May, ‘[ 9 I9
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
CALENDAR O F MEETINGS American Zinc Institute-Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Mo., May 12, 1919. American Association of Engineers-Meeting, Chicago, Ill., May 13 and 14, 1919. American Institute of Chemical Engineers-Summer Meeting, Boston, Mass., June 18 to 21, 1919.
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American Society for Testing Materials-Twenty-second Annual Meeting, Atlantic City, N. J., June 2q to 27, 1919.
Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education-Twentyseventh Annual Meeting, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., June 2 5 to 28, 1919.
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE THE SOLDIER, THE SAILOR, AND THE CHEMIST Editor gf the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: Your editorial in the March issue entitled “The Soldier, the Sailor, and the Chemist” proved to be of considerable interest t o me, as well as to the directors of the Engineer School a t Camp A. A. Humphreys, Va. Having entered the service in the early weeks of the war as a civilian member of the Gas Warfare Investigations in the Bureau of Mines, I remained with it from the first days of a few rooms in the New Interior Building, through the months of rapid growth, until it was merged into the Chemical Warfare Service. Too much credit cannot be given the men whose vision, energy, and pi actical consideration initiated the development of chemical investigation in this country. The service and association with them will always be regarded as the best of fortune. After a careful reading of the editorial, it is admitted that the basic logic cannot be refuted. Yet the statements regarding chemical pedagogy a t West Point and Annapolis could be aimed more justly and more severely a t a number of our universities. Any justification, however, of former procedure a t the Military or Naval Academy is beyond the point. The past is done, and its lessons are but recently leit with us. The facts which should have been learned are vivid and demand action. The teacher of chemistry or chemical engineering subjects zbould realize distinctly that the future welfare and prosperity of the country will be in direct ratio to the caliber of the scientific and technical forces which are developed. A number ofcapable instructors, following an orderly routine, have allowed themselves to become cloistered. While it is vitally necessary to continue and carry on, in the universities, all research of any scientific value, the teacher is apt to become so imbued with his own tasks and viewpoints, that in training men who are going into industrial organizations, he loses sight of actualities and existing commercial conditions. Perhaps he has been unable to ge: into any contact with such conditions. By no means should he cut down the detailed investigation incident to his profession, yet he should always attempt to broaden his outlook. The university should pay him a commensurate salary. It is a most natural failing to drift into the belief that one’s own problems are of extreme importance; that almost everything else is secondary. Such an attitude may be conveyed, unwittingly, t o the student. With an abundant wealth of natural resources, there is no real reasoil why this nation should depend upon any other nation for a gram of necessary chemical products. Even granting the absence of raw products, substitutes or artificial substances can, in times of stress, be used or manufactured. The fundamental need is correct training. The universities, at some point in their chemical courses, should bring out industrial and business relations between the subjects which they are teaching and the application which the man himself must make. Granting that fact as a truism for a chemist, it is of even greater importance to the engineer. If the application and utilization of chemical facts are not clarified, the next subject which he considers will obliterate from his mind a great portion of data which, with a few simple relations, he could retain. In view of the procedure suggested in your article,
the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY should be gratified to note that the Chief of Engineers, with the assistance of Gen. Winslow, Col. Peterson, Col. Lyman, and others, had started a t Camp A. A. Humphreys, Va., in December 1918, courses in engineering subjects for graduate engineers from West Point. It was a sincere pleasure to receive, in that month, a request from the Chief of Engineers to install and direct a t Camp A. A. Humphreys such courses in chemical engineering for the West Point graduates stationed at that camp, as time would permit. On this occasion, it will be impossible to give to the JOURNAL a complete statement of everything accomplished, or planned. A short rCsum6, however, will be permitted. There are now in the school go men, ranking from second lieutenant to captain. They are extremely interested, energetic, and of the highest type ’of American students. In working with them, my impressions have been that the methods uscd in selecting men for West Point, and later for the Engineer Corps, may be considered extremely satisfactory. The aim of the Chief of Engineers is to make chemistry and chemical engineering real and live subjects, t o remove from the minds of the students that element of mystery usually associated with things chemical. New outlines and methods of teaching are being developed. Text books, pamphlets, and problems have been prepared and are now being revised. It is proposed to keep all of them continually modern. Too many texts are permitted to become antiquated before discarding begins. Instead of spending excessive time on development and proof of theories of chemistry, etc., every effort is being made to bring out actual relations