CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWS

delegate this training to the university. Inasmuch as all these groups after com pleting their education must work in close cooperation, it follows th...
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VOLUME

24, NO.

10, O C T O B E R

2. Increase in production output and consequent lowering of production costs by continuous analysis. 3. Simplifying the introduction of new plant processes. 4. Strengthening the certainty of the proc­ ess and its control. 5. The development of rapid and simple (so simple that plant personnel can perform these analyses after a very brief instruction) plant analytical methods. 6. The use of every advance of science and technology in the development of reli­ able, universal, and rapid methods for gen­ eral analysis and methods of high sensitivity for as many specific classes of compounds as possible. 7. The maximum utilization of auxiliary agencies. 8. Last but not least, influencing the academic training of analytical chemists. The possibilities of analytical chemistry and its auxiliary agencies are innumerable. In fact, every operation employed by the synthetic chemist is also usable for the solution of analytical problems. The physicists, in conjunction with the optical and electrical industries, have designed, improved, and made practically foolproof all the well-known instruments. Innum­ erable chemical reactions can be exploited and made specific for analytical purposes. Any laboratory procedure is a source of method. Originally the chemists were not as specialized as they are today. Today it is necessary for the analytical chemist to specialize, for example, in microchemistry, spectroscopy, etc. Nevertheless it is most important t h a t at least t h e majority of analytical chemists retain familiarity with the over-all picture. The time to accom­ plish this, then, must be won from the maximum utilization of all automatic in­ struments and methods in routine analy­ sis. The main duty of an analytical chem­ ist today should be the supervision of the laboratory—i.e., the organization and training of assistants, to step in and help in new and difficult problems, the investi­ gation of t h e literature and testing of all new methods appearing therein, and, last but not least, the development of new methods. In most large industrial laboratories assistants are trained by the company. I t would seem to be an improvement to delegate this training to the university. Inasmuch as all these groups after com­ pleting their education must work in close cooperation, it follows t h a t the principles of this cooperation should be included in the academic curriculum. In the author's opinion this can best be accomplished b y establishing an institute for analytical chemistry within the structure of the uni­ versity. The leader of this institute should be a well-known analytical chemist and teacher, and the institute should turn out large numbers of completely trained analytical chemists and also technicians and laboratory assistants of various grades. Needless to say, such an institu­ tion should have available all of t h e latest apparatus and facilities. This not incon­ siderable expense, naturally, should be taken care of in part by the state. The graduates of such an institution should have no difficulty in finding fruitful positions in industry, research centers, or universities.

1952

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