November 10, 1933
INDUSTRIAL
AND ENGINEERING
CHEMISTRY
315
Government Economy and Chemical Research in Washington OTTO WILSON, 3025 Fifteenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. N o w THAT THE D U S T of the government economy storm of the early summer has fairly settled we can begin t o appraise the damage i t has done to the progress of chemical research in the Federal Departments. As everyone knows, Washington has long been the great center for practical scientific investigation in t h e United States, and chemical inquiries have formed a major part of this research work. These chemical studies and experiments have been most varied. Carried on with entire disinterestedness, their results have been immediately available to every industrialist, manufacturer, and technical investigator in the country, and they have contributed uncounted millions t o the country's wealth. It is certain that no other expenditure of t h e Government yields such bountiful returns as the comparatively insignificant amounts appropriated for chemical and other scientific research. I t seems equally certain that such returns, being usually of a long-term character, are probably less appreciated by t h e public than any other results of government activity. On the whole, the devastation wrought b y the Economy Act, while painfully severe in places, has not proved as sweeping as it once threatened t o be. Despite t h e presence in Congress and the rest of official Washington of many men of high intelligence who have readily appreciated the value of scientific research, there has existed in the Capital City a certain latent prejudice against long-range scientific activities b y the Government unless the results were immediately apparent. This feeling came into full play when the demand for federal retrenchment became imperative. For a while the whole scientific set-up of the Government seemed endangered. Fortunately, saner counsels prevailed, and although the wings of scientific inquiry throughout the service were clipped, most bureaus were able to continue on a reduced scale. The dilution of the personnel with political appointees, always a danger with the change in political complexion of the administration, has happily been entirely avoided in the scientific branches. T h e chief effect of t h e new order of things on the Government's scientific projects has been the dropping of less essential sub-projects and a general slowing of tempo, with radical and drastic cuts in only one or two departments. While t h e chemical research carried o n in government laboratories is scattered widely among many bureaus and divisions, it centers chiefly in two large branches of the government organization. One of these is the Department of Agriculture a n d the other, the Bureau of Standards i n the Department of Commerce. In both these organizations t h e chemical and other scientific labors are simply a part of the general program for the accomplishment of the objectives prescribed b y Congress. There is a minimum of work that might be classified as fundamental research, and even this is undertaken, not in the spirit of scientific curiosity, but rather in the search for broader principles which will help in the solution of a special problem. T h e work is thus eminently practical (such as the testing of building materials or the analysis of foods and drugs), and it has yielded enormous returns t o the Government and t h e country at large simply in dollars and cents.
decrease was automatically absorbed "by the President's action in cutting the salaries of all government employees 15 per cent. The inadequate bureau salaries were still further reduced b y applying, all down the line, a compulsory furlough of two weeks without pay for all employees, and approximately 350 were placed on indefinite furlough. Every section was called upon t o contribute t o t h e list of discharges, a n d trie number inevitably included a large percentage of trained and valuable professional workers. Even in the sections where the dismissals were only in the clerical ranks t h e effect w a s often the loss of professional services, since t h e higher salaried workers remaining were obliged t o devote much of their time t o purely routine activities. I n cluded among t h e discharged personnel were a number of scientists w h o were carrying out long-range experiments. Elements of personal tragedy were involved in t h i s sudden breaking off of careers, in the overnight discharge of high-grade men who had spent most of their lives in underpaid government service and w h o were faced with the necessity of making other connections a t the very height of the depression. Some of the displaced personnel w e r e transferred to routine testing work in other divisions. A f e w were absorbed into private industrial research. Others picked u p odd jobs at clerical work or whatever else could be found, and a l l too many have remained without employment. But if the personnel itself h a s found or will find adjustment, t h e research projects on which the workers were engaged are almost a total loss. Following are a number of the chemical projects in the Bureau of Standards which have been discontinued entirely or seriously affected b y the cut in funds. T h e y w i l l illustrate t h e character of the services which the bureau a t t e m p t s to render t o t e c h nologists and manufacturers, a n d through, them t o the whole American public, and will suggest something of t h e costliness of "economies" applied t o the study of basic principles back of t h e creation and conservation of wealth.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
