Apr., 1915
T H E JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
ated. From that time to the present the value of chemists in the mining and metallurgical work in the production of copper has very greatly increased, and the number of chemists employed is greater in proportion than the enormous increase in copper produced I n the large copper mines of this country chemical analyses are made and used to very great advantage in the control of mining operations and also in connection with sorting the ore before crushing Ores from different parts of a mine have varying percentages of copper and differ often to a great extent in their fluxing properties, so that a bedding system is sometimes employed, placing the various grades of ore in different beds of bins. All of this ore has to be analyzed and then careful chemical calculations are made by the metallurgists, so that the proper proportion from each bin is mixed when delivered in the smelter. I n the concentration of ores the process is, to a considerable extent, a mechanical one, although of late electricity for separation and concentration is employed, and also a process that uses a moderate amount oi oil which facilitates a more perfect separation of the mineral from the gangue. Whichever method is employed, a control by chemical analysis is necessary to show the gains or losses in copper. I n the successful smelting operations a t many of our large mines the metallurgist who calculates the best smelting mixture of ores and fluxes to be introduced into the smelter, has to be not only an able chemist, but should be a physicist and engineer as well, in order to obtain the most economical results. To carry out this important work a great many chemical analyses are necessary, for the best results in roasting ores in the modern roasters can be produced only by the full employment of chemical analyses and physical tests. The United States mines more than 5 0 per cent of the copper of the world; 75 per cent of the copper of the world is refined in this country and the larger proportion of this refining is done by electrolysis I n carrying on this electrolytic work the chemist has been responsible for a very large proportion of the improvements that have been made in the last twenty years, so t h a t chemistry has shown itself to great advantage not only in improving the electrolytic methods of refining, but also in the preceding methods of mining and smelting. I n the electrolytic refining of copper, samples representing 80 to IOO tons of blister copper are analyzed for copper, gold and silver in order to arrive a t the value of the lot. Formerly the analyses of copper were not exact enough to satisfy the buyers and sellers The chemists theii came together and improved the methods so much that perfect satisfaction now exists. It is not unusual in a copper works laboratory to have two chemists make independent analyses of the same sample and turn in results, which agree to within o 01 per cent on blister copper and 0 0 0 2 per cent on refined copper. More than one-half of the copper refined is cast into wire bars and then rolled and drawn into wire, the bulk of which is used for electric conduction. A very small quantity of arsenic in copper greatly lowers its conductivity; a quarter of one per cent cuts down its electric conductivity from IOI to 45 Refined copper for this purpose should contain less than one-thousandth of one per cent arsenic in order to satisfy the consumer. The chemists have made such results possible by their able research work and also by their remarkable improvements in analytical methods for copper and arsenic and their wonderfully exact methods for determining quantitatively minute quantities of bismuth, antimony, tellurium and selenium in copper. These results could not have been obtained twenty years ago, and forty years ago even the best chemist in the country could not have dreamed of doing such work. I n the great improvements in the copper industry our chemists have performed a very important part in a very able manner. The great consumers of copper in large manufacturing industries of this and other
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countries, and the whole world, owe to the chemists connected with our copper industries a debt of thanks for their masterly work. 25 BROAD STREET, NEWYORK
CONTRIBUTIONS OF T H E CHEMIST T O T H E CORN PRODUCTS INDUSTRY B y E. T. BEDFORD President Corn Products Refining Company
The industry of glucose and grape sugar, or, as it is known in this country, the industry of corn products, is based upon a n epoch-making discovery of a chemist-the conversion by chemical means of starch into reducing sugars. The chemist has been inseparably connected with this industry from its beginning. It was started in Germany a little over one hundred years ago, and due to the limitation of the products-there being only two, glucose and grape sugar-the field and the activities of the chemist were limited correspondingly, but conditions in this country afforded him much larger opportunities, and I am glad to be able to say that the American chemist did not overlook his opportunity, but was quick to make the most of it. Owing t o the character of the raw material employed in this countrycorn-our products are no longer limited to two; the chemist has added to