November 10, 1933
INDUSTRIAL
AND ENGINEERING
Doctor Wiley's Pure Food Law Brought Up to Date P. B. DUNBAR, United States Food and Drug Administration, Washington, D . C. HARVEY W.WILEYsaw the successful end of a struggle of many years when the federal food and drugs act became a law on June 30, 1906. That law has been effective in many ways. In the 27 years since its enactment more than 22,000 legal actions have been concluded. Today the greater part of our interstate food and drug trade meets the literal requirements of the law. It was impossible, however, for Doctor Wiley and his co-workers to foresee the changes in manufacturing, marketing, and sales technic which would develop in the ensuing years; nor could he anticipate interpretative court decisions restricting the application of the law to many existing abuses. That there are serious deficiencies in the statute has long been apparent, but the efforts of the Department of Agriculture to secure amendatory legislation have for the most part been unavailing. Now, however, the importance of a drastically revised law has received general recognition. President Roosevelt has ordered a complete revision of Doctor Wiley's famous "pure food law." The proposed new law, which retains all worthy features of the Wiley act, modernized to meet present-day conditions, has already been introduced in Congress by Senator Royal S. Copeland of New York. I t is identified as Senate Bill 1944 and will presumably come up for action early in the next session. Under the new bill, products like slenderizing compounds and curative devices are defined as "drugs." Hitherto, such products, although frequently harmful or fraudulent, have eluded control. Cosmetics are brought within the scope of the act. They were not an important item when the original law was passed, but the tremendous growth of the industry and the occasional appearance of highly dangerous cosmetics justifies their inclusion. There are other modern commercial developments which Doctor Wiley and his associates could not have foreseen in 1906. At that time manufacturers depended largely upon their labels to sell goods. Hence it seemed enough protection for consumers to require that labels tell the truth, without bringing other forms of advertising under control. The new bill prohibits false advertising through any medium whatever. It requires that labels be not only truthful but informative, so that consumers may know what they are getting and how they can use it with safety. Any other information necessary t o protect health can be required at the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture. Thus, it will be possible to demand that the label declare ingredients likely to cause allergic reactions. The new bill authorizes federal authorities to set up standards of quality and identity for all food products, and to establish safe tolerances or prohibitions for poisons in foods. If a food is subject to contamination through unsanitary methods of production, the Government is empowered, when the public health requires, to put the manufacturer under a license that will insure a wholesome product. To put a stop to fantastic curative claims for medicines it will be enough for the Government to show in court that a nostrum is worthless without having to prove, as now required, that the manufacturer knows it t o be worthless. The new law does not, as has been stated in some quarters, outlaw self-medication. If this were its purpose it is obvious that careful provisions to insure honest and informative labels and truthful advertising of medicinal products would not have been included. The Government will be legally able, under the Copeland measure, to stop the sale of highly potent drugs when their use as directed on the labels may be dangerous. Under the present law such products cannot be banned as long as they are not falsely labeled. More drastic penalties for violation, with injunctions against chronic offenders, promise more faithful observance of the law, and correspondingly greater protection for consumers. The Food and Drug Administration has prepared a remarkable collection of foods, drugs, and cosmetics illustrating abuses not now amenable to the Taw. This Chamber of Horrors, as the newspapers call it, can be seen at any of the field stations of the administration or at its Washington headquarters. The exhibit shows, for example, a radium water, distributed without the slightest restriction, which killed at least one user by the actual disintegrating effect of radium on the bones of the head. The label merely declares it a radium water. It was therefore entirely legal under the present law. Another exhibit shows a patent medicine offered for the treatment of diabetes at $12 a pint which is nothing but a water extract of a weed. It has no value in the treatment of diabetes, yet the Food and Drug Administration has collected dozens of death certificates of people who have trustingly used this worthless nostrum and died, as the certificates show, from diabetes. N o doubt their lives in many cases could have been saved by the use of insulin. In this case the Government proved the product to be worthless but could not prove that the manufacturer knew his claims were false. The nostrum is still on the market.
