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Uncle John’s Sermon
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series of monographs sponsored by the AhfERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY,the fiftieth of which is now being announced, one would not expect to find a sermon to chemists. But our Treasurer, John E. Teeple, in his discussion of the industrial development of Searles Lake brines, fortunately includes a number of interesting things, among which we find a sermon for the younger men. The text has been found in some of the special features of the difficult problem presented in the utilization of Searles Lake. Even those who are not particularly interested in the separation of so complex a mixture of salts as this dry pocket presents would do well to read that part of the monograph which gives the history of the development and the difficulties overcome. Doctor Teeple clearly sets out his basis for distinguishing between the chemist, the chemical engineer, the physical chemist, and the physicist, classifying them according to ‘‘the amount of material they need to have in hand in order t o be a t their very best level of thought.” He says the chemist does best when working in grams, the chemical engineer demands tons, the physical chemist “is one who works best and thinks best with molecules rather than grams or tons, probably not t o exceed ten or a dozen molecules at one time, and the modern physicist is at his very best inside the spacious confines of a single atom.” Now for the sermon, penned out of Doctor Teeple’s extensive and varied experience: My lecture t o young men who are about to assume a position giving them some authority over other technical men runs about as follows: (1) Don’t strut; the fact that you now have a certain title or position is extremely unimportant to everyone but yourself. It doesn’t prove anything. Maybe in selecting you some one made a mistake which will be rectified later. The essential thing is, what can you do, what can you contribute, how much better are you than a vacancy in the office? Crazy Ludwig was king of Bavaria, and Caligula’s horse was consul of Rome. These were important events to Ludwig and maybe t o the horse, but they can hardly be counted as factors in successful progress. (2) Never hesitate to make a decision. Never pass it up to your superiors unless it involves factors quite outside your province and beyond your control which might adversely affect other departments. Likewise insist on your subordinates making their own decisions whenever humanly possible. It may make you feel tremendously important to hold conferences and issue edicts, but it isn’t good for the men, nor in the long run is it good for the business. Help them whenever you can, advise with them on matters where your judgment or experience may be better than theirs, see that they have the vision of what you are aiming at, but be very chary about issuing orders, and never place responsibility on a man without a t the same time giving him adequate authority. Have a genuine respect for other men who are really doing anything, whether your subordinates, associates or superiors. Every one of them is probably a better and abler man than you are in some particular kind of work. See t o it that there is some work that you do better than any of them in order to maintain their respect, too. The man who has not a real appreciation for the work of other men should be allowed t o depart from an organization quietly and quickly. (3) Don’t overwork the push button, and don’t be a fusser. When men are on the carpet in your office they are not doing the work for which they are paid, and weeks afterwards they may be resenting unfair things you said, instead of doing constructive work. (4) Play fair; no alibis. If something goes wrong don’t hesitate to take the blame. We can forgive honest mistakes when a man tries to do something. What we can’t forgive is the mistake of the man who is afraid to do anything. If the thing happens to go just right then remember that you probably didn’t accomplish it all alone and entirely unaided. Maybe there were others present. A position of responsibility means an opportunity for leadership. If you haven’t the quality of leadership, all the authority in the world will not confer it on you; it must be developed inside yourself.
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The foregoing is really a part of the Searles Lake development story and, as Doctor Teeple says, it may be particularly useful to young men “at this time when business is so permeated with glorified office boys who call themselves executives.” We are always glad to stress fundamentals in these columns, and we believe those which Doctor Teeple has laid down are very important, not onIy t o the younger men, but to some of those whose graduation is years behind them but who have never learned these cardinal points.
Research the Trust Buster FEW years ago, when reputations were made through A the gentle art of compelling combinations to dissolve and reorganize their business affairs. the activity gained the name of “trust busting.” In those days it had to be done through the courts, but today there are other methods, and consequently the consumer’s attitude toward mergers and combinations has changed. In discussing the control of oil production, the Chicago Tribune recently said editorially: Combinations in restraint of trade no longer hold the menace in the consumer’s mind which they once had. For one thing the technological advances of the last twenty years have left only the fewest commodities for which there are no adequate substitutes available a t only slightly higher prices. If a combination controlling a commodity attempts to bleed the public which must buy it by raising prices beyond reasonable levels, the probability is that a substitute commodity will seize the markets. If such a commodity is not already known, its discovery can be predicted with something amounting to certainty.
There is much in experience to substantiate this point of view. Research has become one of the greatest factors opposed to stabilization, and those who employ it to the full are the only ones who look to the future with confidence, realizing that, while tomorrow they may not be manufacturing what they do today, they will nevertheless be prominent among those present in the particular field with which they are identified. The great corporations, if they would, could not monopolize scientific thought, and the constant increase in appreciation of the work of the scientist tends to strengthen the consumer’s faith in the laboratory as a means for saving him from the pressure of any over-greedy merger, trust, or cartel.
