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T H E J O U R N A L O F I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y Vol.
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TABLE VI1 Tons of Garbage Grease Recovered in 12 Cities for the 2 Years M a y 1917-April 1918 and X a v 1916-Auril 1917 TONS OF GARBAGE TONSOF GREiSE REC< SVERED PERCENTAGE OF GRRASE CITY Population . . . . . . f81,628(a) Boston, Mass.. ... Buffalo. N. Y. ... 468,558 Chicago I11 . . . . . . . . . 2,497,722 Cleveladd, Ohio.. 674,073 Columbus, Ohio.. 220,000(a) 155,00O(a) Dayton, Ohio. . . . . . .. . . . . . Indianapolis, I n d . . . . . . . . . . 271,758 118,158 New Bedford, Mass. ....... Pittsburch. Pa.. ..... 579,090 Philadelphia, P a . . . . . . . . . . . 1,709,518 Schenectady, N. Y . . . . . . . . 105,000 Wilmington, Del.. . . . . . . . . . 94,265
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...... ... ..... .. .. .. .. ..
......
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May 1917Auril 1918 46,335 15,382 93,235 55,466 17,295 15,677 19,929 8,774 72,612 114,160 4,111 18.986
May 1916ADril 1917 52,650 21,817 124,496 59,708 20,393 16,621 23,267 10,162 73,758 101,678 4,419 14.187
M a y 1917- May 1916April 1918 April 1917
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Relative M a y 1917- May 1916- Relative Figure April 1918 April 1917 Figure,@) 65 3.02 4.06 74 63 2.03 2.26 90 58 1.77 2.30 77 78 2.55 3.05 84 3.13 55 2.04 65 2.13 70 1.59 75 57 2.27 67 3.40 74 2.26 2.65 85 73 2.14 2.87 75 1.03 101 1.14 90 2.04 2.04 93 100 0.65 0.25 53 38
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Totals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.684.77 1 481,962 523,156 8,906 12,843 70 1.85 2.45 76 Pondation 1918 Reiative figure expressing the monthly collection for the present year as a percentage of t h a t of the same morith last year; that is, relative figtires under 100 mean smaller collections and figures over 100 mean larger collections
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comparatively few cities have municipal reduction plants and are able t o furnish statistics of grease recovery. Such data as i t has been possible t o collect are exhibited in Table VII. The arrangement is the same as that of the earlier tables in this paper. The data of Table VI1 show in the clearest manner the remarkable effect of the conservation campaign. The 1 2 cities show a reduction of 30 per cent in the gross tonnage of grease recovered from garbage in 1917-18 as compared with 1916-17. The average percentage of grease in the garbage dropped from 2.45 to I .85. The figures demonstrate that not only was there a quantitative conservation of food affected during the last year, but also, and even more important, there was a proportionally much greater qualitative conservation. There must have been in these 12 cities a very great reduction in the amount of meats and fats going into the garbage can. The two cities showing the greatest qualitative food conservation, as indicated in garbage statistics, were Columbus, Ohio, and Wilmington, Del., with relative figures of j j and 53, respectively. In these two cities the garbage in 1917-18 contained only a little more than half as much fatty material in 1917-18 as in 1916-17. This is truly a remarkable record. Putting all the data together, it appears that, in so far as the sampling of cities may be considered representative of the urban portion of the country as a whole, there has been a substantial conservation of food by the American people during the past year. A reduction of I O per cent in the gross tonnage of garbage, and of 30 per cent in the tonnage of fat recovered can only have been accomplished by a real and widespread saving and utilization of food materials which ordinarily go into the garbage can. SCHOOL OF HYGIENEAND PUBLIC HEALTH JOHNS HOPKINSUNIVGRSITY
MD. BALTIMORE,
COTTON OIL INDUSTRY IN THE WAR’ By DAVIDWESSON
Many things have been turned upside down by the war. The cottonseed industry is one of them. Before the war there was a constant competition between the oil mills for seed. Money was advanced to seed buyers, and the seed, in many instances, was accepted containing large quantities of foreign matter, which had to be taken and paid for or else the mills would shut down. . Since the Food Administration has become very much interested in the value of the products of the cottonseed for supplying this country and our Allies with food and ammunition materials, they have taken the industry under control and established a department of the Food Administration in Washington dealing specially with cottonseed products. Before the war, if oil mill men got together and decided they could pay a certain price for the seed, they were sent to jail 1 Presented a t the 56th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Cleveland, September 12, 1918.
