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Vol. 19, No. 2
PERKIN MEDAL AWARD On January 14, 1927, at a meeting of the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, the Perkin Medal was presented t o John E. Teeple, consulting engineer, 50 East 41st St., New York City, for “significant scientific, technical, and administrative achievements, particularly the economic development of a n American potassium industry a t Searles Lake, California.” The medal was presented by William H. Nichols, following introductory remarks by L. V. Redman, a n account of the early
days of the medalist by L. M. Dennis, and a summary of the accomplishments of Dr. Teeple by Charles H. Herty. The Perkin Medal is awarded “annually t o the American chemist who has most distinguished himself by his services t o Applied Chemistry.” It was founded in 1906 a t the time of the Perkin semicentennial celebration of the coal-tar discoveries, the first medal being awarded t o Sir William H. Perkin himself. The previous Perkin medalists are given below.
DATEOB AWARD 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912
D A T EOF AWARD 1920
AWARDED ro Sir W. H. Perkin J. B. F. Herreshoff Arno Behr E. G. Acheson Charles M. Hall Herman Frasch
1913 1914 1915
James Gayley John W. Hyatt Edward Weston
1916
I,. H. Baekeland
1917 1918
Ernst Twitchell Auguste J. Rossi
1919
Frederick G. Cottrell
PRINCIPAL FIELDS OF INVENTIONS Discoverer of first aniline color Metallurgy; contact sulfuric acid Corn products industry Carborundum; artificial graphite Metallic aluminum Desulfuring oil and subterranean sulfur industry Dry air blast Colloids and flexible roller bearings Electrical measurements; electrodeposition of metals; flaming arc Velox photoprint paper; Bakelite and synthetic resins; caustic soda industry Saponification of fats Development of manufacture and use of ferrotitanium Electrical precipitation
AWARDED TO Charles F. Chandler
1921
Willis R. Whitney
1922
William M. Burton
1923
Milton C. Whitaker
1924
Frederick M. Becket
1925
Hugh K . Moore
1926
R. B. Moore
PRINCIPAL FIELDS OF INVENTIONS Noteworthy achievements in almost every line of chemical endeavor Development of research and application of science t o industry Achievement in oil industry; efficient conversion of high-boiling fractions into low-boiling fractions Great constructive work in field of applied chemistry Process for extraction of rare metals from ores; manufacture of calcium carbide; processes for reduction of rare metals and alloys Electrochemical processes for caustic soda, soda and chlorine, production of wood pulp, hydrogenation of oils, etc. W o r k on radium, mesothorium, and helium
. . . .. . . ......
Expansion or Growth B y John E. Teeple
T
HE award of the Perkin Medal came to me this year as
a distinct surprise, for two reasons. First, I a m a n habitual consultant, and second, my inventive ability a s measured by patents granted is rather small. Former medalists almost without exception can show long lists of patents, sometimes fifty or more. M y list ends at number two, both issued many years ago, and neither ever served a s t h e basis of a n industry or proved remunerative to myself or anyone else. In defense of the Medal Committee, however, I should say t h a t patents and inventions do often occur in my neighborhood, and maybe I can claim t o be a catalyst or a fertilizer of inventions, b u t nothing more. Reverting t o t h e first charge of being a n habitual consultant: Most a n y chemist or engineer who is out of one job and looking for another is temporarily a consultant. The habitual one, however, for a long and uninterrupted period maintains his own office, pays his own rent, sells his services t o others but never exclusively, and has no visible means of support except consulting. None of m y distinguished predecessors in this high honor seems t o have practiced this mode of life. Most of them were owners of a manufacturing business or had been long and exclusively in t h e service of some one large manufacturing corporation, usually occupying a high executive position in it. The two or three exceptions in t h e list were men on university faculties or in government service. It is needless t o be impolite to the Perkin Medal Committee by citing other deficiencies of the present medalist, since my true belief is t h a t t h e work they have particularly mentioned in making this award, the development of a n American potash industry, is well worthy t o take its place beside those achieve-
