AIR ATTACK. A converted PBY drops 1000 gallons of U.S. Borax's Firebrake in front of an advancing brush fire. Such drops can tie together fire lines established by crews on the ground. About 6 million gallons of retardants were used last year
Forest Fires Spur Demand for Retardants U.S. Borax readies supplies of Firebrake for 1961 fire season as use of chemicals to fight fires grows Fire hazards are extreme this year t h r o u g h o u t t h e t i n d e r d r y forests of
California and many other parts of the West. One result of this unhappy condition may be a big jump in consumption of fire retardant chemicals. With its eye on the potential danger in western forests, U.S. Borax is going into this year's fire season with substantially increased production facilities and inventories of both raw materials and finished product. It processes the material at Montebello, near Los Angeles, or Fresno, Calif. Use of chemicals to fight forest fires lias grown rapidly. In 1956, when the U.S. Forest Service started using chemicals, about 125,000 gallons of retardants were spread over 24 fires. By 1959, consumption had climbed to over 3 million gallons. And last year the Forest Service dropped almost 6 million gallons of fire retardant chemicals from aerial tankers on more than 1000 wildland and forest fires in the West. About two thirds of the total last year was an aqueous slurry of Firebrake. This material seems to be winning out over cheaper competitive retardants because of its greater effectiveness, U.S. Borax says. Death Valley Ore. U.S. Borax mines
the sodium calcium borate ore in an underground mine at Death Valley, Calif. Ore is crushed at the mine and shipped to either the Montebello or the Fresno plant, where it is processed, packed, stored, and shipped. The Montebello plant serves the Southwest, Fresno the Northwest. A typical analysis shows about 32% boron trioxide, 17% calcium oxide, and 57c sodium oxide; the rest is water of crystallization and additives. For use on a fire, Firebrake is mixed with water to give a stable, thixotropic slurry containing 3.3 pounds of solids per gallon. This slurry, which has much the appearance and consistency of pancake batter, is pumped to tanks in which it can be stored for long periods with little or no settling. Air Attack. The Forest Service has mixing and storage facilities at some 20 primary airfields strategically placed near California's most critical fire areas. Portable mixers and canvas storage tanks can be set up at emergency fields to supplement the primary fields. The aerial tanker technique is also used, although on a smaller scale, in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. It also is becoming increasingly important in Alaska despite the short dura-
tion of the fire season there. Because Alaska's forests are often inaccessible, use of fire retardant drops and smoke jumpers frequently are the only feasible fire fighting methods there. In California, the Forest Service has 37 planes standing by under contract for initial attack. Forty additional planes can be called on if necessary. The planes are mostly converted military aircraft. They range from TBM's with a capacity of 600 gallons through 1500-gallon PBY's to a few B-17's which can carry more than 2000 gallons. About a dozen small planes of limited capacity, as well as more than 30 helicopters, also can be used on small spot fires. When a fire is reported by a lookout or reconnaissance plane, its location is phoned to a central dispatcher. He alerts the nearest primary fields, where planes are kept fueled and loaded and pilots are standing by in ready huts throughout the day. Aerial tankers can be on their way in a matter of minutes. Fire Scene. At the scene of the fire the aerial tankers, the lead plane (the "birddog"), and the ground crew are tied together by a radio net. Under the guidance of the birddog, the tankers come in low—50 to 75 feet—pull up sharply, and open the big doors of their specially built tanks. A blob of w7hite slurry plops to earth, covering flammable material in the path of the fire with a thick, fire retardant coating. As stocks of Firebrake at the primary fields are used up, replenishments are ordered from U.S. Borax by
EMERGENCY MIXER. This 300-gallon portable unit can be set up quickly to mix Firebrake slurry at small airfields located near a fire
JULY
17,
1961
C&EN
35
the General Services Administration. At Fresno and at Montebello, semitrailers are kept loaded with 20 tons of palletized Firebrake; dispatchers are on duty 24 hours a day; drivers are on instant call. Within a few minutes after an order is received by telephone, the trucks are rolling. Each bears red daylight fluorescent signs, "emergency—fire control materialrush." Deliveries have been made as far away as Arizona or New Mexico less than 24 hours after the order was placed. Effectiveness. Firebrake's effectiveness against forest and brush fires is based on three properties: • The coating excludes air, so that the flammable material cannot ignite. • The white coating reflects heat, so the fuel does not reach ignition temperature readily. • Borate salts themselves are effective fire retardants and have long been used for this purpose in textiles, wallboard, and other products, although