VoI. 23, No. 1
January 1, 1931
Election Returns
discount will not apply. The experiment is being conducted to ascertain whether a lower price will sell enough S A result of the final ballot L. V. Redman, vice more books to enable larger editions to be printed. K i t h president and director of research of the Bakelite Cor- larger editions comes lower cost price per unit, and with poration, has been chosen President-Elect of the A~VERICANlowered costs there can be lower selling prices It is all a CHEiwcAL SOCIETY.Councilors-at-large are F. C. Frary, perfectly obvious and businesslike procedure, based nn director of research of the Aluminum Company of ilmeiica; supply and demand a t a definite price. H. N.Holmes, director of the Chemical Department, Oberlin If, as a result of this price inducement, a sufficientnumber College; E. H. T’oln4er, director and chief chemist of the of the monographs move to demonstrate that lower prices Abbott Laboratories; and R. E. Wilson, assistant to vice mean a demand for larger numbers, it will have a direct president apd in charge of Development and Patent De- influence on the future prices of present monographs, as partment, Standard Oil Company of Indiana. well as the selling prices of future books in the series. Buy W. D. Bigelow, director of the laboratories of the Kational in 1931, therefore, for cheaper books, both now and in the Canners Association, was reglected as Director for the fourth future district, and Kalter A. Schmidt, president of the Western Precipitation Company, was elected for the sixth district. Under the new provisions of the Constitution four Directorsat-large were elected: Thomas Midgley, Jr., consultant, S World Trade Kotes on Chenicals and Allied Produck General hlotors Company, to serve for four years; George P. the Department of Commerce has recently included a Adamson, retired, ex-president of Baker & Adamson, and ex-director of the Gcneral Chemical Company, to serve for statistical review of the nitrate industry for the first ten three years; 11. C. Whitaker, president, Catalytic Process qonths of 1930, which tends to show that efforts designed Corporation, to serve for two years; and R. E. Wilson to to increase consumption have not led to the reduction of stocks of finished nitrate in Chile and world-consuming serve for one year. Congratulations all around! markets which was so greatly desired. The number of plants operating in Chile in 1930 is less than in 1929. Likewise the total production is less by some 26,000 tons, and the exports are very considerably lower than in 1929. The HEX it comes to books, the scientists are in a bad world stocks of finished nitrate, however, have remained Wposition. They must have books, ever newer books, greater month by month, as compared with corresponding better illustrated ones, and more complete reference works. months in 1929, by roughly some 500,000 tons. As is well known, efforts were made during the year to There are few classes of really useful books r h i c h cost so much to manufacture and there are few groups of workers scale down production through an international cartel, 50 who find book purchases more difficult to make. This is that the plants fixing atmospheric nitrogen might not also because the limited circulation of most treatises requires suffer severely from too much fixed nitrogen in the world. small and consequently expensive editions, while a t the same The largest plants abroad are known to have been working time progress is such that in a short time revisions are neces- a t far less than capacity, and in some instances have been storing up unsold stocks of fixed nitrogen. Nevertheless, sary. Chemistry is no exception, and in particular is this true the output increased by 76.100 tons of pure nitrogen, making of the Monograph Series of the AMERICAN CHEMICALSo- 1,2i2,100 metric tons, The production of by-product ammoCIETY. This successful series is approaching sixty volumes nium sulfate and ammonia liquors increased by 15,300 tons, in number, and their character has made for them :in enviable although the fertilizer demand decreased. These figures reputation and has added substantially to the prestige of are from the report of the British Sulphate of Ammonia the authors. It has been thought by some that the further- Federation, Ltd. If there ever was a time when the world ance of chemistry dictates that a lower price should be placed enjoyed a superabundance of nitrogen in that form which is on the monographs. The question has been thoroughly most useful to man, it is the present. This situation apparently means nothing either to the investigated over a considerable period and as :Lresult an experiment mill be tried out in 1931. If you are interested group that would have the Government operate hluscle in cheaper books, buy them under the new plan. Shoals or to those who continue their efforts to persuade For the calendar year 1931 the Chemical Catalog Company, the farmer that the operation of that property would mean the publishers of the series, has decided to offer the mono- tremendous savings for him. According to the Boston graphs of the AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETYa t prices 25 daily press, when the American Farm Bureau Federation met per cent below those which have been current heretofore. in that city on December 10, resolutions were passed whereby Members of the SOCIETYhave always been entitled to 10 the board of directors of the federation was to be authorized per cent discount on these books. I n view of the more to establish a subsidiary corporation, representing agriculture liberal terms offered during this period, t h k additional and the general public, to offer to lease Muscle Shoals from
A
Nitrate Overproduction
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Cheaper Books
