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In a line of manufactures where the labor is less than per cent. of the cost of production, for example, rubber goods, brass, etc., a scientific study and a systematic correction of the unnecessary and useless movements of each machine operator and each employee naturally would not produce very striking results, The scientific methods should be first directed a t the material wastes and losses and the operating and expense items, or to that portion of the factory which contributes the largest proportion to the cost of production. Obviously, if large results are to be obtained, such methods might be applied to the best managed factories in the country with profit, while in many of our plants the applications of the scientific studies which lead to the highest efficiency have not been undertaken a t all. The term Scientific methods” sounds more formidable than it really is. To be sure, in a great many cases in factory management, improved efficiency is based on the application of sound-though not always profound-chemistry, physics, mechanics, thermodynamics, psychology, etc. In a great number of other cases it is based upon the consistent application of that extra college attainment-“horse sense.” An example of the latter may be cited in which a manager noticed that all orders on works stores for expense supplies, such as soap, oil, waste, repairs, renewals, etc., were signed by the office boy, using the superintendent’s autograph rubber stamp. Presumably, the various departments were not using any more of these supplies than they needed; nevertheless, the impersonal way in which the orders were put through, made direct responsibility easy to evade. The manager decided to apply the “horse sense” phase of ‘‘ Scientific management.” All rubber stamps about the works were collected and sent to the boiler room, with instructions t o the firemen to realize on their heat value. Each department foreman was advised to sign his own orders for anything he wantedand only his own. Individual ledger accounts were then opened in the office for each foreman, his department being charged a t the purchase price with every order he signed. Transcripts of these accounts were given to each foreman monthly. -4s soon as it became apparent to the foreman that he had a personal responsibility, there was not only a marked falling off in the amount of material ordered, but the purchase price was noted, and the purchasing office given the benefit of many suggestions which resulted in more careful buying. The net result of this transfer of responsibility from the impersonal rubber stamp in the hands of the office boy to the foreman personally was the addition of $35,000 dollars per year to the profits of the works. N o manager would be quick to admit to the public, or t o the lay stockholders, that great changes and improvements could be made in the efficiency of his pIant operation ; but every manager admits to himself, when confronted with impending tariff changes, or growing foreign and domestic competitih, that he must look for means to reduce the cost of production. The cost of selling increases with the severity of com20
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CHEMISTRY.
Mar., 191 I
petition, and this adds an additional burden, which must be shouldered by the factory if profits are to be maintained. The application of the “Scientific method,” as interpreted in connection with improved factory efficiency, does not involve a profound scientific research. but invokes the use of the “eagle eye” of a sensible man to every nook, corner, operation, and product of the plant, with special attention to the coal pile, the drainage sewers, and the factory gatesthe three great escape valves for chemical factory profits. Such a study, and the application of remedies based upon sound scientific principles, will give profitable results of a surprising magnitude in many, if not all factories, and will suggest the solution for great problems of factory development in the face of falling prices and increasing competition.
DR. RICHARDSON. I t is a matter of regret that Dr. W.D. Richardson, who has been head of the editorial staff of the J O U R N A L since its organization, could not be induced to continue the responsibilities of that position. His withdrawal from the chief editorship will not entirely deprive us of his’services and advice, as he has consented to devote a portion of his time and interest t o the J O U R N AinLthe capacity of an associate editor. The Society owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Richardson for his services in organizing the J O U R N Aand L , administering its affairs during its infancy. LEONARD PARKER KINNICUTT.
