EDITORIALS.
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upon different chemists using the same method of analysis, upon the same chemist using different methods of analysis, and as an umpire sample in cases of dispute between analysts, will suggest themselves immediately. As a check upon original methods of analysis, enabling th: operator to determine with comparatively little effort the applicability and accuracy of his method, standardized samples are well worth their cost. In cases of disputed analytical results it would doubtless lead to a better agreement were both parties to analyze a standardized sample of the same kind of material and discover which is a t fault, rather than go through the usual process of submitting the original sample to a third party-who may be no more capable than the contending analysts-for anumpire analysis. Some ten or more years ago, a foundrymen’s association did a real service to the chemists of the iron and steel industry by preparing, with great care, a set of iron samples, having them analyzed by three or four chemists of recognized ability, and then selling these standardized samples a t a reasonable price. I n a recent number of Science (October 2 , 1908), Launcelot Andrews proposed that similar work, but on a much larger scale, be undertaken by the Bureau of Standards. He would have the Bureau furnish both substances used in the preparation of standard solutions and samples of raw materials or finished products. The Bureau of Standards has already prepared a number of standardized iron and steel samples which it sells a t fixed prices (THISJOURNAL, page 41) and has under consideration the preparation of special steel samples. The National Fertilizer Association has prepared and distributed four samples of phosphate rock which may now be considered to be standardized. The Committee on Analysis of Fats, Soaps and Glycerine, of the American Chemical Society, has prepared and distributed samples of the products which it has under consideration and these after analysis by experts may be considered as standardized. Thus, even up to the present time, some work on the preparation of standardized samples has been done. Even before Andrews’ paper appeared, the thought had occur:ed to some members of the American Chemical Society that this was a field which the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry might do yeomen’s service. With a membership made up of representatives of almost all the chemical industries carried on in this country, with three publications of large circulation a t its disposal,
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and with the enthusiasm of youth to enable it to carry out successfully big undertakings, the Division ought to be in a position to prepare, standardize and distribute samples of materials for which there may be a demand. The expenses involved could be defrayed from the sale of the samples. Is the suggestion not well worth considering ? W. C. EBAUGH.
THE ROAD PROBLEM AND THE CHEMICAL ENGINEER. ONE of the most important problems of the day, which requires the consideration of those who are in charge of the construction and maint-nance of our highways, is that of how to meet the destructive effect of modern motor traffic. It has become one of such prominence that an International Road Congress was held in Paris in October last, on the initiative of the French Government, to consider the subject, at which twenty-five nations were represented by nearly twenty-three hundred delegates and individuals. It was surprising to find, as a result of the Congress, how little the chemical engineer and chemist have been utilized abroad in solving the problem, and that America is far in advance of other nations’in this respect. Nothing has been done abroad which in any way corresponds to the investigations carried out in the laboratory of the Office of Public Roads of the United States Department of Agriculture, and it is rumored that an effort has been made to interest it in an examination of the stone in use in the construction of roads in Great Britain. For a t least twenty years, American chemists have been engaged in the study of the native bitumens in the light of their application to the construction of pavements and roads, and it is interesting to note that the appreciation of their usefulness in this work has grown to such an extent that the services of a very considerable number are employed by municipalities and others in regulating the construction of pavements and the materials employed therein, as well as in investigating the character of the bitumens available for rendering macadam roadways more resistant to the attacks of motor travel. The field of usefulness is constantly increasing and widening, and the opportunity for accomplishing something by chemists in aiding to solve the road problem is large. CLIFFORDRICHARDSON.
