February, 1924
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
MODELFISHPRESERVING PLANT For the purpose of improving methods of curing, salting, packing, and marketing fish, the Dominion Government has made an appropriation of $70,000 to establish a Fisheries Experimental Station, and i t is stated that Halifax will probably be selected as the location, since it is the most central point to which men interested in the fishing industry of Nova Scotia might be brought. Should the new experimental station prove successful, it is expected that additional stations will be established in other parts of Canada. SODIUM SULFATE DEVELOPMENT Two companies are now engaged in the development of the sodium sulfate deposits in the Province of Saskatchewan. The domestic salt is now being used in the manufacture of glass a t Radcliff, and six deposits so far have been investigated by the federal department of mines. Other deposits not yet investigated by the department number close to ninety. The largest development is near Dana, where $500,000 has been spent on the work, and a plant is being installed a t Frederick Lake, New Mitchellton. There are also large deposits near Ceylon and Lake Johnston, the products of which can be used in the manufacture of paper and glass, the textile industries, dyeing, etc. The Saskatchewan deposits have been cited by experts as likely in time to be able to supply the needs of the whole Dominion. Januarj 9, 1924
Washington Letter MEETINGO F THE AMERICAN ENGINEERING COUNCIL James Hartness, former governor of Vermont and past president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, was elected president of the American Engineering Council to succeed Mortimer E. Cooley, dean of the University of Michigan, a t the annual meeting of the Council held in Washington, January 10 and 11. Addressing the Council, President Hartness declared that his administration would be characterized by an effort to aid the Amcrican people in making the best use of the Nation’s energies and resources through the engineering profession. Vice presidents elected were L. P. Alford of New York and Charles R . Gow of Boston. Other vice presidents are Calvert Townley of New York and Gardner s. Williams of Ann Arbor, Mich. H. E. Howe of Washington was reelected treasurer, and L. W. Wallace of Washington was again chosen executive secretary. An outstanding feature of the Washington assembly was the national Public Works Conference, held on January 9 and attended by representatives of sixty-three engineering and allied organizations. The conference adopted resolutions favoring a reorganization of Federal departments. The Brown plan was not indorsed specifically, that part of the resolutions embodying the aims of the Nation’s engineers, architects, contractors, and kindred bodies reading: This conference particularly indorses grouping and cobrdinating within 3n existing department, preferably renamed a Department of Public Works,
ithe construction and administration of ail nonmilitary public works.
It was voted again to set in motion the nation-wide movement for the establishment of a Department of Public Works, which, it is believed, would save millions annually to the Government and promote efficiency and stability in the conduct of Federal affairs. The movement will be directed by the American Engineering Council from its national headquarters in Washington. In association with the Engineering Council, an advisory council composed of one representative from each participating organization will function. Philip N. Moore, of St. Louis, former chairman of the War Minerals Relief Commission, and one of the .original sponsors of the public works project, was chairman of the conference, which was addressed by Secretary Hoover. The American Construction Council, headed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, pledged its support to the public works movement. General Richard C. Marshall announced that the Associated General Contractors of America would aid. Similar assurances of support were received from numerous other national and local organizations. Indorsing the recommendation of its executive board, the Council passed a resolution urging that sanitary engineers in the U. S. Public Health Service be made commissioned officers. Another notable event of the meeting was the annual dinner on the evening of January 10 a t the Chevy Chase Club. Secretary €3 oover, President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, Assistant Secretary Dwight F. Davis of the War Department, President Hartness of the Council, and the Italian
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Ambassador, Don. Galasio Benedetto Anatolio Caetani, were among the distinguished visitors present. Both Secretary Hoover and Dr. Butler emphasized the need of broader engineering education and of greater engineering participation in the social, economic, and political life of the country. The ambassador outlined a plan by which young graduates of Italian technical schools will be brought to America and provided employment in the industries. Assistant Secretary Davis described the industrial mobilization plans of the War Department. He appealed for the cooperation of the engineer, which was unanimously tendered a t a business session of the Council. President Charles F. Loweth assured Mr. Davis of the assistance of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Dean Cooley presided a t the dinner, reviewing, in a brief address, the achievements of the Council, whose work, he predicted, would develop substantially during the coming year. I n his farewell address t o the Council, Dean Cooley said that progress of industry and social well-being were so intimately bound up with engineering that this profession could no longer be held back. Foremost among the Council’s activities for 1924 will be the direction of the public works enterprise and the development of closer working contacts with the member societies. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCILACTIVITIES I n a statement of the activities of the National Research Council for the year July 1, 1922, to June 30, 1923, the secretary stated that the Council has had a year of much activity and creditable achievement. The Council maintains a very wide contact with the scientific organizations and men of this country and of various foreign countries, these organizations and men representing both fundamental science and its applications. The actual membership of the Council is composed chiefly of accredited representatives of more than seventy national scientific and technical societies. Relations with foreign workers and organizations are closely maintained through the International Research Council and its affiliated International Unions, representing different special fields of science. Certain of the National Research Council’s special divisions of science and technology are the officially recognized American sections of the International Unions. Contact with the colleges and universities of the country is maintained by the Council especially through its division of educational relations; with the Government’s various scientific bureaus through the division of Federal relations; and with the activities of the various State scientific boards and bureaus through the division of States relations. Relations with the industrial research laboratories of the country, and with applied science in general, are maintained through the Council’s divisions of engineering, research extension, physicq, and chemistry and chemical technology. During the year the Council was entrusted with the responsibility of expending considerable sums of money given by various foundations, industrial concerns, and individuals for the support of special undertakings for the promotion of scientific work and research. Perhaps the most outstanding new undertaking of the Council was the establishment of a series of post-doctorate research fellowships made possible by an appropriation from the Rockefeller Foundation. IIARDNESS CHANGES OF
