Fathers and Sons in Chemistry Vernon T. and Richard M. Slewarl NATIVE of western New York, Vernon T\ Stewart graduated in 1905 from Syracuse University, where he majored in chemistry, and later from Massachu setts Institute o f Technology in chemical engineering.
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organization which employs several hun dred chemists, metallurgists, engineers, and inspectors, with offices and labora tories at various points in the United States, Canada, England, and Europe. It does inspection work for over half the railroads of the United States, including complete inspection of rails for railroads representing 65 per cent of the track mile age of the country. The company has been a corporation member of the AMERI CAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY since 1928.
The present officers are: J. C. Ogden, president; F. M. Randlett, vice president and general manager; D . W. McNaugher, vice president and treasurer; and W. A. Gresens, secretary and assistant treasurer. Fellowships i n Montana School of Mines N COOPERATION with the State Bureau of Mines and Geology, the Montana School of Mines, University of Montana, offers several research fellowships and graduate assistantships in geology, metal lurgy» mining, and mineral dressing t o college graduates who have had good sci entific training in those sciences which are the foundation of t h e mineral industry. Fellowships in metallurgy, mining, and mineral dressing are for nine months be ginning September 1 and carry a stipend of $540; fellowships in geology are for eleven months beginning July 1 and carry a per diem allowance for field work during July and August and a stipend of $540 for the remaining nine months; assistantships in mineral dressing and geology are for two 9-month periods beginning September 1 and carry a stipend of $675 for each period; assistantships in geology also carry a per diem allowance for field work in the intervening summer. Applications should be sent before April 15, 1938, to A. M. Gaudin, Chair man, Graduate Committee, Montana School of Mines, Butte, Mont., and should include a certified copy of college record, a statement of professional experience, a recent photograph, and letters of recom mendation from three qualified persons.
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K U H M U ) M. STK\V\KT
VKHNOS T. STEWART
He served for a few voars with the American Writing Paper Co. at Holyoke, Mass., and then at the chemical plants at Bloomfield, N. J., operated by the late Thomas A. Edison, where, during the World War, he was chief chemist. After the war, he conducted development work on the process of the late Charles A. Doremus for the refining of white arsenic at Mamaroneck, Ν. Υ. This work led him into association with Carleton Ellis, of Montclair, N . J., where their combined efforts resulted in a number of patents, particularly on a dry process for calcium arsenate for use against the cotton boll weevil. Some work was also done on cotton oil. In September, 1921, he went with the Newark College of Engineering, which had been organized a few years previously, and a year later was made head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, which posit ion he st ill holds. He has seen the number of graduates grow to a rather steady figure of about 40 each year. When he was a student at the institute, he came under the influence of Warren K. Lewis and the late Arthur A. Noyes and w a s greatly impressed with their methods of writing problems, which were distinctly unique at that time. He feels that these methods were a much greater contribution to technical education than their present rather limited use would in dicate. In 1922, he wrote the textbook of the International Correspondence Schools on Cotton Oil. He is a member of Beta Theta Pi, of
association with Carleton Ellis, of Mont clair, N . J. Thi* work led to a series of patents on the application of illuminating gas to house heating. His chemical work with Mr. Ellis quite naturally led him into the field of synthetic resins and he later assisted with Mr. Ellis' book on that sub ject. His interest in synthetic resins as insulators brought? him into contact with the Anaconda Wire and Cable Co., with which he became associated in 1935, at Hastings-on-Hudson, Ν. Υ. He registered as a patent attorney before the Patent Office and his chemical interests now in clude all types of insulators and copper. He is a first lieutenant in the reserve of the Engineer Corps and is an ardent golfer. He was married on September 29, 1934, to Eleanor Noel Russell and they have one son, Barry R. Stewart.
