July 1960, Volume 52, No. 7 APPLIED JOURNALS, ACS 1 155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington 6, D. C. Director o f Publications, C. 8. Larrabee Editoriol Director, Richard 1. Kenyon Executive Editor, James M. Crowe Assistant to fhe Director of Publications, Joseph H. Kuney Assistant to the Editorial Director, Robert F. Gould INDUSTRIALAND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY Editor, Will H. Shearon, Jr. EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON 6, D. C. 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Phone REpublic 7-3337 Teletype WA 23 Associate Editor: William H. Gay Asristanf Edifors: Joe H. Olin, Joe B. Pullen, Elspeth W. Mainland Manuscript Department Associafe Editors: Stella Anderson, Head Katherlne I. Biggs, Reviewing Ruth Reynard, Editing Ruth M. Howorth, Eugenia Keller Editorial Assistant: S. S. Rogers layout and Production Joseph Jacobs, Art Director Melvin D. Buckner (Art) Leroy Corcoran (Layout) BRANCH EDITORIAL OFFICES WASHINGTON Associate Editor: Robert J. Riley CHICAGO 1 , ILL. Room 926,36 South Wabash Ave. Teletype CG 725 Phone STate 2-5148 Associate Editors: Arthur Poulos, Chester Placek, James H. Krieger HOUSTON 2, TEX., 718 Melrose Bldg. Phone FAirfax 3-7107 Teletype HO 72 Associate Editors: Bruce F. Greek, Earl V. Anderson NEW YORK 16, N. Y., 2 Park Ave. Phone ORegon 9-1646 Teletype NY 1-4726 Associate Editors: William Q. Hull, Harry Stenerron, D. Gray Weaver, Walter S. Fedor, Laurence J. White, Louis A. Agnello SAN FRANCISCO 4, CALIF. 703 Mechanics’ Institute Bldg., 57 Post St. Phone EXbrook 2-2895 Teletype SF 549 Associate Editor: Richard 0. Newhall Assistant Editor: Joseph Sturchio EASTON, PA. 20th and Northampton Sts. Phone Blackburn 8-91 11 Teletype ESTN Pa 7048 Associafe Editor: Charlotte C. Sayre Ediforiol Assistants: Elizabeth R. Rufe, Barbara A. Conover EUROPEAN OFFICE Bush House, Aldwych, London Phone Temple Bar 3605 Cable JIECHEM Associate Editor: Albert S. Hester Assistant Editor: Brendan F. Somerville Contributing Editors: H. Carl Bauman, James 8. Weaver, W. S. Connor, P. H. Stirling Advisory Board: R. 1. Bateman, A. S. Brunjes, David M. Clark, James M. Church, Lauchlin M. Currie, Joseph C. Elgin, Sam S. Emiron, E. J. Fox, George Harrington, Gustave Heinemann, Rafael Katzen, Joseph H. Koffolt, F. Drew Maytleld, George Thodos, Richard C. Waugh
Construction Sketches
-1960
“TWENTY-FIVE to thirty per cent of the materials in the average home will be man-made material produced in chemical and plastic plants.” This prediction for 1970, made by H. D. Stewart, president of Allied Chemicals Barrett Division at a recent sales conference, reminded US of an I/EC report titled, “Construction Sketches,” written just 13 years ago. I n this report we borrowed, with permission, a ditty from The Saturday Evening Post, by Korman Jaffray. Little did he know how soon the light verses of “Home, Sweet Sponge-Rubber Home” would be fact instead of fiction, Some of the chemical materials of construction mentioned in the factual part of the report were a bit ahead of their time then, but even the poetic guesses have descended from Cloud Nine to Suburbia today. Mr. Stewart predicts widespread use of “plastic foam insulation far more efficient and easier to apply than present insulation, and whole walls in a panel, complete with plastic insulation, wiring, heating panels, and interior surfacing.” This has a strangely familiar ringthe concept and the first attempts were in infancy in the immediate post-World War I1 years. The concept was extended even further by at least three speakers at the CMRA May meeting on chemistry and the construction industry to include the idea of a house that serves a useful life of a generation, then is dismantled and transferred to another location, perhaps in a different architectural form. C. T. Larson, Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan, plugs for standardized and interchangeable parts, as easy to take down as to put up, and adds his plea to those from other areas for transition to the metric system by the building industry. If the chemical industry is to take real advantage of the billionpound markets possible in residential construction, it must realize that all things don’t necessarily come to those who only sit and wait. Much fundamental knowledge must be sought out. The architects and the regulatory agencies aren’t going to do this for the chemical manufacturer. Rather, they are going to have to be convinced, even when the information has been found. General Electric’s R. W. Finholt implies virtual elimination of steel as the major structural material in another 10 years. The steel industry may not agree, and they will certainly be right unless chemical manufacturers learn that to get cake back they have to first cast bread on the waters. Mass produced homes tallied 130,000 units in 1959, and one of the biggest of these operators, W. J. Levitt, Jr., thinks that the manufacturers of basic materials need to institute programs designed to utilize these mass builders-characterized by him as the manufacturers’ most important market research arm. The simplified recipe may simply call for a concerted drive to find and develop the best suited uses for basic products. This carries the basic negative implication submitted by Professor Dietz of MIT’s School of Architecture-that the chemical industry must appraise what it cannot do for the building industry as well as what it can. Lest we forget, in our enthusiasm for the Home, Sweet SpongeRubber Home, there is something being done and much to be done in the field of improving present materials. Wood is one and the vice president for research of Timber Engineering Co., Mi. H. Scheick, says it neatly: “Every supplier whose product can be improved with chemicals is a potential customer rather than a competitor.” T h e builder with a bright idea and an adventurous soul still has a wide open field for constructing his dream castle.
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VOL. 52, NO. 7
JULY 1960
549
