4
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
Vol.
IO,
No.
I
To meet these two points we wish t o urge upon the sufficientyto justify the expense of recovery. This military authorities careful consideration of the Yol- material assumes a t the present time a greater imlowing suggestions: portance than hitherto accorded it because of its First-It will be unfortunate if a literal application possibilities as a source of toluol. of the term “chemical engineer” is made in applying Patents have recently been issued t o It. H. McKee the new ruling as t o return of engineering students for a process in which the dried spruce turpentine is t o their universities for completion of the course heated with aluminum chloride to about the boiling point necessary to graduation. I n many institutions the of the turpentine. The products formed are toluol, protechnical “chemical engineering” is not us’ed t o de- pane and a small amount of tar. We are informed t h a t scribe courses preeminently designed to supply chem- there is a plant in Philadelphia carrying on this process, ists trained for such engineering work as the country but SO far only turpentine has been obtained t o run needs. Moreover, chemists, just as much as, or even about one day a week; the sulfite mills have been more than, chemical engineers, will be needed in the unwilling t o take the trouble t o collect and ship the future for Government war work. turpentine. Second-For the training of these young chemists Moore and Egloff (Met. and Chem. Efig., Vol. 17 and chemical engineers, competent instruction is a (1917),66), studying the action of aluminum chloride prerequisite. The situation to-day is t h a t many of on pure aromatic hydrocarbons, obtained a yield of the ablest professors in our universities have been 1 4 . 3 per cent of toluol from cymene. detached from university work and are now engaged Schorger ( J . Am. Chem. SOC.,Vol. 3 9 (1g17), 2671) upon special lines of research for the government, studied the action of aluminum chloride on cymene while in the operation of the draft law, under the first under varying conditions of temperature, time, amount call, no consideration seems t o have been given t o the of reagent, etc. He mentions the interesting fact question of exempting such instructors in chemistry t h a t B. T. Brooks, by removing the light, low-boiling departments as are best qualified to carry on the work reaction products as rapidly as they are formed, obof training the chemistry reserves. tained forty per cent of toluol b y treatment of cymene Third-Many competent chemists are now in the with seven per cent of aluminum chloride. Army, serving as commissioned officers in the line. A still more interesting possibility is suggested by The chemical ability of such men should be utilized the work of Boedtke and Halse (Bull. d e l a SOC. chim., before further inroads are made for Government Vol. 19 (1916),444). By heating cymene, dissolved in chemical service upon the chemists now connected ten times its weight of benzene, with aluminum chlorwith industrial establishments or upon the instruc- ide a true reversal of the Friedel-Crafts reaction was tion staffs of educational institutions. For most of obtained. Ninety grams of cymene yielded forty-four these men no record exists in the census of chemists grams of toluol and sixty-eight grams of cumene compiled by the Bureau of Mines and the American (eighty and eighty-five per cent, respectively of the Chemical Society. The census, however, which is theoretical yield). now being compiled in each camp or cantonment by If these results hold true on a commercial scale, the military authorities will doubtless contain the ina new source of toluol for munitions and dyestuffs is formation which would make such men available. indicated. Furthermore, the ease of oxidation of Fourth-May we not hope t h a t the War Depart- cumene t o benzoic acid suggests the release of the ment will issue some general order directing all com- toluol which is now oxidized t o benzoic acid. manding officers t o facilitate the transfer of chemists, It is unfortunate t h a t Boedtke and Halse have innow serving in the line, t o those branches of the ser- cluded so-few details of their investigation. The pubvice needing men for chemical work! lished results are so striking t h a t they suggest the necesIf these four steps could be taken immediately the sity of further work on this interesting reaction. Perfuture, in so far as i t will be affected by chemists, baps the mills have been throwing away material of f a r could be viewed with far greater equanimity than is greater value than they supposed. now the case. A REGRETTABLE DECISION OF THE DIRE CTORS
SPRUCE TURPENTINE
From 1,500,ooo t o 2,000,000 gallons of “spruce turpentine” (sulfite turpentine) are going t o waste annually in the mills of the United States and Canada using spruce pine for wood pulp. This oil is formed during the cooking of the chips in the sulfite digesters and escapes with the steam in the blowing-out process. The term “turpentine,” as applied t o this material, is a misnomer, for it contains only traces of terpenes; the chief constituent, approximating ninety per cent, is cymene. Recovery of the crude product has been carried out in a few mills, but no market was developed
A t the Annual Meeting of the Directors on December 8th a report was presented by the Press and Publicity Committee of the Society urging a n appropriation of $3,500 for the continuance of the work of t h a t Committee during the year 1918. I n the light of all of the estimates of expense presented t o the Directors, the recommendation of the Committee was not approved; instead, a renewal of the present appropriation of $ 5 0 0 for this work was ordered, this amount t o be used in sending t o the press each month advanced copies of editorials in THISJ O U R N A L which might be of public interest.