Another Hobby
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HESE chemists are a queer lot, as judged not only by the types of work which some prefer, but also by the hobbies which are varied and many. Note, for Schlundt Hall of Chemistry instance, the hobby of Charles Skeele Palmer of Pittsburgh. If you attend PON recommendation, the Board of any chemical function in that city you are Curators of the University of Missouri sure to meet him and he serves as chair on February 12, 1938, took action that man of the Reception Committee of the the new Chemistry Building on the East Pittsburgh Section of the SOCIETY. Campus of the university be named His hobby, or at least one of them, is "Schlundt Hall of Chemistry" in honor the study of Shakespeare and in the Johns of and in memory of the late Herman Hopkins Alumni Magazine, Vol. XXV, Schlundt, who was instructor and later No. 4, June, 1937, is published "A Possible professor of chemistry in the university Approach to the Shakespeare Question." from 1902 until the time of his death in This has been commented upon by critics December, 1937. who regard it with favor, among other Professor Schlundt's long and distin reasons because it is noncontroversial, guished service for the university amply but presents one point of view in a fair merits such a memorial. His influence on the and judicial manner. development of chemistry in the university and of scientific interest throughout the state has been conspicuous. His researches, Golden Anniversary o f Robert the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY since especially in radioactivity, have notably 1914, an associate member of the Ameri W. Hunt Co. increased the prestige of the university in can Institute o f Chemical Engineers, of ^ΗΕ Robert W. Hunt Co., Chicago, educational circles. The inspiration which the Chemists' Club, and the Society for 111., which was organized in 1888 he gave to students throughout his career the Promotion of Engineering Education. was unsurpassed. Moreover, the new Chem He was married in Buffalo, Ν. Υ., on for the inspection of steel rail, is cele brating its golden anniversary during istry Building itself was constructed and September 8, 1908, to Helen L. Quale and 1938. Robert W. Hunt was a pioneer equipped under his general direction, and they have one son, Richard M. Stewart. in the manufacture of iron and steel and its convenience and effectiveness are largely He has been interested in chess and his accomplishments during the 25 years due to his expert advice. bridge and has had some success in local of his association with the industry were duplicate tournaments. of great importance. He received the ichard M. Stewart was educated in John Fritz Medal and the Washington S. F . THORNTON has resigned his position t h e schools of Montclair, N. J., and Award, was twice president of the Ameri as soil chemist for the Purdue Uni at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech can Institute of Mining and Metallurgical versity Agricultural Experiment Sta nology, where he graduated in 1932, and Engineers and an honorary member from tion, and has started work as agrono where he was a member of Sigma N u . 1919 until his death in 1923. mist in charge of agricultural work for Soon after, he became interested in com the F. S. Royster Guano Co., with In fifty years the company has grown bustion work and this brought him into headquarters at Norfolk, Va. from a small group to an international
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NEWS EDITION
MARCH 10, 1938 D o You Support This Racquet?
O
N PAG Β 3 of the INDUSTRIAL EDITION
for January, 1937, an editorial was printed under the title "Costly Litera ture." Without being specific, it pre sented a few facts which characterize the activities of a group advertising special reports, chemical surveys, and similar services purporting to bring the subscriber up to date on new developments in special fields. The editorial was based on a costly experience reported by a disgruntled sub scriber to the service, who found a report to be made up wholly of articles copied from the literature and some of them quite old. Careful comparisons showed these to be reports of discussions copied substan tially verbatim from INDUSTRIAL AND E N GINEERING CHEMISTRY
without
credit.
Other sources were similarly drawn upon. Correspondence ensued and a promise was given that thereafter when our pages were used as source material a proper litera ture reference would be printed. This autumn a second offense was brought to our attention by another pur chaser of one of the special chemical surveys. More correspondence—more promises. It was said that the citation would be found on page 58, but an ex amination of the copy in the hands of a correspondent showed the survey to be complete in 57 pages. There have now come to hand t wo addi tional surveys, each with the same faults as the predecessors. Authors* names are not given, literature references are not given, and it might have been better serv ice to have simply supplied planographed copies of the original articles, for then the diagrams would have been more clear and the original illustrations would have been included. The offender is J. J. Berliner and Staff of New York, Ν. Υ. We have despaired of any success in convincing this outfit that the ethical way of using the litera ture is the only way, and so publish these facts, not alone for our own protection, but in the interests of our readers who are familiar with literature in their specialty and naturally annoyed, to say the least, when they find thev have paid a price from $8.00 up for the privilege of seeing in duplicated form the same material they have read some months before in our pages or those of some other publication. The AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY has
refrained from copyrighting its publica tions. Instead, it has assisted in every way it could to facilitate reprinting by others, the object being to further the dissemination of scientific information. If this long-established policy must be changed, it will be because of experiences such as that outlined above. It would seem a pity, though, to allow "one rotten apple to spoil the barrel." Carolina Analytical Laboratories HE Carolina Analytical Laborato ries, 2316 South Boulevard, Char T lotte, N. C , have recently been established to furnish analytical research and con sulting service to the textile and other industries in the South. The decision to establish the laboratories is in recognition of the growing importance of the South as an industrial section. Norman G. Sixt, who obtained his chemical and engineer ing degree at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is chief chemist. He is a mem ber of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
and the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. He is a resident engineer in the State of North Carolina.