research entirely wiped out was the study o f t h e principles back of the sensitivity of photographic emulsions. T h e immense value of the mastery of these principles "to t h e motion-picture industry, t o ordinary still photography, a n d t o medicine and surgery, astronomy, and t h e whole range o f sciences can readily be appreciated. Heretofore surprisingly little has been a t tempted in this field. T h e work by private interests has been largely empirical, with n o very sysrtematic approach t o t h e problem of discovering the best and most sensitive emulsions. The bureau's efforts have been directed toward finding out t h e "why" of photographic effects, rather thaa t h e discovery of finer emulsions. T h e magnitude of t h e task will b e apparent when it is stated t h a t the number of variables entering into t h e consideration of t h e proper combinations for emulsions is on the order of 100,000. This study had its inception during war times, being initiated b y the Government t o raise the standards of military photography. I t resulted particularly in improving the quality of photographs made through haze. After the war the scope of the inquiry was broadened, but its usefulness t o our military, naval, and air forces has always been kept in mind as a primary objective. The laboratory was shut clown and its director and his two assistants were obliged t o seels other connections. CHEMICAL DIVISION. A large Chemical Division operates in the Bureau of Standards, b u t b y far t h e greater part of its work consists in the making of routine t e s t s a n d analyses, with t h e necessary research connected therewith, a n d the carrying on of service work for other branches of t h e Government or for industry. T h e testing work has increased i n volume and personnel in
MANUFACTURE OP LEVULOSE.
In
the Polarimetry Section
experimentation has been discontinued which touched commercial production perhaps more closely than a n y other activity of the bureau. This was the operation o f a semi-commercial plant for the manufacture of lévulose. It w a s a. continuation of t h e bureau's work on the three common sugars—sucrose, dextrose, and lévulose—which has yielded such markedly valuable results in recent years. A few years ago "the B u r e a u of Standards created the dextrose industry b y crystallizing dextrose as a hard refined sugar on a commercial scale, solving t h e fundamental problem involved after private interests h a d worked on it for years i n vain. Within a period of f o u r years after production started it had reached an annual output o f more than 100,000 tons. Still more promising is t h e outlook for lévulose, a sugar sweeter than sucrose whose manufacture from t h e tubers of t h e Jerusalem artichoke t h e bureau's experts have made feasible. The pilot plant set up to operate experimentally in commercial production had a capacity of about one-half t o n of lévulose per day. When it was shut down three d e m i s t s and seven trained operatives were separated from t h e buxeau. SENSITIVITY O F PHOTOGRAPHIC EMULSIONS.
B U R E A U O P STANDARDS
T h e Bureau of Standards w a s hardest hit of all the scientific organizations b y the economy wave. An unfortunate impression had gone abroad that the bureau was doing research for private businesses and industries which they might more properly do for themselves, and despite the well-urged plea that most of this work was of value to the public, and also that i t either could not or would not be taken up b y non-government agencies, the adverse view in large measure prevailed. The extent of the devastation can be adjudged b y citing t h e amount of money left available for t h e current fiscal year, as compared with t h e preceding t w o years. I n the fiscal year 1932 (beginning July 1, 1931) the Bureau of Standards had a total appropriation of $2,746,000, representing no material reduction from earlier years. In the following year the pressing necessity for governmental saving brought the total down to $2,137,000, although this was later supplemented b y $120,000. For the current year— July 1, 1933, to June 30,1934—Congress appropriated $2,056,000. But the incoming administration, in its effort t o balance the national budget, ordered sweeping cuts in every department's appropriation, and t h e Bureau o f Standards found itself with only $1,336,000 with which t o carry on during 1934. This was 36 per cent less than Congress had allowed and was less than onehalf the amount used two years before. T o this sudden reduction of nearly $1,000,000 t h e bureau tried b y various means to adjust itself. A considerable amount of the
Another line of
316
N E W S
E D I T I O N
late months, partly through t h e transfer of funds; but, before that, the division had fully shared in the general curtailment of money a n d activities. For t h e fiscal year 1934 i t had available in July only about §148,000 as compared with $227,000 two years before, and its staff numbered only fifty-four, a loss of fifteen workers. Ten of the fifteen were chemists. Three research projects had been abandoned entirely and t w o others reduced 5 0 per cent, the men engaged on t h e discontinued work being dropped. DIVISION
O F ORGANIC
A N D FIBROUS
MATERIALS.