the exact mechanism of the action is not fully understood. An additional important characteristic is the high density of the slurry (10.1 pounds per gallon). The fierce updrafts accompanying large fires cause low density slurries to balloon upward and spread out instead of dropping in a concentrated blob to give a thick coating. Moreover, the heavy slurry more easily penetrates upper foliage to cover the trees and underbrush beneath. Although convinced of the utility of Firebrake. the Forest Service emphasizes that its use can only supplement, not supplant. existing methods. There have been instances of small fires being controlled solely by tanker drops, but ordinarily such drops must be used in conjunction with adequate ground fire crews. Aerial tankers, the Forest Service says, can hold small fires until ground crews arrive; they can stop spot fires; they can cool down hot spots so men can enter an area and work safely; they can lay a fire retardant line in advance of a fire. They also can reduce the probability of a fire jumping into treetops, strengthen existing fire lines, and assist in critical fire line construction. But tankers have their limitations. They can't control very hot, rolling fires. They can't safely make drops in the bottoms of steep canyons or similar places which lack maneuvering space. Nor can they make drops in 36
C&EN
JULY
17,
1961
Belgian Test Reactor Goes Critical Belgian Reactor No. 2 achieved criticality on schedule at the end of last month. The $20 million, 50-megawatt water-cooled reactor, located at Mol, Belgium, will be used for materials and engineering tests. It is controlled from the room at upper left; reactor access balconies are on the right. The reactor has a thermal neutron flux of 10 •"' neutrons per square centimeter and a fast flux of 2.5 x 10'" neutrons per square centimeter per second. BR-2 was financed by the Belgian government, designed by United Nuclear Corp. (New York), and built by Belgian industries. United Nuclear says it increases the nuclear materials and testing capability of the Free World by almost 5 0 % . The European Atomic Energy Community will share in its operating costs, estimated at about $2.5 million a year.
high winds. And. at least with present techniques, they can't work at night. Costs. With Firebrake at 892 per ton. f.o.b. plant, the cost of the slurry, exclusive of transportation and mixing, comes to some 15 cents per gallon. To this must be added tanker costs, which can run as high as $500 per hour for a PBY. Total cost, however, still compares favorably with that of other methods. The major cost for any retardant is in actual application, in fact. Getting water on a fire with
ground equipment can cost as much as S1.00 per gallon in rugged terrain. And cost is secondary when, as has happened, aerial tankers can open up a path to safety for men who have been surrounded by a fast moving fire. The extra protection afforded by Firebrake compared with less expensive chemicals more than justifies its use, U.S. Borax says. In order to minimize freight, U.S. Borax is currently developing retardants which may be equally effective at lower slurry concentrations.
IBM System Speeds Information Flow Walnut system stores and quickly retrieves millions of images containing stored information International Business Machines has developed a new prototype system for rapid retrieval of stored information. Called Walnut, the nearly automatic prototype system has a large storage capacity, takes up only a small amount of space, permits permanent filing, and has random access searching. It is being developed by IBM's Advanced Systems Development division for the Central Intelligence Agency. IBM has no plans to market it. Storage of information starts with microfilming printed or typed pages or photographs, followed by further reduction of the images to a thousandth of their original area. These tiny images are placed on strips of film, 99 per strip, at 1500 frames per hour. Control cards are punched to record each item's location in the image file (each desk-sized module stores 990,000 pages), and the item is recorded on a magnetic index. The Walnut system, which can accommodate many modules, has a potential capacity in excess of 100 million pages of information or photographs. In retrieving information, key words of the subject are punched on a paper tape and the magnetic index searched electronically at a rate of 1000 records in two seconds. A list of index entries is printed and returned to the user, who checks those he wants. The corresponding punched cards are taken from their file and an aperture card is made. The aperture card contains the location of the original film strip of the document desired and an unexposed film strip. The Walnut system, by random access rather than going through the file serially, uses the location to bring the original film strip from the bins and to impress its image on the film in the aperture card. The original film strip is returned to its bin. As the original never leaves the system, there is no possibility of misfiling or loss of the original. The aperture card film is developed by a dry heat process in about half a second. The aperture card film can be read through a viewer or reproduced photographically.