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Oxygen and High Pressure in Gas Manufacture Synthesis of Gaseous Hydrocarbons C. H. S. T u p h o l m e Runcton Cottage, Lower B o u r n e , F a r n h a m , Surrey, England HE rapid growth of a young industry T in competition with an older one which has previously held a virtual monopoly has one very welcome result. It forces the older industry to revitalize and in crease its activity, particularly in the di rection of improving and cheapening its processes. Such a state of affairs is now to be seen in Britain, where a growing electrical competitor is forcing the older gas industry to explore every means, not only to sell gas, instead of offer it, but also to set its many eminent fuel technologists to work on somewhat novel lines. One of these lines has just been pre sented to the Institution of Gas Engineers in collaboration with the University of Leeds. The experiments discussed con tinue the investigation of processes of gasification for the production of gas suit able for general distribution. The first part of the investigation dealt with gasi fication in steam with oxygen and gave encouraging results. High thermal effi ciencies of gas production were obtained without inconveniently high temperatures in the fuel bed, and the consumption of oxygen was considerably reduced by pre heating the oxygen and steam supplies. The experiments with oxygen were car ried out at atmospheric pressure and, ac cording mainly to the relative amounts of steam and oxygen supplied, the gas made consisted of varying proportions of hydro gen and carbon monoxide with some car bon dioxide. The results refer directly to the use of oxygen for the production of such gases, but they were primarily ob tained for application to city gas manu facture with the view that gasification would be followed by a synthesis of gase ous hydrocarbons to yield a final gas of composition and calorific value more suit able for distribution. The last work, now under way, is con cerned with the synthesis of the hydro carbons, and especially with the possi bility of promoting the synthesis by op erating at high pressure. The study of the production of gaseous hydrocarbons has been separated from that of the initial gasification to hydrogen and carbon mon oxide although, in a process depending upon subsequent reactions at high pres sure, it would probably be necessary to make the initial gasification under pres sure in order t o avoid compression charges. It may be that, in practice, the two stages would be best combined in the same fuel bed, as in the Lurgi process which is operated with lignite in Germany. On the other hand, the separation of gasi fication and synthesis may be helpful in controlling the reactions involved and the products they yield and, in addition, may facilitate the use of the bituminous coals available in Britain. The first high-pressure experiments were made within conditions anticipated for a fuel bed undergoing gasification and were designed to see whether a synthesis of hydrocarbons could be expected to oc cur in the upper part of the bed to the same extent when using British coals as in the Lurgi process using lignite. Thus, a mix ture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, car bon dioxide, and undecomposed steam, such as would be produced near the base of the fuel bed by the initial gasification reactions, was passed at 50 atmospheres pressure over various cokes heated to 800° C. The gas mixture was supplied at a rate equivalent to the gas output of a mod
ern water gas plant and the cokes were made from lignite, semi-anthracite, and weakly caking and strongly caking coals. It was found that after treatment the gas had a considerable methane content which was not greatly dependent upon the type of coke so long as this had not suffered severe heat treatment during its prepara tion. In particular, the lignite coke did not appear to be specially favorable for methane formation. The coals were converted to cokes be fore use in order to avoid any fusion of the charge in the reaction tube and conse quent interference of gas flow. Methods for overcoming the difficulties likely to arise when gasifying caking fuels are re ceiving attention but, apart from these difficulties, the results of the preliminary experiments indicate that all types of bi tuminous coals, as well as lignite, can be gasified in steam under pressure with the synthesis of hydrocarbons in the fuel bed and the production of gas of a sufficiently high calorific value for general supply. The investigation then entered a wider field. There were indications that most of the methane formed in the preliminary experiments was the product of direct combination of the coke with the hydrogen contained in the mixture of gases supplied and was not due to interaction of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The hydrogénation of solid fuels to gaseous hydrocarbons plainly required a thorough investigation, and experiments were made for that purpose. The experimental procedure adopted was to heat various types of fuel to 800 ° C. in a stream of hydrogen, or gas containing hydrogen, at pressures between 1 and 100 atmospheres. The formation of gaseous hydrocarbons was observed during both the heating-up period and a period at 800° C. The fuels were also heated in nitrogen for comparative purposes. One and one-half to 2.75 hours were taken in heating to 800° C. and this temperature was then maintained for a further 1.50 hours. Results obtained with a coke prepared a t 450° to 500° C. from a strongly caking Yorkshire coal can be taken as typical. When this coke was heated in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure it evolved hydrogen and methane along with smaller quantities of ethane, unsaturated hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. The yields in hydrogen and methane were equivalent, respectively, to 23.0 therms and 14.7 therms per ton of coke, and the yield of total gaseous hydrocarbons t o 16.3 therms. When heated in hydrogen at atmospheric pressure the coke evolved less hydrogen and considerably more methane was obtained. Per ton of coke, there were only 1.3 therms in hydrogen but 33.8 therms in gaseous hydrocarbons. The greater yield of hydrocarbons was plainly the result of the coke being hydrogenated, even a t atmospheric pressure, and up to 650° C. there was an absorption of the hydrogen supplied. The most striking results were obtained, however, by heating the coke in hydrogen at pressures above atmospheric. Hydrogénation became much more pronounced and there were remarkably high yields of gaseous hydrocarbons. At 5 atmospheres the yield was equivalent to 92.1 therms per ton; at 10 atmospheres, 132.9 therms; at 25 atmospheres, 202.5 therms; at 50
