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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
then does it not behoove those responsible for the training to confer seriously together and with those for whom their graduates are trained, ascertain the true state of affairs, and take steps accordingly?
Uniform Traffic Control I T HAS always seemed to us that traffic control is a prob-
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lem primarily of engineering rather than of policing, and the most satisfactory conditions exist where a scientific approach has been made to this question of increasing complexity. If those who have been trained in the scientific method take no interest in such public problems, they will surely remain annoying for an unnecessarily great length of time. T o encourage public officials to seek and apply the advice of competent scientists in public questions makes for a speedy and satisfactory solution. American Engineering Council has had a Committee on Street Traffic Signs, Signals, and Markings a t work for a long period investigating existing practice in a hundred cities and towns throughout the country, following an analysis of which detailed suggestions were to be made. This report has now become available and deals with eighty-six specific and detailed recommendations in which we should be interested. Signs and signals for different purposes are discussed in detail, as are the principal traffic control systems, markings for pavements, curves, and roadway obstructions, and recommendations as to types, position, and protection of street-car loading and other safety zones. A study of the report may enable our readers to participate actively in improving local traffic conditions which, as individuals, they find susceptible to much betterment. The whole question is of such general importance to the public that we are pleased thus t o call especial attention to the scientific piece of work that has been done and urge the general use of the data and adoption of the recommendations.
Vol. 21, No. 4
Here was a disease which eluded the best medical talent of Europe for two centuries. It remained for Goldberger to find that it is a disease brought about by a deficiency of the diet, which causes all degrees of physical disability from a sore mouth to ultimate death and constitutes one of the most frequent causes of admission to insane asylums in certain areas. It was apt to be prevalent in industrial centers during lean years when the diet was restricted and was a common ailment of inmates in certain types of institutions. His contributions to the study of typhus fever, his studies of measles, of yellow fever, and animal parasites were also noteworthy. I n view of Doctor Goldberger’s record it is not surprising that the last session of Congress, for the first time so far as we are aware, went outside the political and the military groups in providing a pension for the widow of this great physician. The bill passed Congress in the record time of one month and, while the sum provided is modest, it carries with it public and official recognition of the contributions of this American scientist to world welfare.
Laboratory Equipment
H E man who buys a quadruple-effect, centrifugal of high capacity, a diffusion battery, or a list of modern filter presses may be inclined to pass by as unimportant laboratory equipment and supplies. But the successful operation of plant equipment practically always depends upon laboratory control, and new equipment is both designed and installed as the result of problems laboriously worked out with laboratory equipment. It seems fitting, therefore, to call attention t o contributions which have been made of late to the progress of chemistry in America by the makers of scientific apparatus. This is not the place to discuss new pieces of equipment or new sources of supply, but we do wish to point out that the cost of laboratory equipment to the user is lower now than it was before the Tariff Act of 1922 was passed. Comparing the prices of 1920 with those of 1929, it is found that, HEN Joseph Goldberger, of the United States Public with a quality and accuracy higher than a t the earlier date, Health Service, died in January, the press called the average price of chemical glassware, such as “resistance” attention to his accomplishments in medical research, but glass beakers and flasks, burets, cylinders, pipets, separatory it is doubtful whether the public has the slightest appreciation and chemical funnels, is 24 per cent lower. Glassware with of the scientific and economic value of his useful contributions. a low coefficient of expansion is sold in quantities for 5 per Quoting from a statement prepared by the staff of the Public cent less, and smaller quantities than formerly enjoy this reduction. Health Service: In metal apparatus, where substantial improvements have It happens but rarely that when a man dies, and in our im- been made in design and construction, the prices of one manuperfect human way we attempt to evaluate his life in terms of facturer are 27.7 per cent lower than in 1920, while the service to humanity, we come to the incontrovertible conclusion that here was a man whose life was productive of a con- average of 1000 different items taken from another list shows sistent series of useful contributions, and that some of these a 17.4 per cent decrease, and only 5 per cent of the lot show were of far-reaching benefit to mankind. If we review the biog- an increase in price. I n all these cases the higher cost was raphies of many who are with justice accounted great men, due to expensive improvements. how often do we find to our disappointment that many of their In still another shop, labor-saving devices have enabled beneficent acts were to an extent counterbalanced by mistakes, or even that some of their deeds, which were performed with better apparatus to be sold a t prices which show an average noble intent, have been found susceptible of ignoble application decrease of 23.2 per cent in selling prices. I n chemical porceby others. lain ware a flat 40 per cent reduction has been made in the The death of Doctor Joseph Goldberger affords one of those rare opportunities to examine a life consistent in its continuous sales prices applying to over 400 different items. I n optical record of useful contributions to medical knowledge in a number instruments many have been completely redesigned and so of different lines of research, and culminating in a discovery greatly improved that a comparison between 1920 and 1929 which, we believe, is destined to take its place among the classic is impossible. If these new non-comparative items are elimimajor accomplishments of medical science. nated and the computation is made according to sales as a I n Goldberger’s work on pellagra we find results not only whole, there is a decrease of 8.4 per cent. For example, outstanding in their humanitarian aspects, but of an economic a microscope sold in large numbers is now priced a t $120, as value beyond the usual dollar and cents yardstick. Who compared with $132 in 1920. If the new types of instruments can say how vast a sum is saved t o the public when such a are included in the calculations, an increase of but 3 per cent in the sales price of the entire list is shown, notwithstanddebilitating factor is eliminated?
Joseph Goldberger
