February, 1923
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Personals Dr. Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was elected president of the American Associatioq for the Advancement of Science. Ten vice presidents were elected, each representing a section, Prof. E. W. Washburn being elected vice president for the chemical section. Mr. G. P. Metz and Mr. E. R. Piclaell, both of H. A. Metz & Co., Inc., are spending several weeks visiting France. Germany, and England. Prof. 0 F. Stafford, head of the department of chemistry of the University of Oregon, has returned to his university work a t Eugene, after a four years’ leave of absence devoted to industrial research in the field of waste wood utilization by destructive distillation. Mr. Carl G. Schluederberg, president of the American Electrochemical Society, left recently for a four months’ trip in the Orient to study business conditions. Dr. Josiah H. Penniman has been elected provost of the University of Pennsylvania. He had been acting provost since the resignation of Dr. Edgar Fahs Smith about three years ago. Mr. Hugh Kelsey Moore, director of research, Brown C o , Berlin, N. H., has been elected a member of the New Hampshire State Legislature. Mr. E. F. Davis, formerly of the Dye Works Planning Department, du Pont de Nemours & Co., has just returned from Mexico where he has been installing a chlorine plant. Mr. W. A. Baude has left the Dye Works of du Pont de Nemours & Co., to become assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. His position in the Dye Works is being taken by Mr. Frank Ernst from the Experimental Station. Mr. M. S. Benjamin, lecturer in agricultural chemistry a t the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, New South Wales, is spending some weeks in the United States visiting agricultural colleges and laboratories devoted to agricultural chemistry. Mr. Milo R. Daughters, chief chemist and manager of research for the Dominion Canners, Ltd., is spending the winter in Florida. Mr. C. Robert Moulton has resigned his position at the University of Missouri to become head of the Bureau of Nutrition for the Institution of American Meat Packers in Chicago. Leave of absence has been granted by the Corporation of Yale University to Dr. Lafayette B. Mendel to enable him to deliver a course of lectures at the University of California. Professor Mendel plans to leave New Haven after the dedication of the Sterling Chemical Laboratory in April to join the faculty of the University of California for the intersession, which continues from May 14 to June 23,1923. Professor Mendel has chosen for his subject “New Aspects of the Physiology of Nutrition.” Mr. L. C. Cooley has accepted a position as plant engineer with the U. S. Industrial Chemical Co., Baltimore, Md. Mr. T. F. Banigan, formerly acid superintendent for the Hercules Powder Co., a t Kenvil, N. J., and lately in acid work at Hercules, Calif., has accepted a position with the firm of Meigs, Bassett, and Slaughter, Inc., of Philadelphia, Pa. Dr. John W. Caldwell, formerly head of the department of chemistry in Tulane University of Louisiana, died at his home in New Orleans on January 2, 1923. Mr. Duncan Stewart has left the Mechanical Engineering Department of the Shell Company of California to join the chemical staff of the W. P. Fuller Co., South SanFrancisco, Calif. Mr. D. D. Berolzheimer, formerly assistant technical editor of the Chemical Engineering Catalog, is now one of the editors of the Consolidated Textile Catalogs. Mr. A. E. Marshall has resigned his office as president of Marshall Rieha, Inc., and will devote his attention solely to plant design, consultation, and report work for the chemical industry. Dr. Irving Langmuir, research chemist of the General Electric Co., has been elected an honorary member of the Royal Institution, London. Prof. Frank B. Wade, of the faculty of Shortridge High School, Indianapolis, Ind., was recently elected president of the Central Association of Teachers of Science and Mathematics. Mr. H. H. Replogle has resigned his position as manager of the Intermediates and Certified Food Color Divisions of the National AnilirTe & Chemical Co., to assume the sales management of the Wamesit Chemical Co., Lowell, Mass.
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Industrials The Columbia Steel Corporation has been organized at San Francisco, with a capital stock of $20,000,000, to consolidate the Columbia Steel Company with the Utah Coal & Coke Company. The corporation is to build a blast furnace and by-products coke oven in Utah for the manufacture of pig iron to supply the California mill. The United States Pulp Producers’ Association, a new organization replacing the old P ~ d pManufacturers’ Association, began operation on January 1, taking over all the functions of the old organization and assuming some new ones. Changing conditions in the paper industry were given as the cause for the organization of the new association, which is the direct result of the American Paper and Pulp Association’s policy of iurthering organization among the several branches of the paper industry in order that the industry as a whole might be in a position to act uniformly and cooperatively in matters of local and national importance to the industry and its several branches. The purposes of the new organization are to provide a means for concerted action by pulp manufacturers in matters of tariff, taxation, legislation, etc.; to continue the distribution to members of reports containing all available data regarding the production and importation of wood pulp and pulpwood; to expand these reports to cover not only domestic but foreign production, shipments, exports, etc. ; to further the uniformity of costfinding methods in the pulp industry; and to increase the effectiveness and economy of pulp production. The officers of the organization are : president, T. W. Ross, Hummel-Ross Fiber Co. ; vice presidents, I,. M. Alexander, Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co., D. C. Everest, Marathon Paper Mills Co., E. W. Kiefer, Port Huron Sulphite & Paper Co., and W. H. Savery of the Harpers Ferry Paper Co. ; executive committee, Herman Elsas, George W. Sisson, Jr., and W. H. Sullivan; secretary-treasurer, 0. M. Porter. The organizing committee of the recently formed British Association of Manufacturers of Noncorrodible and Anticorrosive Products are considering proposals for sectionizing the work of the association under the following heads: noncorrodible metals (nonferrous) ; noncorrodible ferrous materials; stone and allied preservatives; metallic coating processes ;timber preservatives; anticorrosive paints and varnishes for metals; rust-removing methods; boiler-incrustation preventatives. The American crude oil production in 1922was the greatest in history, the output reaching 550,000,000 bbls., according to the Shipping Board’s estimate. The unprecedented production was 81,000,000 bbls. in excess of the 1921 yield, and represented the greatest annual gain since the discovery of oil in the United States. It is predicted that 1923 will surpass 1922 in point of production. The drop in the price of radium from $120,000 t o $70,000 a gram, following the finding of a vast deposit of pitchblende near Katanga in the Belgian Congo, which is said to be superior to the Colorado ores, is given as the cause for the closing down of the carnotite properties of the Standard Chemical Co., Colorado. The American Cotton Growers’ Association has raised the sum of $2,500,000 to be available a t once for the production of arsenate upon a large scale and for the perfection of the methods of distribution and use. According to unofficial estimates, the automobile industry used 600,000 tons of alloy steel in 1922. The estimate is based on the assumption that 25 per cent of the steel in the average car is alloy steel, and that automobile makers consumed a total of 2,500,000 tons of finished steel in 1922. The Standard Oil Company of California is soon to inaugurate a correspondence course of instruction for employees in all parts of the state, designed to fit the students for better technical positions. This course is optjonal with the employees. The Soda & Potash Corporation has been organized at Los Angeles, and incorporated in Colorado, with a capitalization of 100,000 shares of common stock of no par value, and 250,000 shares of preferred stock. The company is to build a plant a t Los Angeles estimated to cost between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000, to make industrial and pharmaceutical sodas and industrial potash for the domestic and export market. The raw material will be mined in Nevada, where the company owns depositsof sodium sulfate, carbonate, bicarbonate, and sesquicarbonate. The officers are: C. W. Culpepper, president; Chas. W. Berry, vice president; Edward P. Shaw, treasurer; F. J. McGuire, secretary.