This
division dealing with paper, rubber, leather, textiles, farm waste, etc., lost a number of its technical men, including chemists. This division has the double function of testing materials and supplies, largely government purchases, and engaging in original research dealing with t h e kinds of materials mentioned. In the testing work t h e personnel was reduced by some 50 per cent, including both chemical and physical workers, and the research side was c u t in much the same proportion. In the Paper Section of this division experiments in testing methods for papers were dropped entirely. Fundamental research o n the factors that make for stability in paper, a matter which h a s heretofore been determined almost wholly b y empirical methods, is still carried on t o a certain extent although t h e degree to which it was cut can be judged b y the fact that not a single chemist was left on paper work. T h e effects of sulfur dioxide in the air and of ordinary sunlight o n the life of books and newspapers preserved in libraries have been t h e subjects of investigations by this section, b u t all library work has had t o be dropped. A study looking toward diminishing the huge waste involved in the offset-lithographic printing process was likewise discontinued. I n the Textile Section six out of eleven employees (not including research associates) engaged in t h e study of textiles were dismissed. As a result, investigations had t o be abandoned relating to the mercerization of cotton yarn, the effects of new dry-cleaning processes and solvents on textiles, a n d the adsorption and desorption of moisture in textiles. I n the Leather and Plastics Section it has been necessary t o stop entirely t h e work on plastics and plastic materials, on furs, and on alum tanning, and t o curtail t h e rest of the investigations. Four trained workers out of nine were lost to t h e section. R U B B E R RESEARCH. N O less than fourteen trained men with experience in testing, research, and other expert work on rubber were dismissed, seven being trained chemists. Of nine men formerly engaged o n fundamental research in connection with t h e properties of rubber, only four were left. Several import a n t projects were abandoned. In an effort t o salvage a part of its rubber program scheduled for abandonment, the Bureau of Standards issued a memorandum describing three major projects o n which work had been discontinued, suggesting that they might be carried forward through the method occasionally followed of employing research associates whose salaries would be paid b y private interests but who would be selected and supervised b y t h e bureau and whose results would be published in the same w a y as other government information is published. I t was estimated that these studies could be continued for about SI5,000 a year—certainly an insignificant amount t o be expended in the service of a billion-dollar industry. As y e t no such arrangement has been made. But the memorandum is interesting as showing t h e type of studies cut off. One of these, which had been carried o n for some years and which was nearing completion, had for its object t h e uncovering of basic data on t h e electric properties of rubber. The most important part of this inquiry dealt with the effects of hydrostatic pressure on the electrical properties of rubber and was undertaken t o aid in determining the effect of ocean pressure on the performance of submarine cables. T h e other t w o researches were investigations of the optical properties of rubber and the study of rubber b y means of x-ray diffraction methods. Regarding the latter the memorandum states: All interpretation of rubber behavior rests on a sound and detailed knowledge of t h e nature of the ultimate structural units of rubber (the molecular chains) and the way in which these units are organized to form the complex material rubber. In this field the x-ray diffraction method is supreme. * * * Contributions to knowledge of far-reaching significance have already been made by this method, but on the whole t h e results thus far obtained can reasonably be regarded only as a preliminary exploration of the field. SOIL KHOSION OF PIPES.
