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Correspondence BELGIAN LETTER In answer to the kind invitation of the JOURNAL CHEMICAL EDUCATION, I am pleased to submit to this honorable Review a first article. My purpose is to keep the American reader in touch with chemical manifestations in Belgium. I should feel honored if I might interest American readers in the development of one branch of our small country's activities. To begin with, we shall consider two phases: (1) the teaching of chemistry in Belgium and (2) the laboratory. We inform the reader that this first communication must take the form merely of a general survey, especially as concerns the teaching of chemistry, which we shall only outline. We shall find many opportunities in the future to return to this subject when examining in full the details on some particular point. The Teaching of Chemistry in Belgium There are in Belgium five high schools, two state universities (Ghent and Liege), two free universities (Brussels and Louvain), and the MinesSchool of Mons. To these institutions must be added the special engineering schools, bestowing the degrees of Civil Mining Engineer, Civil Building Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, etc., and Chemical Engineer (four years' study). The Mines-School of Mons confers the degree of Metallurgical Engineer. Another course of study leads to the degree of Doctor of Chemical Science (four years). The doctor of chemical science is particularly versed in pure chemistry, in laboratory technic, and in analysis; while the chemical engineer specializes in higher mathematics, the last two years of his course being devoted to the study of machines, properties of materials, and electricity, together with chemical theory and laboratory practice. One can easily trace the diierence between the two courses of study. T h e doctor of .chemic:al science will turn his steps towards the research laboratory and the chemkal engineer towards 'the manufacturing plant, where he will soon be able to act both as laboratory chief and as manufacturing chief. Aside from laboratory work, practical training in the Belgian universities consists only in plant inspections and sometimes a short period in a workshop or mine. In this the Belgian method differs essentially from the American. Together with the high schools already mentioned, there exist some
schools which prepare chemical technicians-industrial analysts, small manufacturing chiefs, etc. These schools are private ones or schools subsidized by the provinces.
The Laboratory Oficial Laboratories.-The most important government laboratory is the State-Railway's which has the mission of examining and receiving the materials supplied to this department. There are two principal sections at the Railway's laboratory, or "Bauc d'Epreuves de l'Etat," situated at Mecheln-the mechanical and the chemical testing sections. The mechanical testing section is very well supplied with tools for traction, flexure, torsion, and pressure experiments. Everyday tests are made of hardness, impact strength (rCsistance aux chocs), and alternate exertion (efforts alterues). A whole set of very ingenious registering dynamometers are employed in traction tests, tests on tissues, threads, papers, leathers, etc. The test pieces are made at the said Railway's laboratory, under the control and responsibility of the Test-Chief. A room of tool machines is provided with saws, precision lathe, filing vices, milling machines, drilling machines, etc., for the making and fitting of the test pieces, as also for the repairing of the test machines. Since 1919, to the mechanical testing laboratory is adjoined a metallographic section equipped with a Le Chtitelier metallographic apparatus, a Chevenard dilatometer, and some optical apparatus. The metallographic examinations are more and more useful, as they allow the speedy determination of the degree of carburation of a sample, its thermic treatment, the state of temper, the homogeneity of a metal, etc. These tests are actually performed nearly every day a t Mecheln. The chemical laboratory controls the analysis of every kind of material: metal, cement, lime, refractory products, oil, paint, varnish, etc. ;in a word, of every product susceptible of being an article of purchase by the Railway Direction. There are always various kinds of articles to be examined simultaneously at this laboratory, such as steel, varnish, ink, sealing-wax, papers, etc. Of course, each chemist's work is limited to less varied experiments, but there often arise cases outside of ordinary routine which must be solved quickly. To conclude, a very important service is the mechanical testing of building materials (cements, limes, sand, stones, bricks). The State laboratory issued on this subject a "cahier des charges" (conditions of contract) which served for a long time as pattern for the other countries. The electrical tests of machines and materials are made at Brussels in a special laboratory. There exists also, at Brussels, a laboratory specially supPlied with apparatus for tests on combustibles. This Vely important
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group of laboratories appertaining to the Railway's Minister does not work for the government only; it also constitutes a controlling service perfoming many tests for private manufactories. Furthermore, there are numerous official laboratories-Food Products Control; Fertilizer Control; Province and Town laboratories, etc., but generally these laboratories are less important and their supply of equipment is strictly limited to the kind of work in which they specialize. We will only mention the university laboratories. They are adapted to their exclusive purposes, and offer,generally, spacious and well-equipped places to students. On these points the new laboratories of the Brussels University are models of their kind. Having been erected since the war, they have all the improvements that could be wished, and their equipment will permit the pursuit of every study which chemical problems should necessitate. Industrial Laboratories.-There is some progress since the war; before that chemical manufactories, even big ones, had no laboratories. Manufacturing control was often camed on in an empiricalway. Lots of manufactories based their work on experience, leaving to chance improvements and inventions. During the last few years there has been a complete change of method. The laboratory is now the manufactory's help, not an isolated one asked occasionally for advice, but a real instrument of control; the laboratory now makes part of the manufactory. We cannot yet generalize this good result but there exist in Belgium some industrial laboratories which are quite remarkable and we propose in a following article to introduce our American brethren into them. F. LAMBERMONT, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Chemical Engineer, A . I. G
L'PRACTICALCHEMISTRY BY MICRO-METHODS" Thank you very much for the copy of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL
EDUCATION, which I found most interesting. I notice that in the article on p. 876' on "Practical Methods for Beginners," by H. A. J. Pieters, the author advocates the increasing use of micro-methods by which the laboratory can effect a substantial saving in money with consequently decreased fees for the students. It might interest the readers of your JOURNAL to know that there has recently been issued a small book entitled "Practical 1 Tars JOUB.NAL, 3 (August, 1926.)
