I/EC
REPORTS AND INTERPRETS
face after two years. Interior tests show walls retain less dust and do not smudge when dusted with a lamb's wool mop. Finger marks wash off easier. On light pastel paints and similar chalk resistant-type exterior paints, the colloidal silica film seems the most useful. It is particularly good on these paints because they ordinarily collect dirt noticeably during early stages of weathering. The film does not affect weathering of paint. And it does not interfere with repainting. But, cautions Du Pont, the silica film will not answer problems of staining or dirt collection that result from spills or seepage. U. S. Patent 2,877,142, assigned to Du Pont, covers the process for making solid surfaces soil retardant with water insoluble inorganic particles. Purchasers of the Du Pont Soil Retardant Finish Concentrate receive a license to operate under this patent. B.F.G.
I HE first commercial use of scented polyethylene film turned out to be a rousing success as far as Comette Hosiery Mills is concerned. Comette switched to perfume-scented polyethylene bags for all of its hosiery and reports a 10% sales increase in only 60 days and a boost in impulse buying. Bags are made by adding 0.5% of perfumed polyethylene concentrate to the conventional filmgrade resin before extruding. Texas Plastics Inc. makes the bags from U.S. Industrial Chemicals' Pctrothene resin. The perfume is from Fragrance Process Co. of New York. Comette expects to sell over 2 million scented packages of hosiery annually.
Mother of Invention?
Designer's Dream L E S T we all become
Sweet Smell Sells Hose
self-satisfied
with materials already available to us, here's something for chemical research workers to shoot at. Utopia for the industrial designers would probably be a reality if all the nation's mass-produced hard goods could be made of a single material. At any rate, designer Robert Hose of the Henry Dreyfuss organization recently laid out 19 characteristics of what he would consider the "universal" material. Requirements include the mar resistance of porcelain, chemical stability equal to that of gold, weather and wear resistance, minimum heat conduction, and low cost. In addition the material should be shaped as easily as clay, have controllable opacity like glass, possess resilience or lack of it as rubber does, and be self-fastening as with a heat-seal, but without heat. Sounds like a pretty tall order, but who's willing to say, " I t can't be done."
I N SPITE of the fact that large companies spend a lot of money on research and development activities, very little of it actually pays off in genuine innovation. At least, this is the opinion of Dr. Daniel Hamberg, University of Maryland economics professor. Dr. Hamberg goes on to say that the independent inventor and the small business are still important sources of technological advancement. Although widespread popular opinion holds that the giant corporations are the only ones able to finance the scientific efforts required to provide new techniques and products, the truth is that many of the important advances in the largest industries have come from outside the industry or from small firms within it. It is also true that of 61 important inventions made since 1900, 33 were by independent inventors, while only 11 can be traced to the laboratories of large corporations. Independent inventors were responsible for such developments as Bakélite, catalytic cracking of petroleum,
cellophane, quick freezing, insulin, and the continuous casting of steel. Dr. Hamberg suggests that the success of individuals unassociated with industry may be in their ability to tackle problems with a completely fresh and detached approach.
The Grass Is Always Greener N e w technique for wet grass salvage S E V E R A L COUNTRIES of the world have a shortage of grass, fodder, and silage. Sometimes this is caused by extreme conditions of heat, arid climate, soil conditions, and others, but seldom by too much rain! Parts of Iceland are different. They would never be impressed by the old popular song beginning "Rain, when ya' gonna' rain again, shower your blessings on me." They have an abundance of grass, all right, but Old Man Weather generally sees to it that the fodder never gets to the storage barn or silo—he lets it rot on the ground because he hangs around too long in the grass harvesting season. The farmer has little choice but to harvest the grass in rain or lose it to decay in place. A new idea may seem a bit far-fetched, but it's being worked on by Asgeir Thorsteinsson, a chemical engineer in Reykjavik, Iceland. Mr. Thorsteinsson has made some rather interesting experiments with this general plan: Cut the grass—wet or dry—in the proper cutting season, then bruise, store, and press. He wants to bruise the grass effectively to squeeze out the juice and break the cell tension, so that the mass can be easily compacted; in a pit silo, for instance. This way "cold fermentation" can be secured, which develops essentially only lactic bacteria growth, keeping butyric acid activity in check (15° to 20° C ) . The p H drops quickly to 4.5 and sticks there for months, without the
(Continued on page 35 A) VOL. 52, NO. 8
·
AUGUST 1960
33 A
