HINDSIGHT
I/EC
Petroleum catalysts are big business with annual consumption at the $130 million mark. Platinum, fastest growing in the field, accounts for 39% of sales, with 7.2 million pounds of new and reclaimed platinum reforming catalysts used yearly.
Interest in high and low pressure polyethylene (see "Forecast," page 11 A) creates comment on the various systems used for low pressure production. Spencer has joined Eastman Kodak as a licensee of Standard Oil (Indiana) while the Phillips' process has four domestic licensees: Celanese, M. W. Kellogg, Carbide & Carbon, and W. R. Grace. Both processes and the Ziegler technique are adaptable to other polyolefins. The July I&EG (pp. 1152-1164) presented three technical reports on the Phillips' process.
» Kennecott Copper plans the first completely industry-supported pilot plant for producing granular zirconium. Place: Bedford, Ohio. Zirconium processes and construction will be featured in I & E C Reports next month.
» Soviet stress on technical education shows results according to recent National Science Foundation data which puts Russian 1955 science graduates at double our output. The Soviet total was 126,000, of which 59,000 were engineering graduates. U. S. totals were 59,000 graduates with 22,589 in cngi-
» August Ag and Food points out the potential of microbial control of insect pests. Recent trials definitely show that diseases transmitted by bacteria or viruses can be highly effective insect control agents. Industrial production and marketing problems remain to be solved before these "living insecticides" become a tull-scale commercial adjunct to chemical pesticides. . . .
FORESIGHT
» Industry attention to automatic equipment and computing devices, covered from several angles in recent I & E C issues (for example. August Report to Management), has had academic repercussions. Stevens Institute ol Technology (N. J.) is inaugurating a graduate program in the design, selection, and operation of computers for full-time industrial personnel.
» Another expansion of Stauffer's Niagara Falls facilities will double that plant's titanium tetrachloride capacity, and will produce at four times 1955's rate. T h e marketing aspects of titanium compounds will be presented in the November I & E C .
» Antibiotics still dominate the medicinal chemical sales dollar, but their share is decreasing. C & E N (Aug. 20) reports 1955 antibiotic sales of $268 million amounting to 57.7% of the total $465 million market. T h e percentage was down from 1954's 62.5%. Taking the largest j u m p was the hormone group which more than doubled 1954 figures as they rang up sales of $27.9 million in 1955.
» The Detroit area's much debated atomic power plant recently got a partial AEC green light with the issuance of a construction license for the 100,000-kw. plant. An operating license for this first full-scale fast breeder type reactor has been held up until the safety question is settled to AEC's satisfaction.
» Mathematics is no longer held in awe by the American public. James Newman's anthology, " T h e World of Mathematics," has almost sold out an advance printing of 100,000 copies at $14.95. Educators generally see this as a hopeful sign in the struggle to increase lagging student interest in the physical and engineering sciences. VOL. 48, NO. 9
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SEPTEMBER 1956
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