ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
EDITORIAL
April 1957, Vol. 29, No. 4 APPLIED JOURNALS, ACS Director o f Publications, C. B. Larabee Editorial Director, Walter J. Murphy
Foreign Analysts Stimdate New Thinking
Executive Editor, James M. Crowe Production Manager, Joseph H. Kuney ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY Editor, Lawrence T. Hallett Managing Editor, Robert 0. Gibbs EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON 6, D. C. 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Phone Republic 7-5300 Associafe Editors: G. Gladys Gordon, Stella Anderson, Ruth Cornette, Katherine 1. Biggs, George B. Krantz Assistant Editors: Betty V. Kieffer, Sue Jones, Arthur Poulos Editorial Assistants: Ruth M. Howorth, A n n W. Knox, Eugenia Keller, Hannr 1. Sperr, Sue M. Solliday, Malvina B. Preiss, Marjorie A. Hindert, Ruth Reynard Staff Artist, Melvin D. Buckner BRANCH EDITORIAL OFFICES CHICAGO 1, ILL. 86 East Randolph St. Phone State 2-7686 Associate Fdifor: Kenneth M. Reese, Chester Placek Assistant Editor: Laurence J. White HOUSTON 2, TEX. 718 Melrose Bldg. Phone Fairfax 3-7107 Assistant Edifor: Bruce F. Greek NEW YORK 16, N. Y. 2 Park Ave. Phone Oregon 9-1646 Associate Editors: William 0. Hull, Harry Stenerson, Howard J. Sanders, D. Gray Weaver, Walter S. Fedor Assistant Editor: Morton Saikind SAN FRANCISCO 4, CALIF. 703 Mechanics' Institute Bldg. 5 7 Post st. Phone Exbroak 2-2895 Associate Editor: Richard 0. Newhall EASTON, PA. 20th a n d Northampton Sts. Phone Easton 9 1 11 Associafe Edifor: Charlotte C. Sayre Editorial Asrirtanfs: Joyce A. Richards, Elizabeth R. RuFe, June A. Barron EUROPEAN OFFICE Bush House, Aldwych, London Phone Temple Bar 3605 Cable JIECHEM Associate Editor: Albert S. Hester Confributing Editor: R. H. Muller Advisory Board: R. M. Archibald, H. F. Beeghly, H. 0. Cassidy, Harvey Diehl, R. M. Fowler, Louis Gordon, J. 1. Hoffman, E. E. Leininger, H. A. Liebhafsky, V. W. Meloche, John Mitchell, Jr., R. 0. Russell, 0. D. Shreve, A I Steyermark, J. H. Yoe Advertising Management: REINHOLD PUBLISHING CORP. 430 Park Ave., N e w York 22, N. Y. (For Branch Offices see page 9 3 A)
THIS
year there are more than 800 foreign scholars teaching in our universities under the Fulbright program or with aid of private foundations. These visitors enrich our intellectual programs and stimulate and broaden the thinking of our students and help them avoid developing a provincial viewpoint. Daily contact with students and faculty members, in turn, acquaints our visitors with our problems and viewpoints. A visitor may not agree with our ways but a t least he has the opportunity to observe them a t first hand and to understand why the characteristics of our educational systems are different from others. I n addition to these visiting teachers, other foreign visitors come to this country to participate in special symposia and meetings. One recent outstanding example was the Louisiana State University Symposium on Analytical Chemistry which featured four well known foreign analysts. The Analytical Group of the Philadelphia Section of the ACS put on a one-day symposium featuring the same speakers. Attendance was unusually good. The efforts of the Analytical Group and the 27 area companies who helped support the meeting merit high praise. These four foreign analysts have broken awty from many traditional and time-consuming techniques and have developed new approaches (March issue, pages 39A43A). Their efforts, we feel, mill help to stimulate American analysts to work in new areas. Clement Duval, of Paris, for example, feels that there is little that can be called scientific in a gravimetric procedure which ends by heating the precipitate to constant weight over a Bunsen hurner. With his recording thermogravimetric balance, reproducible conditions can be attained and the purity of the precipitate established 1;hrough its characteristic curve. Hermann Flaschka of the National Research Council of Egypt described use of complexometric titrations for virtually the entire periodic table. Wolfgang Kirsten, University of Uppsala (Sweden), is working in the field of combustion in sealed tubes and measuring the volume of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water. Wolfgang Schoniger of the microchemical laboratories of Sandoz, Ltd. (Switzerland), similarly, is determining more than one element per determination in his organic microanalyses. Being connected with an industrial organization, he is concerned with the speed of analyses. He can nom determine C, H, and N in one sample in 30 minutes. He also works with unweighed samples and gets a C-H-N ratio instead of the percentage of each element. The views and newer techniques of these men have not been accepted by the majority of analysts working in this country. There are some, however, who are breaking away from traditional and often timeconsuming procedures. We believe that visits and talks by foreign analysts who are working with and advocating newer and more efficient procedures which yield more information from each determination will help to hasten the adoption of new ideas. The results will benefit all concerned. VOL. 2 9 . NO. 4, APRIL 1957
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