IND U S T RIAL andENGINEERING CHEMISTRY Published by the American Chernioal Society
EDITORIALS
HARRISON E. HOWE, Editor
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Third Decennial Index T H E NEWSEDITION for January 20 we were able to announce that the response of the industry and individuals to the opportunity to cooperate in assuring the publication of the Third Decennial Index of Chemical Abstracts had resulted in the necessary financial support, so that with the revolving fund of the SOCIETYthis program could go forward as originally planned. In the announcement were included some estimates to indicate the size of the undertaking, which incidentally affords some measure of the progress of chemistry in the decade under discussion. There is no need to repeat these statistics here, but we emphasize the advice to order early, if you desire to purchase the Third Decennial Index at the lowest possible price. The SOCIETY has no intention of printing more copies than can be sold within a reasonable period of time, especially since this is not only a nonprofit enterprise but one in which the support given it makes possible the sale of the volumes at approximately half the actual cost of production. This low price is set because the effort achieves its greatest value when there is the widest possible distribution of the sets. We ask you, therefore, to familiarize yourself with the of conditions of sale to be found in the NEWSEDITION January 20, and place your order not later than July 1, 1937.
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Motion
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November leaders in the fields of business, science, and journalism met at luncheon in honor of Charles F. Kettering on the occasion of the twentyfifth anniversary of his invention of the electric selfstarter. Dr. Kettering can always be depended upon for a thought-provoking talk, no matter how extemporaneous, and in his remarks on this occasion he made a point which we wish to place in the permanent record. Speaking of the difficulties of estimating the cost of research in the terms of exact bookkeeping, and of the impossibility of predicting how long it will take to develop a certain idea, he declared that such things must be taken on faith and that faith and patience are the two fundamentals upon which all research organizations are built. Said he: “When we look forward 121
and try to project what may come out of a development, we are always wrong, because the by-products sometimes become far more important than the primary thing which we started out to accomplish.” And now note this: “Nevertheless, unintelligent motion is a great deal more important in research than intelligent standing still.” In explaining this aphorism, Dr. Kettering said that accomplishment has been an accident as a rule, that nobody every stumbled while standing still, but only when in motion. “So we have always had it a rule in our organization when we lacked intelligence we speeded up the motion, because the chances of stumbling were infinitely increased.” This idea of the importance of motion in increasing the opportunities for stumbling upon something unforeseen but nevertheless important is worthy of consideration and will be a new thought to some organizations which are more likely to become static than sufficiently dynamic to retain their place in a fast-moving industrial world.
Filler Fallacy EARLY 95 years ago J. B. Lawes was the first to put sulfuric acid on bones, and the fertilizer industry has been centered around phosphates ever since. About a half century ago the complete mixed fertilizers contained approximately 12 units of plant food. The most popular grade was 2-8-2, and the industry could do no better because it was then using the highest concentration of raw materials obtainable. In the 1934 season the farmers in one of our proudest Southern states bought 20,000 tons of 2-8-2, which that year ranked third most popular in that state. T o make this fertilizer from average raw materials now available involved the use of filler to an extent that was certainly uneconomic and scarcely defedsible on any basis. Oddly enough, according to A. L. Mehring, a ton of sand added to 2 tons of 3-12-3 costing $5’7.56 would produce 3 tons of the 2-8-2 which cost the farmer $69.51, or approximately $12 more-a fairly high price to pay for sand. Many figures could be cited to show how uneconomic is this widespread use of filler in coifimercial mixed fertilizers. Again quoting Mr. Mehring, seven South-
