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T H E JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vol. 13, No. 7
WASHINGTON LETTER ~
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B y WATSONDAVIS,1418 Rhode Island Ave., Washington, D.
Congressional activity of interest to chemists now centers in tariff and prohibition legislation, with alcohol as the chief ingredient. THEINDUSTRIAL ALCOHOL SITUATION Attempts to strengthen the National Prohibition Act so as to allow more effective enforcement of liquor legislation resulted in wording of the supplemental bill which endangered the supply and production of pure alcohol, which is now indispensable in drug and chemical manufacture. The first bill, H. R. 5033, introduced by Mr. Volstead, provided that the commissioner of internal revenue should limit the supply and use of all liquors to the actual needs for nonbeverage use, and should grant only the permits which in his judgment were necessary to supply such needs. It also provided that if an intoxicating liquor other than alcohol were used in the manufacture of drugs and medicines it should have added to it a component part of the finished article so as to render it unfit for use for intoxicating beverage purposes. The bill also provided for dual control by the commissioner and the Attorney General. After hearings a t which many chemists and drug manufacturers recited the harm that would be caused by these provisions, the Committee on Judiciary drew up a new bill, H. R. 6752, as a substitute measure. This omitted the requirement that a part of the component material must be added to alcohol a t the distillery, but still provided that the commissioner should grant only the permits that were necessary to supply the actual needs for nonbeverage purposes and should limit the supply and use of all liquor save denatured alcohol and denatured rum unfit for internal use to such nonbeverage needs. It does state, however, that “this provision shall not authorize the commissioner to limit the quantity of alcohol that may be manufactured, nor shall it be taken to repeal the right of the applicant for a review of the decision of the commissioner in refusing a permit by a court of equity as provided in the National Prohibition Act.” Even with this limiting clause, those who use industrial alcohol declare that this provision destroys the one essential safeguard to chemical industry and national welfare assured by the National Prohibition Act which was passed “to insure an ample supply of alcohol and promote its use in scientific research and in the development of fuel, dye and other lawful industries,” as well as to prohibit intoxicating beverages. The language proposed would give the commissioner power to dominate every industry using alcohol by regulating the supply and use thereof, and consequently would affect the price of the commodities concerned, they believe. Hearings will be held on the revised bill, which has beenfavorably reported to the House, and the chemists interested will have a chance to point out the possible dangers. THE EMERGENCY TARIFF ACT The Emergency Tariff Act has been signed by the President and is now in force. It became a law with no essential changes, so far as dyes and chemicals are concerned, except that the period of control by license was reduced from six to three months, although the tariff portion of the Act was made effective for the full six months. Work on the regular tariff bill has progressed to the point that the main committee is considering the recommendations of the various subcommittees of the Committee on Ways and Means that have been formulating the different schedules. No information is being given out as to the rates being considered, and detailed information will not be available until the bill is reported to the House, probably about July 1. The Tariff Commission will issue early in July its annual volume on “Census of Dyes and Coal-Tar Chemicals” which will give quantities and values of these chemicals during 1920. ARMYAPPROPRIATION BILL The Army Appropriation Bill is now in conference, and there seems to be little chance that the Chemical Warfare Service will receive more than the $1,350,000 that was decided upon previously. Chemical Warfare officers are disappointed because their recommendations that poison gas as well as high explosives should be used in the air-warfare tests between the Army and the Navy were disapproved. Officer personnel of the Service has been increased until it is nearly up to the strength provided for by law. (There are a t present about 90 officers, and 100 are authorized.) The Service is manufacturing at its plant a t Edgewood chemical warfare materials for the Navy, which has no plant of its own. At present, gas masks are being made.
