THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
HIGH PRESSU
fluoroacetone. The zirconium is chelated and extracted into the water immiscible phase.
REACTION VESSELS
GE Places L a r g e Group O f Potents on Register About 343 patents have been made available by t h e General Electric Co. for nonexclusive licensing to domestic manu facturer;). The majority of these patents relate to synthetic resins and plastic com positions of various types. Other patents are concerned with silicon-containing com pounds and abradant materials. Inquiries and applications should be ad dressed to Manager, Patent Dept., General Electric Co., 1 River Rd., Schenectady, Ν. Υ.
• Various types, with or without shaking or stir ring mechanisms, heating jackets, and removable corrosion-resistant liners. Standard volumes, 43 ml. to 20 liters, for pressures up to 60,000 psi. and temperatures up to 800°F. Vessels for continuous re actions can be built for pressures up to 100,000 psi. and temperatures up to 2500°F.
TECHNOLOGY Volume of T r e a t e d W o o d Declined in 1950 Wood-preservation statistics, recendy compiled by the U. S. Department of Agriculture show that the total volume of wood which was given preservative and fire-retardant treatment in 1950 was about 0.6% less than was reported in 1949, ac cording to the American Wood-Preservers' Association. The volume in 1950 totaled 288,787,675 cubic feet compared with 290,555,934 cubic feet in 1949. Figures for volume of material treated with solid preservatives are as follows: material treated with Wolman salts in creased from 3,239,581 cubic feet in 1949 to 3,997,161 cubic feet in 1950; treat ment with Celcure increased from 146,274 cubic feet to 823,922 cubic feet; treat ment with petroleum-pentachlorophenol dropped from 6,227,141 cubic feet to 4,382,294 cubic feet; treatment with chromated zinc chloride dropped from 3,777,319 cubic feet to 3,535,230 cubic feet. The quantity of wood given fire-retard ant treatment in 1950 was 8,514,740 board feet, 6r/r more than was reported in 1949. A total of 1,768,774 pounds of dry chemi cals was used, an increase of 420,017 pounds from the quantity used in 1949.
STIRRING TYPE REACTION VESSEL
SHAKING TYPE REACTION VESSEL
Flood T r e a t m e n t Increases Oil Production in Illinois
OTHER A M I N C O SyPERPRESSURE PRODUCTS Valves · Fittings · Tubing Dead-weight Gages Pumps · Compressors Pilot Plants Instruments W r i f e f o r C a t a l o g 406-A
AMERICAN INSTRUMENT GO. • 4284
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Silver Spring, • Maryland " .
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New life for old oil fields is promised by the success of a conservation project demonstrated recently before a group of civic and industrial leaders at Benton, 111. Called the Benton Water Flood, the proj ect consists of pumping water into oilbearing formations and thus forcing to the surface millions of barrels of oil that would not otherwise be recovered. The flood was planned and is being operated by Shell Oil Co. By last week, less than two years after starting water injection, the flood treat ment had produced one million barrels of CHEMICAL
oil more than would have been recovered from the field if the flooding method had not been used, the Shell report states. Production, which had fallen to a few hundred barrels a day before the Hood, is now 7500 barrels a day. Millions οί harrels more are expected to be taken from the field before the flood is conipleied, The operation is unique because the oilbearing sands lie about 1400 feet below a large coal mine. Some oil wells run down through the supporting piîîars o! coaL Special casings had to be put into such wells before they could be aist*d for injecting water into the oil sands. The installations needed for the flooding operation include a reservoir, water-treating plant, and an elaborate system of pumps and pipes. Water is piped to the reservoir from a lake six miles away. The treating plant removes contamination chat might plug the oil sands and so block the flood. As water is pumped into the field, it fills the space left hy oil and gas already produced, and pushes remaining oil to the wells and up to the surface.
RESEARCH
More Data Needed To Explain Nuclear Phenomena Scientists are finding the atomic nuclease more complicated the deeper they penetrate its mysteries. As a result, the formulation of a comprehensive nuclear theory now awaits the accumulation of sufficient experimental data on the new phenomena constantly being discovered:. This conclusion was voiced recently by James Rainwater, executive director of the Columbia University Nevis Cyclotron Laboratories, in making public a suniniary of the laboratories' first year of work with beams of free mesons. The Nevis Laboratories are located at Irvington-on-Hudson. Ν. Υ., 20 miles north of New York City. "Theoretical physicists are today, so to speak, looking over the shoulder of the expérimente ;," Dr. Rainwater said. "The hope of all nuclear physicists is to find a mathematical formulation in which the constants of nature—the complex properties of nuclear components—will drop out r leaving a simple relationship to account for nuclear forces. But realization of that hope is not even in sight, and probably will not be until a great deal more is learned through experiment-** Dr. Rainwater's report revealed that the bulk of the experimental work with the 385 million electron volt cyclotron, one of the world's most powerful, is concentrated on the meson. Howrever, he pointed out that studies of other atomic particles, such as the proton and the neutron, are also in progress. Columbia's cyclotron has been in operation since March 1950. The Nevis Cyclotron Laboratories are sponsored jointly by the Office of Naval Research, the Atomic AND
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