CHEMISTRY
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There are specimens of candy containing imbedded metallic prizes. With these are x-ray photographs of children, showing similar trinkets lodged in the throats. A federal court has held the present law without jurisdiction over such dangerous confections. One exhibit shows a slenderizing compound containing ingredients so dangerous that the health of many users has been wrecked. Another shows a depilatory containing the highly toxic chemical thallium acetate, which has poisoned hundreds of users. One of the most frightful exhibits snows the effects of a poisonous eyelash beautifier, "Lash Lure," which has actually destroyed or permanently impaired the eyesight of many women. There is no federal law covering poisonous slenderizers or cosmetics. These are just a few of the examples of public dangers that Senator Copeland's bill, S. 1944, will afford governmental authority to control. COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER CODE FOR CHEMISTS
PURSUANT to the vote of the Council at its meeting in Chicago, Ill., on September 13, 1933, President Lamb has appointed the following as the Committee to Consider and Report on the Need of a Code for Chemists: Carl S. Miner, Chairman, 9 South Clinton St., Chicago, Ill., R. T. Baldwin, G. J. Esselen, H. G. Knight, and J. M. Weiss. BREAKING INTO THE MARKET GREAT CENTERS become magnetic.
The star of the stage
shines brighter if his name can but be spelled in the bright lights of Broadway. The ambitious song bird is unhappy until heard in the Metropolitan. One after another a multitude of human efforts become concentrated in New York, one business outlasting others and new industries being created. With tremendous growth in financial power, there is further reason to be in, or to be represented in, the metropolis, and so growth begets growth. The resulting market becomes most attractive for its very size and power. It offers great possibilities, but it is also a difficult, complex one to enter. So many attempt it that something unusual is needed to command an audience. The Chemical Exposition provides such an unusual vehicle by which the exhibitor is conveyed under auspicious circumstances into this great center. The opportunity deserves that he do his very best, not only in displaying his wares, but in manning his exhibit. He must not only catch the attention of his prospective customer. He must manage to retain it. He must make it worth the customer's time and effort to further the new acquaintance. The prospective market in such a center, where 10 per cent of all our population can be found within a radius of less than 100 miles, is in itself great, but additional possibilities are even greater. Business from far and wide has some form of representation here. A manufacturing plant in California more than likely has its headquarters in New York, rather than on the Pacific Coast. Purchases are made in New York for great industries in South America, in Hawaii, and the remote parts of the world. Purchasing agents are attracted from Europe, and superintendents and executives come from plants scattered all over the North American Continent. Thus, without the exorbitant expense of a permanent or extravagant display or of a trained force calling upon prospects over a long period of time that the market may be covered, a manufacturer properly represented at the Chemical Exposition at once may impress the world's greatest buying center. He may establish contacts with those who buy for distant plants and make his products better known in foreign lands. Further, a carefully thought-out exhibit may well be made the starting point for a long period of effective advertising and sales effort. CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT OF CHEMICAL LABORATORIES THE DIVISION OF CHEMISTRY and Chemical Technology of the
National Research Council prepared, in 1930, a general treatise on the "Construction and Equipment of Chemical Laboratories," the aim of which was to supply data of general interest regarding the present status of chemical laboratory construction and equipment; chapters are included on laboratories for general, analytical, organic, physical, industrial, sanitary, and biological chemistry. This volume of 340 pages (cloth bound) originally sold for $1.00 through the Chemical Foundation. In order to close out the present limited stock, copies will be furnished as long a s available for 25 cents to cover the cost of postage and packing. Requests, with remittances, should be sent to the National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Ave., N . W., Washington, D. C.
