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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 A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
E. N. Horsford, Wolcott Gibbs, Sterry Hunt, Lawrence Smith, Carey Lea, Josiah P. Cooke, John W. Draper, Willard Gibbs and many others still living. PRESENT CONDITIONS OF CHEMISTRY I N AMERICA
Present conditions in America can be measured by the fact that the American Chemical Society alone has over seven thousand members, and the Chemists’ Club of New York has more than a thousand members, without counting the more specialized chemical organizations, equally active, such as the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Electrochemical Society and many others. During the later years, chemical research is going on with increasing vigor, more especially in relation to chemical problems presented by enterprises, which, a t first sight, seem rather remote from the so-called chemical industry. RESEARCH IN AMERICA
But the most striking symptom of newer times is t h a i some wealthy men of America are rivaling each other in the endowment of scientific research on a scale never undertaken before, and that the scientific departments of our ,Government are enlarging their scope of usefulness at a rapid rate. But we are merely a t the threshold of that new era where we shall learn better t o use exact knowledge and efficiency to bring greater happiness and broader opportunities to all. However imposing may appear the institutions founded by the Nobels, the Solvays, the Monds, the Carnegies, the Rockefellers and others, each of them is only a puny effort in comparison with what is bound to come when governments do their full share. For instance, the Rockefeller Institute is spending, to good advantage, about half a million dollars per annum for medical research, but the chewing-gum bill of the United States alone would easily support half a dozen Rockefeller Institutes; and what a mere insignificant little trickle all these research funds amount to, if we have the courage to compare them to that powerful gushing stream of money which yearly drains the war budget of all nations. I n the meantime, the man of science is patient and continues his work steadily, if somewhat slowly, with the means hitherto a t his disposal. His patience is inspired by the thought that he is not working for today, but for tomorrow. He is well aware that he is still surrounded by too many “men of yesterday,” who delay the results of his work. EFFICIENCY V S . WASTE
Sometimes, however, he may feel discouraged that the very efficiency he has succeeded in reaching a t the cost of so many
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painstaking efforts, in the economical production of such an article of endlessly possible uses, as Portland Cement, is hopelessly lost many times over and over again, by the inefficiency, waste and graft of middlemen and political contractors, by the time it gets on our public roads, or in our public buildings. Sometimes the chaos of ignorant brutal waste which surrounds him everywhere may try his patience. Then again, he has a vision that he is planting a tree which will blossom for his children and will bear fruit for his grandchildren. In the meantime, industrial chemistry, like all other applications of science, has gradually called into the world an increasing number of men of newer tendencies, men who bear in mind the futcre rather than the past, who have acquired the habit of thinking by well-established facts, instead of by words, of aiming at efficiency instead of striking haphazard a t ill-defined purposes. Our. various engineering schools, our universities, are turning them out in ever-increasing numbers, and better and better prepared for their work. Their very training has fitted them out t o become the most broad-minded progressive citizens. PRIVATE GAIN OR PUBLIC SERVICE
However, their sphere of action, until now, seldom goes beyond that of private technical enterprises for private gain. And yet there is not a chemist, not an engineer worthy of the name, who would not prefer efficient, honorable public service, freed from party politics, t o a mere money-making job. But most governments of the world have been run for so long almost exclusively by lawyer-politicians, that we have come t o consider this as an unavoidable evil, until sometimes a large experiment of government by engineers, like the Panama Canal, opens our eyes to the fact that, after all, successful government is-first and last-a matter of efficiency, according to the principles of applied science. Was it not one of our very earliest American chemists, Benjamin Thompson, of Massachusetts, later knighted in Europe as Count Rumford, who put in shape the rather entangled administration of Bavaria by introducing scientific methods of government? APPLIED SCIENCE AND THE DESTINY OF NATIONS
Pasteur was right when one day, exasperated by the politicians who were running his .beloved France to ruin, he exclaimed: “ I n our century, science is the soul of the prosperity of nations and the living source of all progress. Undoubtedly, the tiring daily discussions of politics seem to be our guide. Empty appearances! What really lead us forward are a few scientific discoveries and their applications.”
CURRENT INDUSTRIAL NFWS B y M.
