cooperation and service as critics have helped maintain the high editorial standards of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. ' Without their assistance it would be impossible to retain the international leadership which the journal enjoys today throughout the scientific world. Thanks are also due the members of the Advisory Boards for their helpful counsel, to division officials who have cooperated in the collection and review of meeting papers, and of course to the large number of contributors whose manuscripts it has been our privilege to consider.
May I take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation to members of the staff for their loyalty, cooperation, ability, and initiative. By their united efforts the journals under my direction have continued to serve the membership of the SOCIETY, the "war effort, and the field of chemistry in general, despite many and varied handicaps attending the troubled times we are experiencing. WALTER J. MURPHY
Editor
WALTER J. MURPHY
A.C.S. News Service
Editor
Chemical and Engineering News
C increase in paid
HEMICAL AND ENGINEERING N E W S in 1943 experienced the largest
circulation in its history—4,707—and continues first in circulation in the chemical field by a wide margin. In the past year 1,321 editorial pages were printed as compared with 1,158 in 1942. In January 1943 a very detailed and comprehensive questionnaire was sent to a sizable cross section of readers (2,000) to obtain information on which to base future editorial policies. These data formed an authoritative basis in planning new activities for CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWB.
Format and presentation were revamped to improve and modernize "The Newsmagazine of the Chemical World". A contents page was added and the publication departmentalized to assist busy readers, mostly engaged in one phase or another of the war effort, to find easily and quickly information and news of special interest to each SOCIETY member and nonmember subscriber. Potomac Postscripts, formerly digests of government releases, is now a summary of the highlights of Washington happenings written exclusively for CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWB by the veteran Wash-
ington correspondent, Lynne M. Lamm. Recognizing the entrance of the chemist into the field of packaging in a major way, a new department edited by R. W. Lahey, packaging expert of the American Cyanamid Co., was introduced early in 1943 and immediately received wholehearted approval from a substantial number of readers. News of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, local sections, divisions, etc.,
together with data on selective service, professional and economic status of the chemist and chemical engineer, have been collected under the appropriate beading "American Chemical Society News", instead of being scattered throughout the pages of each issue. "Canada", a department added in 1943, has as its editor S. J. Cook, widely known in Canadian chemical circles and a member of the SOCIETY since 1918. All of the popular features of the NEWB EDITION were retained and several innovations added further to increase the practical value of the publication. Coverage of group meetings, other than the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, was greatly expanded to include TAPPI, American Oil Chemists, National Fertilizer Association, National Farm Chemurgic Council, National Safety Council, National Association of Insecticide and Disinfectant ^Manufacturers, ASTM, The Electrochemical Society, and others too numerous to mention. In the past year staff members visited and reported on outstanding new plants in the fields of magnesium,· synthetic rubber, 100-octane gasoline, etc. Every important feature of America's chemical war program was reported so that CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWB
readers were informed of important happenings in all branches of chemistry and chemical engineering.
CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING
NEWB through its program of expansion has assisted science editors and writers, editors, and others interested in chemistry, by providing an authoritative source of information on developments in the chemical and process industries. Four timely symposia were published: "Manpower Problems in the Chemical Industry", "Research Management", "Getting the Right Job", "Antimalarials". The popular series "The American Chemical Front" featured such subjects as "The Rubber Program", by Bradley Dewey, Rubber Director, "Army Food", by Colonel Paul P . Logan, Quartermaster Corps, U. S. Army, and articles of intense immediate interest, such as that on penicillin, published in the September 10 issue. The paper shortage, particularly in the final six months of the year, prevented any further introduction of aew and highly desirable features, and such innovations must be held in abeyance. Specific plans are being formulated, however, for further improvements in the services
T H E past year was one of unprecedented activity for the AMERICAN • CHEMICAL SOCIETY News Service. Chemistry, despite the reticence which inevitably governs developments in wartime research, seemed to generate news in greater abundance and variety than ever before. The chemical research laboratories and the chemical industries constitute an inexhaustible mine of public information. In these recesses the News Service works to supply Americans with a steady stream of knowledge without which an intelligent understanding of contemporary society is impossible. The publications of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY during 1943
teemed with material informing alike to the scientist and the layman. The papers, the editorials, and the various departmental features of industrial and Engineering Chemistry and of CHEMICAL AND ENGINEER-
ING NEWS provided a rich field of exploration for the News Service. Reviewing the experience of the year, one is impressed by the increased interest of the scientist in public affairb. The SOCIETY'S publications not only report progress in science and industry; they are also concerned with public attitudes, with the repercussions of legislation upon the industries; with the influence of organized labor upon the chemist; with the welfare of the chemical profession; with the court decisions affecting the chemical industry; with the procedures of federal administrative departments; with postwar planning; and with other aspects of social and political activity. It is the task of the News Service to distill the news, largely utilizing as raw material the prolific pages of the SOCIETY'B journals. Exercising a reporting function, the News Service, as has been pointed out in a previous report, is organized chemistry's vehicle of contact with the public—its window t o the world. The News Service began its existence a quarter century ago as the interpreter of science for the lay reader. Its labors wore confined principally to the narration of interesting developments in science. Today the News Service is the voice of chemistry in the domain of public affairs, as*well as in the laboratory and plant. President Midgley's message to the membership warning against the harmful consequence to industry that would accompany the indiscriminate drafting of chemists and chemical engineers is an illustration of the usefulness of the News Service. A news narrative based upon this message was distributed to the press of the Nation so that millions of Americans became informed overnight of the situation which Dr. Midgley so forcefully presented. The broadening of News Service activity herein described simply reflects the quickening interest of the chemist in the world outside the laboratory. I t is a heartening indication of the chemist's will to participate more fully and more directly in shaping national policy. The output of the News Service in 1943 was larger than in any previous year. The distribution of press releases was wider, and there was an encouraging increase in the demand for these releases both from newspapers and magazines and from the great international news bureaus which center in New York. The News Service, though the draft decimated its staff, and though it has encountered the disadvantages of operation inseparable from war, has, it is submitted, met its responsibilities worthily.
rendered by CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWS and will be ready for
immediate action when paper quotas are increased or restrictions removed entirely. V O L U M E
2 2,
NO. 4 » «FEBRUARY
2 5, 1 9 4 4
WALTER J. MURPHY
Director
important N o t i c e M a n y persons have filled out and returned to the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY the questionnaire reproduced on pages 1 6 6 and 1 6 7 of CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWS for February 1 0 . These cannot be included in the survey. You must fill out the form which is being mailed to you and return it in the accompanying envelope if the data are to b e used. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond our control, mailing hes been delayed.
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