February, 1929
INDUSTRIAL A Y D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
191
AMERICAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES Bausch & Lomb Optical Company by undertaking to handle chemicals and N August, 1928, the Bausch & Lomb Optical C o m p a n y c e l e b r a t e d t h e c h e m i c a l a p p a r a t u s . At first the stock consisted of such chemicals and stains as seventy-fifth anniversary of its foundwere of direct use in microscopy and was ing. From a small shop in Reynolds Arcade, maintained merely as an adjunct to the line in the days when Rochester was scarcely of microscopes. Evidently this branch of more than a village, has developed a highly the business grew rapidly, for in 1904 a diversified industry, all the efforts of which complete catalog of chemicals and chemical are devoted to the betterment of existing apparatus was issued. This was the first optical apparatus or to the development of new instruments to meet the ever growing American catalog of its kind to use the metric system for both measurements and demands of other sciences and industries. q u a n t i t i e s . This branch of the business The company had its beginnings in 1853, was continued until 1919, when it was sold when John J. Bausch, an immigrant with in its entirety to the Will Corporation, of practically no capital, opened a small shop Rochester. in which foreign optical products were sold. In 1913 the company expanded to include But from the first it was more than just a a line of precision ophthalmic instruments, retail store. Spectacle lenses were ground designed for the critical examination of the by hand and eyeglass frames were made. human eye. This line has grown until, a t Very early in the history of the organizathe present time, it includes practically every tion Henry Lomb was taken into partner- Figure 1-Original Bausch & Lomb Store, 1853 type of instrument to be found in the conship, and from this partnership the present sulting room of the modern oculist. company has grown. The period before and during the Civil War was one of struggle Previous to 1913 the company had been entirely dependent for the infant concern. During the war Henry Lomb served in on Europe for its supply of optical glass. Experiments in the the Union Army and was finally discharged with the rank of manufacture of optical glass were begun in 1912, and the first captain. Most of the money which he received in the service real success came three years later. The cutting off of the Euroof his country was put into the slowly developing business. At pean supply in 1914 and the subsequent entry of the country the close of the war the concern was on a substantial basis, with into the World War in 1917 gave this activity a very effective all debts paid and a comfortable balance in the bank. stimulus. During the war period, with the aid of the scientific Until about 1875 the company confined its activities to eye- personnel of the Government and of the Geophysical Laboratory glasses and frames. In that year it exhibited the first complete of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the company sucAmerican-made microscopes a t the Philadelphia Exposition. ceeded in making many necessary types of optical glass. Since Since then the microscope in its varied forms has been a regular the close of the war, the glass plant has been in continuous operaarticle of manufacture. One of the most useful to the chemist tion and has provided the greater portion of the glass used in is the Chamot chemical microscope. This is a comparatively the business. simple polarizing microscope embodying the suggestions of E. During the World War practically the entire facilities of the M. Chamot, of Cornel1 University. It is designed particularly organization were devoted to the Government for the manufacfor the study and analysis of such crystal forms as are found in ture of those optical instruments so necessary for the conduct chemical compositions, and for the microanalysis of these com- of modern warfare. Range finders, periscopes, gunsights, and positions by determining their crystal form. such instruments were produced in quantity. Prism binoculars In the decade following 1875 the invention of the dry-plate alone were manufactured a t the rate of 3500 a week. At the close of this period of intense military activity, two process and the consequent stimulus t o photography led naturally to the manufacture of Dhotoconditions existed which degraphic lenses, photomicrotermined in great measure the future activities of the company. There was a t hand a large trained personnel from which to choose, and the return of the i n d u s t r i e s t o peacetime activities created a demand for many varieties of optical instruments for which they had been accustomed to rely on European and especially German manufacturers. The fact that the original sources of supply were cut off for some years, even after entered another field of parthe war, led to the demand ticular interest to the chemist that American industries unFigure 2-Present Plant of Bausch & Lomb Optical Company
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INDUSTRJAL AND ELVGINEERINQCHEMISTRY
Vol. 21, No. 2