METALS
For some time the Bureau of Standards has been investigating the changes in hardness which accompany the severe cold working of metals. At a recent meeting of the Advisory Committee on Nonferrous Metals several suggestions were made for further work on this problem, and during the past month several of these suggestions were followed. The results indicate that the hardness changes of metals after severe cold working, as measured on the surface of cold-rolled strips, are of the same nature as the changes within the strips-that is, as measured on sections through the strips perpendicular to the surface. There do not appear to be any pronounced directional properties in the hardness of severely cold-rolled metals. The effect of the temperature of rolling on zinc and copper was also investigated. When the rolling was carried out at rather low temperature, produced by cooling both the rolls and the specimen with ice water, it was found that the hardening of the metal, particularly of the zinc, during the initial stages of deformation, was greatly increased. The tendency of the metal to crack and split during the initial stages of deformation was very marked. After the metal had been reduced to a strip, however, softening occurred as before, and with further deformation the low temperature appeared to have but little, if any, influence.
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IhTDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
C. W. S. RESERVEOFFICERS ORGANIZE The reserve officers of the Chemical Warfare Service residing in the District of Columbia are organizing an association, which, i t is planned, will soon become a national organization. The first meeting will be held on Monday evening, February 4, a t t h e Raleigh Hotel. Captain Frank B. Gorin will preside a t the meeting, and Brigadier General Amos A. Fries,‘ chief of the Chemical Warfare Service, will be the honor guest. There will be motion pictures showing recent chemical warfare developments and an exhibit of gas warfare material. SOILIMPORTANT FACTOR IN FOREST GROWTH C. G. Bates, of the Fremont Forest Experiment Station, has found that the very small and minute particles in the soil may have an important effect upon the rate of growth of forest trees. For example, a very large proportion of alkali may be held in an absorbed condition by the clay and may not become soluble even when there is abundant water. Since the clay is as important in soil as the soil water itself, this absorbed alkali has afarreaching effect upon the tree’s rate of growth.
EXPLORATION O F ALASKA’S PETROLEUM RESERVE A midwinter start in the examination of the Navy’s largest petroleum reserve is being made by the Interior Department in sending geologists and engineers of the Geological Survey to Arctic Alaska. The area to be examined is somewhat larger than the State of Maine, covering about 35,000 square miles, but it is a practically uncharted wilderness that includes rugged mountain chains and vast silent stretches of tundra. The reserve is an irregular tract that extends for nearly 300 miles along the coast of the Arctic Ocean, with Point Barrow as its northern point, and runs inland in places for more than 200 miles. The technical members of the party who will explore the naval reserve are Philip S. Smith, geologist in charge; J. B. Mertie and William T. Foran, geologists; Gerald Fitzgerald and R. K. Lynt, topographic engineers, and several assistants. STARCH PLANT EXPLOSION The disastrous explosion in the starch plant of the Corn Products Refining Co., Pekin, Ill., January 3, in which 42 persons were killed, 21 injured, and property damaged to the extent of approximately $1,000,000, was caused by a fire orginating from an overheated bearing in a starch conveyor, according to the report of David J. Price, engineer of the Bureau of Chemistry, who, with two assistant engineers, H. R. Brown and P. W. Edwards, cooperated with the State fire marshal and officials of the company in making a study of the wreckage. The engineers found unmistakable evidence that the hot bearing had set fire to the inside of the conveyor box in the basement of one of the buildings. The progress of the explosion indicates that it started when one of the wagons loaded with dry starch in the kiln house was dumped into the conveyor. The dust cloud produced by the dumping was set o f f when it reached the fire in the conveyor box. The rapidly burning fire traveled through this conveyor to a cross conveyor and finally was communicated to the hoppers of the starch-packing house, where the most violent explosion occurred, resulting in the complete wrecking of this building. In the first building affected by the explosion little damage was done because of the large window area, a type of construction recommended by the Department of Agriculture for buildings in which such explosions are liable to occur. In this case the windows were blown out and little damage was done t o the walls and floors. As a result of the thorough study of conditions producing this disaster and the behavior of the explosion, the investigators have obtained new information which will make possible the adoption of new control measures in all kinds of industrial plants where combustible dusts are produced. In the opinion of the engineers, operations in which such dusts are produced In large quantities should be conducted in buildings set well apart from other buildings, and such operations as starch dumping and packing should be performed in buildings with large window area and remote from the rest of the plant. January 22, 1924
Corrections--On page 99 in the January issue of THISJOURNAL, in the section on “Use of Liquefied Sulfuric Acid in Industry,” sulfurousacid should be substituted for sulfuricacid in the heading, and also in lines 8, 11, and 14 of the section. In the paragraph entitled “Spain Offers Market for Fertilizers,” on page 101 0 : the January issue of THISJOURNAL, the sixth line should read: 18 per cent phosphoric acid,” etc.
