HEADLINES of the Month Events of interest to Chemists, Chemical Engineers, and EXeCUtiVeS--Reviewed 7 SEPTWMBER 16. Emil Borysko and S. B. Newman, research members of National Bureau of Standards, report technique for chemically treating ultra-thin slices of plant and animal tissue so that when viewed under electron microscope more light come8 through the slice and previously unrecognisable details of structure may be discerned.--Roy Hansberry, director of agricultural laboratories, Shell Oil Co., Inc., Modesto, Calif., says company is developing new chemicals for soil fumigation which will open major new field of marketing for chemical products.
7 SEPTEMBER 17. National Production Authority orders inventories of 32 clames of critically short materials used by all types of business to be held to a “practicable working minimum”; materials include industrial alcohol, benzene, caustic soda, chlorine, glycerol, soda ash, aluminum, columbium, cobalt, copper, magnesium, manganese, nickel, tin, tungsten, zinc, rubber, nylon, etc.--Syracuse plant of Solvay Process Division, Allied Chemical & Dye Corp., and 3000 of its employees who are membem of United Mine Workers, reach tentative agreement which may be key to settlement of strikes in chemical industry that have slowed civilian and defense production in several fields; proposed two-year contract includes a no-strike clause retroactive to June 12 when strike began and a wage increase of 10 oenta an hour, etc.--American Cyanamid Co. announces it htls purchased a plant site in Michigan City, Ind., on which it will soon construct a $3,000,000plant to produce cracking catalysts for petroleum industry, 7 SEPTEMBER 18. Monsanto Chemical Co. plans expansion program approximating $30,000,000over next few years a t its Texas City operation, Wm. M. Rand, president, says; program involves chiefly production of acrylonitrile and related chemicals by new process direct from acetylene.--Atomic Energy Commission announces revision in procedures for reviewing security hearings of employees and job applicants or of contractors and persons who might deal with secret information whereby they will have the right to be notified in writing as to nature of suspicion against them.--Government commissions B. F. Goodrich Co. to reactivate U. S.-owned synthetic rubber plant at Institute, W. Va., with annual capacity of 90,000 tons.--President Truman gives Congress program for civilian defense calling for services of hundreds of thousands of paid and unpaid workers a t federal, state, and local level. 7 SEPTEMBER 19. Continental Oil Black Co., a new firm owned jointly by Continental Carbon Co. and Continental Oil Co., announces plans for erecting a $1,500,000plant at Lake Charles, La., with capacity of 25,000,000Ib. annually of high abrasion carbon black from oil.--Stauffer Chemical Co. reveals plans for building a large modern sulfuric acid unit with capacity of 200 tons daily in southern California.--Export quota restrictions will be placed on copper, copper products, brass and bronze products, beginning October 1, Commerce Department says. il SEPTEMBER 20. Ryukyu Islands, an archipelago forming the Okinawa prefecture of Japan, offer a potential source of manganese if adequate mining equipment is made available, Seisho Higo, chief of the Commerce and Industry Section of the islands’ Provincial Government, says. 7 SEPTEMBER 21. Government gives tentative approval to rubber industry plan for restricting consumption of natural latex and building up government stockpile of scarce rubber material.-Eight companies enter into stipulation agreemente with Federal
by the Editors
Trade Commidon to discontinue representing that their antihistamine preparations will cure or prevent the common cold.-Solvay Process Division, Allied Chemical & Dye Corp., says i t will provide pensions of $100 per month for employees if United Mine Workers Union votes today to end their long strike.“ A.C.S. selects C. C. Davis, chief chemist, Boston Woven Hose and Rubber Co., Cambridge, Mass., and editor of Rubber C h e m istry and Technohgy, to receive 1950 Charles Goodyear Medal of the A.C.S. Division of Rubber Chemistry in recognition of his contributions to the literature on rubber chemistry and his leadership as an industrial chemist.--Russia stepped up shipments of manganese to U. 8. in July, shipmente amounting to @00,OOO worth of strategic manganese and chrome, Department of Com$2,600,000 out-of-court settlement ends long merce reports.--A legal dispute between three Swedish concerns and the U. S. over a large block of stock seized during World War I1 under Alien Property Act from American Bosch Co., Springfield, Mass.