Vol. 6, No. 9
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L. HAMLIN
AMMONIUM CHLORIDE, A NEW BY-PRODUCT OF GAS WORKS, ETC. An article with this title, which appeared recently in the Chemische Zeitschrift, 13 (1914),I 17,explains why ammonium chloride, particularly, presents certain advantages today over ammonium sulfate as a by-product and describes the general method of manufacture. Among the reasons for manufacturing the chloride rather than the sulfate, are, jirst, the fact that there is a market for the pure chloride, second, the fact that in the condensates from gas manufacture, ammonia is already present to, by far, the greatest extent as the chloride, and third, the possibility of an oversupply of ammonium fertilizer salts coming on the market in the future through the further development of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer processes. I n the manufacture of the pure product two chief results must be attained; the ammonia present otherwise than as the
chloride must be transformed, and impurities, chiefly organic, must be removed. For example, the liquor, containing perhaps 2 0 0 g. salt per liter, is acidified with hydrochloric acid and oxidized with an air current. Sulfur is filtered off and iron precipitated with ammonia. Ammonium sulfate is decomposed by sodium chloride after filtration and neutralization of excess ammonia, and the solution is evaporated to dryness. The residue is now sublimed, the ammonium chloride being thus separated from sodium sulfate and chloride, a small amount of phosphates and most of the organic impurities. Three fractions are collected in different parts of the apparatus: I-The residue consists chiefly of sodium chloride, sodium sulfate and finely divided carbon. ;-On the cover of the apparatus is deposited pure ammonium chloride. 3-In the helmet is found a small amount of the salt contaminated with organic impurities. Fraction 2 includes 90-95 per cent of the salt present; while i t is analytically pure, traces of organic substances
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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 A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
are present in sufficient amount to discolor it, and a recrystallization is necessary in order to obtain a pure white product of the highest grade. The method is patented and is controlled and being applied by the Berlin-Anhaltische Maschinenbau Aktien-Gesellschaf t. STOCKHOLM GAS-WORKS IN 1913 The gas production of the Stockholm Gas-Works in 1913 was 44,720,880 cubic meters (about 1580 million cubic feet) -an increase of 7. 54 per cent on the previous year. The average gross calorific value was 5150 calories (579 B. T. U.). There were carbonized 137,185 metric tons of coal, 11,500 cubic feet of gas being produced per ton. The gas consumption amounted to 44,649,180 cubic meters, or 7.34 per cent higher than in 1912. Of the whole amount, 9.96 per cent was used for public lighting, 84.94 per cent sold to consumers, 1.81 per cent used on the works, and 3.29 per cent unaccounted for. The consumption per head of the population was 123.8 cubic meters (4372 cubic feet). The meters in use increased by 4609 to 80,602, of which 32.74 per cent were prepayment. The number of flat-flame burners in use was 36,425, and incandescents 106,928. These data appear in the Jour. Gas Lighting and Water Sup., 127 (1914), 110, which goes on to say that satisfactory increases were shown in all domestic gas-consuming apparatus, and gas-engines decreased in number, while increasing considerably in horsepower. .The price of gas is about $0.7j per 1000 cubic feet, with discounts of 5 and IO per cent for larger consumers.
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CARBON MONOXIDE AND NITRIC OXIDE FROM HEATING AND LIGHTING BURNERS The Journal f u r Gasbeleuchtung for the 27th of June and the 11th of July contained a communication by Dr. E. Terres on researches which he has carried out, with collaborators, a t the Chemical-Technical Institute of the Technical College a t Carlsruhe. He has investigated the proportion of carbon monoxide and nitric oxide in the gas-flames of both lighting and heating burners, with the object of throwing further light on the hygiene of flame methods of lighting. The products of combustion examined included those from both inverted and upright incandescent gas-burners, the petroleum lamp and the candle, and heating gas-burners. The work on the inverted burner is especially interesting, as it has not hitherto been investigated from this standpoint. The general conclusions a t which the author arrives are: I-All flames give a very trifling proportion of carbon monoxide of approximately the same order as to quantity in all cases, viz., 0.002 to 0.004 volume of carbon monoxide per volume of carbonic acid. With insufficiency of primary air, this figure may rise to 0.017 to 0.020 volume. 2-All flames likewise give a quite uniform, but quite trifling, proportion of nitric oxide, viz., 0.0006 to 0.0017 volume of nitric oxide per volume of carbonic acid. j-The products of combustion with town gas containing the usual quantity of sulfur will have o.ooo2j to O.OOIZ volume of sulfur dioxide per volume of carbonic acid. The concentration of all these gases, even if the carbonic acid reaches I per cent by volume of the air, is, therefore, f a r . below the limit which authorities on hygiene regard as likely to be injurious to health. Experiments in a room of I 700 cubic feet capacity without special ventilation showed that, owing to natural ventilation, a proportion of 0.5 to 0.75 per cent of carbonic acid could only rarely be attained in a dwelling-room lighted by gas.