BRIEFS Atlantic Research has acquired the National Northern division of American Potash. National specializes in pyrotechnic research, development, and production, its largest effort being in development and production of military fuses. It had sales of $1.4 million last year. It will be integrated with Atlantic Research's U.S. Flare division, located at Saugus, Calif., under the name U.S. Flare-National Northern division. National Northern is located at West Hanover, Mass.
Air Reduction and Speer Carbon have signed a formal agreement covering Speer's acquisition by Air Reduction (C&EN, June 12, page 2 1 ) . Speer stockholders will vote on the proposal on Aug. 15.
American Cyanamid has transferred operation of its Celastic Corp. subsidiary from its Wasco Products department to its commercial development division. Celastic, located in Kearny, N.J., formerly was part of Wasco Chemical, which was acquired by Cyanamid in May (C&EN, May 15, page 3 9 ) .
Monsanto has transferred operation of its Dayton Laboratories from its research and engineering division to its subsidiary, Monsanto Research Corp. (C&EN, Oct. 10, 1960, page 33). Later this year, projects and personnel at Dayton will move to the company's new research center at St. Louis.
United-Heckathorn, Richmond, Calif., has changed its name to United Chemetrics to describe more accurately its operations, which have been changed by sale of its fertilizer and airplane divisions and a merger resulting in addition of real estate properties and electronics business. United Chemetrics still makes pesticides.
Universal Oil Products and its subsidiaries have appropriated $6.5 million for building new plants. UOP will spend $4.2 million at Shreveport, La., $1.8 million at Des Plaines and McCook, 111., and $500,000 at East Rutherford, N.J., and Los Angeles, Calif.
RAD, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Commercial Filters Corp., Melrose, Mass., plan to merge through an exchange of stock. RAD, Inc., will continue to perform research and development operations as a division of Commercial Filters.
Celanese has moved its corporate headquarters and executive offices to 522 Fifth Ave., New York City, where it has leased eight floors. Celanese had been located at 180 Madison Ave. for 32 years.
NEW FACILITIES Du Pont plans to double capacity of its polyethylene film plant at Richmond, Va., to more than 60 million pounds per year. The expansion is scheduled for completion by the middle of 1962.
Nopco Chemical has acquired a 90,000-square-foot building and almost 19 acres of land from Brown Rubber Co., Lafayette, Ind. The facility will be used for urethane foam production. Nopco also has obtained an undisclosed amount of stock of Mundet Cork Corp. from Mundet stockholders in exchange for a substantial portion of its stock interest in Brown Rubber and $350,000 in notes.
DX Sunray Oil has put a Hydeal hydrodealkylation unit on stream at its Tulsa, Okla., refinery. The unit has a capacity for 1000 barrels a day of benzene, produced from toluene from an adjoining Udex unit, which was completed last year.
Monsanto's Chocolate Bayou plant site (C&EN, Jan. 9, page 31) will be joined to the Intracoastal Waterway by a channel for marine barges. King Fisher Marine Services, Inc., of Port Lavaca, Tex., will dredge the channel.
Virginia-Carolina Chemical has increased its annual capacity for calcined phosphate rock by 400,000 tons at Nichols, Fla., with installation of a new 10- by 160-foot rotary kiln. The calcined phosphate rock is used for making phosphoric acid and other phosphorus chemicals. J U L Y
17,
1961
C & E N
37
AviSun Corp. has completed construction of its 100 million pound-per-year polypropylene plant at New Castle, Del. Production is expected to begin in September, using propylene from Sun Oil's Marcus Hook Refinery 20 miles up the Delaware River. The plant's polypropylene will be used by AviSun's adjacent film manufacturing facilities and fiber pilot plant. AviSun is owned by American Viscose and Sun Oil.
