... on HEADLINES of-.the Month Events of interest to Chemists, Chemical Engineers, and ExecutivesNNReviewed by the Editors June 16.
Bureau of Mines announce8 plan to erect new $2,600,000 experiment station a t Morgantown, W. Va., for research on coal chemicals. b Dom Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., develops new “self-extinguishing” plastic, Styrofoam 33, with greatly reduced burning characteristics.
June 17. Federal Chemical Co. of Louisville, Ky., announces plan to build plant a t Danville, Ill., to manufacture superphosphate and complete fertilizers. Nationwide survey of engineering manpower utilization sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers reveals shortage of 18,000 engineers which, group says, can be met only by more effective use of present personnel. b New device for measuring moisture of soil, based on elcctrical resistance of buried absorbent block, described a t the 26th National Colloid Symposium of ACS. b H. L. Maxwell, supervisor of Mechanical Engineering Consultants of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., elected president of the American Society for Testing Materials. June 18. Defense Production Administration sets goal for basic plastic materials a t 4,600,000,000 lb. by 1955. DPA has already received application for certific? tes of necessity representing 2,559,469,000 lb. expansion. b Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Co. announces plans for early fall construction of $132,000,000 plant near Seadrift, Calhoun County, Tex., for manufacture of synthetic organic chemicals and plastic resins. DPA has granted certificate of necessity for $66,300,474. b Heyden Chemical Co. offers new antibiotic ointment, bacimycin, which is a hybrid of neomycin and bacitracin, and has wider antibacterial activity than either constituent. b Pending court decision on Atlas Powder Co.’s challenge on order prohibiting use of certain bread emulsifiers, Food and Drug Administration postpones effective date of its order. b National Production Authority lifts allocation controls on naphthenic acid, petroleum product used in manufacture of napalm, paint driers, textile impregnants, cutting oils, and emulsifying agents. Price of zinc undergoes third cut since June 2 to 15 cents a pound. b Ferro Corp., Cleveland, Ohio, announces opening of new plant at Osaka, Japan, designed to manufacture porcelain enamel “frit” or ‘[flake” to be operated by subsidiary, Ferro Enamels (Japan), Ltd. June 21.
Many millions of tons of rock containing pyrochlore, a mineral containing uranium and niobium (columbium), have been discovered in Kano Province, Nigeria, Africa. August 1952
June 22.
New order by NPA enables laboratories doing research for defense contracts, and other scientific and technical laboratories, to obtain steel, copper, and aluminum more easily. b At the 80th annual meeting of the Manufacturing Chemists’ Association a t White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., Charles S.Munson, chairman of MCA reports that dollar volume of chemictlls produced in U. S. since 1950 has increased by 37%. Also, plants costing $5,000,000,000 in total amount have been constructed or begun during same period.
June 23.
University of Toledo and three glass companies announce formation of graduate school in silicate chemistry and related sciences to be directed by Wilhelm Eitel, Office of Naval Research. Cosponsors, who will contribute $75,000 over a period of five years while the university contributes $50,000, are the Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Co., the Owens-Illinois Glass Co., and the Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp. b Eli Lilly & Co. announces discovery of new antibiotic, Ilotycin, which promises to be effective against penicillinsusceptible organisms, as well as others which have become resistant to penicillin or were never affected by it, such as those causing typhus, undulant fever, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. b Materials Policy Commission submits report to President Truman forecasting quadrupled chemical production by 1975. b Franz Kirchheimer, chief of the State Geological Institute of Baden in West Germany, reports finding ore in the Black Forest containing up to 60% uranium. Further investigation required concerning practicability of mining operations.
June 24.
MCA names William H. Ward, vice president of Du Pont, chairman of .the board, succeeding Charles S. Munson, chairman of Air Reduction Co., newly elected president of the association. H. W. Fisher of Standard Oil Co. (New Jersey) named vice chairman. b Office of Price Stabilization, in conformance with Office of Defense Mobilization directive, exempts from price control all sales of foreign primary copper and copper refined from imported ores, concentrates, and imported raw materials, including scrap, with proviso that proper records be kept subject to OPS inspection. Ceiling price will also be adjusted to allow prices to reflect 80% of increased cost of foreign copper. b American section of Society of Chemical Industry announces that Crawford H. Greenewalt, president of D u Pont, will receive the Chemical Industry Medal for 1952 for “conspicuous services to applied chemistry.”
