//. / · Cramer, Sharpies Chemicals, Ine·, and division chairman, presents a scroll and medal to Harry L·· Fisher, sixth Goodyear award winner
Cold Rubber Symposium Featured at Division Meeting A STAFF J\_
SYMPOSIUM
on "cold
rubber/''
an
afternoon of plant trips., a clambake, and presentation of the sixth Charles Goodyear award to Harry L. Fisher, director of organic research of U. S. Industrial Chemicals Co., were the highlights of the fifty-fourth meeting of the Division of Rubber Chemistry, ACS. It was held in Boston May 23 to 25 and was attended by approximately 790 persons. The intensive study made by the rubber industry of the low-temperature polymerization product called "cold rubber'"'' was revealed in a 16-paper symposium in which new scientific knowledge was reported and the results of mass-scale product testing programs were given. A clear impression could be gathered by the listener that, through the additional advances of the cold rubber product, synthetic rubber was signific a n t ^ superior to natural rubber in smalltire tread wear resistance and thus could clearly be expected to remain a permanent factor in the tire industry of the future. For example, tests reported by J. H. Fielding of Goodyear indicated that favorably compounded tread stocks of cold rubber had a resistance to tread wear of 123 as compared to 111 for natural rubber and 100 for GR-S. Sjothun and Cole, of Firestone, reported 1720
REPORT
tire fleet tests that indicated the relative superiority of the low-temperature polymer became less when tested in tires of the larger sizes. Data reported from work of the larger tire companies and in the Rubber Reserve program were substantially consistent, but vigorous differences of opinion about the comparative merits of natural vs. synthetic were evident, largely because of differences in judgment about projection of laboratory tests t o road performance. Where service conditions involve higher temperatures and severe flexing many companies rate natural rubber more highly, and further progress in the polymer or its compounding probably will need to come before synthetic heads the list in all important phases of tire manufacture. Considerable interest was attracted by a paper of H. L. Williams, Polymer Corp., Ltd., reporting extensive studies by this Canadian organization to determine the effectiveness of alternative activators in the 41° F. polymerization process. I n these studies, the pyrophosphate was replaced with various organic compounds capable of forming complexes with iron. Ethylencdinitrotetraacetic acid was true most effective agent tested. Improvement of the processing qualities of cold rubber through use of apCHEMICAL
proximately 1.0% of an aromatic mcrcaptan was reported b y E. I·.·. Stangor and R . R. Radclifï of Du Pont, difficulties in processing have been one of the drawbacks rubber compounders have had to face in the low-temperature chemical rubbers, and progress in this direction will be a further advance toward a status for low-temperature synthetic rubber comparing favorably with, natural rubber in every respect. A packed audience in the grand ballroom of the Statler Hotel, meeting headquarters, applauded the awarding of the Charles Goodyear Medal vO Harry L. Fisher for his research achievements in the field of rubber chemistry and technology. John T. Blake, Simplex Wire and Cable Co.. reviewed the medalist's work in development of rubber-based adhesives and resins, and i n vulcanization of rubber with agents other than sulfur, as two outstanding examples of the imaginative and productive character of fiis achievements. Dr. Fisher's medal address reviewed IT. S. research in rubber which, to judge by publications in the scientific journals, had barely started as recently as 25 years ago. The tremendous increase in research publication since that time was traced through the statistics of Chemical Abstracts listings, and the replacement of natural by synthetic rubber in research emphasis in recent years was brought o\\\. Dr. Fisher then called attention to the frequent previous pleas for formation of a rubber research institute in which fundamental studies could b e carried out benefiting the entire industry. He added his strong support to the early realization of this long-sought objective. Another highlight of the banquet meeting, which was attended b y many of the wives of the division members, was ;ui address by Gen. George O. Kenney of the Air Force. Gen. Kenney gave a most impressive picture of tlie changes that are implied in application, of modem technology to warfare. T h e most thought-provoking portion of General F. W. Stavely, Firestone, and chairman-elect of rubber division
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Kenney's address was specific enumeration of the technical developments now being looked for in forwarding of the national security program. Improved materials ~ of construction in many cases would permit fundamental performance advances. Cited were desired new piston materials, which would permit doubled fuel efficiency from 25 to 5 0 % if several hundred degrees of temperature could be tolerated. Needs for faster fire rates in machine guns (present muzzle veloci-
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ties need to be greatly increased and rate of fire needs to- be doubled from present 3,400 feet per second and 1,200 rounds per minute, respectively) will be required to cope with aircraft at near-sonic speeds, and such increases call for materials withstanding erosio-n and high temperatures during firing. Six tons could be stripped from the weight of a B-29 if fire-resistant rubber coatings on fuel tanks could b e eliminated. "We desperately need a fuel that does not burn except in the engine
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Harry Lion Fisher IXAILROAD cars do n o t run o n rubber
