616
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
plant in the early days that the cost a t that time was not over five thousand dollars per gram of radium. While the ore then shipped was probably richer than that which goes to the plant today, it is nevertheless a simple matter to concentrate uranium oxide ore to any richness desired, water being available as it is in Katanga. The manufacturers and producers of a luxury may ask a price which returns an unreasonable profit and no one complains seriously, for we can dispense with luxuries. A hoarder of food who endeavors t o extract a fabulous profit for a necessity would be given no mercy. What shall be said then of a company which, though numbering among its stockholders citizens of other lands, is nevertheless controlled by those identified with a country which sought and was given the help of the world, and which now demands the utmost the traffic will bear for a material which to many means the difference between life and death? It is not a pleasing picture. There has been no great outlay of time and treasure involved in the location of a deposit which some lucky circumstance placed on Belgian-controlled territory, nor has the company been required to perform tedious and timeconsuming research in the development of a reduction method. Neither has it been found necessary to seek a market for a new product. That a reasonable profit is deserved by those who conduct commercial enterprises, whether they manufacture medicines or machinery, is accepted. It is when a life-giving element is maintained artificially a t a price which limits its availability to suffering mankind that we raise our voice in protest.
An Old Industry Employs Research nearly fifty years the manufacturers of confectionery maintained a national organization, but it was less than five years ago that certain leaders in the industry began to consider scientific research as an activity to be supported by this association. A committee, of which E. B. Hutchins, a member of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, is chairman, began to study the problem and incidentally to convince the industry that research offered something for them. There were those who maintained that their industry was so different from others that research could do little, if anything; that candy is just candy; and inquired what is to be gained by research. Like all industries, there were those who had their own ways of making candy and could see no possible reason for any change, and an occasional manufacturer who felt that research might enable a competitor to so improve his product that his own advantage would be lost. These reactions are the usual ones, and the committee has found much to do in convincing the doubters and leading the way. At a recent meeting a t West Baden, it was decided to appropriate funds to initiate a research program. The association wisely elected to take the first step by ascertaining with great care problems common to many of the manufacturers upon which work might start with some promise of a sufficiently wide interest to attract and hold the attention of the membership. While the ultimate goal of the association is to establish its own institute, it will, in the meantime, avail itself of the personnel and equipment of those existing agencies in position to render necessary service. Mr. Hutchins has coined the phrase, “a pleasurable utility.” as describing the maximum appeal that any product or service can make to the consumer of the present day. Manufacturers of confectionery are in a favorable position to offer the public pleasurable utility, but to make the most of their opportunity they will avail themselves of the advantages of scientific research.
Vol. 21, No. 7
Light’s Golden Jubilee H E fiftieth anniversary celebration of Thomas A. Edison’s invention of light without flame is already well under way, although the actual anniversary date falls on October 21. One of the methods for calling attention to the great progress made in the past fifty years has been the reproduction of the first incandescent lamp, replicas now being seen in many parts of the land. The contrast between this quaint lamp and the inside-frosted gas-filled Mazda in general use affords one measure of the contribution of various arts and sciences toward the constant improvement of this means of illumination. The 100-watt modern lamp gives seventy-six times as much light for the same cost as the first lamp. The old lamp consumed nearly 100 watts of electricity, it gave only about one-eighth as much light as the modern lamp, and the light was yellow. The original filament consisted of a fragile piece of carbon obtained by ‘[firing” cotton thread in a special high-temperature furnace. The leading-in wires were of platinum. You are familiar with the research which led to the modern concentrated and perfectly coiled drawn tungsten filament, and with the “Dumet” copper leading-in wires which long since replaced expensive platinum. At the present purchasing power of money, Mr. Edison’s first lamps, which sold for $1.25, would have cost $2 each, and they were good for about 40 hours of service. Compare this with the retail price of the modern rugged, serviceable, universally available incandescent lamp. Again, light a room with a 100-watt Mazda lamp for 1000 hours and the cost, paying 7 cents per kilowatt hour for current, would be $7.35. Now substitute enough lamps like the original to give the same quantity of illumination. At the end of 1000 hours your bill will be $68.75. If you return to the good old days, or wish to be stylish and use candles, again maintaining the same illumina.tion, your bill will be $1500. Chemistry, of course, cannot claim credit for all that has been done to improve the incandescent lamp in the past fifty years, but it does share t o a large degree in the achievement and joins with pride those other groups, from miner to financier, which without qualification join in praising those who have made the modern miracle of illumination a reality. The AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY is proud of the fact that for twenty-one years Thomas A. Edison, of Orange, N. J., has been one of its active members.
More on Hazards stimulated by previous remarks on CORRESPONDEKCE hazards emphasized the failure on the part of some of those undertaking to advise the public to realize their responsibility in recommending the use of chemical compounds. Recently one of the “How to Be Beautiful” columns in a daily paper presented several formulas for the preparation, a t home, of skin foods and cosmetics. One of these “beautifiers” involved the use of lead acetate in some sort of lotion, and another included a fair quantity of mercuric chloride in a face cream. I n neither case did the slightest word of caution appear in regard to the use or handling of these recognized poisons, which might be absorbed by the skin, especially when applied with glycerol, lanolin, and similar materials. If well-known poisons are to be treated with such indifference, what about the increasing number of new compounds constantly offered for a variety of manufacturing operations and even home use?