ments they have honored in previous years. There is no lack of modesty in this statement, because i t refers to the work and not t o the medalist. Some few of my honored predecessors could possibly accept this honor as a personal award because the accomplishments had been largely their own. Most of us, and this is particularly true in my case, can only come here and receive the medal as delegates, as representatives of a large body of workers who have all contributed, who have all distinguished themselves by their services t o applied chemistry. It is sufficient glory for the present medalist t o have participated with the others and t o have contributed what he could. G r o w t h of Trona Plant Now, the story of American potash has been told repeatedly, and the history and problems of this particular plant at Trona, Calif., have been detailed elsewhere.’ It will be sufficient here t o say t h a t when I first saw t h e plant in 1919 it looked like a typical “war baby” with no war in sight. Attempts were still being made to operate in a half-hearted way, but production was only about 20 tons potassium chloride per day, of so low grade t h a t it would now be considered unsalable, and although prices were still far above pre-war levels the daily cost of operation was far in excess of income. Today t h e same plant ( a t least the buildings are the same ones) is capable of producing nearly 400 tons of very high grade potassium chloride, borax, and boric acid per day, and is marketing them a t a profit, a t prices below pre-war levels and in competition with two of those 1 THIS J O U R N A L , 13, 249 (1921); 14, 787, 904 (1922)
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foreign monopolies t h a t are the bete noir of M r Hoover-a potash monopoly and a borax monopoly. When we sent H. S. Emlaw, the first manager, t o the plant he was in charge essentially of a desert mining camp. Today his successor, Frederic Vieweg, presides over our beautiful city of Trona with about one thousand inhabitants, with tennis courts, golf links, a magnificent swimming pool, steam heat, running water, and electric lights furnished by the city, and afternoon teas and bridge for the ladies. The first production manager, Mr. Vieweg, found a plant run largely on tradition, a loud voice, and a strong arm. The present incumbent, Harald deRopp, theoretically runs i t on meters, thermometers, charts, and accurate knowledge, and the actuality of this accomplishment is not far in the future. The first head of research and development, R. W. Mumford, spent much time with little results in finding data and reports covering research work before July, 1919, so we started at the beginning t o determine how the chlorides, sulfates, carbonates, bicarbonates, borates, and metaborates of potassium and sodium would behave under all probable conditions and in all possible combinations. This work included, of course, refrigeration and all kinds of evaporation. The next step was for Mr. Mumford and his successor, William E. Burke, and the latter’s a s s i s t a n t , Francis McDonald, and their cohorts t o apply the information t o plant practice. This included the design and operation of c o n t i n u o u s v a c u u m coolers, continuous crystallizers, continuous leachers t h a t leach, continuous vacuum crystallizers t h a t sometimes work, continuous elutriators t o handle waste salts from the evaporators-over one ton of salt per minute must be washed free from liquor, and discharged from the plant, and the liquor must be returned t o the evaporators. It included the entire redesign of the evaporating system so t h a t nothing is left of the original b u t some cast-iron shells, t h e replacing of many filters by a few c o n t i n u o u s s e t t l e r s , the design of John E. double-tube coolers t h a t could be used for a while without clogging. Every minute somewhere in the Dlant nearlv 200,000 gallons of liquors or water pass through pumps, and every piece of apparatus, most of the pumps, and miles of pipe lines must be so designed t h a t they can be emptied almost instantly and washed free from salts. The intention was t o have every operation continuous, t o bring brine in at one end of the plant and keep i t moving forward steadily till the part we wanted was ready for the customer and the rest was out of the plant. This has been nearly realized. It is obvious t h a t most of the apparatus used was designed t o fit our special conditions, would not be broadly applicable t o other plants, and a detailed description of i t would not be of general interest.
