Theory Today
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IU.L the vocations requiring expert knowledge in many Mds,industrid cheniutq and chemicalenginwring aretwo of the mast demanding. Their matspermeate the lush expaese of ChemiStrJr and m equally Spresa in the mechanical fa&, ramuch by industrial chemists and cbemid engineem for ohsmicalengineeringobjectives can be credited witb many of the ad-oee gradually transforming these arts into sciences. Even in tbe 6dd of biology, they have staked their claima. Today no eyeb r o w would lift, for example, if s project, simed at improvement of an antibiotic manufacturing process by mutation of baoterk through radiation treatment, were described as a chemical engineering study. The lass disciplined but extremely important body of Bconomic knowkdga likewiea must be within the purview of the industrial chemiat and chemical engineer. His prof&onal succw depends not only on his ability to diacover, construct, and operate, but alm on his capacity to evaluate the cost to do these jobs and to estimate the price that can be bad for the resulting product. Nor is this the end. The industrial chemist or cbemid enginem i~ dealing with people at virtually every stage of this pmoess. All his knowledge of physiosl fact is futile if he cannot inspire his subordinates to carry out his plans intelligently. The p m t atstus of organined labor makes proficiency in dealing with human beiogs a prerequisite. It may turn out that the -t tmpha& on the buman element in industrial activities is aotll.lly a historioal correction of an u n n a t d depersonaliaation that &u& baok to the beginning of the industrial revolution. At the esme time, the industrial chemist or chemical engineer must convince his superiors that his results m worth while. Clarity in technical exposition and the ability to ealect and orp.nle the pertinent material is a talent of vital importance. When the superior involved is a resesrch director, a company executive, board of directors,or the stockholders, the demands of intelligent interpretation b w m e substantial. ‘But e m industrial chemists and chemical engineers are buman beings. Shortcomings of knowledge or capability in some mew can be toleratxl,but always at a concession to the future pmepeota of those whose claims to proficiency thus become apeci&ed. Indeed, only the most gifted among us are able to maater successively each new challenge and thus preserve their acquaintance with the entire scope d the profemion. The tremendous growth in the body of knowledge needed by the induatrinl chemist and chemical engineer p o ~ e aa large problem for a publication such as INDUSWAL AND ENQINEEBINQ CasuI S ~ T .%e, we do not presume to offer a record of new findings in dor economic fields, but the seven-league boots worn the past decade by the workers in physical sciences have extended trem n d o d y the field we do attempt to cov8r. Last year we printed nearly 2wo paw in the contributed papers section, a 46 per cent increase over the previous w o r d year of 1947. while the volume of contributions in traditional subjects continuestogrow,newfieI&of pbysicalsciencearemakinglegitimate claims for equal attention by the chemical worker. It is well to
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Practice of Tomorrow consider what our publication policy shall be in the face of this expansion. The editors of INUWST~U~L AND ENQXNEEMNQ CUEMISTETbelieve our greatest responsibility ia to serve the chemists and chemical engineers carrying out research and development. I n the 6nal adyak, sll industrial chemiaal proceaess have their origin in research findings, and it is our gmd fortun‘e to be one of the major repositories of this type of o.%iosl published infotion. This is the IifestuE of the permanent literature of our science. If this journal is to satisfy its most intrinsic obligations, it must s e that a fair rep-tation of all p k of tbis tend is preaented within its covers. E. R. Weidlein put the matter aptly in his Priestley Medal ad&-: “Our science is a complex of gmwtha and accumulations whose growth can only be suetgined by contaot, by communication. And succeas in researoh is always facilitated by a mental grasp of the total province of chemistry.” Dr. Weidlein also very forcefully reminded us that the line of demarcation between what is cbemical and what is physical is rapidly diaappeariog in many areas of resmrch. Is it not becoming increasingly di5cult to draw more than hairline diflerentintions between “physical cbemistq” and “ohemid physiag”? Are workers in them fields “physical chemists” or “chemical physicists”? Today we ~ ~ c a s i ~publisb, ~ l l ywith our readera’ appreciative encouragement, extemive tabulations of vapor ptessurm, RBmsn spectra, or meotmpic system that 30 or 40 years ago would have been catalogued as subjects elearly and exclusively belonging to the field of physic& Fkcognition of unit operations, which are in essence pbysical phenomena, as centrally important in applied chemical p r w essw h.s c a d this journal to carry many fundamental papers contributing ta cumnt knowledge of the mechanipm of distillation, heat transfer, fluid flow, and the like. There is no inberent difference in the subject matter of fluids near the critical state, tracer technique applications, reaction kinetica (the physical or chemical definition happens to be equally pertinent), Euid dynamicain tbesonicregion, andcombustion,touamebutafewtbat are spotlighted in vigorous research activities in progress. Where to draw the line is a problem. We have no expectation or ambition aimed at usurping the function of the physical journals, and in fact would be unable to do so if we had the desire The physicist, the matbematicinn, and the research mechanical enginm have more suitable media than 1.dcE.C. through which they communicate witb their fellows. At the eame time, we want to d e it clear that as the chemist or chemical engineer finds new fields to claim his particular disAND ENQINEERtribution of intuesta, be can expeet INDWSTIUAL INQ CaEyIBTBI to give sympathetic consideration to those findin@ be believes of interest and value to his fellow researchworkers. If the contribution is of bona M e interest to a significant fraction of the profession and eatisha the aasential requirement of permaneucy m value, we shall try to find a place for it. If execution lag, behind intention, we hope our deficiencieswill be pointed out to us. 431
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