Editorial. Expensive Analyses - ACS Publications - American

Director of Business Operations, Joseph H. Executive Assistant to the ... This service, inmany cases, used to be carried out in the research departmen...
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ANALVTICAL CHEMISTRV EDITORIAL .May 1965,Vol. 37, No. 6

ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY Wmhington, D. C. 20036 1155 Sixteenth St., N . W. Phone: 202-737-3337Teletype WA 23

Editor, LAWRENCE T. HALLETT Assistant Editors: John K. Crum, Patricia A. Morgan, Josephine Pechan, Virginia E. Stewart Contributing Editor: R. H. Miiller Production Staff Art Director: Joseph Jacobs Associate Editor: Charlotte C. Sayre Assistant Editor: Elizabeth R. Rufe

Advisory Board: R. N. Adams, 0. U. Anders, F. C. Anson, G. H. Ayres, H. W. Habgood, P. B. Hamilton, G. A. Harlow, D. M. Hercules, F. W. McLafferty, M. W. Mallett, G. H. Morrison, W. H. Reinmuth, J. K. Taylor, R. E. Thiers, J. C. White

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Expensive Analyses IT is not unusual today for research chemists to remark about the high cost of analytical services. The analytical department can absorb up to 20% of a research budget. Yet the analytical department constantly uses the argument that modern equipment will speed analysis and cut costs. There are certain factors often lost sight of that cancel out the savings-modern instruments are expensive and research is demanding more service. This service, in many cases, used to be carried out in the research department and was labeled research. For instance, the elucidation of organic structures was formerly carried out in the research department through studies of degradation and the formation of derivatives and was charged to research budgets. The modern approach in the analytical laboratory uses infrared, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance equipment. The work is done in a fraction of the time and actually at less cost than formerly. However, the high cost of this equipment plus the expert to operate it does make the charges seein high when compared to the more simple analytical deterniinat ion. The analytical department head would be more realistic if he presented his case for the purchase of high-priced equipment on the basis of savings effected through the freeing of research personnel for research, prompt answers, and, in inany cases, findings impossible to obtain by traditional methods.

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