THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK electrophoresis Apparatus. They also dis tribute the Kern Full-Circle Polarimeter. Witco Chemiccl Co. h a s installed three stills, two of 100-ton and one of 50-ton capacity, for making roofing and paving asphalt at the company's Perth Amboy, Nf. J., plant. Davison Chemical Co., Baltimore, was erroneously credited with two sulfur proj ects listed in the table "Free World Sulfur Production—1952-55/' which appeared in CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING N E W S , July
28, 1952. One of these, a plant for the production of 8500 tons, will b e operated by Simpson Coal and Chemical Corp., New York. A certificate of necessity for this purpose was granted to Simpson Coal by the Defense Production Administration. Another sulfur project, for 21,000 tons, also credited to Davison Chemical, has not been confirmed. McBride Refining Co.. La Blanca, Tex., has put in operation the first commercial plant using Atlantic Refining Co/s cata lytic reforming process. The McBride in stallation has a capacity of 750 barrels of crude oil per day. Atlantic has units which use the process under construction at its Philadelphia and Port Arthur, Tex., plants. The process has also been licensed to Malco Refineries, Inc. of Prewitt, Ν. Μ., which has facilities under construction. American Alcolac Corp., 3440 Fair field Rd., Baltimore, producers of fatty alcohol sulfate detergents, recently es tablished two national sales districts. The N e w York Office will b e managed by Wiley J. Pickett while t h e Chicago office, at 6 North Michigan Ave., will be di rected by Alfred A. Michaud. The com pany's Canadian branch has opened new offices and warehouse facilities at 937 Vic toria Square, Montreal. Girdier Corp., Louisville, Ky., engi neers and designers of chemical and proc essing plants, has been elected to member ship in the National Constructors Associa tion. This is an organization composed of firms engaged on a national basis in the design and construction o f chemical plants, petroleum refineries, and steel mills. Speer Carbon Co., resistor division, has completed the moving o f their manufac turing facilities from St. Marys, Pa., to the new plant in Bradford. Eight production lines are now in operation at Bradford. The sales and executive offices will still be maintained in St. Marys. Tennessee Farmers Cooperative has completed its second fertilizer plant, near Knoxville, for production of superphos phate. The first plant is at Lavergne, Tenn. Montana Ferro Alloy, Inc., Memphis, has postponed operation of its second furnace because of the steel strike. A third furnace for reduction of chrome ore is under construction, Kusan,
Inc.'s
VOLUME
plant
near
3 0, N O . 3 6
Nashville,
.
Tenn., was destroyed by fire about the same time that its most recent expansion was reported (C&EN, Aug. 4, page 3 1 7 7 ) . Naugatuck Chemical Division, United States Rubber Co. is doubling the capac ity of its facilities for the production of Vibrin polyester resins at its headquarters plant in Naugatuck, Conn. The company now manufactures 10 dif ferent types of polyester resins for the reinforced plastics fabricator which in clude water white, heat resistant, fire re sistant, flexible, hard, casting, and ultra high heat resistant varieties. The latest is a general purpose resin known as Vibrin 117, which is light in color, has a low exotherm, cures uniformly and gives good translucency with glass fibers. It can be used in matched metal die molding, lami nating, and potting processes.
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Procon Inc., Chicago, has been awarded a contract for the construction of a 16,000 barrel per day Platforming unit for Shell Oil Co. at its Wood River, 111., refinery. This unit is being designed for the pro duction of high octane motor fuel. Procon is also building a Platformer for Shell—a 16,000 barrel per day unit for aromatics production now nearing completion—at the company's Houston refinery. Con struction of the Wood River unit will be gin immediately. Cork Import Corp., Englewood, N. |., has changed its corporate name to Na tional Cork Co. Imports are now but a small part of its annual volume. The new name will b e truly indicative of its pres ent day activities and will emphasize its close connection to the domestic cork in dustry.
GOVERNMENT
Court Decision Strengthens Fight Against Worthless Remedies Testimony of lay witnesses that they had cancer or were cured of cancer has no value in court cases according to a U. S. Court of Appeals decision. The same court found that the diagnosis of cancer requires a biopsy and that there are only three known effective treatments for cancer—surgery, x-ray, and radiation. Charles W . Crawford, Commissioner of Food and Drugs, interpreted the rulings as greatly strengthening the hand of the Government in its fight against worthless cancer remedies. The rulings were em bodied in a unanimous decision at N e w Orleans by the Appellate Court when it ordered an injunction against Harry M. Hoxsey and the Hoxsey Cancer Clinic of Dallas, prohibiting shipment across state lines of their medicine for internal cancer. The Circuit Court reversed a-judgment of the U. S. District Court at Dallas after reviewing testimony of more than 50
SEPTEMBER
8,
1952
T h e case-histories of 1 5 4 difficult friction p r o b l e m s i n t h e s h o p a n d i n t h e field, all successfully s o l v e d , are d e s c r i b e d i n a n e w 4 0 p a g e booklet. It is w h e r e c o n d i t i o n s are e x t r e m e that Moly-sulfide excels over other lubricants. If y o u e n c o u n t e r e x treme c o n d i t i o n s of pressure, t e m perature o r v e l o c i t y , s e n d for t h i s free b o o k l e t .
Climax Molybdenum Company 500 Fifth Avenue Now Ynrk Citv»36-N-Y
Please send mo . your Free Booklet
Name Position! Company, Address..
CEÊ9 MS-9
3725
THE C H E M I C A L W O R L D THIS WEEK medicinal witnesses and cancer experts who had testified for the Government, and about 2 5 defense witnesses.
