May 25, 1940
NEWS
EDITION
443 peratures in the dewaxing operations pro duces an oil that does not meet specifica tions and that must be reprocessed. The quality of a finished lubricating oil is dependent upon the temperatures to which the oil is subjected during refining. Different grades of oils are made by blend ing together two base stocks. The quali ties desired in the base oils are correct viscosity, high flash and fire points, low pour, low carbon-forming tendencies, and high resistance to oxidation. Oils from Pennsylvania crude have certain inherent characteristics, such as high paraffinicity, but in their refining—viscosity, flash, and fire—are controlled by the tempera tures of the distillation processes. The pour point is governed by the chilling temperature. Resistance to oxidation is controlled by degree of cracking or forma tion of unsaturated products that has taken place during refining. Carbon-form ing tendencies are governed by the ef ficiency of filtration which, in turn, is aided or deterred by temperatures to which the oil is subjected.
Recent Patents on Copper ThomasF. Healy, Munsey Bldg., Washington D.C.
using steam as a heating and stripping medium. Here, temperature is important and must be carefully controlled After denuding, the oil is known as raw bright stock. Bright stock is given a finishing filtering to bring it to the proper specifications for color, carbon residue, and stability to oxidation. The wax found in wax distillate differs from that in steam-refined stock in that it is crystalline and may be separated al most entirely free of oil. Wax from residual stock is amorphous and always contains a high percentage of oil. Meth ods of separation are almost the same. The waxy oil is diluted in a suitable sol vent, such as gas oil where plate and frame presses are used, gasoline where centri fuges are used, and beioene-ketone or propane where rotary presses are used, and is chilled until the wax precipitates. The wax, denuded of it? solvent, and oil content by distillation or sweating, is used for candles, match wax, and wax paper. The dewaxed oil is freed of its solvent content by another distillation process and then filtered through fuller's earth or bauxite to give it proper color and oxida tion stability. The temperatures required in the opera
tion of each unit are not flexible. Failure to maintain proper temperatures, which are governed by recording thermometric instruments, can upset the operation of the whole refinery. In a plant processing thousands of barrels of crude oil a day, it is impossible to provide storage, between the different operations, to allow for mis takes. Each unit operates on the as sumption that some other unit will pro vide charging stock of definite quality and in the proper volume, and *iiat other units will remove their product as fast as proc essed. Failure to maintain proper temperatures can affect refinery operations in somewhat the following manner: when oil is heated to too high a temperature it cracks, darkens, and becomes hard to filter. Filter units unable to handle rated through-put, cause a slowing down of the primary distillation unit. The dewaxing equipment must slacken because it does not receive sufficient charging stock. Fractionation between crystalline and amorphous wax is difficult and failure to maintain proper temperatures pro duces a mixed wax in the wax distil late that cannot be handled in the wax plant. Failure to maintain proper tem
PATENT NO. 2,195,434 was issued on April 2, 1940, to Horace F. Silliman, Waterbury, Conn., and assigned to The American Brass Co., Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut. The patent claims a copper-base alloy comprising from 1 to 50 per cent of zinc, 0.01 to 1 per cent of boron, and the balance copper. The advantages gained by adding small quantities of boron to a brass composition are decreased grain zise, freedom of the metal from dross and oxides, improved casting, welding, and brazing properties, and simplification of the mill practice in producing wrought forms. Patent No. 2,195,454 was awarded on April 2, 1940, to Lawrence Greenspan, New York, Ν. Υ., and assigned to Louis Weisberg, Inc., New York, N. Y., a cor poration of New York. This patent claims an electrolyte for depositing bright copper coatings consisting of a water solu tion containing copper sulfate, 30 to 120 grams per liter of an alkyl amine such as diethylene triamine, and 15 to 50 grams per liter of ammonium sulfate. This in vention is based on the discovery that good ductile lustrous deposits of copper can be obtained from solutions containing com plex copper salts formed by interaction with amines, provided the solution also contains ammonium compounds such as ammonia and/or ammonium salts. The copper electrodepoeite are particularly free from brittlenesft. βν%θ
The Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wis., has awarded a fellowship to Roger L. Stellar, a chemical engineering senior who will receive his bachelor of chesoical engineering degree in June.
