April 25, 1940 come technically obsolescent after 5 years. Methods of finding, producing, and trans porting oil change kaleidoscopically. Starting as a business of "rendering" simple petroleum products from crude it was once no more complicated than the rendering of vegetable and animals oils, but is now approaching the scientific technique of a chemical specialty business. Patents have been important to it and have promoted its rapid advance. Not all research of value to the petro leum industry L> done inside the industry— much comes from outside. Conversely, not all research done by the petroleum industry io of narrow value to it alone, since much of its own research is primarily a service to other industries and to customers. Not all petroleum research is pawntprotected. Probably 30 per cent of the research funds air extended in making
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minor improvements in plant operations and in pnxlucts, improvement* which, while extremely important to the indus try and the public, are not of a patent able nature. Additional research ex penditures are made in pure scientific studies and to obtain data on funda mental properties of hydrocarbons and metals—data which are necessary to the perfection of new processes and new ap paratus. Little of patentable natuie comes from such work. Nevertheless, a considerable proportion of the industry's research expenditures leaus to patentable developments useful to the industry generally. These patent able inventions are freely published, and are actively licensed to others at reason able royalty rat«*s. Many such develop ments have been widely adapted under license, and the resultant cost and quality benefits to the public have been great.
Getting German Periodicals E. J. Crane
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
355 All this has been done and is being done in reliance on our patent system. Should the patent system be under mined or should patent Licensing be im peded by unnecessary and impractical requirements, to that same extent will the petroleum industry necessarily abandon cooperative developments and revert to the use of "secret processes". This will inevitably slow down the past and current rapid pace of technical development in the industry.
Acknowledgment The writer takes this opportunity to thank W. B. Plummer, J. K. Roberts, G. L. Parkhurst, and George E. Dewey of Standard Oil Co. (Indiana) for the assist ance given him in preparing this state ment.
Elimination of Belt Static W. F. Schaphorst 45 Academy St, Newark, N . J.
CURRENT German scientific and teehnical periodicals can be obtained with little delay in spite of war conditions. Some libraries are getting German jour nals with little or no delay or interruption; other libraries are getting nothing from Germany. Chemical Abstracts deals di rectly with German publishers and its copies are coming through regularly by mail. Most libraries obtain foreign periodicals by dealing with agents. Some agents are making shipments which seem to be ~oniing through all right; other agents are piling up in Germany copies of periodicals corresponding to American subscriptions. This holding of copies in Germany is understood to be for the most part on instructions from American librarians. The purpose, of course, is to avoid the risk of loss under present shipping conditions. librarians naturally feel concern about the maintenance of complete files for long time use. They have to weigh this con cern against the current needs of American investigators and scholars, ί should like to emphasise the importance of these cur rent needs in the hope that the balance may more often be tipped on the side of taking some risk in order to get periodicals now. Publication it the means of coop ération among scientists and scholars, and progress depends a good deal on cooperation. When scientists, for example, have to get along without complete knowledge of the published results of other scientists the handicap is considerable. Damage done by the lack of publications during the war period would be irreparable, whereas damage done by occasional losses of copies οι periodicals could be repaired by modern photoprinting methods, if missing copies could not be claimed from publishers or agents.
There is perhaps some risk of possible bombings and fires in allowing periodicals to accumulate in Germany. The useful life of a published scientific paper of merit may cover many years, but usually the period of greatest useful ness is that which follows immediately after the appearance of the paper. Do not American scientists have a responsi bility both to the Nation and to the world to move forward effectively during j resent world conditions? It is hoped that their need for present courageoui cooperation by librarians will be increasingly recog nized. Librarians are cooperative folks, as Chemical Abstracts has good reason to know. Probably no one outside the li brary realises fully what great care must be exercised to maintain complete sets of periodicals. Still we hope for active effort to secure current copies of journals. The library associations have a commit tee, organised the day after war broke out, which is endeavoring to obtain special British guarantees for shipments of Ger man journals and books υ America, but none lias been obtained so far. However, attempted shipments seem to continue to come through. It is indeed worthy of effort to endeavor to establish and main tain the principle that materials of research having no relation to war riiall continue to pass freely, regardless of country of origin or destination.