under the anti-trust laws of the various states. If the refiners of the crude oil who made their product into lard compounds got together and attempted t o regulate the prices of their products in order that there might be some profit left in the business, they violated the anti-trust laws and were a p t to find Canada or some foreign clime far more salubrious than the good old U. S. A. Now all of this is changed. The oil mill men go down to Washington and with the Food Administration agree on a price which they can afford to pay for cottonseed. They also agree with the Food Administration on a suitable price to charge for their oil, meal, and hulls. The Government tells them how much oil, meal, hulls, and linters they should produce per ton of seed. The prices are arranged so that the manufacturer, working with ordinary good management, should make a profit. The agreement is, in a sense, a gentleman’s agreement, and there is no law against breaking it, but all the manufacturers are licensed and if they should break the agreements they would lose their licenses. The effect of this arrangement is to stabilize prices and to secure the largest possible production. The approximate yields per ton of seed are a t present:
................................. ............................... .............................. Linters., .......................... Oil Meal Hulls
4 1 t o 43 gal. 9601bs. .480 Ibs. ,145 Ibs.
Before the war 40 or j o lbs. of linters were considered a reasonably good yield, while the hulls used to be about 600 Ibs. per ton. Although the title “Cotton Oil Industry in War” was selected the words “Vegetable Oil Industry” would have been fully as appropriate, because a t the present time cottonseed oil represents approximately only about two-thirds of the oils handled in the plants, which were originally started to crush cottonseed and refine its products. I n 1900 this country crushed 2,480,000 tons of seed, costing $ 1 1 . 5 5 per ton, and produced products worth $42,412,000. During the crushing season just passed about 4,200,000 tons of seed were handled, for which was paid $65 per ton, and the combined value of the products was in the neighborhood of $400,000,000, or about ten times as great as in 1900. The cotton oil industry proper gives the country from the seed about 3,200,000 barrels of edible oil, 2,000,000 tons oE cake and meal, I,OOO,OOOtons of hulls used as cattle feed, and 280,000 tons of linters which furnish much of the cellulose for the manufacture of explosives. I n refining the oil there are obtained 192,000 barrels of fatty acids used in the soap industry, and last, but not least, about 3,800,000 lbs. of glycerin used in the manufacture of explosives. The great muscular activity of the men in the armies and those in the iron and steel and shipbuilding industries calls for a great amount of food which will furnish energy. This is largely supplied by edible fats and oils. Before the war the dairy, the cotton oil industry, and the packing houses furnished a normal
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T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L
supply for this country and exported considerable to Europe. Since the war has started, between short crops of Sotton and the big demand for edible fats, materials other than cottonseed oil have been drawn upon to keep up the supply. 1111 told, something like I ,700,000 barrels of vegetable oils were imported during the year either as oil or in the form of oil seeds such as copra, peanuts, sesame, and soy beans. Coconut oil has entered the country largely as copra and much of it has been crushed in cottonseed oil mills. Peanut oil has been imported in large quantities from the Orient and has also been crushed
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from the peanuts grown in the South and West. The refined oils have gone largely into butter substitutes, some into lard, and some into soap. Besides furnishing the best edible oils, lard, butter substitutes, cattle feed, cellulose for explosives, soap material, and glycerin to aid the war, the cotton oil industry is furnishing men from its mills, and the places of many of the men are being taken by women. THESOUTHERN COTTONOIL COXPANY 120 BROADWAY, N E W YORK C I T Y
THE BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE ITS RELATIONS TO AMERICAN CHEMICAL lNDUSTRY Papers presented before the N e w York Section, American Chemical Society2 October 11, 1918
GOVERNMENT TRADE-BUILDING INFORMATION By
CHAUKCEV DEPEW S N O W
S.Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce I n my work in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce since the outbreak of the European war I have had more to do with business men connected with the chemical industry than with those connected with any other American industry. Back in 1914 and 1915, when I had just returned from an official visit of observation in Germany, it was dyestuff manufacturers, prospective dyestuff manufacturers, or chemists chiefly interested in dyestuffs, who most frequently came to the Bureau. In the three years following business men connected with every branch of the chemical industry and the chemical equipment industries have had some occasion to deal with the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. The detailed analysis of