May, 1929
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
bring recognition by one’s peers is the nearest equivalent to the artistic painting, the beautiful poem, the enduring sculptur’e, and the splendid architecture of other creators. The most altruistic and far-seeing leaders realize the importance of this encouragement and even those who have never analyzed it instinctively feel its value.” And get in how many laboratories is this fact disregarded? Some of the nicest work in the country has progressed and is progressing under conditions which, so far as their colleagues know, leave those engaged just where they were when they accepted their employment. Many firms have not yet learned that the real difference between competitors is a difference in their ability to apply to their own production problems the data secured through research. In every piece of research there is something which can be published to advantage without disclosing those details which are properly regarded as the confidential information of the concern. And such publication is of value, not only to our profession, but to the individual worker and therefore directly t o his employer. Were we t o choose a slogan for INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERIKG CHEJIISTRY,we \ l d d be strongly inclined toward “Share your knowledge.”
Common Sense in Conservation N THESE days of conservation the tendency to argue Inotion from the specific t o the general is illustrated by the popular that, no matter what we do with our natural resources, science-and particularly chemistry--will come to the rescue in ample time. We have frequently pointed out that chemistry is not a substitute for common sense, and that, while the record is a magnificent one, whatever may be done through research is no excuse for the improper management of such resources as we now have. The burden already placed upon chemistry to turn waste organic material into humus for denuded soil indicates one field in which failure to use good judgment has allowed a mildly acute and easily corrected condition to become one that is both chronic and serious. We refer to what is taking place in some parts of the West in permitting some grazing lands to be turned into desert wastes. In that part of our country containing the higher water sheds there are vast areas unsuited for agriculture but satisfactory for timber, for grazing, or for both. If the grazing is moderate, there is direct benefit, for the grass receives a needed trimming and the fire hazard is diminished. If adequate rainfall follows soon after the grazing, Kature will restore itself even though the grazing may have been excessive. If, on the other hand, the grazing has been even slightly excessive and is followed by one of those frequent periods of drought, the very roots of some of the grass lose their vitality. If further grazing follows together with the trampling of sharp hoofs, the destruction is complete. With the vegetation gone the soil begins to move and, as semi-arid regions have torrential rains, the soil moveinent becomes pronounced. The high elevations are robbed of valuable soil and the lower levels which receive the silt become water-logged. This question of stream-borne silt is of grave importance in irrigated areas and consequently to the country as a whole, since nearly onethird of our agricultural lands depend to some extent upon water transported from far-away mountains to the more easily accessible lowlands. This may be illustrated by a hypothetical case of a stream having a gradient of five feet per mile throughout a hundredmile length. With such a fall the stream will keep its channel scoured, but if heavy accessions of silt are received the stream begins to meander. This may easily lengthen the stream to two hundred miles with a gradient of two and one-half
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feet per mile. The stream can keep no channel. It fills more and more. Water tables rise. Evaporation takes place at the surface. The soil becomes alkaline with salts. A i d now the chemist is consulted. Already the middle Rio Grande Valley has undertaken a reclamation project, not primarily to get water for irrigation but rather to get rid of seepage. The work, which will cost about ten million dollars when completed, will leave the land no more productive than it was before the erosion on the high lands started to fill the valleys. The project to correct conditions in this mile-high valley was started with the slogan, “United we drain, divided we drown.” The lack of vegetation to help regulate drainage from the highlands results in excessive cutting of stream beds, so that streams once suitable for irrigation are now so deep in their banks as to make the water unavailable except by pumping. It will be seen, then, that the simple matter of unregulated grazing on private lands and on the vast public domainfor grazing is regulated in the national forests-contributes to a destruction of natural resources in many directions. Valuable soil is lost to the highlands and water sheds, to which it cannot be restored, silt is carried into the valleys where it presents a variety of difficulties, and the utility of some stream beds is maintained only a t greatly added expense, if a t all. We have here a national problem calling for the application of good judgment while the situation, though acute, may still be remedied. After ultimate destruction has taken place it is too late for even the chemist to be of service.
A New Coagulant TRICTLY speaking, ferric chloride in solution is not a new coagulant, but for many industrial purposes its price has prohibited its use. It frequently happens that the adoption of a material for a particular large-scale use leads to its manufacture in such quantities as to bring the price within the reach of others long interested but not able to buy. It is in this connection that we note with interest a contract recently awarded the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company by the Sewerage Commission of the City of hlilwaukee, calling for between 2000 and 2500 tons per year of ferric chloride in solution a t a price of $2.08 per hundred pounds on the anhydrous basis, delivered a t the sewage plant. The solution will be transported in rubber-lined tank cars and will replace chlorinated copperas heretofore used. The availability of ferric chloride in solution in quantities that will greatly reduce its price would seem to open up a number of possible applications and make it a direct competitor with the older coagulants. Subsequent developments should afford much of interest.
Bind a Spare Set HE material included in the SOCIETY’S publications is being found so valuable by the management and research staffs of industry, as well as by those mho consult libraries, that in many places the bound volumes show appreciable wear. The librarians and research directors wonder how long these journals will last and realize that their replacewill ment may be difficult. The publications of the SOCIETY grow rather than diminish in value. The price today of securing and binding a spare set to be put in the archives until needed is very small. The cost of replacement in future is sure to be high if, indeed, some numbers are obtainable a t all. Foresight would seem t o indicate the desirability of binding a spare set.
