December 20, 1932
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
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Chile's New Cellulose Plant UMBERTO POMILIO, Compafüa Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones, Santiago, Chile MANUFACTURERA DE PAPELES Y CABTONBS of 6500 horsepower, and a pulp plant which can produce 18 tons of mechanical pulp daily. Coniferous wood from the south of Chile, the Chilean pine—Ptnus araucaria, Pinus maritimus, and Pinus insigne—and poplar wood from the neighborhood of Santiago are used. Production of cellulose from domestic raw materials is a problem which has puzzled Chile for many years, and several investigations have been carried out by well-known foreign specialists, most of them very favorable. However, the production of wood cellulose presents a difficult problem. Owing to its peculiar shape, being a mere strip of land between the Pacific and the Andes, varying from tropical to subpolar in climate, Chile's transportation problems are hard to solve cheaply. Forest resources are plentiful in the south, especially in Valdivia, but it is difficult to get natural forests with homogeneous types of wood for pulping. As a matter of fact, a metric ton of southern wood in logs, delivered at Santiago, costs about 100 Chilean pesos, whereas a ton of wheat straw, even when not produced in near-by fields, costs but 50 pesos. Central Chile can easily pro-
THE COMPARA Santiago, Chile's most modern and Alto, important paper-manufacturing concern, is erecting at Puente 10 mues Santiago, a plant for the conversion of 50 metric tons daily from of wheat straw
VIEW OF ESPERANZA AND NUEVA FACTORIES AT PUENTE ALTO
into bleached pulp by the Pomilio chlorine process. The writer is personally supervising the erection of the cellulose and electrolytic plants, the latter being designed to obtain the chlorine and caustic necessary in the process. The company owns three adjoining paper mills at Puente Alto—the Esperanza, the Victoria, and the Nueva— equipped with one board and seven paper machines ranging from 60 to 125 inches, the larger ones being of the most modern type. Total daily output reaches 60 metric tons of paper, consisting of news, wrapping, printing, writing, toilet, and wall papers, as well as specialties including cement bags. The company was founded in 1920 by Luis Matte Larrain, a well-known Chilean engineer and business man, who still acts as its general manager, and is capitalized at 26 million Chilean pesos. The shares have a nominal value of 100 pesos, but are now quoted at more than 330 pesos. The company owns a hydroelectric plant capable of more than
POWER AND STEAM PLANT
PAPER
MACHINE, 150 INCHES W I D E , AT PUENTE ALTO
duce several hundred thousand tons of wheat and oat straw, which is now for the most part burned in the fields. Under these circumstances, the company decided in 1925 to go to wheat straw pulp production, and during 1926 and 1927 installed a De Vains chlorine water pulp plant for a daily production of 12 ton. of bleached straw pulp. After two years, production was stopped and a better process sought. At the end of 1931 and early in 1932 Mr. Matte went to Rosario de Santa Fe, Argentina, where Celulosa Argentina gave him every facility for inspecting the Pomilio chlorine gas process used there. After thorough investigation of cost, quality, etc., it was decided to adopt this process at Puente Alto, and a plant was started in September, 1932. This new plant at Puente Alto will have several improvements over the Rosario plant. It will consist of an electrolytic section with its derivatives, and a cellulose section. The electrolysis of brine will be carried out in sixty 3000-ampere vertical diaphragm cells of a modified t^-pe, according to a new Pomilio patent. The main features of this cell are: increased anode and cathode surface without change in dimensions of the previous cell; increased active surface of the diaphragm; adjustable distance between anodes and cathodes in order to counteract the effect of anode corrosion; adjustable anode positive and cathode negative pressures so as to counteract by hydrostatic effect the reduction of the filtering power of the diaphragm. Such improvements will secure still lower upkeep costs and higher current and energy efficiencies. In the cellulose plant operations will be continuous through the chemical and mechanical .cycles, comprising continuous alkali leaching, chlorinating, and alkali washing and bleaching. Wheat