Ground has been broken for a new John Crerar Library building located on the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. The new two-story building for the scientific library was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
Pacific Vegetable Oil Corp., San Francisco, has leased (for 25 years with an option to buy) the Spencer-Kellogg vegetable oil processing plant in Long Beach, Calif. The plant includes a refiner)', mill buildings, storage facilities, and deep-water loading facilities.
YOUR ANSWER:
KELCO ALGIN PRODUCTS unique, highly effective hydrophilic colloids P a r t i c u l a r l y effective as t h i c k e n i n g and suspending agents, especially in food products such as syrups, toppings, m e r i n g u e s a n d f i l l i n g s , Kelco a l g i n products are economical and easy to use. Shelf life is measurably extended. YOURS ON REQUEST: Technical B u l l e t i n d e s c r i b i n g Kelco algin a p p l i c a t i o n s . W r i t e today, without obligation.
KELCO COMPANY 75 Terminal Avenue, Clark, New Jersey 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago 6, Illinois 530 W. Sixth St., Los Angeles 14, Calif. Cable Address: KELCOALGIN—CLARKNEWJERSEY 38
C&EN JULY
17, 1961
Crown Zellerbach and Time, Inc., plan to double capacity at the St. Francisville, La., mill of their jointly owned St. Francisville Paper Co. The $25 million expansion will raise the mill's capacity to 160,000 tons of coated printing paper per year by adding a second paper machine.
Diamond Alkali Co. has established a new river terminal for distribution of mercury cell caustic soda at McKees Rocks, Pa. The facility, which will serve the Pittsburgh area and other northeastern markets, will be operated by McClintic-Gordon Co.
INTERNATIONAL Interchemical de Mexico, S.A., a subsidiary of Interchemical Corp., has opened a new plant in a suburb of Mexico City. Interchemical de Mexico manufactures textile colors, printing inks, and industrial finishes.
Standard Oil of California and British Petroleum Co., Ltd., have awarded a contract to Lurgi, a German engineering and construction firm, for con-
WEEK'S PRICE CHANGES July 10, 1 9 6 1 Advances CURRENT
p-Aminophenol, lb. Camphor, USP, synthetic, powd., lb. Carnauba wax, No. 1, yellow, lb. Cleve's acid, 1,7, lb. Linseed oil, Mpls., tanks, lb. Nickel, metal, lb.
$ 1.25 0.55 0.1971 2.42 0.147, 0.817,
Declines Gum arabic, amber $ 0.20 sorts, lb.
Indol, c.p., lb.
13.50
$ 0.207,
13.65
M u r i a t e of p o t a s h ,
6 0 % K70, unit: Standard, bulk Granular, bags, ton Sulfate of potash, 50% K.O, per unit, bulk
0.35 27.80 0.657,
0.377, 28.10 0.707*
struction of their 14,000 metiie-tonper-year p-xylcne p l a n t ( C & E N , Oct. 17, 1960, p a g e 2 9 ) at Dinslaken, W e s t G e r m a n y . T h e p l a n t will b e o p e r a t e d
best by test...
by BP Benzin und Petroleum A. G. and California Chemical, G.m.b.H.
G-58 selective hydrogenation catalyst purifies ethylene the no loss, low cost way
Laporte Industries, Ltd., G r e a t Britain, will s u p p l y technical assistance to Titanit Compania Industrial de Pigm e n t o s y Afines, S.A., in A r g e n t i n a to m o d e r n i z e a n d e x p a n d Titanit's titan i u m dioxide plant. Titanit's p l a n t at Pilar, near Buenos Aires, is the sole m a n u f a c t u r e r of titanium dioxide in Argentina.
Ethylene produced by steam cracking of hydrocarbons contains as much as two percent unwanted acetylene. To meet high purity specifications, leading ethylene producers have found selective hydrogenation of the acetylene with Girdler Catalysts 1 G-58 to be most practical, effective, and economical. This active, highly selective palladium catalyst requires a minimum of hydrogen addition and reduces the acetylene content to less than 10 ppm with no loss of ethylene. G-58 is exceptionally durable and has a low polymer formation rale . . . may be operated up to 30 or 40 weeks before regeneration is required. For maximum performance at lowest operating cost, specify Girdler Catalysts' G-58.