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N E W S
GOVERNMENT COMPETITION IN COMMERCIAL TESTING Editor, News Edition Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: As A RESULT, presumably, of the general protest by the directors of commercial testing laboratories against what they have re garded as the unfair competition o f the Bureau of Standards in undertaking research and conducting analyses and tests for the general public upon a scale of charges which ignores those items of overhead cost which t h e commercial laboratories must meet, there has been already a reduction of these activities by more than 7 5 per cent with the immediate prospect of further curtail ment. This very satisfactory outcome must be attributed in large part t o the efforts of the Science Advisory Board appointed by President Roosevelt, a n d of w h i c h Karl Τ. Compton is chair man. As bearing upon t h e matter I a m glad t o ask you t o publish, with h i s permission, t h e following statement from Doctor Comp ton: Perhaps you will find opportunities t o allay the fears of your colleagues in the matter of unfair competition with consulting chemists. A s I see the picture at present all occasion f o r such f e a r is rapidly disappearing and most of it has vanished.
All chemists will join with other m e n of science in the hope that the elimination of t h e s e improper activities of the bureau will enlarge its opportunity for the conduct of those basic and essen tial activities for which t h e bureau was established. ARTHUR D . LITTLE CAMBRIDGE, M A S S . OCTOBER 19, 1933
REGULATIONS FOR THE TRANSPORT OF EXPLOSIVES AND
OTHER
DANGEROUS
ARTICLES
T H E INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, Bureau of Service,
under date of October 31 h a s issued proposed regulations, in one case for t h e transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles by freight, express, and rail, and in the other, revised regu lations covering the s a m e operations by water. These proposed regulations and amendments to regulations have been developed after conference and discussion which have l e d to substantial agree ment among all parties interested i n the proposed amendments. Unless objections are filed within t w e n t y clays of the date of issu ance, t h e commission w i l l consider t h e issuance of an order making the proposed regulations effective a n d m a y temporarily suspend action on t h e items t o which objections are filed, pending further consideration. These regulations a r e of a character that cannot be well abstracted a n d it i s assumed that a l l those directly inter ested will have received copies and that others wall obtain them from W m . P . Bartel, Director, Interstate Commerce Commission, Bureau of Service, Washington, D. C.
AlR-CONDITIONING FOR HEATING CONTRACTORS U N D E R T H E A U S P I C E S of its C o m i t t e e on Air-Conditioning,
the Heating, Piping, a n d Air-Conditioning Contractors National Association has recently completed a series of ten air-conditioning lessons. These lessons are published in three parts. Part one presents in simple form t h e fundamental information and en gineering data which the contractor needs in the development of the air-conditioning market. P a r t two deals with t h e making of an air-conditioning survey, t h e design and layout of airconditioning systems, and the selection o f equipment for use in summer cooling. P a r t three d e a l s with the apparatus and equipment which is available, methods of selling it, a n d h o w to operate and service air-conditioning systems. These three parts, consisting o f 194 pages, together w i t h a durable three-ring flexible imitation leather binder, are avail able for $5.00 b y request t o the Heating, Piping, and Air-Condi tioning Contractors N a t i o n a l Association, Rockefeller Center, 1250 Sixth Ave., New York, Ν. Υ . BY-PRODUCT SULFUR IN GERMANY REMOVAL OF HYDROGEN SULFIDE from g a s in the Ruhr district
costs about 1,500,000 marks annually. T h e I. G. Farbenindustrie h a s for some t i m e operated a sulfur reclamation plant at Merseburg, and subsequent to t h e inauguration of this plant the Thyssensche Gas- und Wasserwerke G . m. b. H., of DuisburgHamborn, and the Ruhrgas A.G., o f Essen, have erected sulfur recovery equipment. The Ruhrgas A. G . at the present time works from 13,000 to 15,000 metric tons o f gas purification mass, which, through the employment o f a special refining process developed b y t h e I. G . , is freed f r o m its sulfur content, which is conserved, and the purification m a s s can then b e used again for further gas purification. This process renders the gas purifica tion step much cheaper, without considering credit for the yield
E D I T I O N
Vol. 11, No. 21
of brimstone. I t is reported that, as a result of improvements in process of reclamation, 8000 metric tons of sulfur, instead of t h e expected 6000 tons, have been produced in the plant of the Ruhrgas company since its establishment in March, 1932. The plan of t h e Thyssensche Gas- u n d Wasserwerke is reported to have produced about 2000 metric tons of sulfur. In addition t o the above-named plants, the Vereinigte Stahlwerke expects t o build a sulfur reclamation plant at Dortmund. It will be somewhat smaller than the plant now operated by the Ruhrgas A. G., which firm has more gas at its disposal than t h e Vereinigte Stahlwerke. T h e Ruhrgas A. G. had intended t o remodel i t s present equipment s o as t o double its production capacity, but action has been suspended for some time because of t h e impending erection of t h e Vereinigte Stahlwerke's new plant a t Dortmund. Germany's imports of sulfur during recent years were: Total imports Imports from U. S.
