• m and a good one, is to be found in Esso Oilways for !vlay, 1944 (Penola, Inc., 26 Broadway, New York City) .
IN Shell News for May, 1944 (Shell Oil Company, .50 West 50th St., New York City), is the story of Avaro (aviation aromatics). Modern fighting aircraft fuels must contain aromatics, the hydrocarbons which vastly improve gasoline performance in supercharged engines. A method to produce blending stocks rich in aromatics was developed at the Cura~ao refinery, but large-scale equipment was necessary before the method could be put to usc. And it was necessary to perform the task without building new plants and without using as raw material any portion of the crude oil from which other war products were being manufactured..
The search for an ideal substitute for blood has been greatly accelerated in recent years. Every war or civilian casualty brings the need close to home. This is further described in "Blood substitutes" in the spring number, 1944, of Research Today (:(.illy Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly & Company, Indianapolis, Indiana). An article entitled "Galvanic corrosion may be avoided," in the Spring Edition of Inca (International Nickel Company, 67 Wall St., New York City), is good reading for teachers and students of chemistry. Another article describes how special heat-treating practices fortify steel against subzero temperatures.
In almost all oil refineries there are thermal cracking plants in which the petroleum fractions are exposed to high temperature and pressure to break them down into particles of different types and properties. The so-called "cracked gasolines" made by this process, while of high value for motor fuel, were not suitable for modern aircraft engines. These "cracked gasolines" contained too many unsaturated hydrocarbons which were unsatisfactory since they tended to form gums when used in aircraft engines. As gasoline rationing wellt into effect and civilian consumption of gasoline was cut to a bare minimum the prospect was that much of the thermal cracking equipment would be left idle and hence playa comparatively minor role, if allY, in the war effort. Here, then, on one hand was idle equipment; on the other, an important process. . new and proved: the problem was to fit the two together without drastic changes in the thermal cracking units. The engineers produced a unique arrangement of the coils and columns of the cracking and' fractionating units which made it possible to separate cracked and uncracked materials in a closely controlled process. Petroleum fractIons ordinarily unsuitable were charged to this apparatus to yield a highly aromatic product, which, after chemical treatment, was completely satisfactory for usc as an aviation base stock.
The properties of regenerated cellulose are described in interesting fashion in the April, 1944, number of Dyestuffs (National Aniline Division, Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation, 40 Rector St., New York City). A number of varieties of "rayon" are made by dissolving cellulose or its derivatives and regenerating it again. The properties of the final product differ from those of the original cellulose. Everywhere one turns are accounts of the applications of chemistry in the war operations. Another,
We have yet to see a number of The Lamp (Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City) which didn't contain several items of interest. The April, 1944, number is no exception. First, it presents an optimistic view of the future of oil production. "Count on enough oil" is more than just the title of an article. Another, "The gas that gives us rubber," details the production of butadiene. from petroleum. Another, "Smoke is saving lives," is an account of the development of military smoke generators which use petroleum according to the method invented by Dr. Irving Langmuir. Chemistry has its applications even in meteorology. Some of these applications are described by Niels Beck, Chief Meteorologist at Parks Air College, in the May, 1944, issue of the Monsanto Magazine (Monsanto Chemical Company, St. Louis, Missouri). Something more on the popular subject of penicillin production is to be found in the April, 1944, number of What's New (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois). Continuing the excellent series of reproductions of naval paintings, this month we find a collection of pictures of "The silent service," our underseas Navy in action.
Steel Horizons, vol. 6, no. 2 (Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation, Brackenridge, Pennsylvania), goes all out for the military, being almost exclusively devoted' to "The story of Wright Field."
Du Pont lacquers are noted for their excellent udlwsiou properties. But there's one exception-a special lael/ltcr which i,s I~sed as fl shop coat on tJte ahunituun-alloy sheeting llsed in fabricating warplane bodies. Facl.or;)'~coated Ivir,h alr.uninum oxide, its surfuce is susceptible to damage in handling so t~hflt a l.acqu.er mllst be applied over i.'. for protection during assetnbly operations, After the riveting, the painters' first job i .., to remove the lacquer. Thut is now an easy tnskJor the Jilm can be pulled off the surface as easily as iJ it were a piece oj cellophune wrupped around a piece oj candy. Poor adhesion is one of the special virtues oj this quick-drying lacquer. Additional inJorrnation may be obtained frmn the Fabrics and Finishes Depurtment.
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