Union Carbide has o p e n e d a b a t t e r y p l a n t in M a l a y a a n d will b u i l d a polye t h y l e n e film p l a n t in C a n a d a . An E v e r e a d y b a t t e r y p l a n t at Johore Bahru, F e d e r a t i o n of Malaya, has b e e n o p e n e d b y Malayan Batteries, Ltd., a C a r b i d e affiliate. C a r b i d e ' s Visking Division will build its fourth C a n a d i a n p o l y e t h y l e n e film p l a n t at N e w t o n , B.C., 30 miles from V a n c o u v e r .
Associated Ethyl Co., Ltd., E n g l a n d , is c h a n g i n g its n a m e to Associated Octel Co., Ltd. T h e c o m p a n y sells its tetraethyllead under the brand name "Octel."
For further information, including recommendations for specific applications, AS rite our Technical Service Director, Dept. G107. Girdler Catalysts, Chemical Products Division, Chemetron Corporation. Louisville 1, Kentucky. look to Girdler Custom-Catalysts for your special processing problems Manufacturing custom-catalysts for individual customers is an integral part of Girdler Catalysts' complete service. Expert technicians backed by years of practical experience provide the "know-how" required to produce special catalysts in commercial quantities that meet your special problems. Write today . . . your inquiry will receive prompt, confidential attention.
GIRDLER CATALYSTS
JULY
17,
1961
C&EN
39
N. V. Silenka AKU-Pittsburgh will build a textile yarn fiber glass plant at Hoogezand in northern Holland (C&EN, Feb. 22, 1960, page 7 1 ) . Construction will begin Oct. 1 and will be completed in late 1962. Silenka is jointly owned by Pittsburgh
RETIRED!
Plate Glass International and Alegemene Kunstzijde Unie N. V. of Arnliem, Holland.
Nihon Gas Kagaku Kogyo KK, Niigata, Japan, has awarded a contract to Chemical Construction Corp., New York, to redesign its urea plant. Capacity will be increased from 80 to 150 metric tons per day.
Fertilizers and Chemicals, Travancore, Ltd., is inviting bids for two new plants in India. One is for a 100 metricton-per-day plant for 32% P 2 0 5 phosphoric acid. The other is for a 300 metric-ton-per-day 16-20-0 ammonium phosphate plant. Bids must reach the company at Udyogamandal P.O., Alwaye, Keral State, South India, by Sept. 15.
Imperial
Chemical
Industries will
build two chemical plants in Nigeria. The British company's subsidiary, Plant Protection, Ltd., will make and pack agricultural chemicals for the cocoa industry. The other plant will make paints. Total cost will be about $1.4 million. The site of the plants will probably be near Lagos.
® #1
DEODALL
by
because he lost the scent The keenest nose finds no trace of unpleasant odor in your product or process when you use Deodall #1 . . . Sindar's multi-purpose masking agent. From consumer paints and home heating oils to industrial textile finishes, or polishes, or solvents, Deodall #1 has found successful application. In fact, wherever offensive odor is cause for complaints or lack of sales, you may well find a use for Deodall ~ 1 . Deodall #1 is simple to use, and exceedingly varied in its application potential. If you have an odor problem, you should consider Deodall # 1 . Certainly contact Sindar for samples and technical information. w®
[SinDflR
Cetpotatfoto
321 West 44th Street, New York 36, New York
40
C&EN
JULY
17.
1961
Rhone-Poulenc has absorbed the chemical operations of Celtex, one of France's largest textile companies. The acquisition makes Rhone-Poulenc the largest chemical company in France and one of the largest in Europe. It follows the trend in the historically fragmented French chemical industry toward forming larger companies to compete in mass markets developing in Europe. Rhone-Poulenc also is a partner in two new joint ventures in France. It has formed a joint company, Societe Toulousaine de Produits Chimiques, with Usines de Melle to build a plant to make diisocyanates at Toulouse. Another joint venture, with Societe Progil, will make acetic acid and other aliphatic acids in a plant which is to be completed at the end of 1962 at Pont-de-Claix. The new company will be called Rhone-Progil.
