INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
February 10, 1931
Chemistry in Finance Current Earning Status1 Owing to the low rate of business activity during November and December, it is anticipated that statements for the fourth quarter will generally show lower earnings than those for the preceding quarter. To date in 1931, while operations in general have improved materially from the low point witnessed at the close of last year, the pick-up apparently reflects so far only seasonal increases and a natural rebound from December lows. Tabulated below are recent earnings for a representative group of chemical companies:
COMPANY
1928
1929
1030
Mixed $11.12 $12.60 .. Carbide 3.72 3.94 D u Pont 6.27 7.09 $4.64 Air Red taction 4.60 7.75 6.25 Solvents 1.27 1.50 1.07 Mathieson 3.26 3.31 .. Alcohol 11.81 12.63 Texan Oulf 5.72 6.39 .. Freeport 4.49 5.60 Weslvaco 3.46 4.32 2.51 Monsanto 3.60 4.18 .. Eastman Kodak 9.60 e 9.57 e Procter & Gamble 2.3ô 2.96 3.37« Colgate 2.67 4.03 e 3.76 e Cyanamid 3.12e 1.74 1.86 Columbian Carbon 6.39 7.83 .. Dow 3.71 4.08 e Davison 1.426 3.34 4.00e * Y e a r ending June 30, 1930. b 18 months ending June 30, 1928. « Year ending June 30, 1931.
RATIO CURRENT P R I C E TO ESTIMATED PRICK 1930 Es· 1930 J A N . 13. TTMATBD EARNINGS 1931 EARNINGS
$10.00 3.05 4.90 6.25 1.05 2.90 150 5.45 4.25 2.35 1.80 8 00 3.7S« 4.25 .. 5.00 3.50 ..
166 56 86 95 16 25 62 47 31 22 22 153 63 49 9 79 47 14
16 18 17 15 15 9 41 9 7 9 10 19 17 11 16 13
Air Reduction Co. The earnings for the fourth quarter of 1930 were only $1.27 per share for 825,597 shares as compared with $1.53 in the third. For the full year. Air Reduction earned approximately $6.25 a share against $7.75 in 1929. One reason for this shrinkage is said to be the heavy retrenchment by the railroads. Atlas Powder Co. The net income of Atlas Powder Co. for 1930 is given in the annual statement as $1,246,432» or $2.76 a common share, as compared with $2,542,692, or $7.66 a common share, in 1929. Earnings and sales, which declined 25 per cent over 1929, were affected by the general business depression, according t o the company's president. The greatest decline occurred in sales of cellulose products, including lacquers, leather cloth, and other coated fabrics, the demand for which was greatly curtailed by conditions in the automobile, radio, and furniture industries. Dow Chemical Co. Dividends of 1.75 per cent on preferred stock and 50 cents a share on non-par value stock were declared at a meeting of the board of directors of the Dow Chemical Co. Dividends are payable February 16 to stockholders of record at the close of business February 2, 1931. E. I. d u Pont de Nemours & Co. The net income of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. for 1930 is $55,962,009, equivalent, after debenture dividends, to $4.64 a share on 10,783,555 average number of common shares outstanding during the year, and $4.52 a share on 11,065,710 common shares outstanding at the end of the year. This compares with the net income of $78,171,730 in 1929, equivalent to $7.09 a share on 10,196,777 average common shares outstanding during that year, and $6.99 on 10,339,242 common shares outstanding a t the en-1 rS 1929. Hercules Powder Co. The annual report for 1930 sets the net income of the Hercules Powder Co. at $2,376,479, or $2.61 a share on 603,079 no-par shares of common stock after 7 per cent preferred dividends. This compares with $4,358,904, or $5.95 a share on 598,000 common shares in 1929. Not all of the company's lines were equally affected by the general business depression. The explosive business, depending principally on the mining industry and construction work, showed less curtailment than the average of manufacturing industries of the country. The naval stores business was not off substantially in volume, but the market prices for rosin and turpentine were very low. The nitrocellulose and cotton linters lines suffered most» and the foreign business did not escape the effects of the world-wide depression. Procter & Gamble Co. Negotiations have just been completed for the acquisition of the coconut oil crushing mill of the Oil Seeds Crushing Co. i n » T h e s e d a t a were prepared for INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY b y L. F . Rothschild & Co., N e w York, Ν . Υ.