Studies carried on by the Bureau of
Standards whose ultimate value to the public it would be hard t o overestimate are those concerned with soil erosion of pipes. With our whole urban civilization depending on the thousands of miles of pipes which carry electric cables, gas, and water, and with t h e long-distance transportation of oil, natural gas, and other materials always increasing, it can be realized how much would be saved by information which would lengthen the life of these conduits by, say, 15 or 20 per cent. Passed on to t h e public in the form of lower rates the saving would be a direct contribution t o a higher standard of living. T h e bureau has for some time been conducting elaborate tests attacking this problem from many angles. It has determined t h e corrosiveness of 50 t o 7 5 soils, experimented with many different types of pipe coat-
Vol. 11, N o . 2 1
ings, and studied and tested corrosion-resistant materials. T h e work has been carried o n in cooperation with some two hundred and fifty organizations, t h e Government paying about onethird of the cost. U p t o July 1, 1933, t h e bureau had eleven men on this work, including three research associates. This force was reduced to two research associates and t w o bureau men. I t has been necessary to discontinue further attempts to correlate the corrosion rates of different soil characteristics, and all coating studies by Bureau of Standards employees have been given up entirely. ELECTRO-CHEMICAL S E C T I O N .
I n t h i s section t h e force of six
workers, in addition t o the chief, was cut t o four. One of t h e highly valued technical assistants lost was a young lady who was transferred t o testing work elsewhere i n the bureau. This section has the double duty o f maintaining apparatus for determining the standard volt for -the Nation and conducting research for the improvement of storage batteries and dry cells. While the former function is still carried on, the economy drive has made it necessary t o postpone plans for perfecting cells t o be combined with those of other nations i n setting u p an international standard in Paris. T h e character of this work is illustrated b y t h e recent publication of a paper disclosing t h a t glass containers materially affect the electromotive force of cells. Studies in this direction ended abruptly with the transfer of the assistant conducting them. T h e storage-battery work, aside from ordinary testing, has been directed t o a study of the physical and chemical properties of t h e electrolyte and other materials. Quite recently it has been found that the antimony which h a s been used as a constituent of the grids for the past fifty years is a source of detrimental effects in t h e operation of t h e batteries. RESEARCH ON METALS. Five men were formerly engaged in chemical research o n metals. One has been transferred t o other work in the bureau. T h e services of another, at work on fundamental research o n t h e properties of pure iron, were lost temporarily by furlough, b u t he h a s been brought back t o continue his studies. Some phases of the study of testing methods for coating on zinc-coated steel were stopped and other basic research on metals was reduced when part of the personnel of t h e section was transferred to routine testing, e t c . LUBRICATION. In t h e section of t h e bureau dealing with lubrication and liquid fuel a 70 per cent cut entirely eliminated many important researches. Five major projects abandoned included studies o n viscosity, mainly of oils; on the oxidation of crankcase oils; on the separation of oils from greases; on friction phenomena, a n d especially t h e so-called oiliness of oils; and on alcohol-gasoline blends. More recently funds supplied from outside sources have enabled the section to resume studies on alcohol-gasoline blends. B U R E A U OP M I N E S
Next to the Bureau of Standards, the Bureau of Mines felt the economy wave most severely. I t s scientific labors are carried on principally a t its eleven field experiment stations; it has no laboratories in Washington. Its largest station is at Pittsburgh, where all its c o a l and safety research is conducted. Studies are directed particularly toward securing greater safety and well-being for miners, a n d promoting a better handling and fuller utilization of mineral products. The chemical work of t h e bureau, which bore its proportionate share of the e c o n o m y cut, is closely interwoven with the other field work. E c o n o m y measures really began t w o years ago when small reductions were made i n appropriations for the fiscal year 1933 a s compared with 1932, but they did not become drastic until the past spring and summer. Fundamental research has been seriously reduced, but in no greater proportion than essential routine activities. PITTSBURGH ORGANIC C H E M I C A L LABORATORY.
An example
of reduction in fundamental research was the elimination of the organic chemical laboratory a t Pittsburgh. T h e three chemical specialists who formed t h e staff of the laboratory, and who were well known as conscientious and hard-working men with a large number of publications t o their credit, were detached from the service. The problems engaging t h e immediate attention of the organic chemical laboratory when it was closed were included under two main headings—the composition of tar produced by the carbonization of coal at various temperatures, and the development of methods for tar analysis. A s everyone knows, coal tar is a complex mixture of various chemical substances. But their identity has not been fully established and until we know definitely just what they a r e and what may be done with them we shall not have arrived a t the most efficient use of this marvelous substance. I t is perhaps not generally recognized that tar produced by carbonization at one temperature differs in composition from that produced at other temperatures. T h e experiments at the organic laboratory were designed to discover at what temperature the best results would b e obtained. PITTSBURGH E X P L O S I V E S SECTION.