IT is possible to prevent the formation of static electricity in belts by making the belt a good conductor of electricity or by using a belt that is a good conductor in the first place. If the belt were made entirely of metal there would be no static. Static difficulties are never experienced in a machine that is made wholly of metal. It is only when nonconductors are present that such difficulties arise. Powder manufacturing companies are exceedingly careful and are successful in preventing the formation of static. Re search engineers of one large powder manu facturing company found that a graphite solution is very effective as a preventive of static. This is because graphite is an excellent conductor of electricity. An other powder manufacturing company uses 50 per cent glycerol and 50 per cens water. This solution is all right so long at its application is continued and the belt is maintained in a moist condition and not allowed to become dry. By applying frequently, belts are maintained in a proper, moist condition. Static electricity is generated by belt slippage and by the continuous making and breaking of contact between the belt and the pulleys. It is also generated by friction of the belt with surrounding air. The potential or voltage is always highest halfway between he pulleys. Thus when combs are used, they should be placed at the midpoint of the belt. Use a high-grade, pliable, high friction belt, which will not slip, which has good conductivity, and which is smooth on both sides, and serious static troubles will never be experienced. It is preferable to use a high quality two-ply belt because both sides of double belts are always •nooth.
Upper corner. Six h u n · dred-gallon jacketed ket· tle heated by McKee Dowtherm boiler, installed in linseed oil processing plant. Eclipse Fuel En· gineeringCo. Above. Oblique delivery-end view of General Electric Co.'s catenary - type electric furnace, equipped with a reactrol temperature control system and used for normalizing steel strip.
Above. Vapor lines and scrubbers at the furfural plant of The Quaker Oats Co., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Left. Construction view of portable water chlorinators for the U. S. Army. Weighing 700 pounds, the units will chlorinate and filter 20 gallons of water per minute. %Propordoneers%, Inc. Right. The Eclipse FuelEngineering Co.'s 300,000-R. t. u. McKee Dow therm boiler.
Asbestos-shrouded fire fighters at U. S. Naval Reserve Air Base, Floyd Bennett Field. Recently developed Firestone Champion tires are used.
Above. Furniture woven of Tennessee Eastman's Tenite II, a cellulose acetate butyrate plastic. Multi-colored Tenite II may be extruded in continuous lengths and is weather resistant. Right. J.W. Marden and N. C. Reese studying an experimental tellurium - vapor arc lamp in research laboratories of the Westinghouse Lamp Division. Characteristic is property which permits lamp to produce a continuous visible spectrum almost identical with that of sunlight.
Left. Window frost shields, assuring a clear view fer American Airline passengers, are fabricated from Vinylite resin sheet, product of Carbio* and Carbon Chemicals Corp. Right. This 100-ton molding press of the F. J. Stoke* Machine Co. has a new type microuex timer and special slow-closing mechanism. Advantages are toggle action, automatic time-cycle control, low hydraulic pressures, low power requiremevts, and low mold maintenance.
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Vol. 18. No. 8
The Drying Oil Situation in America CH,(CH.).CH—CH —CH=*3H (CIIriîCOOR | | Castor oil OH H -HiO
THE paint and varnish industry is a large consumer of various drying oils. One of the most important is tung oil which in normal times contributes about 20 per cent of all the oils used in this industry. The unsettled political situation in the Far East has resulted in periodic dislocations in the supply of this oil, and has stimulated efforts to make the industry independent of Chinese sources. Dr. Gardner presented over 50 lantern slides showing the botanical sources of drying oils, as well as a number of charts and graphs illustrating the production and factory consumption of drying oils. Data
I
CH.(CHt)iCH=CH—CH=»CH(CH,)jCOOR Dehydrated castor oil CH,(CHi).CH=CH—CH-=CH (CHt)rCOOR +HOCI
1
CH,(CHi)»CH—CH--
