HE lead article in The Lamp (Standard Oil ComT p a n y of New Jersey, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City) for December, 1944, by Under Secretary of War Patterson, is entitled, "Industrial research and national security," and several smaller features of the same issue deal with the same topic. It need scarcely be said that this is one of the most important questions before the country today. Practically every other article in the issue is of real interest and importance to chemists and teachers, especially: "Oil and air transport" (from a statement presented before a hearing of the Civil Aeronautics Board); "Grease for the wheels of war" (showing how science and skill combine to make 894 varied products); "Asphalt and air power" (how asphalt has helped the Air Forces in the surfacing of airports) ; "The diary of an oil well" (the headaches and triumphs which accompany oil drilling in wartime).
"Sorting molecules at a million feet per second" is how Inca (International Nickel Company, 67 Wall St., New York 5, New York) describes the use of the mass spectrograph in its Fall-Winter edition, 1944.
In the Merck Reuiew (Merck & Company, Inc., Rahway, New Jersey) for January, 1945, is a short but interesting piece on "Electrons and chemicals: Allies in a world a t war," describing not only how electrons are helping in war and in production but also how certain chemicals are necessary in the construction of electronic apparatus.
Some day collectors may place a real value on the excellent pictures of wartime medicine published by the Abbott Laboratories (North Chicago, Illinois) in What's New, to which we have referred before. The December number continues the series by Abbott artists. The winter number of the Inlerchemical Rm'ew (Interchemical Corporation, 432 West 45th St., New York City) starts with an excellent historical article on "The evolution of mills for grinding," and follows with a more technical, but very understandable one on viscosity and yield value.
The Merck Report (Merck & Company, Inc., Rahway, New Jersey) for January has another of the now rather common articles on the electron microscope, as well as a very good one on aviation medicine in which some of the common problems accompanying high altitude flight are considered. The quarterly Bakelite Rem'ew (Bakelite Corporation, 30 East 42nd St., New York City) is always nicely illustrated and colored and can be depended upon for something worth while. The last number (October, 1944) was no exception. A number of applications of plastics are described, one of which-a 38-foot, onepiece, plastic molded plywood sailboat-certainly catches the eye.
Shell News (Shell Oil Company, 50 West 50th St., New York City) for December, 1944, contains "New words for the farmer" which deals with the use of liquid ammonia as a fertilizer for crops. Ammonia is said to b e quickly absorbed by the soil, and part of the ammonia may be taken up by plants a t once. The rest is gradually oxidized by soil bacteria and later taken up as nitrate. One reads everywhere of the wonderful use of blood plasma and of products made from it. Something more along this line, especially concerning new products made from blood, is to be found in an article in The Glass Lining (Pfaudler Company, Rochester, New York), Winter, 1944, number.
Esso Oilways (Penola, Inc., 26 Broadway, New Yofk City) frequently leads off with a brief biographical sketch of an important chemist or physiast. In the December, 1944, number i t is Anders Celsius, with whose name the centigrade temperature scale is linked. There is also an interesting article on production of cottonseed oil, as well as a helpful flowsheet and diagram of the method of making Buna-S synthetic rubber. The November-December number of Shell Progress (Shell Oil Company, 50 West 50th St., New York City) goes in for air power, with a lead article describing some of the work a t Wright Field, the enormous research and development laboratory for the AAF.
There are a number of newcomers to our list of periodicals received,among which are the following: The Beacon (Ohio Oil Company, Findlay, Ohio) which, in its November and December numbers, carried a very good series of two articles on "Natural gasoline plants," in which the extraction of casinghead gas was described, as well as the bearing of this process on the production of high-octane gasoline.
Ethyl News (Ethyl Corporation, 405 Lexington Ave., New York City), with an interesting article on "Oil for Europe" in its January issue. Pure Oil News (Pure Oil Company, Chicago, Illinois), the January number of which describes "The library a t Northfield." This article would go rather well with those which have been published in THISJOURNAL on technical library procedures, for i t tells about the importance of the technical library in a research and development laboratory. It even shows by illustrations how to search through the U. S. Patents! The Orange Disc (Gulf Oil Corporation, Gulf Building, Pittsburgh 30, Pennsylvania), which carries another good description of the work of the aero(Continued on @ge 147)
HERE AND THERE IN THE TRADE LITERATURE (Continued from pose 116) nautical laboratory at Wright Field in its November- ing (in Pennsylvania), it was a Canadian who brought in the first oil well." It goes on to teU how J. H. December number. Williams excavated a well in 1858 in Western Ontario. The I m p e r a Oil Rewiew (Imperial Oil Limited, 56 "Man-made rubber" is a description of Canadian Church St., Toronto, Ontario), the only Canadian efIorts in the production of synthetic rubber. For periodical on our list. The Winter number, 1944, has ordinary, everyday interest, "Northwest Passage 111" several items of interest: A description of "North is bard to beat, with its account of the return voyage of America's first oil well," in which we find that, the "St. Roch" from Sydney, N. S., to Vancouver, "Although Drake was the first to discover oil by drill- B. C., through the Arctic. "It is of the utmost importance that we make the most effective utilizationpossible professional groups of our scientific and . . in the reconuersion period. We will need them then as-we need them now."-Paul V . McNutt, ~ h a i r m o n o fthe War Manpolaer Commission ~