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ern states in the season ended June 30, 1934, spent $5,482,000 for the filler in their purchased fertilizer. That part which consisted of ground phosphate rock, limestone, and dolomite, and which brought some benefit to the soil, would have cost $894,000 if bought separately on the same delivered basis. Allowing for this, we find the net total paid for sand and similar inert material in a single year was $4,588,000. The example is confined to these seven states because of the tonnage of fertilizer used in them and their nearness to the source of supply. I1 is also true that, with a single exception, lhe southeastern part of the country continues to use fertilizer with less plant food than the other states of the Union. The total plant food content of mixed fertilizers consumed in 1934 was 25 per cent or more in Seven states which included Maine and California, and wider 16 per cent in three important seaboard Southern states. One encouraging sign is the incpeasing use, where needed, of ground dolomite or limestone in the production of neutral fertilizers, these placing from one-half to two-thirds of the comprising filler. Back in 1880, of the fertilizer materials available, sodium nitrate contained the most plant food, 15.5 per cent, but its price was relatively high and little was used. The superphosphate of that day had only 12 units of available phosphoric acid and the kainite 12 of potash. Over 80 per cent of the nitrogen in commercial mixtures of that time was supplied by organic ammoniates and no filler was used. But is it not difficult to understand why, with the improvement of the grade of raw materials, the industry should not have followed along instead of resorting to fillers that they might continue to supply low-grade material? The leadirig grade of superphosphate sold today contains 16 per cent of available phosphoric acid, while the most economical superphosphales run from 18 to The lowest grade usually made at present per cent, so in order to supply the demand for 16 per cent the manufacturer dilutes 18 or 19 per cent goods with filler. The average potash fertilizer material consumed in 1934 contained 4 1 per cent potassium oxide, and nitrogenous fertilizers based on atmospheric nitrogen give both a concentrated and : economical source of this plant food. Experience has shown that the extreme possible in concentrated plant food must be avoided. Acid residues may result and the soil may not receive the amounts of calcium, sulfur, magnesium, and secondary elements which crops need. However, there is reason to believe that mixed fertilizers with 20 to 35 units of plant food can be prepared more cheaply per unit than ordinary mixtures containing from 12 to 16 units and can be applied in the most modern way to Lhe gr$at advantage of the crop and with material economy for the farmer.
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Minimum standards for mixed fertilizers are fixed by law in several states, but the lower limits-12, 14, or 16 per cent-are far too low. These things become of more interest when we learn that some of the basic raw materials for fertilizer mixtures now prepared with great care and a t considerable expense as high-grade products have to be diluted with inert fillers by the chemical industry in order to meet specifications of certain enterprises which style themselves “fertilizer manufacturers.” And this with the freight rate of $10 or more per ton on filler and plant food alike. There was once a large factory engaged in making wooden railroad cars. When the steel cars were developed the officials of that plant decided that hauling around anything so heavy made the idea absurd. They stood pat for their wooden cars, and now acres and acres of deserted buildings stand as a monument to their lack of foresight. Today economic conditions make fertilizer materials of higher analysis inevitable. This is recognized by the best minds in the fertilizer industry, but there are still those who want to make 2-8-2. The fertilizer industry is a large one. I t is a chemical industry, even though we must admit that it has not practiced chemistry as it should. It has been beset by many difficulties, not the least of which has been the resistance t o change offered by the small dealer, the hundreds of little mixers, and the backward consumer. Today it is in a peculiar relationship to national economy and has a bearing on national planning. Is agriculture, as some maintain, the sole remaining industry capable of absorbing the activities of the American people in suficient numbers to ease unemployment? Industry insists that it cannot provide many more places, and at the moment a new industry capable of offering great employment without detriment to other enterprises has not put in its appearance. If a part of our population must be shifted into agricultural pursuits where they may be a t least partially self-sustaining, then must not agriculture be maintained on a small farm, individualistic basis with its life made as attractive as possible? This would mean, in addition to improved implements, high analysis fertilizers on an economical basis. The industry in some respects offers a wonderful opportunity for research on the part of those who remain unconvinced that the present is the best possib!e technology. It calls for more intensive study of the peculiar requirements of many soils and crops, greater effort in educating the farmer, support for the experim e n t s t a t i o n s and field men, and a real revival on a basis so modern that the formulas which have too long been the sole guide to purchases may be forgotten.
