HEADLINES of the Month Events of interest to Chemists, Chemical Engineers, and Executives-
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7 FEBRUARY 17. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, president Columbia University, says university will establish new research center t o study nutrition and agricultural methods in effort t o spur doubling world’s food supply. --Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy opens secret investigation into this country’s system of civil defense against atomic attack. --Secretary General Trygve Lie favors any negotiations in or out of United Nations for atomic peace.--Winston Churchill appeals again for a Big Three conference with Stalin t o save the world from a war waged with “atomic or hydrogen bombs or bacteriological horrors.”
7 FEBRUARY 24. Carl S. Marvel, head Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Illinois, wins Willard Gibbs Medal, Chicago Section A.C.S., for wartime work in developing synthetic rubber program, Walter M. Urbain, chairman Chicago Section, announces. 7 FEBRUARY 26. Hydrogen bomb, if i t can be developed, could be rigged in such a way as to exterminate entire world’s population or most of it, Hans A. Bethe, Cornel1 University, Frederick Seite, University of Illinois, Leo Seilard and Harrison Brown, University of Chicago, all of whom played major roles in develop ment of atom bomb, warn in radio broadcast.
Atomic Energy Commission announces completion of its new, permanent radioisotope processing area involving group of specially constructed buildings and intricately designed equipment.--International Council of Religious Education adopts proposal that seven of this country’s major Protestant interdenominational agencies join in interfaith conference to formulate pronouncement on moral implications of hydrogen bomb. 7 FEBRUARY 19. Hsrry B. McClure, division vice president Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Division, Union Carbide and Carbon Corp., will receive first Commercial Chemical Development Honor Award a t banquet on March 22, C. D. Goodale, president of association, says’. --Senator Millard E. Tydings says Soviet Union is working on a hydrogen bomb.--Dow Chemical starts construction of new $5,000,000 ammonia plant a t Freeport, Tex., which will make available refrigeration grade and technical grade anhydrous ammonia in tank car quantities; also aqua ammonia to industrial and agricultural consumers in South and Mississippi Valley2.--Federal Trade Commission says it has launched investigation into international activities of Standard Oil of Xew Jersey, Gulf, and Socony-Vacuum.
7 FEBRUARY 27. U. S., Britain, and Canada decide to review all aspects of security arrangements before entering into new agreements on exchange of atomic weapons.-NVniversity of Texas builds 4,000,000-volt atom-smashing machine at its off-campus research center for use in atomic research and in teaching.“ First unit of Rutgers Institute of Microbiology is dedicated on campus of university’s College of Agriculture with Selman A. Waksman, discoverer of streptomycin, as chief speaker, he having donated royalties from manufacture of streptomycin to Rutgers Research and Endowment Foundations.--David E. Lilienthal, former chairman AEC, speaking at meeting of American Association of School Administrators in Atlantic City, says unless mistaken ideas Americans have about atomic energy are corrected our democratic freedoms may be endangered.--For first time U. S. industry has a standard source of supply for more than 120 rare chemicals which were not available from domestic sources before the war, T. H. Keller, secretary City Chemical Corp., discloses, and says expansion planned will make U. S.self-sufficient on items ranging from pyrophosphoric acid t o purified zirconium oxychloride. --House Rules Committee refuses to clear for floor consideration a Senate-passed bill t o provide $80,000,000 in federal subsidies for mineral resources development.
7 FEBRUARY 20. David E . Lilienthal recommends single commissioner for Atomic Energy Commission instead of present fiveman board. --Britton Chance, director Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation for Medical Physics, University of Pennsylvania, wins Paul-Lewis Laboratories Award in Enzyme Chemistry, consisting of $1000 and a gold medal, for his fundamental research on mechanism of enzyme action which laid groundwork of better understanding of vital body processes; award to be presented a t meeting of A.C.S. in Philadelphia April 10.--Representative Vinson, chairma.n of House subcommittee to draw up new legislation on synthetic rubber, in opening hearings announces he sees no reason why present rubber legislation should not be extended for several more years in view of existing conditions,--Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer, as first witness before this subcommittee, urges government control over production and use of synthetic rubber be held to minimum required for national security, and asks 3- to &year extension of Rubber Act of 1948.