For years t h e Bureau of
Mines has been a leader i n fundamental research on explosives. I t has maintained a t Pittsburgh an Explosives Section which
November 10, 1933
I N D U S T R I A L
AND
E N G I N E E R I N G
is charged with the double duty o f prosecuting basic studies on explosives and of testing explosives for the Government and for industry. One of the outstanding services o f the bureau in this field has been the establishment of a list of permissible explosives with which coal can b e mined w i t h far greater s a f e t y t o, the miners than through the use of the old-time black blasting po wder. Manufacturers of explosives submit samples t o the bureau w h i c h are p u t through a series of rigid -tests, and if these* are success fully m e t t h e brand can be advertised and sold as a "permissible explosive," bearing the approval o f the bureau. O n January 1, 1933, the list of such approved explosives numbered approxi mately one hundred and forty. This testing work has not been interfered with seriously by the economy program, but research has been deeply cut. The Explosives Section is operating with an appropriation of only $25,000, as compared w i t h more than $50,000 last year and more than $60,000 t w o years ago, a n d its staff has been cut from thirteen technical men to eight. Much of t h e research, fundamental and other, has been a b a n d o n e d en tirely. PITTSBURGH F U E L S SECTION.
In t h e Fuels Section at P i t t s
burgh, which studies fundamentals of combustion o f solid fuels, a former staff of thirteen technical men has been reduced t o six, and funds available for the current year are 60 p e r cent u n d e r those of t w o years ago. However, it will probably- still be pos sible t o carry o n most of its major lines of investigation, al though t h e work will necessarily be much slowed down. E x amples of the subjects studied a r e the principles o f combuustion. of domestic fuels, the suitability o f various fuels f o r use in brick kilns, and the removal of ash in the form of molten slag from powdered coal furnaces. PITTSBURGH PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY SECTION.
ALSO at
Pitts-
burgh is t h e Physical Chemistry Section, whose major l i n e of study is t h e development of methods for t h e chemical utiliza tion of waste natural gas. I t looks toward the use of this gas a s raw material for making alcohols, lubricating o i l s , and related commercial products. Other inquiries being actively p r o s e cuted include t h e study of t h e absorption of guises by- coal to find out where the gas in coal mines comes from a n d the s t u d y of t h e plasticity of coal during carbonization. T h e staff was reduced b y dropping three trained workers, and. the current appropriation is a reduction of about 40 per cent from that o f two years ago. O T H E R PITTSBURGH SECTIONS.
Of the other s e c t i o n s o f
the
bureau operating at Pittsburgh in which chemica1 studies are carried on, the Metallurgical Section lost two of its four technical men but gained one b y transfer; t h e Miscellaneous Analysis Section and the Coal Constitution Section each l o s t one trained worker; t h e Coal Analysis Section lost two technical men., and the Gas Section, three. The bureau's work on the toxicity of various gases and vapors encountered i n mining a n d mineral in dustries, together with the personnel engaged in t h i s worts, was dropped, certain phases being transferred t o the Public H e a l t h Service. Some ten or twelve cooperative employees were dis missed. PETROLEUM
FIELD
STATIONS.