dertake the manufacture of many new articles. In the opti- colors transmitted through various substances or reflected from cal field none were better equipped for such an undertaking than them. Both of these types of spectral analysis are becoming more Bausch & Lomb, and they immediately expanded to meet the and more quantitative. The spectrograph, revealing the lines characteristic of the various elements even when only traces are demand. Of the instruments which they began to make then, perhaps present, offers a method of detection and evaluation which goes the ones of mast importance t o the chemist are those which well beyond the limits of ordinary chemical analysis. To meet utilize optical properties and principles for the measurement of demands along these lines, a complete line of spectroscopes has physical characteristics of materials. These instruments were been developed, from the simple qualitative hand spectroscope developed especiaUy t o meet the needs of chemical and allied covering the visible range to the large quartz spectrograph coverindustries for quicker methods of analysis and for the study of ing the range from 7000 A. in the visible to 2100 A. in the ultraspecial properties of materials. Only a few violet. These are designed for both visual and photographic can be mentioned here, but perhaps these ex- methods and several of the models serve as monochromators ample3 will indicate the extent to which the in both the visible and the ultra-violet. chemist is using optical methuds nowadays. For spectrophotometric analysis the company has developed The colorimeter in its various forms en- a universal spectrophotometer of the polarizing type. With ables the chemist to determine quantitatively this instrument almost any material can be examined, whether io a few minutes a substance which might it be a transparent solid, an opaque solid, or a liquid. By means take hours to determine gravimetrically or Of a determination of transmission values and extinction coeffivolumetrically. It Can be used, of course, cients, the concentrations of dye and stain sohitions can be abonly for reactions where colors can be estab- taincd where chemical methods are exceedingly laborious or fail lished which will he permauent at least for comP1eteiY. the duration of the experiment, but many such The colloid chemist has been furnished with a very powerful aid in the form of a simplified slit ultra-microscope. In this sf reactions are those which are difficult to treat Microscope Buttt by other methods. The hi&gi& chemist, instrument a very strong illumination enters the specimen, from by 3. J. Dausch for example, uses the colorimeter to a great the side, at right angles with the axis of the microscope. Colextent, since his routine gravimetric analysis is particularly diffi- loidal particles in suspension, which are too small to be visible under the highest power in the ordinary microscope, appear cult. In the inorganic field, mauy metals which appear as im. methods are as bright points in a dark field by means of diffracted light. purities in such minute quantities that These few paragraphs will convey to ihe reader some idea extremely difficult cannot only be detected but accurately determincd. The colorimeter has also been modified to meet the of the manifold activities of the Bausch & Lamb organization, demand for quick methods of determining hydrogen-ion con- although thcy touch upon only a small part of the company's centration. interests. The last few decades have witnessed an astounding rate of Progress in all the natural sciences. Each discovery in Refractive index as a characteristic propc,.tyhas also in for its share of attention in special determinations, especially a given science has provided means of attack on the problems of the 0th- sciences. As fast as progress has been realized in gives in the aSe of liquids, ~h~ ~ b b 6typeof refractometer the refractive index from 1.3000 to 1.7000 with an accuracy optical Science, chemistry has employed the results of that progof 0,0001 to 0.0002, this accuracy depending on thc substance ress in the solution of its own problems. To the end that chemand the of the being used, lt may be used on istry and all the other sciences may continue to progress evep liquidsandtransparen~l;dson at an axelcrated rate, the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company surface "y is applying its resources to the continued developmcnt of optical which a be ~ h ~ i apparatus ~ ~ designed ~ ~ to meet i ~their ~ever ~growing ~ needs. fractometer will determioe the index of a liquid over a range of 1.3000 to 1.5400 with an accuracy of better than one in the fourth decimal place if the temperature of the liquid is controlled. The saccharimeter has been long used for determining the concentration of sugar solutions. I t is simply an instrument for measuring the rotation of the plane of polarization of light, but requires very careful design if it is to be accurate andrapid. Whenthecompany decided to a saccharimet-, it consulted the leading Micro- sugar chemists in the country 8EOpe and then designed an instrument incorporating their best ideas. Its controlled accuracy is 0.05 S., which is equivalent t o about 13 mg. oi sugar per 100 cc. of solution. Spectral analysis has become industrially important in recent Years. It is of two types. one of which is the true analysis of bright line and band spectra and the other of which is spectrophotometric analysis. The latter is related particularly to the
J. W. Fonn~sr
Stirrer from Windshield Wiper' A. V. Motsinger RBNVIL, N. J.
HE w r i t e r , recently i n need of a stirrer for use in a melting-point determination, found that the mechanical suction part of an automobile windshield wiper with the rod attached to it made an ideal stirrer as the speed and stroke could be easily adjusted, A a m wa6 made from pieee o f ere the wire and ePer attached to it as shown the ~
aceon,panying This stirrer is inexpensive and can be used in a n y laboratory
where there is a suction line, 1
Reccived September 27, 1928.
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