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T H E JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
several colleges and universities and technical schools have been active centers, aided by several commercial laboratories. When one chemist does a really good piece of work, all chemists and the science are directly benefited. If the work is poor, all suffer. We quote from the Association’s announcement : The service is equipped to answer inquiries on the fundamental processes employed in manufacturing operations, such as steam generation, water softening, lubrication, heating, drying of materials, filtration, distillation, evaporation, dyeing, etc., and to supply members with knowledge which will be of material aid in solving problems of construction, the properties of building materials, the selection of the more important types of equipment for certain operations, the erection of machinery, and the like. It is also in a position to direct members to sources of information on technical subjects and to places where materials or equipment can be obtained to the best advantage. This is an encouraging sign which should be brought to the attention of business organizations everywhere.
I s a Commercial War between Chemists and Business Men Coming? The United States to-day abounds in chemical knowledge. If the business men do not utilize it properly, the chemists themselves will. Chemical advice, dearly purchased and highly praised during the war, is now being shelved and disregarded. Perhaps it is only a coincidence that at the same time trade is stagnant, and our hold on foreign markets dwindling. Hundreds of chemists, vainly looking for positions, will probably be forced to engage in business for themselves. Thus fate may push them into good fortune, and the skeptical business men out of it, All further talk about the good that chemists can do for manufacturers is wasted. A baker, refusing to take advantage of chemical knowledge, may some day wake up to find that a chemist has opened a bakery shop on the other side of the street. It may easily happen that he will be convinced and bankrupted at the same time. Chemical knowledge, like many other desirable goods, will not be bought by the public unless it is sold to them. Triumphant competition may eventually be the slogan of a successful although painful selling campaign. The kind of goods that sells on merit only, without selling effort, is yet to be found, Chemists have relied entirely on the merit of their goods, and have not sold them; manufacturers have refused to believe that anything not advertised on billboards can have merit. As a result, both sides have suffered severely. Chemists, inclusive of college teachers, need to learn that even an all-wool suit will not sell if a dealer puts it into a dark basement. Most chemists spend their lives advising manufacturers how to make money. Kapoleon was an adviser to two helpless generals at the siege of Toulon, and, while he kept on advising, Toulon held out. One day, Paris instructed Napoleon to take charge, whereupon he carried out his own advices and Toulon fell. If chemists have as much faith in their advice as they claim they have, they will stop fretting and fuming about the incompetence of business men; they will start to compete with the business men and show them how. The business nien may have t o worry about this, but the public will not. They will get their goods better, cheaper, and more uniform than ever before. OTTOEISENSCHIML
Vol. 14, No. 5
Distribution of Chemists Data compiled by the Association of Harvard Chemists throw light upon the distribution of a typical group of men who have concentrated in chemistry while a t that institution. The data are based upon letters sent to 950 men, of whom 628 replied. An analysis of the returns shows that 157 of these men are teaching in various colleges, three having reached the grade of president; 38 are teaching in high schools; 40 are graduate students in chemistry; 35 have become physicians and surgeons; 43 are in the employ of the Government; 103 are executives in commercial chemistry; 159 are commercial chemists; and 41 in purely commercial work. In the latter class we find 15 in accounting and finance, 4 in manufacturing and sales other than chemistry, 5 editors and publishers, 9 patent attorneys, and 1 governor of state. Classification of executives in commercial chemistry is as follows: 15 presidents, 10 vice presidents, 4 secretaries, 5 treasurers, 23 managers, 23 superintendents, 8 assistant superintendents, 2 chemical foremen, 3 purchasing agents , 8 sales managers, and 2 salesmen. Among other things, the above figures indicate the diversity of work which a chemical training makes possible. We believe that if similar figures were available for men who specialized in other sciences, it would be found that chemistry is in an enviable position.
The Earning Power of Research Aside from chemical control in making the very dense and brilliant lead glass blanks used in making cut glass, chemistry formerly had little to do with producing the finished product. All operations were mechanical. Patterns were marked out on the blank, and steel wheels, with mitered edges and armed with trickling sand and water, were used to make the deep cuts and the finer tracery. Stone wheels next smoothed the roughly cut surfaces. Wooden wheels with pumice and water gave an approach to a polish, and finally rapidly revolving brushes with putty powder (tin oxidc) gave the high finish. The men who operated these four types of apparatus were all highly skilled and highly paid. About 1895 attempts were made to utilize the action of hydrofluoric acid on glass, in order to eliminate the two final processes almost entirely. Many difficulties were encountered by the chemists who attempted to control this reaction. Finally, however, they were overcome, and one or two men can now polish the output of a large factory, permitting the laying off of perhaps forty highly paid workers and the belling to the public of fino cut glass ware at much less than it could otherwise be marketed. As in all such cases the advance is hard, for the time being, on the men laid off, but they eventually do something else for the world, and society in general benefits from the advance. FRANK l3. WADE
When Muscle Shoals is ieased, it will be in order to make an all-American fertilizer. Phosphoric acid by electric furnace methods from supplies of phosphate rock near at hand suggests itself. American potash is seeking a market. Nitrates will be made on the spot. Such a scheme for a concentrated complete ferhilizer sounds feasible, and an allAmerican fertilizer surely has advertising possibilities.