1929 120,435 114,521
1980 82,355 76,476
1931 78,154 56,091
1932 49,636 37,473
REPRINTS OF PAPERS BASED ON T H E S E S INQUIRY AMONG T H O S E associated officially w i t h several univer
sities reveals that it i s common practice on reprints of papers which are either theses submitted in partial fulfillment of the re quirements for advanced degrees, or papers based upon such, t o include somewhere a proper acknowledgment as to t h e original source of publication. We have been informed, however, that some faculties have been proceeding under a rule which requires such a reprint line to b e deleted from the copies of the thesis d e posited with the institution b y the author. T h e publications of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY will not
be so arbitrary a s to require a reprint line indicating the initial place of publication t o appear in a n y special place on a reprint, out i t is held that such a courtesy or reprint line should appear, and hereafter it will b e expected that it will be included on all such reprints. T h e Mack Printing Co., which supplies these reprints, has been advised t o this effect. BUREAU OF STANDARDS STUDIES WEARING QUALITIES OF FLOOR MATERIALS ARCHITECTS a n d builders will b e assisted, in the selection of materials for floors in public buildings and other places where there i s heavy traffic, through the results of a study recently com pleted by t h e U. S. Bureau of Standards. It was necessary to determine if a sufficient degree of correla tion existed between t h e laboratory tests and actual wear values to enable one t o predict service values from laboratory tests. Consequently, measurements were made of t h e rate of wear under actual service conditions and then compared with test values for t h e same materials obtained with the apparatus. A stairway was surfaced with a large number of materials which were carefully measured before being put in place. After a period of use t h e materials were removed and measurements made to find o u t how much wear had occurred. T h e same materials were next tested o n the testing apparatus for compari son a n d t h e amount of wear measured. It was found that re sults of the two tests agreed fairly well, but not as well a s desired. Then a series of experiments was made on the apparatus, which resulted in change in mechanism until it gave results that would correlate with service wear t o a satisfactory degree. A s soon as the bureau became convinced that the testing apparatus was capable of giving consistent results, tests were made o n practi cally all of the important marbles, limestones, sandstones, slates, etc., produced in the United States for flooring purposes. STEEL CURTAINS M O S T EFFICIENT AGAINST FIRE T H E A T R E PROSCENIUM C U R T A I N S made wholly of steel or of
two-ply asbestos cloth with steel frames will provide the maxi mum protection to audiences, a n investigation recently con ducted: by the Bureau of Standards revealed. Steel curtains, it was found, would insure safety for a half-hour, while steelframed asbestos curtains could b e depended o n for about half that time. Since most auditoriums are designed s o that the audience can make its exit within 5 minutes, either of these types of theatre curtains should offer a sufficient margin of safety. A curtain made of single-ply heavy wire-reinforced asbestos cloth and another made of two plies of plain asbestos cloth of the best quality and usual weight were found deficient a s barriers against smoke a n d fire. Flexible asbestos cloth curtains with out a steel frame were found to bind against the proscenium wall when subjected t o pressure from t h e stage side, making i t difficult t o lower under fire conditions. A l l asbestos cloths from which the curtains tested were made showed serious losses of strength after subjection t o flame or high temperature.