OIL IN AUSTRALIA Considerable attention is being paid to prospecting for oil deposits in South Australia, and to radioactive ores. Licenses
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to search for oil have been granted, and bores are being put down in the southern part of Kangaroo Island, the southwest of Eyre Peninsula, and in the southeast. [Engineering (London), 98 (1914), 71.1 The Government has offered a bonus of $~O,OOO for the first IOO,OOO gallons of crude petroleum containing not less than 90 per cent of products obtainable by distillation. CANADIAN COAL According to Engineering (London), 98 (1914), 64, the coal of the Bellz River formation and the Edmonton formation in Canada grades between lignites and bituminous. The coal which belongs to the Bellz River horizon is found over an area of about 25,000 square miles; of this area 5000 square miles are estimated to contain 13,000,000,000 tons of coal. The amounts of coal contained in the two provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan have been estimated a t ~o.ooo,ooo,oootons and ~,ooo,ooo,ooo tons, respectively. The principal coal-mines within this area in Alberta are near Lethbridge Taber and Lund Creek. The coal of the Edmonton formation is generally lignites, but in the foothills it grades up to bituminous. The total area of workable coal has been estimated a t 12,800 square miles, with a probable coal content of 71,000,000,000 tons. The principal coal-mines within this area are near Edmonton. The coal-fields of Saskatchewan are situated in the southern portion of the province, and extend from the boundary of Alberta on the west to the Manitoba boundary on the east. The area underlaid by coal is estimated a t 5,500 square miles, containing in all about 18,ooo,ooo,ooo tons of lignite. BRITISH COAL EXPORTS IN THE FIRST HALF OF 1914 The exports of coal from the United Kingdom in the first half of this year-the expression “coal” including coke and patent fuel-amounted to 36,146,907 tons, and when to this is added coal shipped for the use of steamers engagedin foreign trade, the aggregate for six months becomes 46,329,064 tons. [Engineering (London), 98 (rg14), 123.1 Coal has accordingly been leaving England this year a t the rate of 92,658,128 tons per annum. The corresponding movement in the corresponding period of 1913 was a t the rate of 94,270,348 tons per annum, and in the corresponding period of 1912 a t the rate of 70,44j,222 tons per annum. The principal exports to June 30, this year, were: Russia, 2,009,789 tons; Sweden, 1,800,093 tons; Norway, 1,247,501 tons; Denmark, 1,389,j j 1 tons; Germany, 4,202,651 tons; France, 6,818,125 tons; Spain, 1,756,681 tons; Italy, 4,533,077 tons; Egypt, 1,636,842 tons; and the Argentine Republic, 1,825,940 tons. THE ALTIOR PROCESS OF DIE-CASTING The National Alloys, Limited, Ilford, London, E., have recently brought out an improved process of die-casting for aluminum alloys, which possesses several interesting features. It is described in a recent issue of Engineering (London) 98 (1914), 131. The process is for use with aluminum alloys of a specific gravity of 2.85. The alloy recommended is ivanium, which has a tensile strength of 1 2 tons, and 6 per cent elongation on 2 in. This alloy is guaranteed not to disintegrate, and it is not affected by sea-water, etc. The casting machine has a gas-heated melting-pot lined with refractory material and provided with a cover. Extending from the cover to within a short distance of the bottom of the pot is a tube of refractory material connecting with a neck-piece fixed above the cover and surrounded by a burner. ilbove this neck-piece is fixed a plate, to which the bottom half of the die is fastened. The plate, which is hinged and can be thrown back by a worm and spur-gear, also carries the standards and cross-frame for a large vertical quick-pitch screw, to which the upper part of the die is fastened. Between the lower die-plate and the neck is a
