April 10, 1941
Filins System for Rare Chemicals Proposed TΗΕ availability of unusual chemical compounds, pure enzyme preparations, etc., which are not obtainable from com mercial sources, is often a matter of the greatest practical importance in deter mining the feasibility of a research proj ect. Unless t h e research worker hap pens to know of an individual or labora tory which h a s such a compound, he m a y be forced to undertake a long and laborious synthesis or preparation which is merely incidental t o the real problem he hopes to attack. At the same time there m a y be ample quantities of this material in other laboratories, as an incidental by product of certain work, and for which the originator has little use. The Chicago Branch of the American Association of Scientific Workers would like t o collect information as t o the exist ence and availability of the above ma terials throughout the country, and as to the needs of any investigator for specific substances. I t has in mind establish ment of a central filing system where contact might be made between any quali fied investigator and the individual or laboratory where the above materials might be obtained. A canvass of local research circles has drawn forth considerable enthusiasm for the project and i t s potential value. However, from its limited contacts, the association is unable t o estimate t h e ex tent of interest and cooperation which might be expected from research workers of the country as a whole or the magni tude of the practical aspects of this under taking. Therefore answers are solicited t o t h e following questionnaire from in dividual research workers, heads of re search departments, and from other in terested individuals or organizations: 1. D o y o u favor the proposed effort to establish a central information agency for the above purpose? 2. D o you now have or do you have from time t o time any unusual chemical compounds or pure enzyme preparations which are not available commercially, and which y o u would b e willing to supply either gratis or a t cost t o qualified re search workers? Please list names of these materials if possible. 3 . What unusual chemical compounds or enzyme preparations, which are not available commercially, do y o u need for your work a t the present time or from time to time? If the response warrants, t h e Chicago Branch of t h e American Association of Scientific Workers will be glad to publish an analysis of the answers it receives, de fining the apparent scope and potential usefulness of this project. I t will also be glad to undertake the execution of the project if the latter does not appear to be too great an undertaking for i t s per sonnel and financial resources. I n t h e latter case, the organization will attempt to interest some other national scientific organization or foundation in the matter.
NEWS
EDITION
407
Please address replies t o the under signed. I t is suggested that secretaries or other officers of interested scientific organizations could help b y drawing this letter t o the attention of their member ships and urging them to reply. SAMUEL S O S K I N ,
Chairman
Committee on Hare Chemicals METABOLIC AND ENDOCRINE RESEARCH MICHAEL· R E E S E HOSPITAL CHICAGO, I I I . March 1 3 , 1941
industrial Division Symposium
Burwell to Receive Schoellkopf
Medal THE 1941 Schoellkopf Medal of t h e Western N e w York Section of t h e AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
receipt for divisional dues with remittance and order, 50 cents. To those without receipt for divisional dues, who remit with order, $1.00. T o those who fail to enclose remittance with order, necessitating correspondence, $1.25. To those who require bills to be rendered, $1.50.
will
be
awarded to Arthur W. Burwell, technical director of the Alox Corp., at the section's meeting May 20 in Niagara Falls. D r . Burwell is t o receive the medal in recogni tion of his work in producing and utilizing fatty acids, lactones, and other chemicals from petroleum. Products of Dr. Burwell's process have been found useful as lubricants, antirust compounds, and plasticizers for artificial leather. In 1892 he published an important con tribution o n the formation of lactones and ketones, work done a t Strassburg when h e was in charge of t h e laboratory for Professor Fittig, famous organic chemist. Dr. Burwell has conducted op erations in petroleum refining and utiliza tion and manufacture of lampblack for early electric light carbons. For t h e past 15 years he has worked exclusively with t h e Alox process, which involves oxidation of petroleum by air under the influence of heat, pressure, and catalysts. On t h e medal jury were Howard W . Post, chairman, Albert E . Jennings, Jr., Arthur Scroggie, Walton Scott, and Manley Ross.