Dr. Leonard P. Kinnicutt, an associatk editor of THISJ O U R K Asince L its. beginning, a leading authority in sanitary chemistry, especially sewage disposal and water supply, and director of the department of chemistry of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, died a t his home in Worcester on February 6th in his fifty-seventh year, after an illness of several months. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1 8 7 5 he then studied in Germany until 1879, a t first with Bunsen a t Heidelberg, where he was a fellow student of Treadwell, now of Zurich, and Bedson, of Sewcastle on Tyne, then a t Bonn with Kekule and Anschiitz, with Japp and Richardson as fellow students: He returned to this country in 1879 and spent a year a t Johns Hopkins, going from there t o Harvard where he remained for three years, taking the degree of Sc.D. and serving as instructor in quantitative analysis. In 1883 he was appointed assistant professor a t Worcester, and became a full professor in 1886 and director of the chemical department in 1892, the position he filled a t the time of his death. With the establishment of sewage disposal works in Vorcester his attention was drawn t o sanitary problems and he devoted the remainder of his life to them. He was recognized, both a t home and abroad, as a leading authority on such subjects, as is shown by the fact that he had been chosen as vice-president of the
T H E PEKKlh‘ M E D A L A1t7ARD. section of hygiene of the coming International Congress of Applied Chemistry. Much of his time after 1885 was devoted t o the study of the contamination of rivers and ponds by trade waste and sewage, with special attention to their pollution by wool washings, in connection with the Blackstone River a t Providence, R. I., by the waste of the Wamsutta Mills, the Ware River in Massachusetts by that of the Barre Wool Combing Co., and pollution of the same character a t Bradford, England, where a greater amount of wool is washed annually than in any other city in England or America. He was employed as an expert in numerous cases where the pollution of streams and ponds was under consideration, such as Saratoga Lake, the Nashua River a t Clinton and a t Fitchburg, the Assabet River at Westboro, and the water supplies of Webster, Quincy, Millbury, Worcester, Warren, Bristol, Gardner, Athol and Jersey City. He was one of the principal experts for the city of Chicago in the case of “The State of Missouri ZT. the State of Illinois and the Sanitary District of Chicago,” which he successfully defended, and in the well-known Passaic Valley case, “Jersey City ‘us. Jersey City Water Supply Co.,” where he was the expert for the Water Company. Because of the fact that his personal engagements took him over such a wide field, and because it was his habit t o spend his vacations every other year in England and on the Continent familiarizing himself with the work t h a t was done abroad, and with the leading experts there, Dr. Kinnicutt was a man of very broad horizon. He was more generally known on the other side of the ocean as a sanitary chemist than any of our experts. As a teacher Dr. Kinnicutt met with the same success as in other walks of life. As a member of the institute faculty he was most popular with his students. A touching tribute to him appears in the editorial column of the Tech S e h s . I t says, in part: “ H e was a friend of the students but particularly of the struggling student. His words of advice and his help financiaLly (though generally not publicly known) have strengthened the heart of many a struggling student and has been the means of enabling students to obtain an education. We miss him; we miss his personality; we miss the man of great heart, of wonderful industry, of untiring devotion. ” Dr. Kinnicutt’s attractive personality appealed as strongly to his professional associates as to his students, and his presence was always welcome a t all the scientific meetings which he attended. He was a t once the heart and soul of good fellowship. No loss in the ranks of chemists will be more felt than that occasioned by Dr. Kinnicutt’s death. CLIFFORD RICHARDSON.
THE. PERKlN MEDAL AWARD. The Perkin Medal was conferred upon Charles Martin Hall for his inventions and discoveries in connection with the manufacture of aluminum, b y the New York
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Section of the Society of Chemical Industry a t its regular meeting, January 20, I 9 I I . The Perkin Medal Award is determined b y the committee representing the Society of Chemical Industry, The American Chemical Society, and the American Electrochemical Society. This medal, founded in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the coal t a r industry, is awarded to a chemist residing in the United States, for valuable work in applied chemistry, and especially work which has become valuable in the future development of a great industry. Mr. Hall’s discoveries and inventions were regarded b y the committee as of a distinctly high order, and the award was recommended by a unanimous vote. His discovery that aluminum oxide dissolved in fused cryolite, producing a solution of low electrical conductivity, from which he could deposit the aluminum in the metallic state, is the basis of the aluminum industry. Mr. Hall has also made many other valuable inventions, both in the field of chemistry and its engineering applications, which have an important bearing on the metallurgy of aluminum. The wisdom of the committee in awarding the medal to Mr. Hall was substantially endorsed by the large attendance a t the exercises and the enthusiasm shown b y the audience. Interest was enhanced by the presence and participation in the exercises, of Paul L. V. HCroult, who simultaneously made the same discoveries in Europe as those made by Mr. Hall in America. As a result of the independent discoveries of Hall and Heroult, the European rights in the aluminum industry have been enjoyed by Mr. H6roult and the American rights by Mr. Hall. An abstract of the official report of the proceedings is a n interesting contribution to the literature of the aluminum industry, and shows the cordial professional endorsement given t o the meritorious inventions made b y Mr. Hall. OPENING ADDRESS O F DR. CHaRLES F. MCKENNA, Chairman: The foundation of the Perkin Medal was a happy act of scientific benevolence. Perkin’s contemporaries in America, wishing to do something which would honor him in life and continue to keep his memory illustrious in science, even after he should have passed away, chose to establish this medal and to see to i t that in recurring years it should go as a reward t o the men who had struggled, striven and fought and forced nature t o yield further favors to men. Sir William Perkin has passed away and yet each year his achievement stands out bolder on the pages of chemical history; each year the new award of this medal adds a link to the chain connecting the great work of industrial chemical advancement in America with the earliest and most pronounced advance made in England when aniline yielded up mauve. Each year the appre‘ciation of this honor grows, and the annual award of the Perkin medal is coming to be looked upon as the comours of chemical industry. The thoughtful men who, in founding this benev-