and applications of the science. The engineer does not need the detailed and exact facts which the chemist and chemical engineer must have. He need not be an expert laboratory workman. He should, however, know how, where, and why certain products are manufactured, the general outlines of qualitative and quantitative analysis, some organic chemistry, materials to be employed for the manufacture of chemical apparatus, etc., and such fundamental principles of manufacture as the handling of labor and the shipping, storage, cost, etc., of the raw products or finished materials. He should know that, in commercial operations, yield figures are of importance only when connected with data on production and cost. He must realize that textbook equations are very incomplete expressions of reactions, indicating results under ideal conditions. It may be of value to point out a few concrete illustrations of what is being done. Inorganic chemistry has been considered from an engineering viewpoint. The elements are studied as the construction materials for chemical compounds, just as the engineer considers steel, brass, copper, and the like. The preparation of the elements, with special emphasis on commercial methods, actual uses of the elements, their application to purposes of warfare, such as manufacture of munitions, etc., are first discussed. The methods of shipping and storing of the elements are explained, for instance, the facts that hydrogen and oxygen are purchased in steel cylinders fitted with valves, usually brass, with safety plugs, manufactured according to the Interstate Commerce Commission Regulations, that the gas pressure in the cylinders is about 1800 lbs. per sq. in., that the cylinders used by hydrogen or oxygen manufacturers are tested,
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before acceptance, with pressures of 3.000, and in some cases 3,300 Ibs. Wherever possible, statements are illustrated by demonstrating the use of the elements in manufactured articles, such as phosphorus smoke grenades, etc. All of the elements are discussed before the general study of compounds begins. The stimulus furnished by warfare research has been indicated as in the production and uses of helium and various other elements. The courses have been divided into lectures or discussions, laboratory experimentation, oral quizzes, and problems. The discussions are based on personal experiences of myself or associates in chemical manufacture, linked with necessary information from standard texts. Few written examinations are held. Later on, in discussing compounds, the system employed with the elements was followed. As an illustration, for commercial purposes, sulfuric acid is usually shipped in steel drums, 50 to IOO gals., or in tank cars; fused caustic soda is shipped in sheet steel drums containing about 700 Ibs., or, granulated, in drums or wooden barrels. The purport has been to teach the men the methods by which chemical products are best handled. Safety precautions for workmen have heen considered; methods of calculating costs of chemicals and manufactured products, explanations of amortization charges, labor costs, insurance, overhead, etc. In every way possible, excess of introduction has been avoided. The problems have been devised to imitate actual factory conditions, e. g., given a calcium phosphate rock, of known purity, giving a definite actual yield of phosphorus by electrochemical methods, what weight of rock is needed to produce enough phosphorus to fill a number of grenades of definite capacity? In addition, lectures have been delivered by representative chemists and engineers. Lt. Col. Goss, recently of the A. E. F., has talked of chemistry and chemical engineering in that organization. Lt. Col. W. D. Bancroft discussed the electrochemical industries a t Niagara Falls. General A. A. Fries considered the A. E. F., laying stress on its organization, engineering and military values. Dr. C. L,. Parsons has accepted an invitation to address the men on “The Methods and Devices Which May be Commercially Employed for the Fixation of Nitrogen.” Invitations have been sent to Col. W. H. Walker to enlighten the students on the paper industry, and to Dr. I,H. Baekeland for a discussion of commercial research and developments. After completing the course, the men will be taken on a trip of about I O days to visit chemical industries in the East, including the cement factories in Pennsylvania, electrochemical and engineering industries a t Buffalo and Niagara Falls. A second trip embracing the Philadelphia, New York and Boston districts, and a third t o the industries of the South, such as Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama have been recommended. The reasons for plant locations, adjacent sources of raw products, transportation facilities, and kindred matters will be emphasized as well as the actual manufacture of materials. In the final examinations it is proposed t o supplement the regular process by developing cooperation with the universities. A number of them throughout the country have been asked to supply sample copies of ordinary problems and examinations. The intent is t o insure comprehensive as well as correct instruction of the students. While it is felt that the men are receiving such a foundation, it is proposed to improve, to modernize, and to strengthen the course a t every opportunity. I n conclusion, it should be noted that, from the instructor’s standpoint, West Point graduates are ideal students. The deep-rooted military lessons of obedience, correct discipline, and maintenance of the highest standards of honor have insured the implicit completion of every instruction. I have regarded my L. T. SUTHERLAND, work as a great privilege. Major, C. W. S., U. S. A. AMERICAN UNIVERSITY EXPERIMENT STATION WASHINGTON, D. C. March 1 1 , 1919
Vol.
