March, 1924
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
ENGLISH TECHNOLOGISTS VISIT AMERICA As the result of an agreement recently effected between the British Home Office and the Department of the Interior for the exchange of technical information to prevent mine accidents and to promote mine-safety conditions, R. V. Wheeler, professor of fuel technology a t Sheffield University and director of the Eskmeals Testing Station, Cumberland, England, W. R. Chapman, scientific assistant to Dr. Wheeler, and Henry Walkef, deputy chief inspector of mines for the British Government, have come to the United States to observe the progress of research work here. Mr. Chapman will be detailed t o the Pittsburgh Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines for an indefinite period. The visiting technologists, after attending the meeting of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers in New York, will visit Washington, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Schenectady, and other cities, where inspections of various research laboratories and industrial plants will be made. The experimental coal mine of the Bureau of Mines, near Pittsburgh, and certain of the larger bituminous coal mines in Illinois will be visited; The party will be escorted by George S. Rice, chief mining engineer of the ,Bureau of Mines, who recently returned from a protracted study of European mining conditions, and a t whose suggestion the agreement for an exchange of technical information was effected. MOTIONPICTURE FILMS AVAILABLE A series of vivid and striking educational motion picture films, depicting the mining, preparation, and utilization of the various ,mineral materials, is made more readily available t o the public through a new system of distribution, arranged by the Department of the Interior, by which the many industrial films made by the Bureau of Mines may be obtained through State or sectional centers of distribution. Nearly a hundred educational films have been prepared in the past few years by the Bureau of Mines in cooperation with industrial concerns. The demand for these films by educational institutions and civic bodies has become so great that the original plan of centralized distribution from the Pittsburgh Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines has become inadequate. A selected list of the best of these films is now made available at twenty-seven cooperating agencies located in the different States. The films relate to coal, petroleum, sulfur, iron, asbestos, zinc, marble, copper, natural gas, and other minerals. A series of fdms depicts most vividly such industrial processes as the manufacture of oxygen, the making of fire-clay refractories, the manufacture of automobiles, the method of compressing air, the quarrying of limestone, etc. Other films illustrate dangerous and safe practices in mining, efficiency in the combustion of coal, the utilization of water power, and the operation of a gasoline motor. The following is a list of State distribution centers, to which interested persons should apply for information: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark. University of California, Berkeley, Calif. Department of Visual Education, Los Angeles County Public Schools, Los Angeles, Calif. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo. University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. Bureau of Visual Instruction, Chicago Board of Education, Chicago, Ill. State University of lowa, Iowa City, Iowa Iowa Sta4.e College, Ames, Iowa Indiana Vniversity, Bloomington, Ind. ‘University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. State Normal College, Natchitoches, La. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. State Department of Public Instruction, Lansing, Mich. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. Agricultural and Mechanical College of Mississippi, A. and M. College, Miss. University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebr. New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, N. J. State Department of Education, Raleigh, N . C. Educational Museum, Cleveland School of Education, Cleveland, Ohio University of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore. Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics, Brookings, S. D. University of Texas, Austin, Texas University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah State College of Washington, Pullman, Wash University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.
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ABSORPTION OF NITROGEN BY DIFFUSION The Bureau of Standards has experienced a great deal of difficulty in securing a suitable liquid seal for gas-holders containing very pure hydrogen. Various liquids have been tried, but thus far crude glycerol has proved the most successful. Analyses made of some hydrogen that had been stored in a gasholder over crude glycerol showed that the rate of absorption of nitrogen by diffusion through the glycerol had been a t a rate equal to about one-tenth the rate of absorption through machine oil. This is a great improvement, but is not quite so good as was expected. It is thought that evolution of nitrogen contained in the glycerol may have occurred when it was first placed in the holder, and to check this another analysis will be made to determine whether the rate of absorption has diminished. February 20, 1924
Tokyo Letter By
K. Kashima
992, IKEBUKIJRO, NEAR TOKYO, JAPAN JAPANESE
ACIDCLAY
Research on the nature of this clay is now progressing under the direction of K. Ikeda, of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research. Clays may he divided into three classes according to their activity with neutral salt solutions and acids. The first is not dissolved by treating with salt solutions and is only slightly dissolved by strong acids; the second is not dissolved by salt solutions, but to a large extent by acids; the third is dissolved to a considerable extent by both reagents. Japanese acid clay belongs to the last class, although it is not much different in composition from common clays. When treated with neutral salt solutions, the positive radicals in the salt unite with the clay particles and the aluminium in the clay goes into solution as the corresponding salt. This reaction is attributed partly to adsorptive action but mainly to double decomposition, and the acidity of the solution is governed by the salt used and the adsorptive and reactive affinities of the clay. When treated with a 5 per cent oxalic acid solution, the Japanese acid clay is gelatinized to a pasty mass, called “ceramocoll,” the degree of gelatinization being practically proportional to the acidity of the clay. The ceramocoll is stable and does not easily coagulate or precipitate. With the proper proportions of clay and solution and proper concentration of the solution, the product has the maximum plasticity, which is due chiefly to the formation of insoluble aluminium oxalate. The uses of this clay have been considerably extended, and include purification of naphthalene and removal of basic compounds and coloring matters, such as from crude aminophenylarsenic acid. Dr. Ikeda has succeeded in obtaining the clay in granular form. A pasty mixture of the clay and water is pressed through small holes in metallic plates into prismatic grains about 10 to 15 mm. long and 4 to 9 sq. cm. in cross-sectional area. They are then heated at 150’ to 600” C. The product is called “Adsol.” When air is circulated through a layer of Adsol and a wet material, the latter is easily dried a t low temperature. This drying power decreases in time, but it is renewed by passing air through the layer electrically heated a t about 300’ C., by means of a special equipment. Because of this property Adsol is used for drying purposes, such as in the drying of foods and for its dehydrating action in the production of ethylene from alcohol. NEWJOURNAL The investigations of K. Honda and his colleagues a t the Tohoku Imperial University on the chemistry of iron and allied metals are well known among chemists and engineers interested in these subjects, and they have been published in the Report of the Tohoku Imperial University. For prompt publication of the works of the Metal Research Laboratory, of which Professor Honda is the head, a monthly journal written in Japanese, Kinzoku Kenky8 (Researches on Metals), is being published, the first number already having been issued. It contains original papers, lectures, miscellaneous reports, and abstracts of papers on metals, etc. The journal has been looked forward to with much interest by chemists and engineers and should prove very valuable. January 26, 1924
