can be considered well informed toN0dayCHEMIST unless he knows more than a little about the "antibiotics," of which penicillin is the best known example. The spring number of Research Today (Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis 6, Indiana) is entirely devoted to this fascinating field, with one article particularly on the biochemistry of these substances. Several color illustrations make the number especially attractive. The introduction to the whole subject is well summed up in the one paragraph: "The soil is perhaps the richest source of organisms with antibiotic activity. It abounds with living organisms engaged in a ceaseless battle for existence. One of the properties commonh possessed by these microorganisms is their ability to excrete suhstances which tend to repress the growth of or to kill their neighbors."
The June Dow Diamond (Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan) contains a rather brief, but wellillustrated account of the recovery of bromine from sea water, and "16 pages of facts about plastics." The latter feature, called a "plastics primer," is a good start for anyone who wants to orient himself in this broad field. An interesting feature in the last number (vol. 19. no. 4) of Inco (International Nickel Company, 67 Wall St., New York 5, New York) describes how war research has increased the e5iciency of permanent magnets. We quote: "While no one has yet answered the questions as to what is and why is a magnet, science nevertheless has progressed rapidly in adapting the common-r permanent-magnet to hundreds of useful applications. Many of these developments have come within the past decade in which, according to engineers of General Electric, more progress has been packed than in the 300 years preceding. "War has intensified the use and the improvement of the magnet. Recently, one made of A l n i c o a n alloy of aluminum, nickel, and cobalt with iron-was designed that could lift 4450 times its own weight. This may he only a starter according to the experts. Many uses are now forecast in which the permanent magnet will form the core of many commercial and household appliances. As their magnetic power increases, i t is expected that these magnets will be able to replace much heavier and bulkier electromagnets which require conveniently available sources of electric power. the war these exnerts foresaw such commercial ~ o s s i "Before bilities as a co5ee maker that automatically turns dawn the heat when the coffee is done, letting it stay warm hut not allowing it
to become overcooked; an electric flatiron that automatically switches off the juice when the iron is even momentarily out of use; a magnetic wire recorder, an ingenious device that can record 66 minutes of continuous speech on a spool of wire no longer than a doughnut; and many more timesavers and conveniences. "In wartime, magnets are going into all sorts of applicationsairplanes, tanks, all kinds of motors, secret fighting equipment, radio, communication systems of all kinds, and the like. They have enabled fighting men to replace back-breaking equipment with light, portable models of reduced size and weight. They have increased the sensitivity of many delicate measuring and electrical devices. It is on this basis alone that forecast is made of their widespread future influence on radios, hearing aids, and telephones-even on refrigerators and locks. "A recent dispatch from Chicago described the adoption of a new piece of equipment by the Chicago police department's crime detection laboratory. This new acquisition is a powerful Alnico magnet designed for lifting revolvers and other weapons from river and lake bottoms. It has a Lifting capacity of 175 pounds. Heretofore police had used electromagnets which were cumbersome and required many accessory devices, and even then were able to lift only 40 pounds. "Improvements in the permanent magnet are attributed by G-E engineers to the introduction of new alloys which have much improved magnetic properties and increased resistance to outside sources of demagnetization. "Ten years ago, according to engineers, there were four materials out of which permanent magnets were commonly fashioned. Tdday, a t least 15 alloys, each of which shows astonnding properties, are available. Moreover. one of the most important of these is an improved Alnico-Alnico V-which exhibits 20 times more total energy than chromium steel, a magnet material that formerly had wide usage."
One of the largest salt mines in the world, a quartermile beneath the busy streets of Detroit, is described in The Crown (Crown Cork & Seal Company, Box 1837, Baltimore 3, Maryland) for July. "How were the salt deposits made? One theory of the deposition of the salt beds which is only one of many theories but is believed logical according to studies of the strata and formation. there a t one time existed an arid basin covering an area including Southern Michigan and Northern Ohio. A periodic inflow of water from the ocean covered this basin, the liquid evaporated. the salt precipitated, and from the resulting crystals was formed a huge salt bed estimated to be a thousand feet in depth in some parts of Michigan. The different strata or inundations can be clearly seen in the salt bed down in the mine. There are 25 t o 30 separate deposits in one bed. It is believed that they were formed a t the rate of about one inch every ten years. All this i t must beremembered, happened 300,000,000or more years ago."