Vol. 16, No. 2
Motor Fuel Investigations in Switzerland-The Swiss Government has been making persistent efforts to find a successful process whereby alcohol can be used as a substitute for gasoline. Thus far experiments under the joint direction of the Swiss Federal Department of Alcohol and the Technical Section of the Military Department have failed to discover a motor fuel better or cheaper than gasoline. German Consumption of Raw Copper Wanes-Assistant Trade Commissioner W. T. Daugherty, Berlin, states that the November consumption of raw copper in Germany was estimated t o be 3000 tons, compared with approximately 3500 tons in October, and a monthly average of 10,000 tons in 1922. The copper industry is consuming about one-third of the amount of copper used in 1922 and is operating only part time. The occupied area is not importing copper. The receipts of raw copper into Germany from the United States for September and October are estimated a t 2500 tons monthly, compared with the monthly average of 7500 tons for the first seven months of 1923. Production of Benzene in India-The Bararee Coke Company has announced that it has placed in operation what is believed to be the first plant for the recovery of benzene in India. This is regarded as a further step forward in the country’s industrial development. The installation of this modern benzene plant makes an important addition to the company’s ammonium sulfate plant and battery of thirty-five waste heat ovens, which are producing a high-grade coke for the local blast furnaces. From the coke oven gases, tar, ammonia in the form of ammonium sulfate, and crude benzene are recovered. The tar is put through the tar distillation plant to yield carbolic oils, creosote oils, anthracene oils, and pitch. The benzene vapors are recovered from the gases by scrubbing with creosote oil obtained from the t a r distillation plant, and crude benzene is then separated from the creosote oil by distillation. It is anticipated that the rectified benzene can find a ready market in India as motor fuel. Swedish Oil Shale Possibilities-As Sweden’s annual coal bill is nearly $25,000,000 and its oil bill approximately $10,000,000 (sums which are paid principally to English exporters, and to a lesser extent to American principals), much interest is aroused by the work carried on by scientists and engineers among Swedish shale deposits, particularly those in western Sweden. Alum shale is found in the Goteborg district in considerable quantities, chiefly in the hills of Kinnekulle, Halleberg, Hunneberg, and Billinger. At Kinnekulle the shale is about 12 meters thick and very rich in combustive oils-the shale containing up t o 8 per cent oils. The problem of separating this oil from the shale has been investigated for several years in Sweden, and the experiments have been subsidized to a considerable extent by the Swedish Government. Alcohol Industry in C u b a 4 c a r c i t y of exhausted molasses (black strap) in Cuba has been growing more and more serious since the early summer, and with it the shortage of alcohol for industrial purposes. Of the more important distilleries, thirteen are practically shut down, and several of these have been closed for a number of months. The scarcity of molasses is charged against foreign exportation, particularly to the Netherlands, where the Government especially favors alcohol production and offers manufacturers an export bonus, ako giving subvention to ocean carriers of alcohol from the Kingdom. Refiners of petroleum are also said t o be promoters of this outward movement of molasses, because of the inroads made by alcohol motor spirit :md fuel upon the gasoline and kerosene consumption in Cuba. It is alleged that the Republic’s former sales of refined petroleum products used for stoves and motors-70,000 gallons dailyhave materially dropped, and that motor gasoline sales have fallen off about 30 per cent, owing to substitution by alcohol. The Cuban Government has been called upon for immediate relief through measures designed to restrict exportation from Cuba of residual molasses in order t o assure a sufficient supply remaining in the country from year to year for the distilling industry. Motor Alcohol Deliveries in France-The French Government’s plans for forcing the sellers of motor fuel to take certain quantities of the national alcohol stocks to be mixed with motor fuel are developing slowly. A comptoir has been created among the sellers of gasoline, and began actual work early in November. This body receives the alcohol deliveries from the Government and arranges for the mixing of the so-called carburant national and its delivery to the oil interests in such proportion as their purchases require. Production of Borax in ChiIe-A steady decline has been taking place in the Chilean borax industry in spite of an almost inexhaustible supply in deposits, while in the United States a contrary situation has developed, according to a recent article in the Riqueza Milzera de Chile (combined September and October issue).