Abstracts of St. Louis Papers Λ BSTBACT sets are offered b y the A. C. S. News Service, 706 Mills Bldg., Wash ington, D . C , as follows: To members of divisions who forward
T H E Division of Industrial and Engi neering Chemistry of t h e AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY will hold a symposium at Case School of Applied Science, Cleve land, Ohio, o n Monday and Tuesday, December 29 and 30,1941. C. F. Prutton will be chairman of the local committee on arrangements. The subject of the symposium will be Applied Thermodynamics. Two classes of papers are being sought: presentation of information on the practical aspeots of the application of thermodynamics t o •design and operation of chemical equip ment; presentation of new or pertinent summaries of old material o n methods of estimating t h e magnitude of important thermodynamic data. The symposium committee consists of C. C. Furnas, Chairman, Yale Univer sity, New Haven, Conn.; E . W. Comings, University of Illinois, Urbana, 111.; T. B . Drew, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.; W. L . McCabe, Carnegie Insti tute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Penna.; P. D . V. Manning, Western Condensing Co., 411 Battery St., San Francisco, Calif.; H. C. Weber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. Persons interested in submitting papers should communicate with one of t h e members of the above committtee, indi cating the subject matter and type of treatment which it is proposed to present. Completed manuscripts which are sub mitted for consideration should be sent in triplicate directly t o the chairman of the symposium committee.
Society Headquarters Building Occupied ACTUAL functioning of the new
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
building as national headquarters has begun with removal of the Secretary and Business Manager's office to t h e recently acquired loca tion. Purchase of a permanent home for the SOCIETY, long recog nized as highly desirable, was made in a n easily accessible position, in the neighborhood of several edu cational and professional society headquarters. Correspondence to D r . Parsons' office should b e addressed to 1155 16th St., N . W., Washington, D . C.
NEWS
408
EDITION
Castenado, Inc., N e w Orleans, La. to engage i n sales engineering work.
Situations Open A d s ΤΧ7Έ ABE desirous of having our Employ* * nient Information pages serve to t h e utmost all those who use them. W e know that the results have varied for different individuals and employers and believe the subject is worthy of at least an ex change of opinion. Fortunately one or ganization did make a survey which has led it to believe that in future it can use the space to better advantage. At our suggestion the corporation prepared t h e following paragraphs in t h e hope that having expressed its experience others may be led to do the same, the final result being a better technique in the use of t h e space. This should lead more directly to t h e right men coming in contact with t h e situation open. After reading the follow ing paragraphs perhaps y o u can feel persuaded to offer for publication what you may have learned from experience with the Employment Information pages. We recently placed a situations open ad in the Employment Information pages of the N E W S EDITION, in part as follows: "ANALYTICAL RESEARCH chemist with a d
vanced training or experience for indus trial research laboratory, Middle West. Must be familiar with modern technique and capable of devising n e w methods." T h e results of this a d will be of interest t o employers placing future ads and m a y guide them in wording their ads s o as t o secure maximum response from qualified applicants with a minimum of unqualified respondents, thereby saving time and ef fort for both employer and employee. There were a total of 63 replies, half being received during the first week and one after the fourth week. Only eight of t h e applicants were qualified. Approxi mately an equal number had advanced research training but in t h e wrong field or were personally unqualified. The re maining three fourths of t h e applicants could have been eliminated if the ad had stated that P h . D . training was necessary, and the time and effort of these applicants a s well as our own could have been saved. The situations open ads would appear t o be especially effective where the opening requires a chemist of particular qualifica tions. As many as possible of these quali fications should be specifically stated in the ad in order t o limit t h e response to qualified applicants. These should in clude the kind and amount of training, degrees, years of experience, age, and sex. E v e n this will n o t entirely eliminate u n qualified applicants. One fourth of our respondents had not had a n y analytical training. One applicant had previously represented himself t o us a s a chemical engineer. T h e possibility t h a t applicants wifl falsely represent themselves a s having t h e qualifications specified i n t h e ad can be guarded against by requiring con firmation by scholastic records and state ments from professors and previous employers.
T H E J. T. Baker Chemical Co. Research Fellowship in Analytical Chemistry, Mid western Division, for 1941-42 was awarded b y the committee to M. L. Moss, who will work at Purdue University under M. G. Mellon.
