In Applied Chemistry
v
ITAMIN C, known to the chemist as ascorbic acid, is about twice as plentiful in strawberries as it is in orange juice, according to studies conducted a t the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station by Dr. Tressler and collaborators. Raspberries, turnips, and tomatoes are also good sources of this vitamin. About 2,000,000 automobile bodies were treated during 1910 for rust-proofing by the phosphate treatment, to give a thin, tight, and uniform protective coating. Petroleum is heing discovered a t the rate of 1,000,000,000 barrel.; a vear in excess of the rate of consumotion. The total oil rrwrrrs now amount to about 20,000.0 1U.OUu barrels, or m w g h to 1 s t nbuut sixrern ycnrs a[ the present rut? of ronsurnplion. arcording to Dr. Guatav E~luffof L'mvcrul Oil Product.; Conpaw. Ameripol, a copolymer of butadiene with "another material obtained from gas and air," is replacing dfty t o one hundred per cent of the natural rubber in the new synthetic tire being produced by B. F. Goodrich Company. The synthesis has been perfected by Dr. W. L. Semon, formerly Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington. Blotting paper that is soaked in a fifteen per cent solution of hypo and bound to a freshly cut head of lettuce will prevent it from wilting for some time, as, for example, in transit from California to Chicago. If you have "a pronounced ination and lack of vigor and vitality without other objective signs of disease," you have, according to Dr. Supplee, vitamin Be deficiency. This is known also as the vitality vitamin or the unknown factor. A new approach to certain types of allergy such as hay fever, dusts, foods, danders, bacteria, heat, and cold, is treatment with vitamin C, which seems to be effective'in the neutralization of the poisonous substance histamine, associated q t h these conditions. According to Gustavus J. Esselen, wool from sheep's clothing, silk from the digestive system of worms, cotton from the parachutes of seeds, and linen fram the stems of plants no longer limit the abilities of the textile industry to supply fabrics. Y o u may have nylon fibers, glass fibers, or other synthetics to your own liking. White interior finishes have been developed, aceording to D. F. Wilcox of the University of Cincinnati, which reflect up to seventy-two per cent of the ultra-violet light, thus making it possible to have indirect health-ray light for a room. Buna N, which is a copolymer of butadiene with acrylonitrile, and Buna S, which is a copolymer of butadiene with styrene, are to be produced by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, under a license agreement with the Standard Oil Development Company of New Jersey. During the first quarter of 1940 there were no imports of synthetic camphor, as compared to 329.827 pounds during the same period in 1939. Hydragenolysis of wood, according t o Professor Harold Hibbert, yields products which are water-white liquids that can he separated by fractional distillation without decomposition. A close kin to cyclohexanol, used in the nylon synthesis, is 4-nprapylcyclohexanol which is obtained in this bydragenolysis. A new potential source of synthetic materials appears to be opened up by this degradation process. ~~~~
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The production of cellulose acetate molding compositions increased from 2,559,664 pounds during the first quarter of 1939 t o 3,252,595 pounds during the corresponding period in 1940. According to studies by Dr. Spencer of the Rockefeller Institute, sulfanilamide in concentrations of twenty t o forty parts per million has a stimulating effect an the growth of roots of the tobacco plant hut bas no effect on uncut seedlings. A semicommercial pilot plant is now in operation a t Essa Laboratories. Bayway, New Jersey, for the production of butyl rubber, which is a copolymer of olefins and dialefins. Armour and Company, Chicago, are operating a plant that is capable of separating about 15,000,000 pounds of drying oils annually by fractionation of the residues from the glycerol recovery. Such oils obtained from cottonseed, soybeans, and fish are heing marketed a t about 15 cents a pound whereas tung oils cost about 25 cents per pound. Grapefruit oil is now being produced by fermentation, drying, and pressing of the grapefruit seeds, followed by treatment with caustic soda to remove thebitter constituent, limonin. This oil appears to be exceptionally good for sulfonation for the textile trade. It is estimated that there are about 15.000 tons of seeds available annually which will yield about 4,000,000 pounds of crude grapefruit oil. P.E.T.N is pentaerythritol tetranitrate and T4 is cyclotrimethyltrinitramine, both of which are doubtless playing an important role as explosives in the p r e v t war. At the close pf 1938 there were 3192 corporations engaged in chemical manufacture in Japan. -ED. F. DEOERINC
In Cellulose Chemistry
I"
h
T H E consideration of cellulose, should be noted that it was used originally as fuel and in the construction of a crude form of shelter, then as lumber in the building trades, as chips and pulp in the paper industry, as celotex in fabricated board. as plywood for the cabinet trades, as regenerated fibers for rayon synthesis, as embossed plywood for interior finishing, as plastic wood for repair work, as pressed board for construction, as seamless tubes for meats and sausages, and in hundreds of types of fabricated articles. The production of lumber, according t o authoritative sources, utilizes only about twenty per cent of the forests, whereas the new technic for the disintegration of wood into fibers and the subsequent recombination of these under beat and pressure t o give pressed board, makes use of about ninety-three per cent of the forest crop. This represents a saving of seventy-three per cent and tremendously simplifies the important problem of reforestation, This advance represents only one particular type of research in the cellulose field. Unpublished work carried on by the cellulose chemists, according to Dr. Heuser of the Paper Institute, Appleton, Wisconsin, includes research on cooking conditions in the digester that have led to a method for producing rayon pulp of any desired viscosity, on the bleaching of wood pulp with hypochlorite and chlorine that enables the production of rayon pulps of greater purity and of sufficiently low resin content to meet the requirements for producing high color in viscose yanas well as studies on the opaque color or milkiness of rayon, on the