7 SEPTEMBER 22. Alfred Dean Slack, Syracuse, N. Y., chemist,, is sontenced to 15 years in federal prison for wartime spying for Russia, he having pleaded guilty to giving Soviet agents information on manufacture of RDX, a high explosive. 7 SEPTEMBER 23. British Government researchers report discovery of a drug injection-thiourea-that may provide an “internal shield” against atomic rays.-NWm. C. Knopf, Jr., assistant dean, Technological Institute a t Northwestern University, says U. S. faces potential shortage of engineering graduates which poses a threat to its economic progress and security and to international peace. 7 SEPTEMBER 24. President Truman signs law extending for 3 years government’s synthetic liquid fuels program which authorizes an additional $26,600,000 for experimental research by Bureau of Mines into making liquid fuel from oil shale and coal and earmarks $2,600,000 for building and equipping a “gas-fromcoal’J experiment atation a t Morgantown, W. Va.--Solvay Division, Allied Chemical & Dye Corp., begins reactivation of Syracuse plant following ending of strike and hopes to get production under way in 10 to 15 days.--Wm. H. Harrison, National Production Authority Administrator, at meeting held with chemical industry representatives, urges expansion of chemical plant capacity as rapidly as possible.
7 SEPTEMBEB 26. Texaco Development Go., rr subsidiary of Texas Co., discovers process for separating components of vegetable, marine, and animal oils by chilling materids in solvent to crystallize out the desired component; Armour & Co. will install and operate process a t its new chemical plant near Chicago, 7 SEPTEMBER 27. Interior Department sets up organization, Minerals and Energy Administration, headed by Secretary of Interior Chapman, to handle defense requirements in four industries--electric power, petroleum and gas, solid fuels, and minerals and metals.-NChemstrand Corp., jointly owned subsidiary of Monsanto Chemical Co. and American Viscose Corp., announces plans for building a “multi-million dollar” plant on a 658-acre tract on the Tennessee River near Decatur, Ala., for making 8 new type of wool-like synthetic fiber.--Employees of Diamond Alkali Co. begin returning to their jobs following settlement of a97-day strike a t company’s Pahesville, Ohio, plant. ll SEPTEMBER 28. Bureau of Mines reopens ita Amarillo, Tex., helium plant to meet steadily increasing demands for military
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and civilian uses.--U. S. advises Latin American countries it is prepared to put up $12,000,000 for cooperative technical assistance programs in Western Hemisphere. 7 SEPTEMBER29. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is rehabilitating the synthetic rubber plant, idle since May 1947, it built and operated for the Government at Akron during World War 1 1 , ~ Bureau of Mines announces it has selected a site for biggest pilot plant Government has ever built for processing low-grade domestic manganese ores, pilot plant to cost $600,000, to turn out about 50 tons of manganese a day, and be located at Boulder City, Kev.--American scientists are mass production technologists who have failed in recent years to provide new creative ideas and our scientific future is in peril it is charged at a meeting celebrating the 75th anniversary of the nation’s first organized scientific ventures-the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station-and Edmund W. Sinnott, director, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, says our universities have not produced their share of germinative ideas in recent years.
7 OCTOBER2. Gordon E. Dean, chairman AEC, a t opening of $6,500,000 war memorial drive by University of Michigan, says privately financed research in unclassified-nonsecret-fields is basic to speedy progress in atomic developments; General Eisenhower, speaking at State College, Pa., and Ambassador W. R. Austin at a Michigan dinner in N . Y. C., both participating in the same round-robin broadcast designed to obtain funds to finance research on constructive uses of atomic energy, join appeal for peacetime research. --Controlled chain reaction operations producing atomic energy have been under way at Knolls Atomic Laboratory for 2.5 years, it is revealed. 7 OCTOBER3. Interior Secretary Oscar Chapman formally establishes a Petroleum Administration for Defense and names Oil and Gas Division Director Hugh A. Stewart as its Acting Deputy L. McCuen, general manager, General Administrator.--C. Motors Corp. research laboratories, says future development of automobiles depends to great extent upon the chemical industry. --Bristol-Myers Co. says it has begun a $2,000,000 expansion program a t its Syracuse, N. Y., plant to increase substantially its output of penicillin.--National Lead Co. announces plans for substantially enlarging its Sayreville, N. J., titanium plant facilities. 7 OCTOBER4. Wm. S. Haldenian, head chemistry department, Monmouth College, wins Midwest Award sponsored by St. Louis Section of A.C.S. for chemical achievement.-NCelanese Corp. of America announces it is erecting new facilities for production of acetate staple fiber a t its Rock Hill, S. C., plant; service facilities for increased chemical operations also will be provided. 7 OCTOBER5. A sharp advance of $4.00 per ton in crude sulfur, the first change since July 1, 1947, promises to have far-reaching effect on industrial price structure and our domestic economy generally.--Bureau of Mines reports extension of natural gas lines to areas now served with coke oven gas is expected to reduce somewhat nation’s output of coke and coal chemicals. --Facilities for antibiotic production under construction at Cherokee plant of Merck & Co., Inc., near Danville, Pa., will include one of largest fermentation units in the country the company announces.--B. Brewster Jennings, Socony-Vacuum Oil Cos’s president, warns oil industry that i t is not adequately prepared to fuel military needs in a “sudden and total war” and that they mwt secure government assistance to build certain specialized oil equipment needed for war. 7 OCTOBER6. Chas. W. Merrill, chief base metals branch, Bureau of Mines, says Korean War has caused shortage in metals and U. S. has turned to scrap as its major supply source since there is little hope of obtaining metals from abroad. --Government imposes quotas on exports of aluminum and zinc for remainder of this year amounting to 7000 tons on aluminum and its products and 6500tons on zinc and its products.