them until their number now exceeds one hundred. We produce a large number of different grades of glucose, or corn syrup, suitable for every conceivable purpose, either as food or in the arts. Manifold as the technical uses are, they are overshadowed by the great value of glucose as a food. This fact is emphasized in these days of high-priced food. I t s importance and significance as an ideal food for the masses was pointed out very forcibly by Prof. Graham Lusk, who showed conclusively that glucose is the cheapest food-fuel known. Grape sugar, or corn sugar, also is an important product, and is manufactured in a variety of grades. Due to the great care which the chemist exercises in devising ways and means of controlling the process of manufacture in all of its details, the quality of the articles produced is of such excellence as to have secured for this country by far the largest portion of the world’s trade in these commodities. While the chemist was most active from the very beginning in developing the process for making glucose and grape sugar and in steadily improving their quality, he also demonstrated his value to the industry by developing new staple products such as starches for culinary and technical purposes, of dextrins and gums and various sugars, which in point of purity rival cane and beet sugar. These products are now manufactured in this country in very large quantities and are being shipped to all parts of the world. A brief reference to statistics will illustrate the effect of such work. The corn manufactured into corn products in this country amounts to 50,000,ooo bushels per year. It is converted into 800,000,000 pounds of corn syrup, 600,000,000 pounds of starch, 230,000,000 pounds of corn sugar, 625,000,000 pounds of gluten feed, 75,000,ooo pounds of oil and go,ooo,ooo pounds of oil cake. The chemist soon recognized the large possibilities which lay in the utilization of certain constituents of the raw material which were allowed to run to waste. First among these were the nitrogenous substances, commonly classified under the name of “gluten.” Their running to waste was stopped; the product was collected, washed and dried, and put upon the market as a cattle feed of great nutritive value; it has materially increased the revenue obtainable from corn. I should like to say in this connection that I hope t h e chemist will again concentrate his attention upon this product and within a reasonable time convert it into an article of food to be used by man rather than by animals. The recovery of the outer hull of the corn, the bran, followed next, and by applying practically the same methods it was ob-
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T H E J O G R S A L OF IA’DCSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERIATG C H E M I S T R Y
tained in a dry state and soon became an article of commercial importance. With the recovery of these products, the impetus was given to a further exploitation of the other ingredients of the corn, particularly its germ, which contains a large amount of the article, commercially so important, and known as “corn oil.” The chemist observed that, due to its lighter specific gravity, the germ could be separated from the body of the crushed corn by a very simple method, and so sound was the reasoning of the chemist leading to an almost mathematical separation of the germ, t h a t the same principle is today still employed, although the inrention itself was made over 30 years ago. The chemist next turned his attention to the soluble solids lost in the water which is used in the softening or steeping of the corn, which water formed a n ordinary trade waste. These solids consist of nitrogenous matter, sugars and other carbohydrates, the valuable organic phosphorus compounds and the salts of magnesia and potash. There are numerous other products which the chemist evolved ; among them glycerine and fatty acids from the oil, soap stock from other oil-containing by-products, innumerable special starches for specific purposes, and dextrins and gums of great variety. These developments have made the products of corn the equals of competing products obtained from wheat, potatoes, sago, rice and other amylaceous sources; and where the products from corn were looked upon a t one time as substitutes for the more expensive starch products obtained from other sources, they are sold today upon their own merits, which are recognized and appreciated very keenly by the trade. It goes without saying that the development of our industry would not have made such rapid strides if it had not been for the excellent work of a highly efficient sales organization and for the cooperation of the engineering forces; nevertheless, the effects of the activity of the chemist are noticeable in every direction, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the great American industry of corn products owes its existence primarily t o the chemist; while it may be admitted that further expansion of the business will be largely in the direction of commercial development, I ani firm in my conviction. that the chemist xi11 continue making his influence felt in our industry, t h a t the future holds in store a great evolution of the industry and that to this evolution the chemist will contribute, as in the past, a substantial share.