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PATENT OFFICE The bill providing higher Patent Office salaries has just been reported favorably to the House. This measure has practically the same provisions so far as salaries are concerned as the bill which failed last session after passing both House and Senate. Chances for early favorable action on the patent bill are said to be good, and the passage of this measure will begin to relieve the Patent Office situation. In spite of the business depression, according to Commissioner Robertson, the Patent Office did the largest business of its existence during the month of May. An amendment to the revised statutes providing that any patents issued to foreigners must be put into operation, and that, within two years production in reasonable quantities must be begun within the continental limits of the United States, has been proposed by Senator Stanley of Kentucky. This legislation is intended to prevent foreign monopolies of dyes and other complex chemicals, such as occurred a t the beginning of the war when German interests held more than one thousand coal-tar patents in America but did not produce here. Nearly every other country has laws compelling production within the country of articles that are patented by foreigners, DEPARTMENT O F COMMERCE Of interest to those chemical industries that expect to do an export business, is the passage of appropriations that will enable the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to establish twelve divisions that will obtain information for, and aid the various export industries. One of the twelve divisions will care for chemicals and allied products, while other divisions will be devoted to lumber, including wood products and paper, leather, machinery, iron and steel, and coal and oil. There may be a division on foodstuffs, and the remaining branches to be covered have not yet been definitely decided. Each of these divisions will have two experts in charge, and the plan proposed is that one shall be in the field while the other is in the office in Washinpton, and that they shall alternate from time to time. This new plan for aiding industry has been inaugurated by Secretary Hoover, and each division will have an unofficial advisory committee organized by the industry to guide the work. These divisions will be organized by July 1 or shortly thereafter. Secretary Hoover is being aided in his work of reorganizing the Department of Commerce by F. M. Feiker, formerly vice president and chairman of the editorial board of the McGrawHill Co., who has accepted the task of supervising the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, the Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Standards. His title is Assistant to the Secretary. President Harding has appointed Dr. Julius Klein director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. At present Dr. Klein is a t Harvard University as professor of Latin-American history and economics, but up until last fall he was with the Bureau, serving as chief of the Latin-American division and as commercial attach6 in Argentina. Other appropriations have been secured by Mr. Hoover for the Department of Commerce which will aid the chemical industry, indirectly if not directly. The Bureau of Standards has been given $100,000 for “technical investigation in cooperation with the industries upon fundamental problems involved in industrial development following the war, with a view to assisting in the permanent establishment of the new American industries developed during the war,” and another $100,000 has been made available, so that the Bureau of Standards can “cooperate with government departments, engineers, and manufacturers in the establishment of standards, methods of testing, and inspection of instruments, equipment, tools, and electrical and mechanical devices used in the industries and by the Government, including the practical specification for quality and performance of such devices and the formulation of methods of inspection, laboratory, and service tests.” BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY The appointment of a director of the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture to succeed Dr. Carl I,. Alsberg, who resigned to take the directorship of the Food Research Institute of the Leland Stanford Junior University, has not yet been made, but is expected in a few days. The Bureau of Chemistry is preparing to resume its work on grain dust explosions, as appropriations for this use become available with the beginning of the new fiscal year.
July, 1921
T H E JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
INTERNATIONAL UNIONOF PUREAND APPLIEDCHEMISTRY Dr. F. G. Cottrell, chairman of the division of chemistry and chemical technology of the National Research Council, has sailed for Europe as one of the delegates to the meeting of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which is to be held a t Brussels the latter part of this month. Prof. James B. Conant of Harvard and Dr. Hugh S . Taylor, professor of physical chemistry a t Princeton, are additional American delegates who are traveling toward Europe. Dr. E. S. Chapin and D. Collin McCall, who complete the delegation from the United States, are already in Paris. The meeting will consider the following questions: international patents, the organization of an international commission on atomic weights, reformation of the chemical nomenclature, the formation of an international laboratory for the analysis of food products, hygienic conditions of labor in the chemical industry, and the establishment of an international institute on chemical standards. While in Europe, Dr. Cottrell will also make a survey of the use of helium in European countries, and he will study the methods of oxygen separation and concentration. In this work he is representing both the National Research Council and the Bureau of Mines.
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Representatives and senators have had a chance to study chemistry during the past few weeks. The National Research Council and the Chemical Warfare Service set up in the office building of the House an exhibit showing the way in which coaltar products are used in drugs, medicines, perfumes, explosives, and poison gas. Actual samples of both the crude and the finished products were shown, and the methods of manufacture were shown by models and graphically. This exhibit has now been transferred to the National Museum, where it will be permanently installed. Mwe. CURIEIN WASHINGTON Mme. Curie’s visit here and the presentation to her of America’s gift, the gram of radium, by President Harding, were notable events of the end of May. While Mme. Curie was here she was honored a t a meeting a t which Dr. R. A. Millikan told the story of her discovery of radium and discussed the present knowledge of that substance. Mme. Curie also talked with chemists and physicists of the Bureau of Standards about her work, and officially June 15, 1921, opened thenew cryogeniclaboratory of the Bureau of Mines. June 16,1921