45
Baltimore. The purchase of this mill, which is one of the largest in the country, will strengthen the company's position in the raw material field. The net earnings of Procter & Gamble for the last half of 1930 are $12,194,732, equal to $1.82 a share o n 6,410,000 shares of nopar common stock outstanding:, as compared with a net of $10,811,000, or $1.62 a share, for the first half of the year. United Carbon Co. The Warfield Natural Gas Co., a subsidiary of the Columbia Gas & Electric Corp., has signed a long-term contract with United Carbon, whereby Warfield will purchase all natural gas t o be pro duced from the lands and leases held b y United Carbon Co. in eastern Kentucky. Through a connection with. Columbia's present system, and after completion of a new pipe line t o Wash ington, D. C , marketing of gas in substantial quantities will be possible on the eastern seaboard.
Preliminary Injunction Granted to Restrain Unfair Competition The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has rendered an unusual decision in the suit of the Thayer Telkee Corp. vs. Davenport-Taylor Mfg. Co. for patent infringement and unfair competition in the sale of filing cabinets and drawer files, particularly adapted for the index storing of keys in large office buildings, apartments, hotels, and the like. The plaintiff filed suit for patent infringement o n two United States letters patent and for unfair competition, and through its attorneys, Hammond & Littell, asked for a preliminary injunc tion restraining the patent infringement and unfair competition pending formal hearing of the suit. The defendant denied in fringement of the patents and attacked them as being void for anticipation and lack of invention, and in defense filed many patent references, as well as affidavits, disclosing prior uses of products somewhat similar to those described in the patents. The practice in the Southern District of New York is to refuse preliminary injunctions in patent suits where the defendant denies either validity or infringement of the patents, and the preliminary injunction t o restrain patent infringement was re fused in the instant case. The defendant, however, had sub stantially duplicated the entire line of products of the plaintiff, Thayer Telkee Corp., copying the exact dimensions, key sizes, etc. The court decided that copying the entire line of the plaintiff's products amounted to unfair competition and, al though the preliminary injunction was refused as to the letters patent, that the plaintiff was entitled to a preliminary injunction restraining the unfair competition, saying: The defendant has not o n l y adopted t h e plaintiff's cabinet but has copied with substantial accuracy ttxe style and general appearance of the plaintiff's product. The peculiar construction of t h e hinges, t h e overlap o f the cover and the arrangement of the locking hasps, have all been duplicated exactly. Furthermore, the entire line has been reproduced almost identically i n the different sizes and k e y ranges of the defendant. * * * T h e only adequate explanation I can find for t h i s almost exact reproduction o f toon -functional features is that the defendant set o u t deliberately to appropriate t h e business of the plaintiff's customers. And that i t is i n a fair way to do so, unless prevented by injunction, is reasonably clear from t h e affidavits submitted on this motion.
Casein Investigation Instituted The United States Tariff Commission lias ordered an in vestigation of the differences in costs of production of domestic and foreign casein, and announces further that a hearing on this subject will be held on a. date to b e fixed later on 30 days' notice.
Synthetic Phenolic Resin Products Barred The Treasury Department has just issued an interpretation of President Hoover's order which barred imports of articles of synthetic phenolic resin unless unmistakably marked to show their origin and t o prevent confusion with similar articles manu factured by the Bakélite Corp.'s process.
Oil from Cherry Pits When J. G. Martin, cherry grower of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., stepped on a cherry pit a few years ago, he noticed the mashed seed kernel left a grease spot on the floor. Instead of canning cherries, he is now making oil out of nearly 100O tons of cherry pits each year. The United States Department of Agriculture considered his discovery of sufficient importance to send two of its expert chemists to study the new industry, which began in a small way in 1927. The oil squeezed ont of the seed kernel is used in making cosmetics, the residue of the kernel is ground tip for fertilizer, and the shells of the pits are used as fuel.