import statistics of dyestuffs which was made for the Bureau and the chemical industry by Dr. Thomas Norton, combined with his reports on atmospheric nitrogen and some minor Bureau contributions on particular sides of the chemical industry, put this government bureau in the minds of a great many men in the industry. The success of the dyestuff census led to the request by your Society for a survey of all chemical imports. Your Society, unlike many of the others, backed its convictions by raising funds to help cover the expense of the inquiry, so the Bureau was glad to pitch right into the ~ 0 r on k such a survey. Dr. Pickrell will tell you more about that a little later. Naturally the fact that the Bureau was engaged in this study has had a tendency to interest others of your members in our work and visits to the Bureau by your members have been even more frequent. Not long ago these visits from chemists and others interested in chemicals became so numerous that the Chief of the Bureau remarked it would soon become necessary in our examination requirements for Bureau positions to specify a knowledge of chemistry . Your committee has requested me t o tell here to-night what the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce has to offer to the American chemical industry. As a t present organized the Bureau came into existence in 1912 by Congressional action consolidating the Bureau of Manufactures and the Bureau of Statistics. The Bureau of Manufactures had been charged by law with the duty of fostering, promoting, and developing the manufacturing industries of the United States. The Bureau of Statistics had been charged with collecting and publishing the statistics of imports and exports and tonnage of the United States. Since the consolidation, Congress has laid all the emphasis on trade and the promotion of manufacturing industry by means of promoting trade. The appropriations for the Bureau have been made primarily with a view to enlarging our information about foreign markets. The great bulk of the work during these past six years has been the promotion of the export trade of the United States. The appropriations have Assistant Chief, U.
related chiefly to the foreign field, and the Bureau has not been given any permanent organization for direct promotion of domestic commerce. In fact, the one little appropriation which we did have for collecting the statistics of the internal commerce of the United States was withdrawn. As matters stand to-day the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce is the official center of information for all questions pertaining to the movement of goods into the United States from abroad, the movement of goods from the United States t o foreign countries, and the movement of goods between the main block of territory of the Uiiited States and our non-contiguous territory. Further the Bureau is the chief source of information in this country concerning the trade, industries, and natural resources of foreign countries. We get the information concerning the outward and inward movements of goods in the United States, as most of you know, through the United States customhouses. Declarations of value and quantity are required for statistical purposes in coiinection with exports, as well as imports. Returns from the customhouses are made t o the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, which takes care of final compilation and publication of returns. Information concerning the trade, industries, and resources of foreign countries comes through a variety of channels. The Bureau receives the official statistics, official gazettes, principal trade papers, and other non-official publications, from practically every country and important colony on earth. There is a staff of trained readers, translators, and research statistical clerks working continuously on this incoming stream of printed matter from foreign countries. Then there is the large number of reports that are constantly coming from the American consular offices which dot the world. Even a t this time, when of course we have no consulates in Germany and the other enemy countries, we have over two hundred and fifty active consulates, and one hundred and fifty more consular agencies. A good many of our business men are apt to smile a t mention of the consular service, but the really wellinformed American business men who have had much contact with the consular service will tell you that it is a remarkably good organization. We need more consuls, and a larger staff in many of the existing consulates. The consuls have a multitude of duties, varying from really responsible representation of the Government to purely notarial functions. They are required to make commercial reports, both with regard t o general commercial conditions a t the places where they are stationed and with regard to market opportunities for the sale af American goods. The consuls have clearly defined local territories to cover in their reports. Some of our consuls are so pressed with other routine work that they are forced t o neglect these commercial matters. Others give perhaps the bulk of their time to commercial matters. During the last couple of years, since our entry into the war, the consuls have had so many additional duties imposed upon them that matters of trade information
