INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
48
G e o r g e H u b b a r d Clapp t o R e c e i v e P i t t s b u r g h Award
The Chemistry of 1939 H . A . Marple, M o n s a n t o M a g a z i n e , S t . L o u i s , M o . HE N e w Year of 1939 is in production. T Like many nascent substances, its analysis may forecast the entire run.
George Hubbard Clapp
G of receive
EORGE
HUBBARD
CLAPP,
a
native
Pittsburgh, has been chosen to the annual award of the Pitts-
VOL. 17, NO. 2
Samples of the January batch have been given preliminary tests and our new log book shows results both promising and disquieting. Impurities dissolved from the new equipment have been found which may temporarily inhibit its usefulness, but by all standard tests there is left a high concentration of those elements conducive to a productive happy life. Red and yellow aggregations discolor the surface appearance, but experience indicates that with exposure to more light there will be a gradual transition to the more stable form, which composes the bulk of our product. If we are to be unbiased analysts, we should not attempt to reach conclusions until each sample has had a complete analysis, and the percentages have been checked and found to add up t o 100 per cent. Hasty conclusions drawn from incomplete analyses have been our weakness. The impurities or foreign matter
that lower the standard of the output may be due to inadequate cooling surfaces, increased gas velocities, or insufficient clarification. Pursuing our investigations further, we find that our product is running high in the necessary ingredients. Spectroscopically examined, the essential lines are present. The melting point is tolerance and understanding. The boiling point, though high, when reached evolves a new compound which becomes violently explosive. Aqua regia or aqua dictatorius will not dissolve the crystalline structure. Transmutation is impossible, even in the presence of atomic bombardment. The crystalline ingredients possess an intermolecular force incapable of human disturbance. A faint odor of mountain pine is detectable and a small amount stimulates the heart. While our January run has its disturbing aspects, the sample analyzes above commercial grade. We suggest opening up the valve of business, filtering international politics through a finer mesh, and having faith in World Chemicals, Inc.
burgh Section of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL
SOCIETY at the award meeting of the Pittsburgh Section on February 16. The award, an aluminum plaque suitably inscribed, is made in recognition of outstanding service to chemistry in the Pittsburgh District. After graduation as ''first scholar" in the scientific department of Western University of Pennsylvania he was employed in the machine shop of the Penn Cotton mill, and later spent several years with the Black Diamond Steel Works, first as a chemist, then as assistant to Alfred E. Hunt. Later with Captain Hunt he operated the firm of Hunt and Clapp, which subsequently acquired the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory. With Captain Hunt, Mr. Clapp was instrumental in bringing to Pittsburgh Charles Martin Hail and in organizing the Pittsburgh Reduction Co., which is now the Aluminum Co. of America. Notable achievements in the field of chemistry attended his work with Captain Hunt and Charles Martin Hall in the production of aluminum by an inexpensive electrolytic process. Notable also were his activities in the pioneer Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory, which provided technical service to the growing steel industry and which, through its experimental filtration plant, led to the building of Pittsburgh's present filtration plant and the attendant enormous reduction of typhoid in Pittsburgh; as first president of the Scientific Materials Co. (now the Fisher Scientific Co.); and his interest in scientific research at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Carnegie Museum. H e has been president of the board of trustees of the University of Pittsburgh for many years. Mr. Clapp is a director of several important organizations, including the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory and the Aluminum Co. of America. He is also a life member of the board of the Carnegie Institute and chairman of the Museum Committee. In 1915 the honorary degree of Sc.D. was conferred on him by the University of Pittsburgh at the time of the dedication of the first home of Mellon Institute. He recently celebrated his 80th birthday. This will make the fifth time this honor has been bestowed. Previous recipients include: Ralph E. Hall, Charles E. Nesbit, A. W. Mellon and R. B . Mellon (jointly), and Francis C. Frary.
Symposium on Intermolecular Action Division of Physical a n d Inorganic Chemistry Brown University, Providence, R. I., D e c e m b e r 27 to 29, 1938
Niels B j e r r u m
F . G. Keyes
HE physical chemists had a most interT esting meeting on the occasion of the Symposium on Intermolecular Action at
does look upon it as a record in reporting of this kind. The Metcalf Laboratory of Chemistry of Brown University was dedicated during the meeting. Niels Bjerrum, professor of physical chemistry in the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural High School of Copenhagen, gave a very scholarly address on the properties of electrolytic solutions as they have been developed during the last 25 years. Frederick G. Keyes, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, delivered a scientific address. Most of the members of the division suspected that Professor Keyes does not like the New Deal. In the evening Brown University invited all those attending the symposium to be its guests at a dinner in honor of Senator Jesse Metcalf, who presented the building. Those who attended the dinner spoke highly of the steak and discussed at some length the remarks of President Wriston. The members enjoyed the excellent hospitality of Brown University, to whom we are indebted for a most enjoyable visit to the interesting city of Providence.
Brown University. The meetings were held in the general lecture room of the Chemistry Department. Sessions were held in the forenoons and afternoons of the three days of the meeting, at which 22 papers were read by leaders in the fields covered. As in the case of previous symposia, only a few papers were heard at each session, and ample time was given for discussion, which was engaged in by many people present. Two hundred and twentytwo people attended the symposium from 23 states and 4 foreign countries. Usually scientific meetings are reported in very popular form. In addition to a truly interesting scientific meeting, we finally succeeded in getting adequate reporting in the local Providence Evening Bulletin. Under the title "What Interests Chemists" was a photographic reproduction of some of the more impressive looking mathematics of Dr. Mayer's paper. It seems probable that the population of Providence know just as little chemistry at the present time as they did before this was published. However, the division
HAROLD C. U R E Y
Secretary
