126th NATIONAL
ACS
MEETING
versity of South Carolina. Secondary factors, he said, w e r e such things as taxes, community services, and favorable attitudes of local leaders toward new industries. F u t u r e industrial opportunities will be based on these same major factors. Evaluating Chemical Firms. "Breakeven" charts, developed for 100 companies in 1952 in forecasting and planning future company operations, were discussed at market division meeting b y Robert J. Roth, Bjorksten Research Laboratories, Madison, Wis. To illustrate their value, actual expenses of these companies for 1952 and 1953 were compared with those calculated from the break-even chart equations. Speaker said other means for evaluating company activities include the price of its common stock, earnings per share, price-earnings ratio, dividends per share, and dividend yield. Market price of its stock depends upon the actual or expected earnings of t h e company, but psychological and economic conditions are also important in establishing current market prices. This is quite obvious, speaker said, in fluctuation of price-earnings ratio for any one company a n d its variation for different companies in the same industry. But even with these calculations and correlations it was important to recognize that an analysis of company reports does not furnish the complete answer on how to b e a t the stock market. Nor are there any clues to evaluating t h e effects of fortuitous or unexpected events, or of psychological factors. Stock averages of Dow-Jones and newspapers were presented for discussion. Roth's discussions on evaluating chemical companies a n d on chemical stock averages were presented at a general meeting of the division at which D. S. W e d d e l , Monsanto Chemical, presided. T h e Dow-Jones average is the N oldest, Roth showed, still it is above 300 although most of the stocks comprising it have a value below 100. Reason is that the average is comparable over Dow-Jones entire history, over 50 years, and has been compensated for stock "splits." Continuity of the index has been preserved b y use of a constant divisor. Chemical "scrap" was taken u p at same session by Seymour M a n n of Aceto Chemical, Flushing, N. Y. Sales of reclaimable scrap h a s increased with growth of the process industries. Sales of reclaimed material ranges u p to $10 million a year. Chemical scrap w a s defined by speaker as raw materials which process industries wish to dispose of and which their sales staffs are not e q u i p p e d to sell. 384Q
Iron and aluminum phosphate produced by treating wet-process phosphoric acid with ammonia is filtered out at TVA pilot plant. A step in manufacture of diammonium phosphate fertilizer
DIVISION OF FERTILIZER AND SOIL CHEMISTRY
Surfactants No Fertilizer Panacea • Surfactants of limited use in manufacture of phosphatic and mixed fertilizers • Application of chemistry improves soil testing techniques, trace element utilization and bigger crops S U R F A C T A N T S are not a panacea to all
^ ills in manufacturing fertilizer, although they have offered new h o p e . At least this seemed evident at symposium on fertilizer technology held by the Division of Fertilizer and Soil Chemistry. Recent pilot plant studies by William J. Tucker, G. L. F . Soil Building Service, indicate that surfactants bring about no p e r m a n e n t benefits in the manufacture of mixed fertilizers. E. J. Fox, U. S. D e p a r t m e n t of Agriculture, notes that in aqueous solutions, phosphate rock tends to remove surfactants b y sorption. Rikio Kumagai, USDA and G. F . Sachsel, Battelle Memorial Institute, in separate papers, say that surfactants did little to reduce caking tendencies of mixed fertilizers. Kumagai did note, however, a 2 to 6 % increase in efficiency of superphosphate to absorb ammonia. Some of the technical problems in making diammonium phosphate fertilizers from wet-process phosphoric acid are being solved by pilot plant
studies, E. C. Houston, Tennessee Valley Authority, says. T h e TVA process involves ammoniation of t h e acid, filtration to remove iron a n d a l u m i n u m phosphate precipitates, a n d crystallization of diammonium p h o s p h a t e in t h e presence of added ammonia i n a continuous vacuum crystallization. T h e crystals are centrifuged and mixed with the filter cake and dried, yielding a granular product ( 1 8 % N a n d 4 7 °/o P 2 O s ) . Other mixtures such a s 18-1818 or 7-28-28 m a y b e made. T h e p r e cipitation a n d crystallization s t e p s r e quired considerable study. T h e trend toward heat drying as opposed to natural curing of a m m o n i ated superphosphates a n d mixed fertilizers has raised the problem of nitrogen loss by heating. In laboratory tests involving superphosphate containing nitrogen in various forms and (drying at different temperatures, G. L. Bridger, Iowa State College, finds that t e m p e r a ture is the major factor. Unless proper temperatures are used, nitrogen losses of 15 to 2 0 % m a y result.
