March 20,
1924
INDUSTRIAL
AND ENGINEERING
CHEMISTRY
Eliminate the Balance Room No Good Reason Now Exists for Isolating Balances from Other Laboratory Equipment, According to t h e Author. A Place for t h e Balance Should Be Provided when New Laboratories Are Constructed and It Should Be On or Near the Work Table B Y N I C H O L A S I I . A. K R A Y E R N e w PROVIDENCE, N. J.
Modern practice is sounding t h e dcathkncll of t h e balance room. Many industrial laboratories have already freed themselves from the tradition which imposes isolation for the balances. The special room must be greatly improved and better located in relation to the laboratory to justify its continued existence. Colleges a r e more eternally wedded to the practice than industrial or commercial laboratories, where production compels a consideration of its disadvantages for the sake of economy. Yet t h e y have much to gain from the presence of the balance near the student's desk. The vast improvement in the structure of buildings used for laboratory purposes and t h e practical ventilating systems now available h a v e removed the two most venerable excuses—vibration and fumes— for t h e absence of the balance from the chemist's work bench. The balance room is intended to offer ideal conditions for accurate weighing. It is a worthy object. However, there are few heads of chemistry departments who will not admit t h a t there are several elements in their own balance rooms tending t o react against accuracy. In addition, it is generally agreed that the students can weigh, even under ordinary conditions, more accurately t h a n t h e y can work in t h e remainder of t h e process. On the other hand in post-graduate work, in research work, in the professor's own work, we find the balance located at the chemist's right hand, where it ought to be. T h e results obtained do not justify a change, or t h a t change would be made. A comparison, as to preservation, of these balances with those kept in a special room, will show t h e m to be little worse off for the exposure to the mixed fumes of a private laboratory. It therefore behooves all chemists charged with the erection or equipment of new laboratories to consider alternatives before concluding in favor of a balance room. I t is so obvious to industrial chemists, t h a t the few advantages of such a room in plant laboratories do not compensate for t h e economic waste involved— space, time and wages—that it is not necessary to go into detail with respect to t h a t t y p e of laboratory. Briefly, t h e balance room situation in most colleges may be stated as follows: The room is usually small, detached from the laboratory, a n d is entered from a corridor, which means t h a t t h e student must pass through the laboratory door, and then through the balance room door. If t h e practice is observed of keeping the doors closed to prevent the escape of fumes from the work room, then t h e student, his arms laden with desiccator, weights, notebooks, sample, spatulas and what not, must open two doors and close them. Not one student, nor merely a dozen, b u t in
some cases as many as a hundred. Too frequently the doors are entirely opaque, or where glass is provided, it is too high for the smaller students to see through. Occasionally persons in haste having to enter or leave either of the rooms fail to observe approaching students, with a collision as a consequence, so that an unfortunate boy or girl may have to renew several hours of painstaking work. I t is n o t sufficient to say these accidents are preventable. They occur daily, and have been recognized to the extent that t h e doors in nine out of ten school laooratories are flung wide open during classes, thus defeating several objects of the balance room. I t becomes a receptacle for fumes, and because of the iron clad rules enforced forbidding ventilation, they s t a y there, corroding everything susceptible to corrosion, so t h a t some of the worst balances in use, from the standpoint of preservation, are to be found in college balance rooms. Where transparent doors are provided there is still the undesirable necessity of opening a n d closing t h e m ; and where swinging doors are used there remains the disadvantage of a long distance from the work desk. There are some "blind" rooms, artificially lighted, connected with t h e laboratory, used as balance rooms. These prove to be pockets in which the fumes hang and have fewer advantages to recommend them than the rooms off the corridor. The balances are usually arranged on shelves around the room, with some on a table in the center. There is a stool, or bench, or seat of some kind in front of each instrument, so t h a t practically every square foot of space is accounted for. Most colleges are so inadequately supplied with balances t h a t there are few in which there are less than four students assigned to each, and in some cases there are as m a n y as eight. (However, an assignment of four students to a balance is reasonable, as no college could be expected to provide the space to accommodate each student with a separate balance.) When classes are in session there is congestion in the balance room. Students are weighing, others are waiting t o use their balances, and some have no excuse for being there a t all. Undesirable atmospheric conditions result— foul air, cross currents and vibration. There is bumping into tables and stools, scraping of chairs, crowding to make room for passing. Thus several more purposes of the balance room are defeated. There is little difference of opinion among instructors as to where their services are the more valuable. They can be found, invariably, in the laboratory observing and instructing the students a t their desks, and the balance room is without supervision. Instructors apol-
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ogize for the condition of balances, offering t h a t they cannot be in two places a t the same time, and choose to be in the more important, the laboratory. Extra precautions, in the form of rubber covers, or special secondary cases, or both, may be taken to protect the balances from the fumes, but they add to the confusion. Much thought is given to the layout of t h e modern laboratory. The chemist works in collaboration with the architect and engineers in endeavoring to assemble in handy units for individuals or groups, all the essentials—hood, light, desk, water, sink a : r suction, gas, electricity, hot plates, lurnaces, baths, etc., to save time and apparatus, b u t omits the balance from consideration. T h e writer urges t h a t it be included, and that the scheme of coordination make some provision for it near the desk. How? T h a t is for the resourceful chemist-organizer to determine. Put the sink in the center of t h e desks, instead of at the ends, substituting receptacles for two balances each. Or provide special cabinet tables at either end of the laboratory, or make provision in the center for a steel and concrete table-cabinet. Modern ingenuity will provide a means, at little cost, which will prove in the end far more economical t h a n t h e old system of the balance room. Benefit will thus accrue to the balances, which will come directly under the disciplining influence, care and supervision of t h e instructors; to the student whose radius of activity will be reduced t o a minimum; and to t h e instructor, who will have under his continuous observation all t h e work of all his students during the entire period. M a n y of the newer school laboratories have sufficient room in them t o accommodate the balances. Of course, the expense of building special steel and concrete tables can be more easily justified when the building is in t h e embryonic form. However, where a building is short of private laboratory or office space, it can be done to release the balance room for other uses, more justifiable.
C o m m i t t e e on Standards Meets at W a s h i n g t o n The Joint Committee on Definitions and Standards held a meeting in the Bureau of Chemistry, Washington, D. C , February 25 to 29, inclusive, according to an announcement by Dr. W. W. Skinner, chairman. Ice cream, alkalized cocoa, flour and some of the minor spices were among the products considered by the committee. The committee is composed of Julius Hortvet of Minnesota, C. D . Howard of New Hampshire, and E. M. Bailey of Connecticut, representing the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists; W. W. Randall of Maryland, L. E. Sayrt of Kansas, and R. E. Rose of Florida, representing the Association of American Dairy, Food and D r u g Officials; and W. W . Skinner, F . C. Blanck, and R. K. Doolittle, representing the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The Salesmen's Association of the American Chemical Industry held a St. Patrick's Day parade and dinner at the Aldine Club, 200 Fifth Ave., New York City, on the evening of March 17.