The Value of Publication HE satisfactory increase in the circulation of INDUSTRIAL T~~~ ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY might be taken to indicate a growing appreciation of the publication of technical articles, particularly in the chemical field, and such is undoubtedly the case. But there is another sort of value in publication which we are reminded to stress after reading the addresses of F. B. Jewett, president of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and of Willis R. Whitney, director of the Research Laboratories of the General Electric Company. If the younger men of the type so necessary in industrial progress are to produce the utmost for their employers, they must be given satisfactory surroundings in which to work, ideal conditions of association with their fellows, suitable tools, and, to quote Doctor Jewett, “we must see to it that a just recognition of their achievement is accorded them.” This does not mean simply an adequate monetary return, which, though necessary, sometimes ranks second in importance to the individual, who wishes his fellows to know what he has been enabled to accomplish. Now to quote Doctor Whitney: “Publication in some form to
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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
bring recognition by one’s peers is the nearest equivalent to the artistic painting, the beautiful poem, the enduring sculptur’e, and the splendid architecture of other creators. The most altruistic and far-seeing leaders realize the importance of this encouragement and even those who have never analyzed it instinctively feel its value.” And get in how many laboratories is this fact disregarded? Some of the nicest work in the country has progressed and is progressing under conditions which, so far as their colleagues know, leave those engaged just where they were when they accepted their employment. Many firms have not yet learned that the real difference between competitors is a difference in their ability to apply to their own production problems the data secured through research. In every piece of research there is something which can be published to advantage without disclosing those details which are properly regarded as the confidential information of the concern. And such publication is of value, not only to our profession, but to the individual worker and therefore directly t o his employer. Were we t o choose a slogan for INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERIKG CHEJIISTRY,we \ l d d be strongly inclined toward “Share your knowledge.”
Common Sense in Conservation N THESE days of conservation the tendency to argue Inotion from the specific t o the general is illustrated by the popular that, no matter what we do with our natural resources, science-and particularly chemistry--will come to the rescue in ample time. We have frequently pointed out that chemistry is not a substitute for common sense, and that, while the record is a magnificent one, whatever may be done through research is no excuse for the improper management of such resources as we now have. The burden already placed upon chemistry to turn waste organic material into humus for denuded soil indicates one field in which failure to use good judgment has allowed a mildly acute and easily corrected condition to become one that is both chronic and serious. We refer to what is taking place in some parts of the West in permitting some grazing lands to be turned into desert wastes. In that part of our country containing the higher water sheds there are vast areas unsuited for agriculture but satisfactory for timber, for grazing, or for both. If the grazing is moderate, there is direct benefit, for the grass receives a needed trimming and the fire hazard is diminished. If adequate rainfall follows soon after the grazing, Kature will restore itself even though the grazing may have been excessive. If, on the other hand, the grazing has been even slightly excessive and is followed by one of those frequent periods of drought, the very roots of some of the grass lose their vitality. If further grazing follows together with the trampling of sharp hoofs, the destruction is complete. With the vegetation gone the soil begins to move and, as semi-arid regions have torrential rains, the soil moveinent becomes pronounced. The high elevations are robbed of valuable soil and the lower levels which receive the silt become water-logged. This question of stream-borne silt is of grave importance in irrigated areas and consequently to the country as a whole, since nearly onethird of our agricultural lands depend to some extent upon water transported from far-away mountains to the more easily accessible lowlands. This may be illustrated by a hypothetical case of a stream having a gradient of five feet per mile throughout a hundredmile length. With such a fall the stream will keep its channel scoured, but if heavy accessions of silt are received the stream begins to meander. This may easily lengthen the stream to two hundred miles with a gradient of two and one-half
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feet per mile. The stream can keep no channel. It fills more and more. Water tables rise. Evaporation takes place at the surface. The soil becomes alkaline with salts. A i d now the chemist is consulted. Already the middle Rio Grande Valley has undertaken a reclamation project, not primarily to get water for irrigation but rather to get rid of seepage. The work, which will cost about ten million dollars when completed, will leave the land no more productive than it was before the erosion on the high lands started to fill the valleys. The project to correct conditions in this mile-high valley was started with the slogan, “United we drain, divided we drown.” The lack of vegetation to help regulate drainage from the highlands results in excessive cutting of stream beds, so that streams once suitable for irrigation are now so deep in their banks as to make the water unavailable except by pumping. It will be seen, then, that the simple matter of unregulated grazing on private lands and on the vast public domainfor grazing is regulated in the national forests-contributes to a destruction of natural resources in many directions. Valuable soil is lost to the highlands and water sheds, to which it cannot be restored, silt is carried into the valleys where it presents a variety of difficulties, and the utility of some stream beds is maintained only a t greatly added expense, if a t all. We have here a national problem calling for the application of good judgment while the situation, though acute, may still be remedied. After ultimate destruction has taken place it is too late for even the chemist to be of service.
A New Coagulant TRICTLY speaking, ferric chloride in solution is not a new coagulant, but for many industrial purposes its price has prohibited its use. It frequently happens that the adoption of a material for a particular large-scale use leads to its manufacture in such quantities as to bring the price within the reach of others long interested but not able to buy. It is in this connection that we note with interest a contract recently awarded the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company by the Sewerage Commission of the City of hlilwaukee, calling for between 2000 and 2500 tons per year of ferric chloride in solution a t a price of $2.08 per hundred pounds on the anhydrous basis, delivered a t the sewage plant. The solution will be transported in rubber-lined tank cars and will replace chlorinated copperas heretofore used. The availability of ferric chloride in solution in quantities that will greatly reduce its price would seem to open up a number of possible applications and make it a direct competitor with the older coagulants. Subsequent developments should afford much of interest.
Bind a Spare Set HE material included in the SOCIETY’S publications is being found so valuable by the management and research staffs of industry, as well as by those mho consult libraries, that in many places the bound volumes show appreciable wear. The librarians and research directors wonder how long these journals will last and realize that their replacewill ment may be difficult. The publications of the SOCIETY grow rather than diminish in value. The price today of securing and binding a spare set to be put in the archives until needed is very small. The cost of replacement in future is sure to be high if, indeed, some numbers are obtainable a t all. Foresight would seem t o indicate the desirability of binding a spare set.