tires. In spite of this, railroading played an important role in shaping the background and youth of Harry Linn Fisher, the recipient of the second Charles Goodyear Medal of the Division of Rubber Chemistry of the AMEBIC AN CHEMICAL· SOCIETY for out-
standing achievement in the field of rubber chemistry. To begin with, his father was the engineer, who in 1883, took the first locomotive from Kingston, IN. Y., to Weehawken, N. J., along tne tracks of the old New Y^ork, West Shore and Buffalo Railroad. Although an interest in science dominated the early years of Fisher's life, there were times when the industry that rolls o n ribbons of steel almost captured a man who was later t o contribute much to the industries that roll on rings of rubber. Fisher was born on Jan. 19, 1885, in Kingston, Ν". Υ., the second of a family of five boys. As with many successful scientists i t is hard for him to recall that point in his youth when a trend toward the approach scien tific made itself felt. Perhaps it first dawned in a noble but fruitless at tempt to grow a "supermouse in a cigar box." Journalism also held a momentary charm for the young experimenter and upon graduation from high school, he studied shorthand i n prepa ration for a reportorial career. Al though he never became a full fledged member of t h e fourth estate, his mastery of shorthand still serves him well a t conferences and meetings. Fisher firmly believes that a n ability to use the contorted little worm-like symbols of Pitman and Gregg should be part of t h e training of every scientist. Two jobs in the interval of 19011903 as a messenger boy a t Swann and Finch and the Gorham Manufac turing Co., the latter at $4.00 a week, holidays included, financed the steno-
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graphic courses. Upon their comple tion, he became a stenographer in the offices of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad where he remained until the West Shore R.R., so familiar in his youth, beck oned him. to a similar position. In 1904, howev&r, h e realized that a career of pencil and notebook was not for him a n d a college education seemed desiraJble. Fisher's three years of employment after graduation from high school necessitated his taking a year of re fresher work a t t h e Dwight Prepara tory School i n New York t o prepare himself for Williams, the college of his choice. This accomplished, he entered Williams in the fall of 1905 and busied himself by majoring in a course in the classics. This interest in esthetic pursuits, which he has retained throTigh the years, Fisher attributed to an inheritance from his great-grandfather, Alonson Fisher, a distinguished portrait painter. The track -team and the debating society constituted Fisher's major ex tracurricular activities and an avid interest i n courses in mathematics kept alive a scientific inclination that was otherwise^ smothered by Cicero. et al. In his junior year, however, a dormant bud of chemistry burst forth in full bloom and Fisher's life long path of s^tudy was oriented once and for all. Upon the receipt of his B.A. from Williams in L909, Fisher obtained a university scholarship at Columbia where he studied under Marston T. Bogert. In 1910, he received his M.A. which was followed b y a Ph.D. in 1912. I n his last year of graduate study he served a s an instructor at the Cornell University Medical Col lege in New York. The completion of his graduate work brought with it an offer to stay at Columbia as a n instructor which he did until L919. During this time,
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—that does not constitute the combat and crash fire hazard that we have now," stated the speaker. " Warfare has become more and more a battle of machines, with developing and directing the use of those machines. W e must have progress or run the risk that our country as w e know it will cease t o exist." Major social outing of the meeting was a clambake, limited to a sellout crowd of 500, and held a t the Hotel Eockmere a t Marblehead.
be conducted several of the early in vestigations into the chemistry of rubber and resins. Just a s today, however, the end of World War I brought with it a n acceleration of industrial research and a n added al lure on the part of industry for young academicians. Fisher accepted a re search position with t h e Goodrich Rubber Co. i n Akron, Ohio, where he stayed until he joined t h e staff of the U. S. Rubber Co. in New York. In 1936, his researches on chemicals for compounding with rub ber came to the attention of the U . S. Industrial Chemicals Co .-Air Reduction Sales Co. and he was ap pointed their director of organic chemical research. His know-how in rubber research and administrative ability were called on during World War II by the poly mer research branch of the Office of Rubber Director. His services were highly regarded and he is still con sulted on occasion by the Rubber Reserve, particularly on problems of basic research. Dr. and Mrs. Fisher (nee Nellie Edna Andrews), whom he married in 1910, have three children. Helen, the eldest, is a foreign correspondent for the United Press stationed in Zurich, Switzerland. Ruth, the sec ond oldest, is Mrs. Francis B . Rosevear. Robert Andrews Fisher, the third of the Fishers' children, received his A.B. from Columbia in 1941 and works for the Fleischmann Research Laboratories i n New York. Fisher is a member of t h e AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, in which he has
held many local section positions, and served as chairman of i t s rubber di vision. In 1941, he was chosen Edgar Marburg lecturer of the Society for Testing Materials. Color photography, hiking, and mountain climbing are the major avocations of the principal of this biography. There are times, how ever, when these, entrenched as they are, must permit time for a perusal of a Homeric verse or a Mogul loco motive.
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