CHEMICAL
AND
ENGINEERING
NEWS
HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY Another study on superphosphate, that involving the effect on ammonia absorption of various particle size, was reported by Charles E. Water, of Allied Chemical's Nitrogen Division. In laboratory scale tests, he notes an increase in absorption with a decrease in particle size. J. H. Caro, U S D A, said that emphasis should be placed on physical characteristics such as surface areas, in addition to chemical characteristics, in considering natural and processed phosphates. H e set forth such data for a wide variety of natural, commercial and furnace products. Presently known plant food raw materials and processing equipment limit the total plant nutrient content of liquid fertilizers to 3 0 - 3 5 % , Peter G. Arvan, Monsanto Chemical, reported. Crystallization and other reactions occur at higher concentrations. Liquid fertilizers contain primary plant nutrients completely dissolved in water. These nutrients are derived generally from combinations of phosphoric acid, monoammonium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, anhydrous or aqueous ammonia, urea, ammonium nitrate, ammonia-ammonium nitrate liquors, ammonia-urea liquors, and potassium chloride. Compositions are adjusted to obtain complete solubility at temperatures as low as 32° F. and pH between 6 and 8. Arvan says that low cost equipment can be used successfully in manufacturing these liquid fertilizers.
to soils to be tested and placing such soils in leaching frames, it is possible to estimate quickly and economically die loss of plant nutrients by leaching action. Trace Elements. Correcting soils for deficiencies in trace elements often poses problems, says A. A. Nikitin, Tennessee Corp. research laboratories. Relationships between soils, major plant nutrients, and trace elements are often complex. One frequently interferes with another and thus affects availability of trace elements to plants. In the case of boron, N. R. Page, Clemson Agricultural College, said that the more soluble borates such as sodium borates often provided toxic amounts of boron to plants or were leached out by rain. H e proposes use of less soluble borates, as calcium borate, or possibly boron containing frits to overcome these difficulties. On some acidic soils, molybdenum is not available to plants. This is generally overcome by liming, according to Charles H. Kline, Climax Molybdenum. H e says that plants which ordinarily require a rather high p H can b e grown successfully at lower p H if molybdenum is supplied in small amounts such as one ounce of molybdate per acre. This is equivalent to adding one ton
of limestone. H e reported successful results on leached soils in N e w Zealand and Australia by means of aerial topdressing of hilly pastures with molybdate in conjunction with fertilizer, sprays, dusts and seeds. Because silicon is not considered an essential plant nutrient, its role in plant growth is often overlooked, reported H. P. Cooper, South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. He pointed out that in silicon accumulating plants and timber trees, the silicon has a significant passive role in the uptake and synthesis of carbon dioxide. Chelating Agent Use. Applications of chelating (complexing) agents as trace element carriers is spreading, James M. O'Donnell, Woonsocket Color & Chemical, says. Studies he has conducted indicate that the chelate compounds not only supply trace elements but may also be absorbed in the plants themselves. Edwin J. Haertl and Albert E . Frost of Bersworth Chemical and Martin Rubin of Georgetown University, all say that stability and resistance to microorganisms of synthetic chelates is an added advantage. These agents are derivatives of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Application of synthetic amino acid chelating agents may serve to correct unbalance in mineral feeds.
DIVISION OF HISTORY O F CHEMISTRY
• Scientific Farming Enters Application of chemistry to crop production on 45,000 acres has increased crop yields approximately 40%, Frank App, Seabrook Farming says. Changes have been made in fertilizer and cover cropping practices which usually result in lower plant food consumption per unit of production. After deter r mining fertilizer levels necessary for optimum yields for both cash and cover crops, soil analyses are made each year for each field and plant food added to meet required standards. Soil Testing Appraisal. Soil testing is now being extended beyond pH and "available" phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium, J. F. Reed, American Potash Institute reported. Determination of organic matter, nitrogen in various forms and certain trace elements and more tests on the available constituents are made often. Jackson B. Hester, Hester Agricultural Research Laboratories, in discussing a related topic included as important factors, salt concentration, oxidation potentials, mechanical analyses and profile characteristics. Hester also said that by addition of potassium chloride VOLUME
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Chemist's Link to Humanity • Linking chemistry to chemical pioneers a n d their a p p r o a c h e s , fires h i g h schooler's interest • Earliest c h e m i c a l t e c h n o l o g y w a s d e v e l o p e d b y w o m e n ; it routes f r o m her c u l i n a r y skill E ARE EXHIBITING the
dry
bones
and ignoring the spirit of chemistry, said Bernard Jaffee before the Division of History of Chemistry. To arouse interest of high school students in chemistry, teachers should sacrifice some of the sterile, nonessential facts of chemistry for the cultural, humanistic, and imaginative aspects of it, continues Jaffee, a teacher at James Madison High, Brooklyn. The historical approach to chemistry has subtle, inspirational overtones. It gives high schoolers a real concept of the spirit of the men of science. Moreover, at the high school level, the most
SEPTEMBER
2 7.
1954
important objectives of science instruction is to inculcate and spread more widely the habits of scientific thinking and acting. Facts and formulas of elementary chemistry disappear rather quickly, according to Jaffee. The scientists' method of approaching and solving problems has a better chance of being retained longer. An effective way to teach the methods of science is to show how our great scientists reached their goal and how their minds worked in the process. According to Jaffee, teaching the history of chemistry is the best method available to teachers for illus3841
