DU PONT:
End of Corfam The hope and promise Du Pont once held for Corfam have turned to despair. The firm says that within 12 months it will no longer manufacture and sell the poromeric leather substitute. A technical success as an upper material for footwear, Corfam may best be remembered as a financial debacle. Du Pont spent between $80 and $100 million dollars on Corfam over the seven-year commercial life of the product. The firm says its illstarred venture into Corfam has cost about 10 to 12 cents a share per year over this period. Cost associated with the orderly phase-out of the business will be absorbed in 1971 and is expected to amount to 6 to 8 cents a share on the 47.2 million shares of Du Pont common. Although some 75 to 100 million pairs of Corfam shoes were sold, Du Pont says that the product's relatively high cost compared with nonbreathable polyvinyl chlorides has been a major barrier to volume sales. About 30% of the 559 million pairs of shoes produced in the U.S. last year had vinyl uppers. The Du Pont move comes as a shock to other producers of manmade breathable leathers around the world. A spokesman for Tenneco Chemicals, which produces Jentra 3 (C&EN, Oct. 13, 1969, page 9), says his firm is making no statement at this time but expects that the Du Pont phase-out will have a significant impact on the entire industry. B. F. Goodrich, which produces Aztran, says it still believes that there is a future for poromeric materials. Goodrich views leather as the chief competition for Aztran and says that poromerics have been handicapped by low sales volume and high manufacturing costs, but as they gain a greater share of the market the cost can become very competitive with leather. Inmont Corp., which markets Porvair produced by Porvair, Ltd., Kings Lynn, England, says it will continue to sell the material in the U.S. A recent entry into the simulated leathers is Alrac Corp., Stamford, Conn. The firm produces an artificial leather on papermaking machinery based on nylon 4 pulp (C&EN, Feb. 15, page 21). A number of foreign producers also make artificial leathers. In Japan, Kurashiki Rayon produces Clarino. Clarino will be distributed
after April 1 by Marubeni-Iida (America) Inc., a New York City trading company. Other Japanese producers are Toyo Rayon with Patora and Kanegafuchi Spinning Co. with Belsa. In Germany, Farbwerke Hoechst produces a leather substitute which it calls Caron. Glanzstoff, A.G., has developed one called Xylee. THE UNIVERSITIES:
Misleading quiet The present peaceful atmosphere on college campuses is misleading, Dr. Clark Kerr said in Chicago last week on the eve of the American Association of Higher Education's national conference there. Dr. Kerr, as chairman of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, was discussing the commission's report "Dissent and disruption: proposals for consideration by the campus." In Dr. Kerr's opinion, U.S. students are more alienated, dissatisfied, and disaffected than ever, for reasons ranging from war, racism, and poverty to the problems stemming from the rapid growth of technology and the deterioration of the environment. The history of campus unrest has been a series of ups and downs, Dr. Kerr asserts; campuses may be calm now, but no one can conclude that the days of disruption and protest are over. The commission's report draws a sharp distinction between dissent— "protest activity carried on within the limits of the democratic processes"—and disruption "based on coercion and sometimes violence, C&EN:
Ward Worthy
Carnegie Commission's Kerr
which interferes with the rights of others." Dissent "lies at the foundation of a university," the commission declares. But, it adds bluntly, "disruption must be ended." To that end, the report sets forth three recommendations. First, each campus should adopt a proposed "bill of rights and responsibilities for members of the institution." According to the commission, "too often in the past, faculty members have set rules for students but not for themselves; trustees have set rules for the faculty, but not for themselves." The rules should apply to all. Second, campuses should make contingency plans for dealing with disruptive emergencies and should develop effective measures for consultation among faculty, students, and trustees. Finally, each campus should create more effective judicial procedures. The commission suggests appointment of ombudsmen to handle complaints informally. The report doesn't dwell on the adverse public reaction to campus violence. Dr. Kerr observes, however, that "disruption is counterproductive; although it may win immediate concessions, in the long run it actually impedes change." NUCLEAR POWER:
Views on plant sites With the Administration's power plant siting bill now before Congress, the National Academy of Engineering last week convened its Forum of the Committee on Power Plant Siting in Washington, D.C. Objectives of the forum were to identify conflicts and issues that separate the power industry and environmentalists, and to appraise existing or proposed approaches to power plant siting. Although current debate centers on pollution by power plants, the forum left little doubt that the real debate will be over the previously accepted assumption that power capacity must double each decade. Whether the forum will itself produce any lasting standards for use by decision makers isn't clear. However, a number of attendees contacted by C&EN's Joseph Haggin did voice the opinion that progress and more power aren't necessarily the same thing. The consensus is also that the results of the forum will probably be used by Congress in debates over the siting MARCH 22, 1971 C&EN 19