11,
No. 5
MATHEMATICS AND SANITARY SCIENCE There is a disposition among sundry workers in sanitary lines to make frequent use of mathematical forms with the result that their conclusions are stated with all the nicety and force of definite equations. Very naturally there creeps over one a feeling of confidence in results that have the backing of algebraic exactness. In November last a most painstaking demonstration was given of the usefulness of the following expression whereby to determine the probable error in the total count of bacteria per cubic centimeter of water
where N represented the number of water samples employed and n the cubic centimeters used per sample. In another recent publication a sanitary deduction was given in the form of a curve which passed through but three of the forty-odd determining points and missed the others by distances which were often relatively great. It is hard for some readers of sanitary papers to appreciate the value of applying mathematical expressions with stringency when dealing with a science which supplies so many variables. Astronomy naturally falls into the hands of the mathematician a t once, while medicine seldom asks his aid, and sanitary science quite nearly approaches the position of the latter. Fancy a physician a t the bedside of a typhoid patient counting the rose spots on the abdomen, squaring the number found, adding thereto one-half the pulse rate, subtracting the respirations per minute, dividing by the body temperature, and then concluding that the recovery of the patient was assured because the above calculation resulted in a number less than a certain predetermined constant. We all remember how dogmatic Wanklyn was when he first brought out his book on Water Analysis. He went so far as to give the number 0.15 as the critical value in parts per million for albuminoid ammonia above which should condemn a water and below which should establish its purity. That is all ancient history now. However little we may care to confess it, some of us are slightly tainted with heresy in the matter of unlimited belief in the value of knowing to a nicety the remote decimals in a water report. The writer now recalls with a feeling akin to a shiver the imposing array of figures he attached to a report written long ago; one that he is now disposed to classify as among his “early crimes.” In order to properly pass judgment upon the potability of a water supply we are prone to ask for somewhat rougher figures and more numerous analyses, and we are especially interested in the result of the “sanitary survey.” Basing sanitary decisions upon laboratory data alone, so far as water supply is concerned, is about equivalent t o a physician treating by telephone a patient whom he has never seen. TROY,NEWYORK March 28. 1919
w. P. MASON
THE GERMAN DYE FACTORIES’ Speaking a t the annual dinner of the Society of Dyers and Colourists a t Bradford on Friday of last week, Lord Moulton said that in his capacity as Director of Explosives Supply, he had to nominate a Commission to go out to see the great chemical factories of Germany which were situated in the occupied zones along the Rhine, and when the members came back he got their reports, and, what was much better, he discussed with them what they had seen; and he had a picture which filled him with dismay. He was told that those chemical factories had been working during the war solely for the purpose of the war. 1 Reprinted from the Chemical Trade Journal and Chemical Enginen (London), for March 29, 1919.