Vol. 42, No. 11
T OCTOBER7. President Truman announces appointment of Alan Valentine, former president University of Rochester, as Administrator of Economic Stabilization. 7 OCTOBER8. Dow Chemical Co. announces completion of its DiviFreeport, Tex., 15,000,000 ammonia plant.--Chemical sion, Koppers Co., Inc., receives contract to furnish more than 8500,000 worth of equipment for plastic plant to be built near Slo Paulo, Brazil.--Du Pont dedicates $20,000,000 orlonacrylic fiber-plant at Camden, S. C.-N\Vorld production and U. S. consumption of natural rubber each set all-time peaks in August, Commerce Department reports.”AEC says 84 U. S. firms are manufacturing radiation detection instruments.
7 OCTOBER9. Government orders Koppers Co., Inc., to reactivate a second butadiene unit at its Kobuta, Pa., plant.-Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. announces it will be producing foam rubber at its Los Angeles plant by next January barring government restrictions on use of liquid rubber latex.--Henry Eyring, dean Graduate School, University of Utah, wins Wm. H. Nichols medal of A.C.S.’s N. Y. Section for his “outstanding contribution to the field of theoretical chemistry.”--Chas. E. Wilson, GE president, cites necessity of industrial research of nation’s economy a t 50th anniversary celebration of nation’s first industrial research laboratory and dedication of the firm’s new research laboratory a t Knolls near Schenectady, N.Y.-WRepresentative Emanuel Celler, chairman House Judiciary Subcommittee on Study of Monopoly, orders investigation of aluminum stockpiling, saying reports indicate munitions board has failed to stockpile aluminum. 8 OCTOBER10. X-rays of an ellargy of one billion volts are espected from a new type of atomic machine-a nonferromagnetic synchrotron-developed at the research laboratory of GE and described at the autumn meeting of the Piational Academy of Sciences in Schenectady. OCTOBER 11. President Truman orders organization of temporary interagency committee to start survey of natural resources development possibilities of New England and New York State,--Dow Chemical Co. directors approve plans for boosting production of chlorine and caustic soda a t company’s Pittsburg, Calif., plant by one third.--Justice Department files civil antitrust suit against Savannah Cotton and Piaval Stores Exchange, Inc., and seven companies dealing in gum rosins and gum turpentine, charging conspiracy to fix prices. OCTOBER12. Dewey & Almy Chemical Co. plans to spend $500,000 between now and next June expanding operations a t its Lockport, N. Y., plant to increase production of its Cry-0-Rap plastic f i l m . N 4 J . S. Rubber starts operations 20 days ahead of schedule a t the $11,000,000 government-owned Port Neches, Tex., all-purpose synthetic rubber plant.--Public Health Service says drinking large quantities of salt water is like blood plasma, an effective emergency treatment for shock from burns and other injuries.--Wisconsin Canners and Allied Industries presents $13,425 to University of Wisconsin Board of Regents through University of W-isconsin Foundation to be used by College of Agriculture in extending its teaching and research in canning and freezing of food crops. “National Canners Association readies its research and laboratory organization for any demands national emergency may impose upon the industry.
7 OCTOBER13. Munitions Board says six magnesium plants are scheduled for reactivation but no reopening date has been set. 7 OCTOBER15. Du Pont sells its chromic acid business to Diamond Alkali Co., but will continue to manufacture the product.--Merck & Co. says Cortone, its brand of cortisone, will be made generally available about November 1 through distributors, hospitals, institutions, and pharmacies for use by physicians.
