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SOURCE OF RAWMATF IRIALS In the preparatory stage of research it is also csseiitial to consider the source of raw materials. Many 5 brilliant .concept has gone down to oblivion in industrial research because no adequate source of raw material was svailablc a t a price which made the development possible or desirable. The consideration of tho raw material must embrace the sonrce, qualit,y, location, and the cost of making it snitable for use, and of transporting it tu the point of use. The consideration must also give due weight to the by-products vhich will result, either in the preparation of the raw material or in the development of the finished product, and estimate the effect these will have on the quality, cost, and utilization of the finished product. The synchronization of nianufacturing processes so as to utilize the total production of isomeric products and the creation of a demand for the balanced production constitute problems of grave importance to
VOI, 24, No. 2
chemical industry. They are among the most important problems to be considered in the preparatory stage of research. In planning industrial research, considerable thought must be &en to the question of the effect of such research on the general sales picture. What will the contemplated change do to the salcs siiuation? Will improvements iii production introduce a sales-resistance factor wbich will offset the advantages to be secured? If so the advantages must be great enough to justify the cost of overcoming this sales resistance. This problem is particularly complicated when the products are sold on the basis of the effect which they are capable of producing and not on t.he basis of ehemicnl purity, as is true with dyes. Good preparation is csscntial for wiee plnnirinp. and this is indispcnsahle to succeralul researcli. Rsceirie~Deasmber 8. 1931
Functions of a Laboratory Organization N o s m T R . WIIAIAMS,fell Telephoriv Idmratories, 463 West Slreef, New York, N . Y .
T
HE purchasing department of'an industrial o r g a n i z a t i o n complains of the rising cost of a particular raw material and asks its Iaboratory to develop a substitute. Preliminary investigation reveals that the fundamental requirements underlying the specification under which the material is hought are somewhat vague. R'o one knows just which properties of the material are essential and whirl! are incidental. The history of the adoption of the material i n d i c a t e s that it way chosen on the basis of a factory trial which merely showed that it worked. A study of the manufacturing process isinitiatedinconjunction with themanufactnring engineers and of the service c o n d i t i o n s by collaboration with the consumer. Rcsearch men versed in tlie fundamentals are consnlted who presently come to reject certain prevailing ideas about the material and its use as doubtful or erroneous and to select others A, plauuiblc. The latter are explored experimentally and an idea is generated which later becomes a conviction that the imporbant and unique property of this material is a t bottom R low-teniperature coefficient of baking reaction. This low-temperature coefficient is important because it avoids the necessity for a supposedly difficult temperature control in the maniifactiiring process. n u t it is found possible by drawing on laboratory experience to devise an automatic temperature regulatrrr for the factory apparatus. Trial of this regulator not only makes possible the use of a cheaper substitute material, but discloses an unexpected improvement in some quality of the product, supposedly unrelated to the question \%-hiellpmvokcd the investigation. So, in the purchasing needs of an industry, begins one laboratory enterprise. Many industries, like tile one referred to, consume raw materials which require laboratory cvaluation but may produce a commodity which need only be evaluated by the practical test of salability. This tends to
be true most often of producers 01 articles for household and personal or family use, as the retail buyer is guided b\ general a p p e a r a n c e and reputation rather t h a n rigorous and exhaustive test. Tooth brushes and automobiles, domestic refrigerators and clothing are random emnples. In a typical case of this sort the purchase and mannfacturing use of raw products may jointly determine the n a t u r e of l a b o r a t o r y activity. The chief business of some laboratories is devising new processes, rather than tbe modification or control of old ones Numerous instances might he cited in which the entire economics of a commodity have been overturned by the development of a new process for making the material more cheaply. This is perhaps especially true in chemical industrv. Notable examnles durinc the past two d e c a d e s art?'the c r a & i u g processes fur production of gasoline, the Weissman fermentation of