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T H E J O U R A T A L O F I N D U S T R I A L AiVD E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y ARTICLE VI1 RESIGNATION AND WITHDRAWAL
Any member may withdraw from any section by giving written notice of resignation to the Secretary, and any member who ceases t o be a stockholder of the Chemical Foundation, Inc., shall ipso facto cease to be a section member. ARTICLE VIII AXENDMENTS
The Constitution and By-laws may be amended a t any meeting of the stockholders of the Chemical Foundation, Inc., by a vote of two-thirds of the members present in person or by proxy, provided a copy of the amendment or the substance thereof shall have been given in the notice calling the meeting. The Advisory Committee may amend the Constitution and By-laws a t any meeting by a vote of two-thirds of the members present subject to ratification a t the next succeeding meeting of the stockholders of the Chemical Foundation, Inc. The following amendments to this constitution were adopted: I-There Section, or z-There Section, or
shall be one additional section known as Metallurgical Section 5 . shall be one additional section known as Unclassified Section 6 .
Following the adoption of the constitution the stockholders were given an opportunity to signify to which section they desired to belong and a recess was declared for the purpose of organizing the several sections. The following chairmen of the various sections were elected: SECTION 1-JAMES T. PARDEE,The Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich. SECTION Z-DR. W. J. SCHIEFFELIN, Schieffelin & Co., 170 William St., New York.
SECTION MR. P. S. RIGNEY,Roessler & Hasslacher, 100 William St., New Yark SEcmoN DR MR. BLUM (Temporary), United Piece Dye Works, 132 Madison Ave., New York. SECTION 5-THOMAS C. DAWSON,Electric Boat Co., 11 Pine St., New York. SECTION 6-S. S. NORTON,Permutit Co., 440 Fourth Ave., New York.
These chairmen, and a representative of the Dyes Institute and the Manufacturing Chemists’ Association, together with five members to be appointed a t large by the President, constitute the Advisory Committee to the Chemical Foundation, Inc. Mr. Choate and Mr. Hoguet then explained to the members the situation in regard to the Foundation’s title to the patents, and both expressed the opinion that, whether the Peace Treaty was ratified or not, the title to the patents owned by the Foundation was clear. The question of increasing the membership in the Foundation was d s o discussed. At the time of the meeting there were 139 subscribers to the stock, of whom sixty-seven were present. A FATAL LABORATORY ACCIDENT The circumstances of the accident which resulted in the death of Mr. E. C. McKelvy, of the Bureau of Standards, as recorded in another column, have been issued by the Chemical Society of Washington. At the time of the accident Mr. McKelvy, Mr. C. S. Taylor, and Mr. D. H. Simpson were working together on the same apparatus, determining the freezing point of ammonia. The apparatus consisted essentially of an unsilvered Dewar cylinder container, 2 0 cm. high and 9 cm. inside diameter. The cylinder contained a glass tube in which the ammonia was frozen, and in which was fitted a platinum resistance thermometer a mechanical stirrer which was driven by a small ball motor about a foot away, and a copper coil into which liquid air was siphoned in small amounts, about I cc. a t a time. Most of the rest of the space in the cylinder was filled with petroleum ether (about 600 cc.) used as a contact liquid or bath. Petroleum ether was used because other mixtures become either very viscous or else cloudy a t low temperatures. The petroleum ether was cooled to oo C. before introduction into the Dewar container. About
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twenty seconds before the accident, a t which time the temperature of the bath was -30’ C., Mr. Taylor and Mr. Simpson, who were working within a foot of Mr. McKelvy left the room and entered the adjoining room. At that time Mr. McKelvy was cooling the bath by siphoning small amounts of liquid air into the copper coil: A loud explosion was heard, and about eight or ten seconds later Mr. McKelvy, with his clothes in flames, was standing under the shower bath a t the entrance to the room. Mr. Taylor, aided by Mr. Yurow, immediately turned on the water to the shower bath, and a t the same time Mr. Simpson wrapped him in the woolen fire blanket hanging immediately over the shower bath. The fire was out in less than five seconds after Mr. Taylor entered the room. Mr. McKelvy was a t once taken t o the hospital, where in spite of all possible care and attention, he died on the following day, as a result of the very extensive burned areas involved. The exact cause of the accident is not known. Mr. McKelvy said that there was an explosion and everything in the vicinity was afire. The same apparatus had been used in the same way several times before without any signs of trouble. It was designed to be absolutely safe. Several possible explanations have been offered since the disaster: I-The Dewar flask collapsed and the glass rubbing together produced a spark. z-The Dewar collapsed and threw petroleum ether into the motor commutator. 3-A static spark ignited the petroleum ether-air mixture in the container and then broke the container. 4-A petroleum ether-air mixture was ignited by the motor commutator.
THE EXAMINATION OF THE COLLEGE TRAINED CHEMIST FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICE Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: One of the unfortunate things about the war was that, when so many things had to be done, there was not time to do them all well. One is especially struck with this in reading the illuminating statistical article of W. T. Cotton1 on “The Examination of the College Trained Chemist for Government Service.” But now that peace is here, or (senatu volente) nearly here, is it not time to distinguish a makeshift from the real thing, and to recognize the necessary superficiality in every makeshift? I t would certainly be doing Dr. Cotton an injustice to infer that he seriously believes that mere magnitude, mere figures, are what count in giving a good chemical education. And yet, assuming that the Government wants in its chemists something more than an average of mediocrity, one is fairly driven by parts of his article to the conclusion that two of the essentials in a college or university for the providing of an adequate chemical education (and why any other kind?) are: ( I ) T h e offering in the catalog of a large number of hours of chemical courses. (2) Thc; possession of a large chemical faculty. Apparently the classification of educational institutions by the Civil Service Commission was based on these two factors. Yet the absurdity of the first as ’a criterion is laid bare by the author on the next page of his article where he condemns the padding of college catalogs ; and as for the second-somewhere, if I remember correctly, certain radical individuals have dared to point out the importance of the ratio of the number of instructors to the number of pupils. One great teacher had only twelve students, Socrates had not many more, and in the old days it used to be said that Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a boy on the other made a college. But in these days it is all changed; study the catalogs of 550 institutions, tabulate the data, and-presto-the sheep are separated from the goats. 1
THIS JOURNAL, 11 (1919), 1142.