The
bureau's
chemical
and
chemical engineering studies of petroleum and its products have been seriously retarded in a manner similar to t h a t suffered b y the various investigations conducted a t the Pittsburgh Station. A t the Petroleum Experiment Station a t Bartlesville, O k l a . , eleven employees were dropped from t h e federal r o l l because of reduced appropriations. The study of making motor fuels from natural g a s has been dropped entirely, t h e experimental unit developed for this work has been. shut down, and four men. who formerly worked on the problem have been reassigned to other duties to take t h e place of personnel n o longer employed at the Petroleum Experiment Station. The Laramie, W y o . , petroleum field office was closed and the bureau's studies of the "better utilization of the black oils of t h e Rocky Mountain region were discontinued. The closing of this office necessitated the dropping of o n e petroleum chemist and t h e transfer and reassignment of two others to different work. A t the San Francisco petroleum field office all work on petroleum-refining w a s stopped and. three chemists who had developed a unique apparatus for fractional distillation studies of the lubricating values of California oils were dismissed from the service. I n addition, the valuable monthly bibliography, containing t h e abstracts of technical articles o n petroleum published throughout the world, which was formerly issued by t h e S a n Francisco office, was d i s c o n tinued. T h e present working fund of the Bureau of M i n e s tofoea p plied to oil and gas studies is only about one-half o f what i t was two years ago. Research in the cryogenic laboratory of t h e bureau pertaining to gases a t low temperatures a n d high pressures and chemical studies of the properties of gases and g a s mixtures also sustained a serious curtailment. OTHER FIELD STATIONS. At other bureau stations a s i m i l a r suspension or elimination of valuable work was recorded. A t Berkeley one chemist engaged in determining specific heats and vapor pressures of metallurgical raw materials w a s dis missed. A t Reno an analytical chemist, and a t Rolla, Mo.,
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two metallurgists engaged on fundamental problems connected witL· crushing, grinding, and concentrating ores were likewise obliged t o find other connections. The New Brunswick ( N . J.) Station l o s t two workers on the extraction of potassium salts and by-products from polyhalite (although t h e work continues in re duced volume); the Tucson (Ariz.) Station lost one chemist and a laboratory aid working on the leaching of low-grade copper ores; and the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Station lost a chemist and a metallur gist studying the concentration of low-grade ores. B U R E A U OF FISHERIES
I n the Bureau of Fisheries, which normally employs about a dozen professional chemists and others whose work is partly chemical, only a small percentage of the chemical personnel has been lost and only the minor lines of investigation discontinued, although major research has been slowed down. Because of the withdrawal of outside support, one research associate on kelp products has been dropped. The seasonal summer work, in which the services of faculty members from various colleges were utilized, h a s had to be largely discontinued. B U R E A U OF FOREIGN A N D DOMESTIC COMMERCE
Iη the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce the foreigntrade investigational activities were cut to the bone, and the service t o the chemical industry suffered along with all other service t o exporters and importers. CHEMICAL DIVISION. This division lost the services of its chemical reporter stationed in Berlin, from which city he made occasional surveys of the chemical markets of central Europe, and the frequent aid of its former large staff of trade commis sioners a n d attachés. The Chemical Division lost five out of its sixteen Washington members and suffered a reduction in funds from $46,000 to $35,000. Cuts of 50 per cent or more in salary were the usual rule. D I V I S I O N OF STATISTICS. This division, which compiles and publishes the official foreign-trade figures of t h e Government, suffered a 50 per cent reduction i n personnel. T h e publication of the chief tables of imports and exports will be continued, though probably with some greater delay for awhile in the monthly figures. CENSUS BUREAU
There has been as yet no change in the plans of the Census Bureau i n conducting the biyearly census of manufactures of chemical industries, and apparently t h e scope of the census will not be reduced.
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Turning to t h e Department of Agriculture we find a much more cheerful picture. There h a s been almost no loss of personnel from the ranks of the chemical workers in Washington, and no great reduction in the numbers of supplementary workers in the field. Throughout t h e various bureaus t h e story is much the same—a full retention of t h e force, a lopping-off of minor projects, a continuation of major projects but a t a much reduced tempo, a n d a cutting-down in supplies and facilities which may be annoying b u t is not fatal to effective research. B U R E A U OP CHEMISTRY AND SOILS
T h e greater part of t h e chemical work of the Department of Agriculture is comprised within t h e Bureau of Chemistry and Soils. This bureau has come through the difficult times of the past half-year in good shape. A midsummer check-up showed that there had been sixty-five separations from the bureau's service, practically all taken care of b y transfers or included i n separations because of age, the 30-year rule, or the married-persons' rule. Nearly all were clerical workers, and only one or two trained chemists were affected. Appropriations of $1,766,000 b y Congress were cut t o $1,470,000, as compared with $2,104,000 two years ago. T h e reduction was accomplished b y cutting down the purchase of supplies, reducing field work, eliminating travel, etc., and practically all leading research projects were kept going. T h e only major activity which had to be closed down was the operation of a blast furnace at American University for t h e recovery of potash and phosphorus, and even on that project the laboratory work continues. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION
In the Food and Drug Administration, a considerable amount of chemical analysis is constantly carried on in connection with regulatory activities. T h e required reduction in expenditure was met by cutting down travel a n d purchase of equipment, arid effecting other economies. The station in Porto Rico was closed, a n d the staff of one station in continental United States which dealt only with milk w a s reduced, one chemist being transferred. Altogether twenty-two people were dropped from the rolls, including four or five chemists.
