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on world battlefields alternately lift our spirits with hope and dash them with despair. Nevertheless when theae wild sweeps of the tide of battle are viewed with a modicum of perspective, the trend toward victory is unmistakable. Even now in the midst of production for combat most of us realize that plans must be made against the dislocations of peace. Furthermore, the dangers inherent in a sudden peace that may catch us unprepared to meet its problems are more and more impressed upon us. Thus in November we plan to survey the production scene and to suggest some of the new points of departure in chemical industry from which we must approach the future. Our objective will be to stimulate thinking rather than to outline a specific plan. Vital after victory, as now, will be our petroleum industry, and this will be analyzed in ('past, present, and future" for us. Also looking to the future is a report of late developments in the relatively new field of nitroparafllns and their increasingly interesting derivatives. The water problem of grain alcohol distilleries will be reviewed for us,and we shall learn how hundreds of gallons of water w e consumed for every bushel of grain processed. Not unnaturally, dehydration of foods comes next on the list. The advance of this art under war's stimulus is providing new forms of food for storage and shipment and lending new importance to older forms of dehydration. Problems important for the future relate to the nutritive, particularly vitamin, values of dehydrated products. Thus we shall 6nd significant new data on eggs, meat, and spinach in our November issue. Especially emphasized by recent developments is the widening utilization of soybeans. Their protein, we shall learn, makm dispersions which may be useful in vehicles for printing inks. Pectin's emulsifying powers for oils have been determined under a variety of conditions and are compared with those of tragacanth, karaya, and acacia gums. Behavior of synthetic anionic detergents in the presence of soap and hard water has been examined for us to learn how and why the use of both soap and synthetic is better than either alone. Fatty oils, and particularly their fatty acids, have been oxidized catalytically in the vapor phase to maleic acid, a process of which we shall learn. Catalytic hydrogenation of high sulfur gasolines has been studied as a method of removal of this objectionable element and the results reported suggest important values in the method, particularly since complete removal of sulfur improves the tetraethyllead susceptibility of the product. Cobalt molybdate is the catalyst. New data on water-binding properties of cellulose will be presented, based on researches in which hydroxyl groups are blocked off by acetylation. There will, of course, be much more, and the stimulus to thinking of the whole should keep our minds a t useful work in such moments as we can spare them from our urgent jobs of war production. And that suggests our important avocation: "Buy more war bonds." YOURHUMBLE SPY VENTS
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