\ N e w m b s r I950 WALTER J. MURPHY, EDITOR
The Chemical Engineer in the
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no mere accident that membership of the A.C.S. includes a large and ever-increasing number of chemical engineers. Over 6000 members classify their occupational functions as chemical engineers, but this is only part of the story. A conservative apportionment from such categories as research directors, production men, consultants, and company executives shows that no less than 20,000 of the Society’s 63,000 members have backgrounds or interests primarily chemical engineering. Every major segment of the Society’s technical activities-the divisional setup, national meetings, and its publications-contain much of specific and immediate value to the chemical engineer. The Society’s Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, one of the first five divisions organized in 1908, provides the forum for symposia and technical papers of broad engineering or industrial interest. Its Christmas symposium, a 16-year-old feature presented apart from the national meetings, has earned recognition as the source of some of the most important papers contributed to the field of unit operations. Registration a t this two-day event totals a relatively intimate 200 to 400 persons and comprises a virtual Who’s Who in unit operations research. Divisional programs a t the national meetings also contain several continuing features of major interest to chemical engineers. The Unit Process Symposium, presented at the fall meeting, has appeared 15 times, and a pilot plant symposium has attracted excellent attendance and interest a t the spring meetings since it started 3 years ago. Many “one-time” symposia are of similar engineering interest. Some scheduled for the next 12 months follow: Resources for the Chemical Industry (statistics of markets, raw materials, labor, and similar factors), The Southwest (spring ’51), The Far West (fall ’51); Chemical Engineering Aspects of Food Technology (spring ’51); Use of Statistics in Chemical Production (spring ’51); Industrial Oxygen and Its Uses (spring ’51); Control and Instrumentation (spring ’51); Methods of Plant Cost Estimation (spring ’51); Design of Process Equipment (fall ’51); New Methods for Materials Handling (fall ’51); Sixteenth Unit Process Symposium (fall ’51). Other A.C.S. divisions offer strong technical programs for the chemical engineer. The Divisions of Petroleum Chemistry, Paint, Varnish, and Plastics Chemistry, Fertilizer Chemistry, Water, Sewage, and Sanitation Chemistry, and Rubber Chemistry present individual papers and special symposia of specific engineering interest. The latter division, like the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, also holds separate meetings once a year: typical was a three-day international rubber meeting in October 1950 a t which approximately 45 papers from American and foreign authors were presented. The national meetings of the Society afford the chemical engineer an unparalleled opportunity to develop and strengthen the chemical side of his professional capacities by meeting and talking with the chemists and engineers who are a t the forefront of our advancing science. National A.C.S. meetings offer other valuable activities. Plant trips are nearly always featured. The Employment Clearing House arranges for A.C.S. member-registrants to obtain personal interviews with employer representatives. At the fall 1950 meeting in Chicago, nearly 3000 interT IS
A.C.S.
views were held through this service a t no charge to either party. Regional employment clearing houses, similar in function, are in operation in Washington, New York, and Chicago. Unemployed members are entitled to free publication of three 50word position-wanted advertisements in Chemical and Engineerzng News in any one calendar year. Chemical and Engineering News also contains many features of first-rank importance to the chemical engineer. The timeliness of C&EN offers a big advantage for thosc who receive it directly rather than via an office routing procedure. ChemicaE Abstracts is preeminent as the unchallenged key to the world’s chemical literature. I t is so organized that areas of major engineering interest may be readily consulted. Many articles in The Journal of the Ameracan Chemical Society and Analytical Chemistry describe industrial processes in embryo. The Society’s photocoupon service makes available to members, a t a reasonable fee, photostats or microfilm reproductions of any publication available to the Library of Congress. The AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETY’S membership fee is $12 a year. Many of the Society’s services cost the chemical engineer little more as a nonmember than as a member. For INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY and Analytical Chemistry the annual differential is only 50 cents each. For Chemicat and Engineering News it is $6.00. For Chemical Abstracts it is greater$45. The Journal of the American ChemicaE Society costs subscribers $6.00 as a member and $12 as a nonmember. But if he is an employee of a technical organization, his employer probably takes all these journals and circulates them to interested members of his technical staff. Any A.C.S. journal will publish his paper, if found suitable, without regard to his membership status. Registration fees a t national meetings are usually $5.00 higher for nonmembers than for members. Some A.C.S. services, like the Employment Clearing House and the photocoupon service, are not available to nonmembers. Furthermore, they cannot present a paper a t an A.C.S. meeting unless they have an A.C.S. member as coauthor or happen to be foreign chemists or chemical engineers. Whether these distinctions add up to $12, outof-pocket, in each case depends entirely on the chemical engineer’s interest and activity. The Society conceivably could have made stronger financial discrimination between members and nonmembers so the balance sheet in dollars would tip more favorably toward the members. But the A.C.S. has as its basic goal not the preferential treatment of its members, but the advancement of chemical science and the profession. Any lesser interest is secondary. Several broad questions might help the chemical engineer decide whether he should join his 20,000 brother engineers already in the Society: “Do you, as a member of the chemical profession, believe the Society’s activities on behalf of the profession are worth supporting to the extent of $12 a year?” “Do you, as a probable user of C&EN, I&EC, Chemical Abstracts, and other A.C.S. services for which you are not paying, feel you are getting value worth $12 a year to you?” “Do you think the privileges available exclusively to A.C.S. members are worth $12 a year?” If his answer to any combination of these questions is “yes,” he should belong.
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