194
THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
this way the processes of the canning industry are being studied and the results already obtained have been found of substantial value in guiding process temperatures and times. QUALITY AND APPBIARANCE OF CANNED Foom The improvement in canning machinery previously commented upon has contributed to the improvement in the appearance of the product packed. The proportion of canned foods of high quality is materially higher than it was ten years ago. In many products the highest grade packed also shows a marked improvement, and there is a corresponding improvement in the lower grades. The increase in duality consists both in appearance and in flavor. It is the result of a general movement to bring the raw product to the canning plants in better condition and to handle it by more prompt and more efficient methods. I n keeping with the increased quality is a pronounced tendency among canners to so label their product that consumers can have more accurate knowledge of the exact nature of the contents of the can. The improvement in this direction is not yet generally appreciated. Grades are hard to describe, and it is difficult to so word a
A Boom Needed By H. W. Jordan 133 STOLP AvE:.,SYRACUSE. N. Y.
The presidents of three great American universities in addressing their graduating classes struck a common note of warning which university men of the chemical and engineering industries will do well to heed. At Yale, President Angel1 urged that educated men lead public action against the prevailing swift current of lawlessness and selfishness. At Harvard, President Lowell deprecated the tendency to float with the crowd. He urged growth of the American pioneer spirit that has characterized us as a people creative of great achievements, both material and spiritual. President Hibben of Princeton said, “We are all aware of the fact that there is something wrong with the world. If you think that it is going to the devil, I rejoice in that belief, because I know that there naturally will arise the determination that you, for one, will do everything in your power to prevent it.” The close agreement of these intellectual leaders in their analysis of the idea which,they considered most important to impress upon the minds of graduating seniors is no mere accident. Their joint conclusion that there is too much complaisant drifting with the crowd-too little‘ creative thinking by university men as citizens-deserves serious consideration by everyone of scientific training. Clear appreciation of the close relation between the industrial processes of the chemist or engineer and the social economic situation is arising. Edwin Grant Conklin, Arthur Pound, James H. Robinson, Lothrop Stoddard and other far-sighted men of creative mind, who do not drift with the crowd, see that industrial stagnation, high cost of food and housing, coal strikes and the like are ultimate effects, and not primary causes. These thinkers throw the spotlight of science on the waste of energy spent in fighting effects-energy which should be used to discover and correct causes. They show the absurdity of trying to bring the millennium upon earth by means of the revised statutes, The most recent example of this triumph of hope over experience is the appeal to tinker the Constitution of the United States by an amendment permitting its amendment ad infinitum “to meet the needs of the people.” This sublime example of trying to balance oneself by the extended left arm with hand gripping the back of a kitchen chair supported by one leg on the top end of a thirty foot pole whose
Vol. 14, No. 9
label as to give the consumer all of the information which he should have. Systematic progress in this matter is being made, however, and various grades are gradually being defined so that a change in labeling will be possible. SANITATION I n many of our foremost plants careful attention was always given to questions of sanitation. Many difficulties were encountered in such plants, however, because of the inherent sloppiness of many of the operations and the ineffective machinery and system of conveyors formerly available. Improvements in these directions and in ideas of plant construction have greatly changed the sanitary condition of the best plants. In many plants a striking change of sanitary conditions has been made. The adoption of sanitary machinery and conveyors and the improvement in quality and appearance of the product have contributed to the general movement of improving the surroundings of the canning plant. This is especially evidenced by increased light and cleanliness within the plant itself and more efficient removal of waste products.
lower end rests on the chin of Congress impels one to rush for the net before gravity gets a start on the wabbly column. Members of the AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY need to organize a salvage corps in behalf of engineering industry and of their individual selves for study and action upon the newly discovered relationship between modern, automatic machine industry and the social structure. “You, for one, need do everything in your power” to promote such biological, industrial research. Discussion of the writings of Professor Conklin and his associatesfor example, of his article on the “Future of Evolution,” in the July Yale Review-would be a stout boom thrown across the river of popular thoughtless clamor for national laws designed to regulate us from breakfast to bedtime; a boom behind which many millions of valuable mental, social timber would be impounded for constructive use. Will you, “for one,” help lay that boom?
Help Kazan Many chemists are deeply interested in the plight of their colleagues abroad and have contributed generously to their relief. Here is a real opportunity to help where help is sorely needed, and through the American Relief Administration we know the utmost economy and efficiencyare secured. Read this letter sent to a member of our SOCIETY. DEAR SIR: I take the opportunity to send you my scientific works through the American Relief Administration which is affording now great help to the starving population in the Volga district. The great war, the revolution, and the civil war in our country did not allow me to send you my works earlier. Unfortunately the difficult economical situation in our country does not allow us to carry on our work regularly. We are now obliged to spend our physical and mental strength in searching ways of getting foodstuff for ourselves and our families. We send you and all American chemists our friendlyregards, and we beg you all to help the professors and assistants of chemistry of the Kazan University and of the Kazan Technological Institute by sending them food through the A. R. A. I hope that our scientific works in chemistry, though modest, give us the moral right to send to all our American chemist friends this prayer. The relief received will give us the possibility to regain our physical and mental strength and to continue to work for the science. Respectfully yours, ALEXANDER ARBUSOFF, KAZAN UNIVERSITY Professor of Organic Chemistry EASTRUSSIA M a y 16, 1922