T‘ol. 7 , NO. 4
by analytical methods. It was found that surfaces which gave good and those that gave poor service were of very different and distinctive characters and that the manner in which they behaved depended upon the original properties of the mineral matter, sand, and porvdered stone, as well as the consistency of the asphalt cement used. The chemist devised means of controlling the consistency and regulating the size of the sand by means of sieves, evolving a rational niet.hod of construction, which has been followed for tiventy years, making the industry, when carried out on such lines, a n extremely reliable one, and all work, if controlled by definite tests and analyses, of highly satisFactory character. The chemist has also given his assistance in the preparation of fluxes or heavy oils of suitable character, and in the fixing of a. standard for the grading of the sand and the nature and amount of filler or powdered stone, which enter into an asphalt, pavement. Aside from this, he has studied the nature of the iiative bitumens which are the components of asphalt and has differentiated the various types which are found in nature. I n fixing the characteristics of the asphalts and the various petroleums from which fluxes and residual pitches are obtained, he has made it possible to describe these materials with such accuracy in specifications that they are readily differentiated. He has made a study of the behavior of asphalt surfaces under service tests, and has been enabled to draiv valuable conclusions therefrom which are applicable to the improvement and clevelopinent of the industry. He has studied the physical characteristics of the sand used and of the phenomena connected with its. behavior in combination with fine powders. He has demon-. strated the fact that the presence of large amounts of this fine powder and filler through the presentation of a rery large sur-. face €or the adhesion of the bitumen, adds in an enormous dcgree to the success of an asphalt surface under heavy traffic, in which study the principles of physical chemistry are closely involved. Work along these lines is still being undertaken in the laboratory, and it would seem that equally interesting points are to be developed in the future as in the past, along the lines of chemistry and physics. Results obtained in these directions have been on such a large scale that the data accumulated have been assembled in a book or more than 600 pages by an expert o f thc company with which the mritcr is connected. LAXDTITLEBUILDIXG,PHILADELPHIA
17 BATTERY P L A C E , NEW YORK
CONTRIBUTIONS OF T H E CHEMIST TO THE ASPHALT INDUSTRY ny JAMES LEUW RAKE Secretary T h e Barber Asphalt Paving Company
Chemistry, in the service of the asphalt industry, has converted it from one which originated on purely empirical lines into one which is nom founded on a rational and highly scientific basis. The development and perfection of the industry from a technical point of view has been made possible only irith the aid of chemistry, intelligently associated lvith practical experience and service tests. During the first two decades of its existence it was conducted on no fixed principle. Thc hard, refined Trinidad Lake asphalt ]vas fluxed with a heavy petroleum oil, not manufactured especially for the purpose, to Corm an asphalt cement of a consistency determined solely by personal judgment. This was mixed with hot sand of varying degrees of fineness and with a certain amount of powdered limestone in purely haphazard proportions which were not rationally determined. These mixtures were laid and compressed in the street with most uncertain results, sometimes excellent and sometimes very bad. When the irregularity of such work was recognized, an appeal was made to the chemist, who selected typical samples of these old pavements and resolved them into their constituents
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE CHEMIST TO THE COTTONSEED OIL INDUSTRY By DAVIDWmsox Manager of the Technical Department. Southern Cotton Oil Company
In 1834.,an English traveler in this country, w i t i n g about cotton culture, said: “ I n many places it is usual to manure the fields with the seed not used for sowing; but of late years experience has taught the planters to set a higher ,value on it as it conVains a considerable quantity of oil which is extracted by pressure and is suitable both for burning and painting. ’I‘his oil may, in the course of years, become an additional source of wealth t o the planters.” About twenty years afterxards-shortly prior t o our Civil IVar--one or t r r o mills xT-ere started in New Orleans. The industry, interrupted by the war, acquired a start shortly after-. ward, and in 1872 as much as 52,705 tons of seed were crushed. This amounted to 4 per cent of the entire crop ol 1,317,637 tons. In 1913, wcVith a production of 6,305,000 ’cons, ..1,767,800 tons \Yere crushed, or ;j .6 per cent of the entire crop. The estimated average cost per ton \vas $ 2 5 . 3 5 , and the total value of the seed alone was S120,840,0oo, while the value of the products \%-asS156,600,000. Keedless to say that the oil was used for something besides burning and paint. The first refineries in this country were the Aldige, Gnion and.