7 MARCH1. House votes 247 to 125 to approve establishment of a National Science Foundation and provides that no national of any foreign government be a l l o ~ e dto be associated “in any way whatsoever” with the foundation unless F.B.I. gives him absolute clearance6.--British criminal court in London sentences Klaus Fuchs, who helped develop atomic bomb in U. S.,t o serve 14 years in prison, the maximum allowed by British law for what judge calls “grossest treachery.”--Senator MchIahon, in Senate speech, calls for a meeting of U. S. and its Atlantic Pact partners to draft “a peace program” and afterwards to ask Soviet t o permit a real [‘town meeting of the world” in Moscow.
7 FEBRUARY 22. President Truman in Washington Birthday address bars talk with Russia alone on atomic control, asserting U. S. proposal for control of atomic energy would help all nations. --Eight hundred gallons of cooling oil surrounding heavy copper electric coils of Princeton University’s 35-ton cyclotron bursts into flame wrecking $400,000 machines.
fi MARCH2. D u Pont sets up new film department for research, production, and sales for all products currently handled by the cellophane division of the company’s rayon department which will have no connection with company’s photo products unit.” Western Allied High Commission issues law on control of use of atomic energy t h a t permits activity in this field by German research, educational, and medical establishments under strict security regulations.--House Armed Services Subcommittee
7 FEBRUARY 23. Monsanto Chemical Co. gets option to purchase part of expensive phosphate deposits of Humphreys Phos2
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6~ the Zditors
phate Co. near Vernal, Utah, and plans to explore deposits, possibly for several years4.--Rubber manufacturing industry proposes 2-year rubber program designed to tast ability of synthetic to compete with tree-grown rubber and opposes President’s 10year flexible rubber program.
7 FEBRUARY 18.
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-Reviewed
Chem. Eng. News, 28, 550 (Feb. 20, 1950). Ibid., 781 (March 6, 1950).
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Ibid., 860 (March 13, 1950).
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753
Ibid., 773 (March 6, 1950). Ibzd., 834 (March 13, 1950).
754
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
agrees to recommend a flat 3-year extension of Rubber Act of 1948.”Deering, Milliken & Co., Inc., announces new treatment which consists of a solution of stearic acid-treated aluminum which can be applied on a specially designed padding roll to any type of cloth; treatment assures warmth without weight of textile fabrics and, it is claimed, does not alter porosity of fabric.
7 MARCH3. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics announces development of light weight titanium base alloy as strong as high strength steel and half as heavy, composed basically of 5% chromium, 3% aluminum, and the remainder titanium, with high resistance to corrosion and high temperatures. --Over-all outlook for natural rubber is better than a t any time since end of war, Edward Jago, deputy chairman British Rubber Development Board of London, says. “George A. Richardson, professor of dairy husbandry and dairy chemistry, Oregon State College, wins $1000 Borden Award in the Chemistry of Milk for 1950, award to be presented April 10 at national meeting of A.C.S. in Philadelphiaa. 7 MARCH5. Ernest Chain, German-born British scientist, who shared with Sir Alexander Fleming and Sir Howard Florey the Kobe1 Prize for development of penicillin, obtains institute for research in molds in Rome where production facilities are now being provided. 7 MARCH6 . Imperial Chemical Industries, Inc., announces it has made an offer for a controlling interest in Arnold, Hoffman & Co., chemical manufacturers, Providence, R. I., which would give British firm its first foothold in U. S.7
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MARCH7. Army Chemical Corps invites bids on 176,000 new light weight gas masks to replace worn out World War I1 typess. --Bills introduced simultaneously in House and Senate to require President Truman to appoint to five-man AEC a t least one active or retired member of regular armed forces and making permissive appointment of two such officers. -NTass, official Soviet news agency, says Fuchs was not her spy and calls his confession lying.
7 MARCH 8. Du Pont sales in 1949 cross the billion-dollar mark for first time and company reports its expenditures for research increased t o $33,000,000, exclusive of cost of new facilitics, as J. Emmerich, president compared with 831,000,000 in 1948.--F. Allied Chemical & Dye Corp., in releasing company’s annual financial statement, says company plans continuing attention t o increase its research activities..v-Israel Parliament’s finance committee is reported to have rejected a motion for nationalization of the British-owned $2,800,000 Dead Sea potash plant. 7
MARCH9. Department of Commerce reports iimerican participation is being sought by a number of foreign governments and firms in various mining and industrial enterprises, as in Kenya for exploring possibilities for selling East African diatomite in U. S. -Admiral William H. Blandy, president Health Information Service, addressing 24th annual dinner, Drug, Chemical and Allied Trades Section of N. Y. Board of Trade, calls upon chemical industry t o give its full support t o foundation recently established by the pharmaceutical, drug, chemical, and allied industries to assist Americans “in obtaining the health facilities they need and without financial hardship.”--Commerce Department removes all restrictions requiring small size “camel backJJthe rubber used for retreading passenger tires-be made of GR-S, general purpose synthetic rubber, restrictions on other sizes having been removed earlier.--President Truman reiterates he stands for civilian control of USAEC.