INDUSTRIAL AND ENG INEERING CHEMISTRY
7A
HEA b D P A sets goal for production of 1,210,000,000 lb. of styrene annually by 1955, an increase of 490,000,000 lb. over 1951 production total. b Borden’s new $600,000 resorcin plant at Dominguez, Calif., ready to go into full production by end of August. I n addition to about a million pounds a year of resorcin it will produce resin glues and industrial resins.
June 26. Parke, Davis & Co. announces plans to build new pharmaceutical manufacturing laboratory near Caracas, Venezuela. b Construction nearly completed and dedication planned of White Laboratories’ new $3,000,000 plant for manufacturing pharmaceuticals at Kenilworth, N. J. b American Potash & Chemical Corp., Trona, Calif., announces construction of new $300,000 laboratory for research on boron and lithium compounds a t Whittier, Calif. b DPA’s expansion goal for 1956 production of activated carbon set at 97,400,000 lb., an increase of 22,700,000 lb. over 1951 capacity. June 27. Armed Services Medical Procurement Agency grants $1,500,000 contract to Cutter Laboratories, Berkeley, Calif., to supply 200,000 units of dextran, blood plasma extender to civil defense and military defense departments. June 28. Journal
of American Medical Association editorial reports possibility that serious side reactions, including aplastic anemia, may result from use of Chloromycetin. See reply of Parke, Davis & Co., suppliers of the new antibiotic, July 14.
D 1 I N E S of the Month $16,000,000 trona plant and mine near Green River, Wyo., is 80% complete. When production begins early in 1953, a daily output of 1000 tons of refined soda ash is expected.
July 4.
Anaconda Copper Mining Co. starts digging of government-spurred $38,000,000 open pit copper mine t o get a t underground mountain of copper ore near Yerington, Nev. Pit will cover almost two square miles of surface area. Government agrees to buy 256,000,000 lb. of output during first six gears, if copper cannot be sold to industry. b Other new U. S. copper developments will increase domestic output by about 200,000 tons a year during the next few years, or by about 20% of 1951 outputt.
July 5. Senate approves and sends to House bill continuing until June 30, 1953, present suspension of import duties on metal scrap. July 6.
Kewly foimed Dead Sea Works, Ltd., owned by Israeli government, buys potash company situated a t southern end of Dead Sea, from British-owned Palestine Potash, Ltd. b Certificates of necessity for 35 chemical and allied projects, totaling about $127,000,000, for period June 13 through June 19, approved by DPA4.
OPS sets ceiling prices for marginal sulfur producers which are higher than prevailing ceilings, in a n effort to encourage elemental sulfur production by otherwise economically prohibitive non-Frasch methods. Higher priced sulfur, for export only, leaves domestic market unaffected.
July 7. DMPA agrees to purchase 50,000,000 lb. of molybdenum to be produced by Climax Molybdenum Co. from low grade ores over period of 10 years. Company will begin production by Jan. 1, 1954, and spend up to $9,500,000 for additional facilities to process 17,000,000 tons of low-grade ore from its Lake County, Colo., properties. b OPS reports that resorcinol, important in the produetion of adhesives, rubber, and medicine, as well as numerous other fields, is not obtainable in adequate amounts for most civilian and military uses after being in short supply for more than a year, as result of DPA certificates of necessity for additional capacity. b General Services Administration reveals nationwide program for government buying of manganese ore and concentrates from small domestic producers up to 19,000,000 long dry ton units or until June 30, 1956, whichever occurs first. b Pioneer Latex & Chemical Co., Middlesex, N. J., offers Chem-Set, a new adhesive which produces both a chemical set and an effective, moistureproof bond between rubber tile and cement. b Dearborn Chemical Co. plans construction of $1,000,000 plant a t Lake Zurich, 111. b OPS specifies uniform, industry-wide ceiling of $0.0772 a pound in tank car lots of technical grade carbon tetrachloride, supplanting former individual maximum prices under Ceiling Price Regulation 22. b Representatives of International Business Machines describe new electronic scanning machine which may make possible speedy and almost completely mechanical literature searches. Owing to lack of “machine language,” machine searching is not yet available for general use.
July 2.
July 8.
June29.
All special inventory controls on zinc removed by
NPA. b E. E. Fogle will be on leave from Union Carbide and Carbon Corp. for 8ix months to serve as director of Rubber, Chemicals, and Drugs Division of OPS, replacing W. P. Drake of the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. b Commercial Solvents Corp. announces opening of first commercial plant in the country designed for production of dextran, blood plasma volume expander, a t Terre Haute, Ind. Plant cost $1,500,000 and has capacity of one million pints of dextran annually.
June 30.