NEWS
318 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY
In the Bureau of Animal Industry the chief effect of the economy wave has been to limit and slow down investigations, rather than to suspend or eliminate any major line of chemical study. A typical example of this curtailment is the effect on the studv of a poison weed in Texas which is said to have caused the death of 300,000 sheep in 1931. The laboratory work was begun under a special appropriation of $10,000. With the decrease in funds there is not money enough t o collect adequate supplies of the weed or even to pay the freight to Washington, and the work faces the prospect of being set back a year or per haps longer. MISCELLANEOUS CHEMICAL WORK
The chemical work of the Bureau of Dairy Industry, the Bureau of Plant Industry, the Bureau of Home Economics, and other agricultural offices has not been seriously curtailed by the economy measures. D E P A R T M E N T OF THE INTERIOR GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
In the Geological Survey the chemical work is almost entirely devoted to analyses of rocks, minerals, and water, together with studies on a wide variety of research problems related to the survey's geologic projects. DIVISION
OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL RESEARCH.
This
division does most of this work, employing nine chemists and three physicists. For awhile it seemed that the economy pro gram would make necessary the dismissal of four of this force, but the necessary saving has recently been effected by placing the personnel of the entire geologic branch on a payless 3-month furlough. This will cut down the volume of chemical work but will not necessarily cause the abandonment of any one project. WATER RESOURCES.
The only other chemical work in the
Survey of importance is that in Water Resources, where the chemical laboratory lost one chemist, one sub-professional worker, and one clerk. The reduction affects the volume but not the character of the work. MlSCELLANEOUS The Chemical Division of the Tariff Commission effected a con siderable economy two years ago in suspending its' annual census of dyes, substituting a brief annual summary of a few pages, and no further essential curtailment of its service has been necessary. From most other government agencies employing chemists reports are fairly encouraging. The chemical work of the National Institute of Health, which carries on the technical research for the Public Health Service, has been affected very little. In the Navy Department the Naval Research Laboratory has not been compelled to curtail its chemical studies because of lack of funds, and in the War Department the Chemical Warfare Service, although affected somewhat b y limitations on its funds, has not had to discontinue vital lines o f research.
INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES THE RESEARCH INFORMATION SERVICE, through C. J. West'and
Vol. 11, No. 21
EDITION
Callie Hull, has prepared Bulletin 91, published by the National Research Council, being a revised list of the industrial research laboratories of the United States, including consulting research laboratories. This is the fifth edition of this reference work which has already been found of great value and assistance. The material is that furnished by the directors of the laboratories and is considered correct as of January 1, 1933. Efforts were made to contact new laboratories and to g e t the latest information from those appearing in the earlier lists. Laboratories connected with federal, state, or municipal gov ernments or with educational institutions have been excluded, even though they may frequently be engaged upon investigations of industrial problems. Most concerns which are not actually supporting laboratories in their own works have not been in cluded, nor have most of the associations maintaining fellowships in educational institutions. This compilation is limited to the laboratories themselves. The new bulletin contains information regarding 1575 industrial consulting laboratories, which is 50 less than the number appearing in the fourth edition. Of the labora tories listed in the previous bulletin, about 110 reported that re search had been temporarily or permanently discontinued, 25 reported that they had been combined with other laboratories, and 90 failed to respond to three requests for revised data. About 170 laboratories are listed for the first time in this bulletin, al though this does not necessarily mean that they have all been established since the fourth edition appeared. The bulletin is available from the National Research Council, 2101 Constitu tion Ave., N. W., Washington,D. C, at $2.00.
