Remarks of W. J. Marsh

to realize one very important point aside from his technical training; namely, the value of being able to properly present an engineering proj- ect, t...
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Vor. 7. No. 3 SYMPOSIUM-"SELECTING

CHEMIST-ELECT"

539

industry, as has been pointed out, we need the flexible type of man. This does not mean, however, that we are out of sympathy with an endeavor to acquaint the student as well as may be with the working conditions and problems of industry a t the time he is pursuing his university education. We consider i t highly desirable that he have some actual contact with industry during his university course-certainly enough to get his hands dirty. For our purposes it seems sufficient that such knowledge be gained by summertime employment. This contact should help him to realize one very important point aside from his technical training; namely, the value of being able to properly present an engineering project, the importance of selling his work, if you will. It is not sufficient that the engineer do the technical part of the job. He should also be able actually to bring his undertaking to a conclusion-to cash in on it. He must be able to present his facts in a convincing manner before he can secure the necessary funds for his undertaking. Having carried through his investigation and translated it into an actual working process, there is somewhere a board of directors or an executive who will require a clean-cut statement of the results accomplished before they will be willing to appropriate funds for the next project. Further, there is usually a large number of other individuals and groups whose cooperation must be enlisted before he can see his engineering translated into a manufacturing plant and a going process. He must cultivate a forceful and pleasing personality and have the ability to fit into the large social group of varying functions, responsibilities and i n t ~ e s twhich s go to make up the modern industrial concern. I believe this point can scarcely be over-emphasized in these days of highly specialized and functionalized organizations. All of this, I suppose, simply says that we desire in the engineers who come to us from the universities, men of intelligence, imagination, and background, whose training has given them an open mind and the ability to think clearly; men who have spent their four or five or whatever number of years of university training in acquiring a fundamental knowledge of their science and of engineering; men who know and appreciate other men and whose methods of approach and agreeableness of manner will enlist the cooperation of other members of their engineering and business organization, whose services also are necessary to the success of the industry and of all who are engaged in it.

REMARKS OF W. J. MARSH* A great many things that I wanted to say, Dr. Langmuir has already said. This is no more than can be expected when we consider that the

* Mr. Marsh kindly consented at the lad minute to substitute for Dr. Webster N. Jones who was scheduled to take part in this symposium but was unable to attend.

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various organizations which we represent are all confronted with the same problem-that of picking chemists for the job t o be done. I shall not burden you with repetition, although some of the ideas brought before you this afternoon are indeed worthy of it, hut shall run through a few additional ideas I have concerning the selection of the chemists for industrial work. In the first place, what outstanding qualification do we consider first when a man comes to apply for a job? I have made i t my business during the past few days t o put this question to several of my industrial friends here. The diversity of replies greatly surprised me. A few examples will suffice. The first man considered good appearance. He explained that the chemists who came to him were, in a short period, to graduate from chemical work into either sales or plant foreman jobs, and that he needed men who appeared well. Another man trusted his first impression, gained from a lengthy interview. A third considered first: "Does he show a very evident willingness to work hard?" A fourth wanted an individual who was obviously aggressive. And still another wanted a man possessing cooperative spirit. These opinions of industrial men are not as far afield from the prohlems of our teachers of chemistry as they might appear. Our teachers are frequently asking us what it is that the industries want in men. I am reminded of a recent visit to our company of Professor Charles Kraus of Brown University, who has been, visiting industrial concerns over the country trying to get a concrete answq to this very question.' The reply of the industries represented a t that particular conference may be briefly summarized as follows: "We are not so much concerned with what courses the men have had. What we want is men who can think. If their preparation is inadequate in the particular line in which we may want to use them, and if they are men of the caliber we're after, they'll master that subject." To the opinions of others regarding the first qualification required of a prospective employee, I should like to add my own. I want a man who primarily will give me assurance that he is intellectually honest. If he is not that, he is, in my opinion, absolutely useless in every other way. The university teachers should very early do those things which D. Langmuir has been talking about. They should get into the mind of the young man or the young woman starting out in chemistry the right conception of what it is all about, what they are trying to do, and that he or she should be as honorable in the laboratory as on a tennis court. Any one who would cheat on the tennis court would he sneered at, and yet, in many of our universities we find students boasting of their ability to outwit the See "Training Chemists for the 1ndu.itries." hy C. A. Kraus and S. T. Arnold,

THISJOURNAL, 6,852-7 (May, 1929).

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professor. That is not honest. That intellectual honesty is sometimes a difficult thing to discover but i t is worth seeking. In some cases it is possible to teach an individual to comprehend its full significance. Perhaps the experience of a friend of mine will clinch this point. Upon being scheduled to teach qualitative and quantitative analysis one year, he found that he had to learn it all over again. As a student he had taken courses in both subjects, but his method of study had been this. When an unknown was assigned, if i t was brown crystals, the reagent shelves were immediately searched until a labeled bottle containing similar brown crystals was discovered. That is intellectual dishonesty. If a student is taught from the beginning to be dishonest, he will be of very little future value. Other qualities such as alertness and determination to accomplish the task a t hand are to he considered in selecting men for any particular jobs, but I put intellectual honesty before all others.

Ozone Blanket Keeps Upper Atmosphere Wnm. Just as one may sleep warmly out of doors under a quilt, or shiver under a sheet, so the upper atmosphere, what scientists call the stratosphere, is kept warm over arctic latitudes by a thicker layer of ozone. This was the explanation for a curious fact that has puzzled scientists, given recently before the American Meteorological Society b y Dr. W. J. Humphreys of the U. S. Weather Bureau. The stratosphere is the layer of the atmosphere above the highest clouds, and, unTemperature observations like the lower layers, does not become colder with hei& h3vc Lwrn made ilf this layer 1,s mwns of ~ m ~l,:~lloon., l l r luipprd with recording tlwrmometcrs. "Thcv rr.\yil tlw curi.w; f:act," wid T)r Humphrtvs. ' thnt the ctntc.sphrn is coldest aver equatorial regions and becomes gradually warmer with increase of latitude, the extreme difference being around 35 degrees Fahrenheit-coldest over the warmest earth and warmest over the coldest earth." Though a full explanation has not yet been made, Dr. Humphreys thinks t h a t i t is due to the ozone. Observations have shown t h a t t h e is less ozone over equatorial than over arctic regions, a f a d t h a t is itself yet unexplained. But the ozone absorbs radiation from the earth, and reradiates part of i t hack again. Therefore, where there is more ozone, more heat is sent hack, and so the upper atmosphere there is warmest.Science Semice Wood Alcohol Blindness Needs Further Study. The story of the blindness t h a t comes from wood alcohol has not yet been completely told. A further study of this problem might well be made by the newly dedicated Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute a t Baltimore, Dr. George E. DeSchweinitz, of the University of Pennsylvania, suggested in his address a t the dedication exercises. Physicians now generally believe that it is not the wood alcohol but some impurity in it, possibly fuse1 oil, which is nearly always found in commercial wood alcohol, that causes thc blindness. The had liquor prevalent in recent years often contains wood alcohol and has been the cause of much wood alcohol poisoning and blindness. However, wood alcohol may also be i n l d e d or it may be absorbed through the skin. This is an important hazard in certain industrial operations.-Science Service