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NEWS
EDITION
straw passes through a system of leaching towers; hot black lye from the lower towers is pumped to upper towers fed by fresh straw, while lower towers, fed by half-leached straw, are sprinkled with fresh caustic soda solution, hot and diluted. In this way spent lye is re-used and is practically alkali-free when discharged sis sewage. The countercuxrent principle and continuous cycle principles applied throughout result in lower consumption of chemicals and labor. A cathodie liquor evaporating and salt recovery plant, a s well as hypochlorite and synthetic hydrochloric acid plants, will comi.~3te the chemical installations. In these sections improvement will also b e introduced. Bleaching powder, for instance, will originate in continuous working towers of the same type as the chlorinating towers for straw, which have given such good industrial results. Because of the very low value of Chilean money at present, as much as possible of the necessary equipment must be constructed in the country, and this will necessarily delay things. Jïowever, it is expected that operations will begin within a year from the date of commencing construction. Prices per metric ton, delivered at Puente Alto, are 50 Chilean pesos for wheat straw, 110 for high-grade salt, 90 for quicklime, and 75 for coal of 7000 calories from the Chilean mines at Lota. The average worker earns 8 pesos for 8 hours* work, and electric power may be reckoned at 4 to 5 cents. On November 15 the officia! rate of exchange was 16.60 Chilean pesos for one United States dollar. The Pomilio process now gives an industrial yield of 46 per cent of 88 per cent dry cellulose from straw, with a consumption of 16 parts of caustic soda and 22 parts of chlorine for 10O parts of bleached 88 per cent straw cellulose, including alkali leaching and wash, chlorination, and bleaching. (Thefiguresgiven in the NEWS EDITION of July 20, 1931, erroneously referred to straw in· stead of t o 88 per cent cellulose—that is, consumption figures given there are more than twice too large.) · Three new Pomilio plants are being considered in South America—one in Uruguay to use wheat straw, and two in Brazil and Peru t o use rice straw. I t is expected that construction of the Uruguay plant will b e started first, followed by Brazil, and later by Peru.
Patents RAY BELMONT WHITMAN, Patent Attorney, 277 Park Ave., New York, N. Y.
Better Packages, Inc., Wins Patents Infringement Suit DISTRICT JUDGE COLEMAN in the New York District Court
recently decided an interesting case against I/. Link & Co., Inc., involving the validity and infringement of three Krueger patents, owned by Better Packages, Inc., and covering features of a gumtape dispensing device. The patents were No. 1,194,752, referred to as No.· 1, reissue patent N o . 18,322', referred to as No. 2, and No. 1,782,123, re* ferred to as No. 3. No. 1 relates to a device for moistening the gummed surface of labels or paper stickers. The other two relate to machines for serving and moistening sections of gummed paper strips, such as are used in sealing packages and cardboard cartons. The patent art was old when Krueger entered it, so the claims are specific to details. The claims sued upon in No. 3, relating to the feeding means, were held invalid. But the feature covered by claims in the other two patents, of supporting a plate by the bristle ends of an inverted brush, so that capillary attraction would always keep the ends of the bristles moistened and in contact with the plate even after the bristles assumed a bent position, was held to be valid and infringed. On the subject of whether these ideas involved invention, tLe Court said: "The proof is convincing, however, that Krueger did contribute a new idea, and though not a t all profound, it is fair. I believe, to conclude that it was not obvious to the ordinary skilled workman, and was, therefore, patentable."