Engineers to Be Released from Army Available for Interviewing
FLORIDIN PRODUCTS Floridin products have b e e n adapted by c o n t i n u o u s research for t h e most a d v a n c e d technical uses. O n a n y p r o b l e m of ad sorption—dehydration—cataly sis—decoloration, you may find an a n s w e r i n these prepared forms of Fullers Earth a n d Bauxitebased Adsorbents. Y o u r inquiry will be g i v e n careful attention.
ΜΟΜΜΜΜΛΙί&ΙΙ ADSORBENTS
J)JeiiL^Z2201L_IBERTY ST.. WARRENJPA.
PUMP HIGHLY CORROSIVE FLUIDS SAFELY!
NEW B B H B H H B I With Nttural Rubber, Gum, N«opr*n«, Buna, Hycer
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More than 100 graduate engineers and scientists at Camp Detrick, Md., are due to b e released from active service in the Army Chemical Corps beginning in September. All draftees, they have been serving under the Army's Scientific and Professional Personnel program since late 1950 or early 1951. Four of the men have formed a committee, headed by Pfc. Herbert J. Wagner, 9766th T S U , Camp Detrick, to facilitate the job-seeking activities of those to be released. T h e committee arranges interviews with prospective employers, distributes information about companies to the men, and provides publicity for each requesting company. Among those to be released are civil, electrical, chemical, and mechanical engineers, biologists, bacteriologists, chemists, biochemists, statisticians, accountants, agronomists, and business administration majors. Many of them have advanced degrees and many have pre-Army industrial experience gained after graduating from college. Meanwhile, a similar group at the Army Chemical Center, Md., reports that it has arranged interviews with companies such as U. S. Rubber, American Cyanamid, U. S. Steel, and Standard Oil for 180 of the 2 2 0 SPPs to be released. About 35 of the soldiers have decided to stay on at the Army Chemical Center as civilians after their release from the Army.
mmmEsm Army Chemical Corps Obtains Patent on Napalm
N O STUFRNC (BOXES {SPECIALLY DESIGNED TO HANDLE HCL HF. NoOH, H£04 DISTILLED Η,Ο, J j C l „ Ca(OH)t and many
Fluid only contacts » outtr surface of •FLEX-1-LINER" and inner surface of body block. 35 combinations of rubber and plastic "flex-i-liner*" end pump body blocks. Models available from fractional to SO G . P . M . Vinyl and Comper "flex-i-liners·· also available In pumps to 5 G . P . M . capacities. Widely used in chemical, food, pharmaceutical and other process Industries—wherever non-conîeminating pumping Is required. Excellent for slurries. Write for literature.
WÊÊUBÊ.
VANTON
SELF PRIMING MO GASKETS NO VALVES HIGH VACUUM SELF LUBRICATING OTHERDESIGHFEATURES
PUMP
CORP.
EMPIRE STATE SLDG., Dcpt. CEN 19, N. Y.t N. Y. 3726
After nearly 10 years delay, a patent covering the early major work in the development of a gasoline thickening agent, napalm, has been obtained by the Army Chemical Corps. T h e patent, N o . 2,606,107, was issued early this month by the U. S. Commissioner of Patents to Louis F. Fieser of Belmont, Mass., a professor or organic chemistry at Harvard University. Dr. Fieser has, in turn, assigned the patent to the U. S. Government for use b y the Chemical Corps. T h e issued patent is quite broad in its coverage and scope, the claims being directed to the thickening composition as well as the gelled fuel. The application for the patent, which covers the work done by Dr. Fieser and his associates in 1941-42 under the sponsorship of the National Defense Research Committee, was filed in 1943. However, because of the national security implications involved, issuance of the patent itselt was held up until early this month. C H E M I C A L
Dr. Fieser and a group of colleagues began the search for a gasoline thickening agent for use as a flamethrower fuel shortly before Pearl Harbor. Their early work concerned the possible use of rubber mixed with gasoline, however, with the rubber supplies cut off b y the Japanese aggression, the scientists had t o seek some other means. Their research led to the present thickening agent, known as napalm, wliich is made up basically of the aluminum soaps of coconut fatty acids, aluminum naphthenate, and unsaturated fatty acids. The Chemical Corps procures all the napalm used by the United States Armed Forces.
USDA Patents Relate To Crop Utilization The following patents describe inventions made in the course of utilization research on southern farm crops conducted by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The patents have b e e n assigned to the Government and licenses are issued on a nonexclusive, royalty-free basis. Additional information regarding the patents may be obtained from t h e Southern Regional Research Laboratory of USDA, N e w Orleans, La. Applications for licenses should identify the patents b y number and title and should be addressed to the Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, Washington 25, D . C. Reducing the Crystallinity of Native Fibrous Cellulosic Material. Pat. 2,580,491. T h e material is immersed in certain anhydrous liquid amines, preferably ethylamine, and then the amino group is removed with a nonpolar solvent. This lowers the crystallinity to about 25 to 3 5 % without changing the x-ray pattern of the material from that of native cellulose. Water-Soluble Combination Products of Gossypol and Proteins. Pat. 2,581,342. The products, which are toxic to goldfish, are prepared by dissolving gossypol and proteins such as peanut or casein proteins in a basic aqueous medium, neutralizing, freezing the medium, and removing the water by sublimation. Water-Soluble Combination Products of Gossypol and Amino Acids. Pat. 2,582,949. The combination products, which are toxic to goldfish but not to rats or mice, are produced b y dissolving gossypol and an amino acid such as lysine in a basic aqueous medium, neutralizing, and freezing the medium. The water is removed by sublimation. Preparation of Pentaerythrityl Phosphate. Pat. 2,583,549. Compounds such as pentaerythrityl tetrakis ( diammonium phosphate) are made by heating mixtures of pentaerythritol and urea phosphate at 130° to 180° C. until the evolution of water ceases. Such compounds form celA N D
E N G I N E E R I N G
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