Solvay Process Division, Allied Chemical & Dye Corp., conducts formal ground breaking for new $15,000,000 chlorine and caustic soda plant a t Moundsville, MI. Va. b OPS sets price ceilings for domestic sales by manufacturers of aluminum fluoride and fluxing grades of synthetic cryolite. b Delaney Committee approves FDA plan for rigid controls on use of new chemicals in and on foods, recommending that food additives be pretested and approved by FDA before granting permission for distributbn.
July I.
To prevent loss of production of lead caused by “unrealistic” slump in buying, Defense Material Procurement Agency announces plans to buy 30,000 tons of lead at prevailing market prices before end of this year which can be resold to private industrial consumers or turned over to military stockpile at year’s end if not sold. b Progress report from Intermountain Chemical Corp., owned by Food Machinery & Chemical Corp. and National Distillers Products Corp., reveals that construction of its %A
The Lion Oil Go., Eldorado, Ark., begins construction of new Barton Chemical Plant at Luling, La., about 14 miles from New Orleans, which will manufacture anhydrous ammonia and prilled ammonium nitrate. Nitric acid will be produced in an intermediate step. b Japan reports to International Materials Conference that it will be able to export 46,000 tons of sulfur during latter half of this year, about four times the allocation for the January to June period.
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Vd. 44. No.
8
E A D L I N E Sb Improvement in material supplies enables DPA to remove aluminum, tin, copper, and tungsten from “most critical” classification on new list of basic materials. New items added to “most critical” list are : bis-phenol, granular charcoal, lithium metal, p phenylphenol, and p-tertbutyl phenol‘ National Polymer Products Corp., Reading, Pa., announces new, finely divided nylon powder, Nylasint 66, suitable for cold pressing and sintering techniques.
July 9. DMPA agrees to purchase 40,000 tons of synthetic cryolite and aluminum fluoride from Aluminum Ore Co., a subsidiary of Aluminum Co. of America, during next four years at cost-of-production prices. b T a r 8 Commission reports increased output of coal tar intermediates during 1951 of 33% beyond 1950 record. Among chemicals in this group were: styrene, monochlorobenzene, and phenol, with production totals of 707,000,000 lb., 471,000,000 lb., and 388,000,000 lb., respectively. Celanese Corp. of America begins large scale production at Bishop, Tex., of trioxane, standardized by Quartermaster Corps as best solid fuel for heating field rations of military forces. b Francis J. Curtis, vice president and director of Monsanto Chemical Co., elected president of the Society of Chemical Industry, international organization of industrial chemists. July 10.
Mathieson Chemical Corp. acquires E. R. Squibb & Sons, pharmaceutical firm, which will be operated as separate division retaining its name. 3
July 11. Davison Chemical Corp. begins construction of triple superphosphate plant at Ridgewood, Fla., part of its $25,400,000 expansion program. b Allied Chemical & Dye Corp.’s Barrett division opens new Shadyside Applications Research Laboratory a t Edgewater, N. J., designed to develop and test materials and processes used in manufacture of plastics, rubber products,. paints and varnishes, paper, laminates, and insulation materials. July 13. I M C allots slightly increased quotas of nickel and cobalt to U. S. for third quarter but warns that these metals are still in very short supply. Work begins on ESSO’S multi-million dollar expansion project which will increase refinery capacity in HamburgHarbury, West Germany, from 700,000 tons of throughput a year to 1,400,000tons. August 1952
July 14.
DPA sets production goals for 1955 of 600 trillion units of penicillin, 410 million gallons of ethyl alcohol, and 5.2 million short tons of soda ash, Agency predicts that latter two goals will be exceeded, and, therefore, no further government aid for expansion of these chemicals can be expected. b Stauffer Chemical Co. plans construction of several million dollar plant near Salt Lake City for production of phosphate fertilizer and phosphoric acid. b Parke, Davis & Co. replies to AMA editorial (June 28): Chloromycetin, like any potent drug, may affect blood system but intense clinical and laboratory investigation since 1949 makes this unlikely. Also, cases quoted by AMA were treated concurrently with other potentially dangerous drugs. Of 8,000,000 patients treated, 112 have shown mild and severe blood disorders of various types. Dow Chemical Co. issues $100,000,000 worth of debentures, convertible to common stock, to capitalize plant expansion.
July 15.
Linus Pauling, chairman of the department of chemistry and chemical engineering of California Institute of Technology, is granted “limited passport’’ to travel to France and England. After three previous rejections, State Department officials “re-evaluated” case on basis of additional informat ion. b DPA issues 24 more certificates of necessity among which are authorizations for seven styrene plants under recently announced expansion goal.
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
9A