starch to acetone and butyl alcohol, the synthesis for methanol and probably most memorable of all, the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. When such radical innovations arc involved, the details of purchasing economies sink into insignificance. Another manufacturer may be producing an article which permits little freedom of choice of raw material or process. Such enterprises are usually highly competitive, yet the producer may often profitably spend substantial sums in tile study of the quality of his product and base his sales competition upon quality rather than price. This can best be donein cases in which the market is governed to a great extent by the purchases of large concerns who can afford to and do subject their purchases to a careful laboratory appraisal. I n such appraisal the buyer, as well as the more competent producer, is often served by such agencies as the American Society for Testing Materials, However, similar appraisal of articles for the use of the retail buyer is sometimes performed as R
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!iubhe service by p,uvernmental or priva1.e agencies. The p o v c of revdutiunary iniportnnce. S i d i itidustries .will du work of the American Medical Association and of Federal well to consider \~hetlicrt,hcirlaboratory activity should not be ~ r:overnment bureaus in the rating of foiids and drugs, and of Iiroadencd t,o cover the fundamentals $,f r a materials, certain magazines in evaluating househuld appliances and the proresscs, by-products, and the uscsaiid quality of the finis1v.d twticle~wen thrlngh the primary interest may be in ordy one like, are inst,anccs in which laboratory cvaluations may ,>f these phases. This rotirse has several markcd merits. It highly import.ant,, even for the retail market. On the whole, the heavier role of the laboratory in qoality marketing is gri,at,ly diviwifies the opportunity for iniportant arrtl evmprobably the most noteworthy development in lalioratnry tiially profitdile laboratoiy discoveries IJY increasing the lm!adtli ,IS t,lie exprrinimitor's v i e x Jt, may lead to an ondrrvice during the post-war period i n the linited St,ate,s. wspected source of Many examples can raw material or to the ' e gaited in which recognition of a :reat l a h u r a t o r y slumhering potential nmpliasis is placed demand. It is in the 'ipon the nti1izat;ion Imder lmds between of Iyproducts or the the strict fields of the iinding of new or exseveral industries that winled uses for old such unsuspected o p anriteriais. The peportunities are most troleum industry, for likely to lie. nxample, hrts sucI:essA parallel call t x billy oflered ly-prodf o u n d in university ,i(,l,- in the fonn of life, where there has in5iilating waxes, I~een a reaction inedicinal oils, in:Igainst the depart-ecticides, aid volamentalization of t i l e s o l v e n t s . In lknowledge along the - o m c of these intraditional bound adances a p r o d u c e r ries s e t u p for admnducts a laboratory ininistrative piirposes ,>stensibly f r o m t h e Iwtween the departc.nnsumer's viewpoint ments of our schools. :ind s t r i v e s t o piit Oliservatioii discloses i~imsclfin thep&tioii that much of the most nf consultant t,o his fruitful scientific work prospective pur~ ithe l past decade or inore has been the result of combining the chasers. This isesoeciallv true of the laboratories of c t i d ~ n ~ ~ of industrial-research organizations and of trade absociittioiis, i u i t kiionledgc and viewpoint. of two di.4.inct fields. Examples is by no rneans confined to them. For example, t l w rulhsr i:iiil also he found of itnnsiial perfoririance lip individuals io and paint industries arc furnished with a certairi aniount of fidds forcign to their primary training. It should not Ix infomiation about pigments by the producers of t#hepigments; surprising that ignorance of the details of a subject is often the steel prodnco~sare instructed in the virtues of nickel as ati :in asset, in that., unfettered by the prejudicesoftlieexpertg, it nlloying agent by the nickel producers; the innulated-wirr Iv.ids through independent study to a fresh viewpoint. liidustrial research should therefore be as broad as ecoiiianufacturers are told by asphalt producers atiout weathrrproofing compounds; coiistruction engineers are offered in- iwmics mill permit. I t should also include a Drowrtion of onre ionxiation about brick, tile, or concrete by those interest.ed i n rcsuarch or: a t any ratc, research with indeterminate objeethe sale of thRqe products. Sometimes this inforniation con- tivcn in t,lie commercial sense. Otherwise it will bedifficulttu ;ish of propaganda of diiuhtfnl virt,ue, hiit murh of it is honrst acquire or rctnin men whore interests are primady intellectual and discriminating. rather than commcrcial. Such interests are not more or less In view of the complexity of industry i t is t
