hare inincreased until about 20 per cent of our consumption by value is now imported. The totals for the first six months of 1928 were 2,699,464 pounds, valued at $2,145,410. Corresponding figures for the same period of 1929 are 3,267,478 pounds, worth 82,627,558. In other words, as was to be expected, it was the biased testimony of one identified with the importing interests and with foreign manufacturers and not one who has at heart the welfare of the American industry and all that that means t o the American people. Surely the committees in Congress will not be misled by such testimony. But to us the important point in all this is that it offers further evidence of what may be expected from the Bmerican I. G. The prospectus issued by the Sational City Company undertook to show that the American I. G. was being organized t o develop the American industry. Here we have evidence that the disruption of the American chemical industry is what is sought, if that can be accomplished through taking from that industry such protection as the tariff affords it. Its representative has appeared before the Senate Finance Committee and, relying upon his previous connection with the United States customs laboratory as evidence of his expertness, urges substantial lowering of tariff rates. Frankly, we had hoped for evidences of better faith on the part of the new organization.