The Plant T o d a y Today this is by long odds the largest borax plant and one of the three or four largest potash plants in the world. It has a capacity of over one ton finished product every four minutes, and nearly 10,000 pounds of water are evaporated from brine every minute, yet its evaporators are no larger than they were when the capacity was one-tenth as much, and there are fewer of them with less heating surface; the boiler capacity has been increased only 15 per cent, and the refrigerating compressors none a t all; the fuel oil bill is about the same as i t formerly was, and the payroll only a little larger. We have here a n excellent
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example of the application of chemistry to industry, but a mere recital of the accomplishments shows t h a t many other things besides chemistry had t o be applied in order to achieve the result. The chemist and the engineer often overlook these obvious necessaries. Men must be well housed and fed. Our labor turnover at one time was over 500 per cent per year, an entire new payroll on the average every ten weeks. Now it is normal. Our freight bill is probably $2,500,000 per year; by proper representations and classifications a good traffic man can save possibly 20 per cent, and a half million dollars per year saved this way is just as big as a half million saved by applied chemistry. Some seven or eight million dollars worth of goods must be sold per year, and in the beginning their reputation for quality was none too enviable. However, they were staple commodities, so our need was for a man who knew the technic of selling, and especially one who would make friends and play fair with every customer. When we selected A. A . Holmes t o be sales manager I suggested these especial needs t o him, but the admonition was quite unnecessary. By nature he plays fair and makes friends. P r o b l e m s t o Be Solved In a n enterprise like this some one must run a railroad and keep the accounting as the railroad commission desires; some one must see that everything is properly covered by insurance, and fire mains, plugs, pumps, and departments are kept in working order; someone must keep a butcher shop and store, and boarding-house and ice plant without either going broke or having the whole town about his ears. Payrolls always tend to increase; some one must keep a sharp eye and a pruning knife ready. Purchasing agents like to buy in large lots ; some one must use discrimination or hundreds of thousands of dollars will be tied up uselessly in stores. I n a continuously operating plant like this stoppage may mean a direct loss of ten or twenty dollars per m i n u t e . A high-speed and skilful Teeple maintenance department is a necessity, and its value is greatly increased if the accident is prevented before it happens. You may say t h a t I a m only recounting the problems of any large manufacturing industry. This is largely true, but I want t o emphasize t h e fact t h a t all these things are a n integral part of the application of chemistry t o industry. No one man could or should give personal attention t o them all, but some one must have every one of these problems as his definite responsibility, otherwise the chemical and engineering work may be never so good and still as a sample of applied chemistry it will be a failure on account of lack of profits. The operation will be a success but the patient dies, and I do not understand t h a t a n y medals are awarded for such operations. It is a part of the chemist’s and engineer’s job t o see t h a t he does not become attached t o a n enterprise t h a t is doomed to failure regardless of his work.
How an I n d u s t r y Is M a d e t o Grow The above sketchy description was meant t o show something of the situation at Trona in 1919, its present condition, and the mechanism connecting the two. We have indicated some of the difficulties encountered in work of this type, and now let us look for a moment a t the extreme simplicity of it. Your consultant looks over the situation in 1919 and finds a n abundance of cheap raw material containing staple products which have a
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ready market; he finds a plant rather expensively making a partial separation of the products; he finds many unknowns, many difficulties, but no really insurmountable obstacles seem t o stand in the way of a cheap production of certain staple products. So he decides that, given time, patience, and money, particularly money t h a t is patient, i t is very probable, in fact a good bet, t h a t a successful business can be built, if a little horse sense is mixed with the other ingredients. Then, the time and patient money being available, you start picking men here and there who like work and responsibility. You show them your vision of what can be done. Soon there is a nucleus of men who have the vision and who attract other ambitious souls. The only bait needed is the picture of a big pioneer work t o be done, the promise t h a t a man can have all the work, responsibility, and freedom from bossing and interference that he is capable of taking, and the assurance t h a t the work will be completed, It is a n adventure. Then you watch them grow, see them become resourceful, self-reliant, unafraid. One day i t becomes a n organization, a living, growing, cooperating entity working toward a definite end, disregarding personal discomfort, 115 degrees in the shade, or 24 hours a day. It is no longer a place for the weak, the petty, or the deadwood; the man who is not contributing his best feels lost and fades away. When this peak has been reached you go fishing and let them alonF while they finish the job. You see i t is really very simple. There are men in plenty who will work their heads off intelligently and accomplish really marvelous things if you will but realize, and make them realize the dignity and importance of their work and give them definite responsibility and authority t o do it, asking only for final results. Above all, they must be freed from petty nagging, freed from gloom spreaders, and freed from a voice at their elbow constantly dictating just how and when and where each move should be made.