"The reclamation and disposal of refinery wastes" is a problem of some magnitude in the petroleum in-
dustry. James W. Wright discusses the question in the July Pure Oil News (Pure O i l Company, Chicago 1, Illinois). The May number of Lubrication (Texas Company, 135 E. 42ud St., New York 17, New York) is entirely devoted to the manufacture of greases. This aspect of the petroleum industry is not frequently discussed, and the part that soap plays, for example, in the production of greases may be new knowledge to some readers.
A very interesting description of how "Electronics helps to find oil's secrets" is a principal feature of the June Socony- Vacuum News (Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Inc., 26 Broadway, New York 4, New York). It includes a useful "frequency spectrum." If you want to learn "How the Germans lost the war of oil" read the June number of The Lump (Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, New York). The article is a real contribution to the history of the European War. In addition to this, one of the most comprehensive accounts we have seen of the development of butyl rubber is to be found in the same issue. The interesting part of the story is how butyl rubber grew out of a search for blending agents to improve lubricating oils. This eventually led to the production of a blending agent called Paratoue, consisting principally of polyisohutylene.. In the course of these experiments catalytic processes of polymerizing isobutylene were disco,vered which resulted in a "rubbery" product, which, however, could not be vulcanized and was therefore useless. Further work showed that by polymerizing isobutylene with butadiene a "copolymer" could be made which could be vulcanized and had many desirable rubber-like properties. Later, isoprene was substituted for bntadiene, and the present butyl rubb'er is the result. One of its most valuable properties is its high resistance to diffusion of air, which makes i t superior to natural rubber for inner tubes or tires. "Structure control of gray cast iron" is a metallurgical article in the spring number of the Vancoram R&m (Vanadium Corporation of America, 420 Lexington Ave., New York 17, New York), illustrated with a few good photomicrographs. There is also to he found an interesting account of the use of "threads of stainless steel" for nonabsorbable surgical sutures. "Metallic 'threads.' as h e as human hair, bave taken their place among the materials used for surgical sutureswhich, in addition to silk and catgut, include such diversified materials as silkworm gut, nylon, cotton, linen. horsehal. and even sinews from kangaroos' tails. "Although stainless steel has long been recognized as an ideal
metal for surgical instruments because of its resistance to many corrosive media and similar metal wires have had numerous uses in surgery, the adoption of a specially heat-treated chrome-nickel alloy steel as the ideal metal suture material foliaws a period of six years of research and testing in the laboratories of Davis & Geck, Inc., world's largest manufacturer of surgical sutures."
The wartime development of insecticides, especially DDT, is discussed in the current number (vol. 15, no. 14) of The Laboratory (Fisher Scientific Company, 717 Forbes St., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). The second installment of "Penicillin productionmiracle of World War 11" appears in the July Merck Report (Merck & Company, Inc., Rahway, New Jersey). The following item on cold storage is quoted from the July number of the Westinghouse Newsfront (Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, 306 Fourth Ave., Box 1017, Pittsburgh 30, Pennsylvania): "When you open and close the door t o your refrigerator, you lose very little of the 'cold*-much less than most people think. I n fact. Westinghoise engineers found by test that opening a large-size refrigerator the same number of times a home freezer is opened each day-ven in air as hot as 90 degrees-increased r the electricitv consumed bv less than 2 ~ e cent. "Similar tests on topopening, chcst-type home freezers showed slightly qeater increase in ekctrical consumption, because doors were kept open longer and more packag~shad robe removed and exposed to room temperature. "Based on this fact, Westinghouse engineers have designed a new upright home freezer with doors on the front like electric refrigerators, thereby achieving easy reach-in convenience in the handling of stored foods and gaining lower operating costs. The new freezer will be manufactured by Westinghouse in three models for city and farm use shortly after civilian production of electric appliances is resumed."
Tire conditions will not hamper postwar rehabiiitation of automotive transportation, i t is declared in an article in the last number of Ethyl News (Ethyl Corporation, 405 Lexington Ave., New York 17, New York). From the rubber industry comes the prediction that neither the quantity nor the quality of synthetic tires will prevent full restoration of motoring. Driving speeds, annual mileages, or gasoline consumption will not he restricted, it is held. This forecast, applying to all types of vehicles, assumes that for some time after the war with Japan is over the burden of tire supply will fall mostly upon synthetic rubber, i t is explained. James J. Newman, vice-president of the B. F. Goodrich Company, is quoted as saying that "it is highly improbable that any restrictions on the number of cars in operation, or on the miles per vehicle which they travel, or on the speeds a t which they travel, will be imposed by tire supply limitations."
Any j o b d o n e reluctantly is a diffccult one.