Patent on Board Made from Fiber Held limited to Wood Product DISTRICT JUDGE NIELDS of Delaware recently decided a case
between Masonite Corp. and The Celotex Co., in which a material manufactured from waste of sugar mills, and known as bagasse, was held not to infringe the claims of the patent. The patent is Ko. 1,663,505, issued March 20, 1928, to William H . Mason, and assigned to his company. The plaintift, Masonite.Corp., manufactures a hard hoard, designated "Presdwood," under this patent at its plantât Laurel, Miss. Defendant manufactures a hard board at Marerro, near New Orleans, called "Celotex Hard Panel Board." The patent
Vol. 10, No. 2 4
describes the first step as the production offiberfrom -wood pulp. But the defendant made its product from bagasse, a waste of sugar mills. These are the sugar cane stalks after the sugarbearing juices have been extracted. In an argument in the patent office, Mason, through his attorney, to avoid a reference, limited his claims t o wood a s distinguished from a straw, and so the Court held he could not now expand his claims t o include straw with a sugar product. The Court held that Mason's contribution was substantial, but limited to wood products, which defendant did not infringe.
Bearing Shim Patent Adjudicated in Court of Appeals OntcuiT JUDGES I*. HAND, AUGUSTUS N. HAND, AND CHASE
recently decided a case on a bearing shun patent between General Motors Corp. with Laminated Shim Co., Inc., -who were suing a dealer, Lehr Auto Supply Co., Inc. Some of the claims sued upon had been held in the lower court to b e valid but not infringed! others invalid, and claim 4 valid and infringed. The patent covers a bearing shim of hard metal t o which is securely anchored a soft metal face. These are used in split bearings, and they,are especially useful in bearings using forced feed lubrication, as is now common on the crankshaft, of automobile engines. General Motors owns tbe patent and Laminated Shim Co., Inc., is tbe exclusive licensee. The defendant is a dealer for National 3Viotor Bearing Co., Inc.! of Los Angeles, who defended the suit. On the question of validity, the defendant relied upon a 1905 patent and four instances of prior use. The decree was affirmed except as regards claim 4, and, as t o that, Circuit Judge Augustus N. Hand declared that i t should have been held void for lack of invention. GLIDDEN WINS
SURR
THE ENTIRE LACQUER INDUSTRY is interested in the recent
decision of Federal Judge Marcus B. Campbell, Brooklyn, dismissing the complaint and refusing the application for an injunctionfiledby E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co- against the Glidden Co., alleging infringement of a patent. The patent has to do with the method of reducing the viscosity of nitrocellulose used in the manufacture of lacquer and film. The du Pont Co. sought an accounting and damages and an injunction to restrain the Glidden Co. from further use of the method. The complaint set forth that the original patent was applied for by Edmund M. Flaherty, on May 23, 1931, granted on May 24, 1927, and assigned to the du Pont Co., to whom a reissue patent was granted, September 19, 1927. Judge Campbell ruled that there was no infringement and that the original patent was invalid "because it disclosed no inventive concept and the method -was known and used prior to the earliest date Flaherty could name." The case bas been appealed.
C O U R S E I N C H E M I C A L CALCULATIONS
THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY at Monmouth College,
Monmouth, HI., is this year initiating a sophomore course called "Chemical Calculations/' Prerequisites are a year of college chemistry and mathematics through trigonometry. The required equipment for each student is a standard slide rule, a standard text of chemical calculations, and "Notes on the Slide Rule" privately published by the director. The aim of the course is: (1) an intensive review of first-year chemistry by the requirement of a large number of problems from all usual subjects in that field; and (2) development of facility in practical chemical computation with the slide rule b y requiring its use and making problem assignments of a length impractical without its mastery. "Notes on the Slide Rule" by G. W. Thiessen is a 50-page mimeographed book, in ten chapters, with exercises and problems.'
ENGINEERING—A CAREER—-A. CULTURE THE ENGINEERING FOUNDATION through, its Education Re-
search Committee has published an attractive 60-page booklet for the purpose of telling young men about engineering. Its pages contain much information about -what engineers do, what qualities of mind and character a boy should have to become an engineer, what schooling a boy should have, and what training he should acquire after his schooling is ended and he goes to work. A chapter is devoted to each majorfieldof engineering, describing the spheres of action, the obligations imposed, the qualities required for success, the rewards which are afforded, and the cultural aspects. The booklet is available at 1δ cents a copy from the Engineering Foundation, 29 West 39th St., New York, Ν. Y .