Element of Personal Responsibility I am far from advocating such a n organization for all types of work or for all types of men. Your standard corporation organization, after the efficiency expert gets through with it, presents a n entirely different picture, a picture t h a t reminds you of a n army with all authority vested in the chief button-pusher, and all eighteen vice presidents looking and acting as much alike as colonels in uniform. Now a n army is a wonderful machine for destruction, or even for routine work. As a mechanism for concentrated physical action requiring neither thought nor initiative excepting in the supreme command, i t is hard t o beat. It is even capable of expansion. But where constructive work is to be done, where research and development work are in progress, where initiative, resourcefulness, and good judgment are more important than obedience to orders, there your task becomes one of developing the individual rather than disciplining an army. Where something new is t o arise t h a t did not exist before, you need growth, not simply expansion, and growth consists in a change in individual cells while expansion is simply the addition of more men t o a n existing army, or more bricks t o a n existing wall. In the army and the ordinary corporation organization t h e importance of the individual is minimized; he is simply a casualty or a unit of a certain type and there are plenty of machine-made spare parts t o replace him. In the growing organization t h e individual must be emphasized; he is usually hand made or grown on the spot and there are no exact duplicates. An army need not know where i t is going or what is the immediate or remote object of its movement, but i t must have orders or it is lost. Your organization for development needs few orders, the fewer the better; but i t must have the complete vision of the end t o be attained, and the map of its present locations, its immediate and remote movements, and the reasons for them. In the plant at Trona every man has opportunity to see the exact production of every material for the day before, while heads of departments and divisions also know costs
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of production and their department costs as soon as the officers know them. There are no secrets and no mysteries. The ordinary nontechnical executive, or even the technical one who has not come up through a period of research and development, utterly fails to grasp this distinction between the two types of organization and the two ways of handling men in them. This statement is not made casually, but is the result of a quartercentury experience with many executives in many corporations. This lack of understanding on the part of executives is one of the most vicious causes of stagnation in many industries which should be progressing. They start a department of research and development and then freeze it into immobility instead of fostering it and seeing t h a t i t grows. When a man has been nagged or “bawled out” by an executive who doesn’t know what he is talking about, t h a t man doesn’t return t o his task with the clear brain and eager desire necessary for constructive work. In the development of this American potash industry, then, there has been chemical work of a rather high order; there have been applications of chemistry and engineering t o the problems in hand, Loth ingenious and effective. There has resulted a successful industry t h a t did not exist before. But the thing in which I take most pride is the growth of the men themselves. They came there, most of them, rather young, with little or no experience in pioneer work, largely unaware of their own powers or possibilities. They developed ability, responsibility, assurance, and a just appreciation of their fellow workers. It becomes their plant, their business, and they are ready t o attack any necessary problem connected with it, cheerful, self-reliant, and unafraid. Perhaps a short summary here would be helpful, and we should note first t h a t all the remarks made here are meant to apply solely t o the creation of something new, t h a t did not exist before. We are not discussing a t all matters of standard practice or the mere duplication of something already existing. The potential importance t o industry of chemistry and its applications is so obvious t h a t we spend little time discussing i t here, but in order for the application to leave the potential state and become actual or kinetic the results of it must be reflected definitely and clearly on the right side of the ledger. Enterprises dependent on chemical progress are continually starting and just as continually many of them turn out t o be failures, reflecting discredit on both chemists and management. The chemist, then, desiring to do creative work must ask two questions before he starts, First, are the conditions such t h a t I can do this work so far as i t relates to my profession and carry it through to a finish? And second, assuming t h a t my professional work is well done, will all t h e other factors necessary t o commercial success be available, such as sufficient money, knowledge of business and of t h e business, experience, salesmanship? Unless t h e chemist can an-er both questions positively and rather decidedly he had better move on before he starts; otherwise he will find himself ultimately out of a job and under blame for failure, or else he will find himself changed from a creative chemist into a mere work horse. On the other hand, the business man who contemplates bringing creative work into his organization would do well t o ask a few questions, such as-why do I want t o take this step? have I the time, patience, and money t o carry i t through t o a finish? is there some man or men in my organization with the intelligence and the understanding from experience to direct this work and t o lead the men engaged in i t so t h a t they will grow and produce? and does this particular chemist candidate before me have the ambition, the spirit of adventure, and the technical equipment which make i t probable t h a t he will be a contributor? Unless all these questions can be answered positively the business man had better postpone the matter indefinitely. For over twenty years a succession of chemists has been coming to my office to explain how they had done excellent creative work
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but the business failed or the work was discontinued In many cases I knew their stories were true. During all this time another succession of business men has been coming to explain how they started creative work at one time, but the chemists were impractical and spent money like drunken sailors and never finished anything t o the point where i t was making profits. In many cases I knew their stories were true; but what a waste of money, of time, and of good chemists these stories reveal, and what a pity t h a t there are not more chemists who know business and more business men who know chemistry, a t least t o the extent t h a t they can talk each other’s language intelligently. Realization of a D r e a m Fortunately this is only the darker side of the picture, and the country has many progressive organizations where creative men are working productively and in complete cooperation and understanding, as they have been for many years. Aside from any contributions of a professional or business nature which I may
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have made to the development of an American potash industry, I have dreamed of an organism doing creative work and also producing profits, free from alibis for failure, ready t o assume blame and t o share praise, made up of men who had largely grown into their work and not of stars who demanded that their names be in the biggest letters and brightest lights. I have dreamed of a n organism where intelligence ranked higher than office, and ability to contribute was respected above either; where the men had a consciousness of the dignity of their work and a n appreciation of the same dignity in the other man’s work, and where loyalty and a determination to finish work undertaken were stronger incentives than the lure of the payroll, but where the payroll also attempted t o keep intelligent pace with their work. This dream, thanks to the cooperation of many, has been more nearly realized during the last seven years work than I ever happened t o see i t elsewhere, and that realization is one of the most important reasons why I have been honored with this medal.