PARIS LETTER B y CHARLESLORMAND, 4 Avenue de I’Observatoire, Paris, France
The French press is enthusiastic over the welcome accorded Mme. Curie in the United States, and the chemists of France are specially proud of the flattering words with which President Harding welcomed Mme. Curie. At the same time, the Prince of Monaco, who has done so much for physical, chemical, and biological research in the realm of oceanography, has come back to France after his stay in the States. In a speech before the Academy of Sciences, of which he is a member, the Prince said: “The love of science is greatly honored in the United States, and obviously it is increasing under the impulsion of many remarkable men who are closely in touch with all classes of society. To-day, all Americans are united in a single thought, which groups the founders of the American republic together with the living remembrance of Lafayette.” The Prince of Monaco ended by affirming not only the scientific, but also the sentimental, solidarity of France and the United States. These two manifestations are a precious comfort for French scientists, and it is to be desired that manufacturers, as well, may come into closer communication. R’e should like to see groups of American manufacturers, specializing in a given industry, come to France to visit similar factories here. I know that in America there is an important ceramic society. I happened to meet it in Pittsburgh in February 1919, a t the time of its annual meeting. The English Ceramic Society has just made a survey trip to France; in Lorraine it visited the different installations of Sarreguemines, Seltz, Soufflenheim, and Altkirch, as well as several ceramic works in the Paris district. I have no doubt that American ceramists could make the same survey trip, which certainly would interest them. MANUFACTURE O F WINDOW GLASS The window glass industries in France are to-day in a period of transformation, and manufacturers are hesitating between the American process of the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company of Toledo, Ohio, and the Belgian process of Fourcault. The English concern, the Window-Glass Company, who held the monopoly of the Fourcault process, owned a large factory near Chhlon-sur-SaBne, in Burgundy, in which the biggest glass furnace existing in Europe was operated. Since production exceeds consumption, stocks are accumulating, and these works have been closed. It is claimed here that the American process would be preferable because it would yield a cheaper product. The difficulty which occurs to engineers lies in the fact that in the States natural gas is used for heating. This gives a very steady and permanent heat, which could not be obtained with furnaces heated with coal. The glass made by the two processes seems to possess similar qualities, but the Libbey-Owens machine seems to give a better yield. ALUMINIUM WEEK In an attempt to popularize the use of aluminium, magnesium, calcium, and sodium, and especially to interest investigators and manufacturers in the development of new uses, the Societe d’Encouragement pour 1’Industrie Nationale (Society of Encouragement for National Industry) declared an “Aluminium Week” in May.
V arious lecturers dealt with the use of the light metals in alloys, in electric apparatus, in the fermentation and dairy industries, in chemical industries, and in aviation. These lectures will appear in the Bulletin de la Socidt; d’Encouragernent pour I’lndustrie Nationale. At the same time a very complete exhibition allowed the public to examine the apparatus about which the lecturers had spoken. THEALSATIAN POTASH INDUSTRY The Potash Commissionof the French Parliament has definitely settled the Alsatian potash statute. The potash district of Alsace-Lorraine is divided between four different companies, which, with the Societe Sainte-ThCrkse, make five working companies. This does not seem especially desirable, for these companies, not having any unity of action, can be competed with easily by the German Potash Syndicate. This Potash Syndicate, which controls all the German potash, including the Stassfurt district, is considering the possibility of once more taking possession of the world market. It estimates that, alone, it could easily compete with the five French companies, which necessarily have less developed means of working than it has, and it hopes rapidly to be able to take possession of the American and English markets. It is certain that the sacrifices made by the French potash manufacturers for the home consumption should be counterbalanced by profits obtained from export, and, under these circumstances, it is obvious that the German Syndicate can hope to compete with us. Be that as it may, such competition will cause a lowering of the price, by which consumers will profit. At the present time, the consumption of potash fertilizers in France is considerable. The pre-war consumption of KzO was 37,000 tons; in 1920 it was 85,000 tons, and a t the end of 1921 it will reach 100,000 tons. On the other hand, the consumption of phosphates, nitrates, and nitrogenous fertilizers is said to be, if not decreasing, at least on the same scale as that before the war. THEDYE INDUSTRY We are now getting information about the comparative results obtained in France and in Germany in the domain of coloring products. Let me remind you that the six big German dye companies have formed a consortium since the war, and that this alliance is trying to corner the world market, just as in the case of potash. I n 1920 the profits of the aniline consortium were 250,000,000 marks, permitting the payment of dividends ranging from 15 to 20 per cent. The invested capital amounts to nearly 2,000,000,000, and German manufacturers are growing very anxious because of the protectionist measures taken in the United States. The efforts made in America in the field of dyes show Germany that she cannot seize the world market, and French manufacturers are finding in the example set them by the United States an excellent method of defense against the German monopoly. I have had occasion t o visit the Villers-St. Paul factory, belonging to the Compagnie Nationale des Mati6res Colorantes et des Produits Chimiques (National Dye and Chemical Company), of which I have already spoken to you. The factory manufactures phthalic acid, rhodamines, safranines, methylene