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7 MARCH10. Albert Schatz, Brooklyn, N. Y., files claim against Selman A. Wahman, Rutgers University, and the univerChem. Eng. N e u s . 28 854 (March 13 1950) 7 Ibid., 831 (Mrtrch’l3,’1950) and 923 (harch‘20,1950). 8 Ibid., 856 (March 13, lQ50). 8
Vol. 42, No. 4
sity’s research foundation, for participation in royalties and other remuneration from discovery of streptomycin, stating that he, as a graduate student at Rutgers, was codiscoverer.--Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy decides to open a series of public hearings into state of this country’s civil defense against atomic energy.--Deputy Premier Molotov in Soviet election speech emphasizes Soviet Union’s interest in “peace with all other states” and declares “imperialist blackmailers could not frighten Russia” with “the hydrogen atomic bomb which does not in fact exist.”--AEC for first time authorizes use of uranium for industrial purposes in B. F. Goodrich Research Center, Brecksville, Ohio.
7 hfARCH 12. Jeffrey Manufacturing Co., Columbus, Ohio, dcvelops new type of “magnetic separator” for extracting usable iron ore from low-grade ore in Xinnesota’s Mesabi Range whereby taconite is changed into ore “nodules” which contain about 64% iron. --Corning Glass Works develops glass with transparent “skin,” a metallic oxide about 16 millionths of an inch thick that conducts electricity but resists enough to heat the glass up to 660” F.N-Kenneth S. Pitzer, director of research USAEC, wins $1000 Precision Scientific Co.’s award in petroleum chemistry for fundamental research which shed light on nuclear chemistry of complex hydrocarbon molecules, award to be presented at A.C.S. meeting in Houston March 28. --Economic Cooperation Administration authorizes $5,455,000 to the United Kingdom to buy chemicals here by July 31 for shipment t o that country by next March. 7 MARCH13. Reilly Tar 8: Chemical Corp. will build coal-tar by-products plant a t Lone Star, Tex., which will use coal-tar output of Lone Star Steel Co.’s East Texas coke plant, both companies announce.--Lord McGown, chairman IC1 and deputy chairman African Explosives and Chemical Industries, says IC1 and DeBeers, equal partners in African Explosives, plan big expansion, involving millions of pounds, in capacity of their factories supplying explosives for blasting in South Africa. --Department of Commerce decides to reduce number of businessmen committees advisory to Government and strengthen role and broaden activities of those that remain.“Leonard A. Scheele, Surgeon General U. S. Public Health Service, reports successful growth, outside the living body, of pituitary glands actively producing hormones that may be of help in the fight against cancer, about 150 glands derived from rats having been successfully grown outside the body.--Reconstruction Finance Corp. returns market for tin t o private industry and thus ends government price setting.
7 hIaRcH 14. Shields Warren, director Division of Biology and Medicine of the AEC, tells House Appropriations Committee AEC is slated t o open first of its cancer research centers a t Oak Ridge, Tenn., about April 1 and that selected patients from the southemt will be brought to the new hospital for experimental treatment with radioactive elcments.---?u’ew Tork City’s Board of Estimate appropriates $50,000 for a six-month experiment in artificial precipitation to relieve water shortage in Kew York City, thus marking “first time rain-making has been attempted scientifically for a practical purpose” and using Irving Langmuir’s method of seeding clouds with grains of silver iodide.--Navy develops an identification dog tag that will tell when a soldier, sailor, or airman wearing it has been exposed t o atomic radiation and the metal identification disk will reveal how much radiation an individual has absorbed. N-House Armed Services Committee unanimously recommends that present synthetic rubber law be extended unchanged for 3 years because of “unsettled world conditions,” thus rejecting President Truman’s proposals to put these plants into private hands. 7 hlarch 15. TViIliam Webster, executive vice president New England Electric System, becomes chairman research and development board, Department of Defense.