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES Joseph Bridgeo Lindsey
P
HYSICALLY impressive, mentally humble origin t h a t may be elevated to keen and alert, endowed by nature service by the cattle-feed route. So apple pomace, salt marsh hay, molasses, coconut with sound common sense, generous t o a fault, but merciless t o deception, meal, vegetable ivory, cocoa shells, Postum always courageous and always vigorous in cereal residues, pumpkins are among the expressing his convictions even t o the emthings t h a t have been fed to cows and defibarassment of his victim.” Such was the nitely rated as t o their digestibility. H e characterization of our subject in a recent has not hesitated t o use flaxshives and number of his fraternity magazine. oathulls and treat them with caustic soda Dr. Lindsey worked with Tollens in Gotto increase their digestibility. Even sawtingen on the composition of wood, finishdust subjected t o acid hydrolysis by the ing in 1891. H e had completed the fourForest Products Laboratory has been tried. year course of the Massachusetts AgriculThe character and composition of butter tural College in three years, getting his fat as influenced by the feed of the cow degree in 1883. For two years after graduearly attracted Dr. Lindsey, although i t ation he assisted Goessmann in the work was necessary to wait over twenty-five of the Experiment Station, some of his years while methods for the analysis of fat duties being nitrogen determinations by could be worked out. When Dr. E. B. the Will and Varrentrap method in which Holland had done this it was possible t o the bulbs containing the ammonium chloascertain t h a t stearin fed t o the cow apride were respectfully carried to his chief peared in the butter, and that the comJoseph Bridgeo Lindsey to have platinum added and t o be weighed. position of the butter fat was modified by H e had followed Goessmann’s advice in -gothe feed of the cow. Incidentally this ing to Gottingen to study, but four years’ work manufacturing work changed, markedly, our ideas about the composition of and selling fertilizer had been necessary t o collect the money for butter. Stearin is now known t o be present in amounts of from the adventure. Returning to Amherst in 1892, he became as- 2 to 20 per cent in place of 2 per cent, and laurin 8 to 9 per cent sociated with Dr. Goessmann in the chemical work of the Exin place of 2 t o 3 per cent. periment Station. The cost of everything was never lost sight of, for Dr. Lindsey His love of animals and his previous training under Franz holds that science must make a return t o the state in general and Lehmann of Gottingen with the respiration calorimeter found the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in particular. So studies outlet in the feeding experiments which have made him known of the cost of making milk and the keeping of farm animals found among agricultural chemists. Six cows in one end of Dr. Lind- a place. H e found it cost $75 to $80 to raise a dairy heifer in sey’s barn munching beet pulp, six cows at the other end without 1915; that hogs were not a n economical Massachusetts product, beet pulp; two harnessed sheep in the cellar in their stalls eating except in abnormal circumstances such as in war time or when beet pulp, quietly producing digestion coefficients that the world community garbage is available a t relatively low cost. may know whether cows should eat beet pulp, how much, and with With accurate knowledge gained it was taken t o the farmer. what other foods, and when i t is economical so t o do. Sometimes Dr. Lindsey’s bulletins were eagerly sought by farmer and feed i t is pigs, or calves, or horses, in place of cows, always emerging producer alike. During the first decade of work he spoke frewith some definite fact for the guidance of farmers. quently a t farmers’ meetings throughout the state. Here he was Dr. Lindsey is always on the lookout for some product of a t his best. Commanding, composed, endowed with a magnifi“