Vol. 19, No. 7
Joseph Ebert, president of t h e Farastan Co. f Philadelphia, Penna., addressed the joint meeting of the Chemistry Seminar and Phi Lambda Upsilon of New York University on February 25, speaking on "The Relation of Certain Chemical Groups t o the Pharmacological Action of Sulfanilamides". Maurice O . Barr, who r-eceived. his M.S. degree i n chemistry En July, 1940, is now employed b;y the P i g m e n t Division, Eagle-Picher S a l e s Co., Dallas, Tex., as technical representative in sales-service work for the southwestern section of the United States. George B . Beitzel» manager of sales of the Pennsylvania S s l t Mstnufaeturing Co., has been elected president o f the Sales Managers' Association, of Philadelphia. F. G. Brickwedde^, who on March 1 3 re ceived the Hillebranxzl Prise for 1940 from t h e Chemical Soxîiety o f Washington, a local section o f the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCEBTY, w a s
the
recipient
on March 20 o f the Washington Acade m y of Sciences Award for Scientific Achievement fo*r 1940_ This was i n the field of physical science f o r his distinguished senrice in. low-temperature researches on the different modifications of hydrogen and. on thermometry. William W . Britton has "been made special representative for t i i e Pacific Coast territory of fehe «fessop Steel Co., Washington, Penna. Seymour K. Colxura, a prospective M.S. of the University of Chicago, has joined the staff of t l i e Miner Laboratories, Chicago, 111. J. Robert Coffmaai has Joined the staff of the Chemistry- Division, Armour Research Foundation, Chicago, 111., to conduct research on industrial utilization of grain proteins. Dr. Coffman was formerly engaged in studies of organic synthesis and s e x hormones as research associate in biochemistry at the University of Chicago. Archie Cramer, formerly research chemist on the staff of "the Cajnegie Institute of Technology, iaas joined the Miner Laboratories, Chicago, 111., where he will conduct ciiemical research o n soybeans. Daniel B . Curll, Jr., research director of Rumford Chemical Works, Rumford, R. I., was elected a, director of the company at thte annual meeting late i n February. S. G. Davis bas joined the staff of Walter
Doren W . H e s s , formerly with Joseph E . Seagram & Sons, Inc., Louisville, K y . , and for t h e past two years with t h e Distillers Corp., Ltd., Montreal, an a s sociated company, has returned to his former location. Henry G. Knight, chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering, U . S. Department of Agriculture, has been awarded the medal of the American Institute of Chemistry in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in t h e field of agricultural chemistry and his executive and creative ability as adrninistrator of the four regional research laboratories. The medal will be presented a t the annual meeting of the institute t o be held M a y 17 in Washington, D . C. Garson A. Lutz, formerly connected with the Blaw-Knox Division, Blaw-Knox Co., Pittsburgh, Penna., is now organic research chemist with the Soivay Process Co., Nitrogen Division, Syracuse, Ν . Υ . Ralph H . Manley has resigned his position as assistant director of t h e Armour R e search Foundation to accept appoint ment as senior chemist in the oil a n d protein division a t t h e Northern R e gional Research Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Peoria, 111. Edward B. Morrow, assistant treasurer of Hercules Powder Co., Wilmington, D e l . , has been elected treasurer and a member of the executive committee, following the retirement of Charles C. Hoopes, who will continue active as a director and member of t h e finance committee. Francis J, Kennerley, controller, was elected an assistant treasurer. Clifford A. Neros, formerly chemist for the Spyco Smelting and Refining Co., Minneapolis, is now chemist in t h e Research Department of t h e American Can Co., M a ywood, 111. R. M . Place has been added t o the staff of chemists a t t h e laboratory of D . W . Haering & Co., Inc., Chicago, t o as sist in t h e recently expanded research program. Forest O. Sprague has changed his work from consulting leather chemist, Luray, Va., to leather chemist and distributor of petroleum products to leather t a n - neries with the Borne Scrymser Co., 17 Battery Place, N e w York, Ν . Υ .
