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JOURNAL oa CHEMICAL EDUCATION SEPTEMBER, 1925
CHEMICAL POSTERS ADELINEH. JACOBS, GERMANTOWN HIGHSCHOOL, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Permanent decorations in a class-room are often taken for granted by students, after their novelty has worn off. The framed masterpieces,* whose influence is not to be belittled, are not viewed with the same lively interest which amateur decorations of a more transient nature may arouse. It is suggested, therefore, that the teacher gradually accumulates a collection of posters illustrating chemical subjects. While these pictures are not to he compared with the reproductions of fine paintings, yet they have a distinct place on thewalls of the laboratory or class-room. They catch the attention of the student for several reasons. Primarily they illustrate a topic under discussion in the current work in chemistry. If the poster is a good one, "he who runs, may read." Besides, the students study the posters because they themselves may be preparing some for a drawing lesson, or for a health campaign, or what not. The personal element may enter in, if they know the student whose poster in chemistry is on exhibition. As the teacher refers to a poster hanging on the wall, she may suggest that it would be valuable to have some new ones on a specified topic, or to replace old ones that have lost their freshness with use. In this way, the collection is continually growing and improving. I t will come in very handy, when a parent-teachers meeting is held a t school. These posters make quite an attractive array and never fail to arouse favorable comment. The subjects in chemistry which lend themselves to poster treatment are legion. When the teacher begins to think "Posters," she will find that the field is limited only by her time and enthusiasm, and by that of her pupils. Fire-prevention is a subject which is required to be taught in the schools of Philadelphia each autumn. After having read booklets and circulars issued by the National Board of Fire Underwriters, my classes prepared a set of posters. As these were decidedly clever and striking, let me describe a few. A picnic scene showed boys and girls sitting on the grass, enjoying a meal cooked over a wood fire. The legend read: "Extinguish Your Camp Fire" "Prevent Forest Fires" Another poster asked, "Where Does He Throw It?" A cigarette and a used match were sewed on to the sheet of cardboard. A hole with charred edges had been burned in the paper. A man's head in silhouette completed the story. * See "Chemistry as Depicted in Art," Tms JOURNAL, 2, 111-3 (1925).
VOL 2, NO.9
CHEMICAL POSTERS
793
A poster which combined the efforts of several students was called "Clothed by Chemistry." A figure of a lady of fashion, about ten inches in height, had been cut from the cover of a magazine and mounted on cardboard. Lines radiated from her hat, necklace, rings, blouse, buttons, skirt, stockings, shoes, etc., suggesting the anatomical figure in the patentmedicine almanac, with the lines leading to the signs of the zodiac. The lines, coming from our lady, reached the margin of the mount where the indicated articles were duplicated-hat, necklace, etc. Accompanying each 'article was a paragraph written by a student, detailing how chemistry contributed to the final product. Such topics as chlorine bleaching of cotton fabrics, rayon silk, mercerized cotton, the weighting of silk for stockings with tin, metallurgy of gold, etc., appeared. The lady "clothed by chemistry" was not companionless, as there were also a man and a child "chemically costumed." Perhaps this seems childish play. Remember that children of fifteen and sixteen years were engaged in hunting through text-books and magazines to find suitable material for the paragraphs on their special topics. The idea that the short paper was not just to be read aloud in class, but was to be part of a poster, and to be exhibited with one's name signed to it, added special interest to this bit of reference work. One student who wished to illustrate "The Removal of Stains" found an advertisement of a soap, in which a nurse-maid was surrounded by a family of children, little and big, awaiting their turns to wash face and hands. The student added an assortment of spots of different colors and kinds to stockings, trousers and blouses. At the? outer ends of the lines leading from each stained article of clothing was printed the name of the kind of spot-grass, paint, tar or ink, an actual sample of the spot, and directions for removing it most successfully by chemical means. A call for posters showing the application of chemistry to daily life resulted in a pleasing variety. A few of the titles or legends of these artistic attempts to interpret scientific facts are listed here. a. COn Raises Bread. b. Crisco from Cotton-seed Oil Hydrogen Does It. c. Thank Sir Humphrey Davy for Nitrous Oxide Gas. d. Hydrogen Sulfide Discolors Silver. (Silver spoon, egg-cup, empty egg-shell-pictured) Equation given. e. Soap Making. Can of Lye -+ Soap Glycerol. Kettle of Fat (pictured) (pictured) (pictured) (drug label)
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Perfumes sweet, Colors gay Come from coal-tar Every day. The reading up of the subject, keeping it in mind until a means of expressing i t graphically is found, and condensing many words into a forceful title, all these surely have their educational value. The posters with their bold printing and colorful drawings certainly add t o the attractiveness of the class-room. I hope that teachers will feel that the suggestions offered here are worth trying and that it will brighten up things to "Say it with posters." f.
Flame Burned under Water Saves Fuel. Burning an oil flame under water for weeks a t a time, and avoiding most of the heat loss of an ordinary boiler, is the feat of Oscar Brunler, a Belgian scientist. Bv means of a device similar t o a carburetor,. a surav . . of crude oil mixed with air is blown into the burner under pressure. Water is kept out of the burner until it is hot and the fire is buminp- well. Then the water is allowed t o rise around the flame until i t is submerged. Once started it can be kept burning for months. All designs of boilers are hased on the principle of bringing the flame of the fuel into the closest possible contact with the water in order to avoid loss of heat. The most efficient method is t o have the flame directly in the water, and this is what Brunler has succeeded in doing. His success is shown by his report to the Society of Chemical Industry. More than sixty different kinds of oil have been burned and boilers have worked continuously 4 for months. The flame can be regulated completely by turning one wheel. While an ordinary burner seldom gives as much as 75 per cent of the heat, as determined b y common methods of analysis, this submerged flame has given a heat efficiency of practically 100 per cent for weeks a t a time.-Science Sewice PREPARING CHEMICAL EXPOSITION DIRECTORY An industrial directory of exhibitors in the Tenth Exposition of Chemical Industries. which will be held in New York a t the Grand Central Palace during the week of Sept. 28th t o Oct. 3rd, is now being compiled under the direction of the Exposition management. The directory will be arranged according t o the numerous consuming groups, listing products, and equipment sold t o each group by exhibitors. The compilation will cover all chemical process materials and machinery and the industries for which they are available. Under each product or group will be listed the various exhibitors. who manufacture the article in question with any particular information about the individual products of the different manufacturers. The Chemical Exposition directory will be compiled primarily to help buyers who come to the Exposition in search of various materials or equipment. It is believed that it will be particularly valuable t o foreign buyers who are not acquainted with the names. of the American manufacturers or with their products. The volume when completed is expected t o make several thousand pages which will preclude its being printed for general distribution to visitors. It will he made up in loose-leaf form and held by themanagement far consultation when inquiries are received as t o sources of supply a t the. Exposition.