New Textile Wetting-Out Agent Developed from Gas Plant Tar C. H. S. TUPHOLME, 114, Talbot Road, London, W. 11, England As A RESULT of research work carried out on gas tars at the chemical laboratories of the Department of Scientific and Indus trial Research, a new textile wetting-out agent made from gas tar is being marketed. The British Cotton Industries Research Association collaborated. The starting point of this work, says Gilbert T. Morgan, who was responsible for the research, is that various trade preparations incorporating phenols with other constituents, such as hydrogenated aromatic substances, have proved to be good wetting agents and have been extensively imported into Britain for use in the cotton industry. The raw materials for the research work were the crude tar acids from vertical gas retorts and low-temperature tars. These products were purified: (1) from the neutral and basic impuri ties which, being insoluble in alkali, produce turbidity or even a separate layer in the phenolate solution; and (2) from small amounts of constituents which, by producing deep red solution? in alkaline media, tend to stain vegetable fibers. These impuri · ties were removed by the combined action of air and steam intro duced into a boiling solution of the crude tar acids in caustic soda, when the color-producing impurities were oxidized and the neutral and basic oils were distilled away in steam. Distillation of the purified phenols so obtained gave a series of fractions, the most volatile of which, boiling below 205° C , proved to have but little value as a wetting-out agent, although it was slightly better in this respect than horizontal retort tar. With a decrease in volatility, successive phenolic fractions showed an increase in wetting properties, but at the same time were ac companied by diminishing solubility in concentrated alkali. It was eventually found that the fraction distilling between 205° and 290° C. at atmospheric pressure dissolved in a 26 per cent caustic soda solution (58° Twaddell) to yield a clear, colorless solution which proved on test to be superior to the equivalent solutions of commercially available wetting agents. Professor Morgan points out that, if the concentration of alkali is reduced to 7 Ν (50° Twaddell), a narrower fraction of tar acids boiling between 240° and 260° C. can be utilized. This close-cut product is twice as efficient as the wider fraction (i. e., boiling between 206° and 290° C ) , but on account of its lower solubility it is not applicable in caustic soda solutions of concen trations greater than 7 N. The greater solubility of the wider fraction is due to the inclusion of a larger proportion of the more volatile constituents, which, though they have lower wetting properties, are valuable, in the form of phenolates, as solvents for the more powerful but less soluble phenolates. The new product has been given the name "Shirlacrol" and, on submission to a number of concerns for exhaustive test, has been pronounced superior to any known wetting agent. When tar acids are distilled on an industrial scale, cracking de velops at about 270° C , with the consequent formation of neu tral material and color-forming compounds. It is, Professor Morgan points out, therefore essential that distillations for the production of Shirlacrol should not be carried beyond this crack ing temperature, in which case the loss of material above 270° C. must be counterbalanced by the elimination of more volatile phenols distilling between 205° and 210° C. The Shirlacrol offered for sale is, therefore, a product for use in caustic soda solutions of concentration up to 26 per cent by weight, and consists of a fraction of tar acids distilling between 210 s and 270° C , and containing on an average 55 to 60 per cent of its volume distilling below 230° C. Different grades of the wetting agent suitable for use in caustic soda solutions of any given concentration can be obtained by graded fractionation. Since the introduction of vertical retort tars, the chief outlet for high-boiling tar acids has been the preparation of disinfectant fluids, such as sheep dips, for these higher phenols are also power ful germicides. During recent years this market has been se verely restricted, while the output of the higher boiling tar acids continues to increase. As the cotton industry is capable of con suming large quantities of an efficient wetting agent produced at an economical price, it is expected that there will be a large de mand for Shirlacrol, thus benefiting both the tar-distilling and the textile industries. As far as the writer is aware, the process has not been patented, and the new wetting agent is marketed only by the chemical plant operated by the Glasgow corporation.
WHO M A K E S I T ? FIFTY POUNDS of
ethyl bromoacetate, technical, are
wanted by R. A. Hunter, U. S. Munitions Manufacturing Co., Blairsville, Pa.
