VOLUME25 NUMBER 8
Industrial A N D ENGINEERING Chemistrv
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AUGUST 1933
J
HARRISONE. HOWE,EDITOR
The Editor’s Point of View
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VERLOOKED. As this is written, events are moving fast ‘in carrying out the provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act. Codes are being filed with the Administrator and many of the four hundred and more trade associations already in existence are working upon master codes, codes for subdivisions, and similar documents. Some industries are confused because in their activities there are several interests involved and how to have codes to operate in uniformity perplexes them. Obviously it is too early to venture much on the outcome of‘ this great experiment. At times it looks as if the old established industries are anxious for control, while the new ones, forging ahead and bent on broad development programs, are not so keen for it. Industry will recognize, we think, that the program was not devised to protect obsolescence, and when this is learned, perhaps the chemists and engineers and similarly trained personnel will derive some direct assistance and benefit from the recovery program. Thus far they seem to have been overlooked, and it has been made fairly plain that the first provisions of the master codes have to do with maximum hours of labor, minimum wages, and furthering the share-thework idea. Production and employment of labor can improve greatly without directly affecting the number of chemists and chemical engineers required in an establishment. The relief of unemployment among professional men apparently must come as an indirect result of increased business activity, though there is reason to believe that forward-looking organizations are anxious to go on with their research and develop ment programs as rapidly as better business warrants. The use of some fraction of the huge sum authorized for public works could be justifiably spent in scientific investigation. There are many capable, willing workers who could engage upon well-supervised and adequately planned programs of work. The devotees of the sciences upon which health, prosperity, and national defense depend should not be overlooked in any plans of rehabilitation.
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HEMISTRY AT CHICAGO. When the eightysixth meeting of the AMERICANCHEMICAL SOCIETYconvenes in Chicago the week of September 10, several added attractions will be found in the vicinity, giving the chemist a peculiar pride in attending this annual convention. The details of the meeting itself will be found in the August 20 NEWS EDITION. No doubt anyone cultivated in one of the fundamental sciences can walk through A Century of Progress and see evidences on every hand of his science at work, and in a certain degree be justified in claiming that the exposition would be impossible without him and his kind. But this is true to an exceptional degree in the case of the chemist. The contributions of chemistry have been responsible for much of the century’s real progress. Note the materials of construction and how many of them either did not exist when the World’s Columbian Exposition was held forty years ago, or if they were known occupied a guarded niche in some museum. This applies not alone to the synthetics everywhere in evidence, but to metals, alloys, and a multiplicity of materials of construction. One cannot examine the group of houses of the future without having it borne in upon him that these new stuffs not only are part of this exposition but are about to become as well known as is the home itself. Indeed, the structures housing the exhibits at A Century of Progress could have been erected only with the greatest dificulty without these substances, to provide which the chemist has helped. Further evidence of chemistry as a “science ministrant to sciences’’ is recalled as one views the great splashes of color and the unique lighting effects which characterize the exposition. The very forms and materials employed in the scheme of illumination are possible, thanks to chemical achievement, while the great system of radio loud speakers, comprising the largest group so far brought together and covering 420 acres with melody, reminds us that here, too, is an art and a science where chemistry has found work to do.
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As we enter the buildings, and particularly the great Hall of Scienc'e, we see further cause for pride. Science is the very heart and soul of the exposition and the success which has crowned painstaking efforts to bring, in understandable fashion to those not technologically trained, some of the fundamental principles underlying the natural sciences is most noteworthy. One who has not given study to this problem will be astonished by the possibility of working exhibits, each devoted to the demonstration of a single principle. Mathematics, physics, and chemistry share their fundamental place with geology, the medical sciences, and other special groups. The applied side of chemistry, while notably incomplete with respect to the great field of coal-tar chemistry, is nevertheless represented in an arresting manner, but not in a way to detract from the fundamentals to which most convenient avenues of approach first lead the visitor. The layman who gives but brief attention to these exhibits cannot fail to be impressed with the science of his age and its service to him. Those who visited Chicago forty years ago to see the Columbian Exposition, familiarly known as the World's Fair, will have no difficulty in remembering the majestic Fine Arts Building in Jackson Park, some distance to the south of A Century of Progress. This beautiful building has been completely rehabilitated and is now the Museum of Science and Industry founded by Julius Rosenwald. Here is the beginning of a series of permanent exhibits which will serve to perpetuate for the student exhibits in the field of chemistry, physics, agriculture and forestry, geology and the mineral industries, power, transportation, civil engineering, architecture, the graphic arts, and communication. But recently opened to the public, the museum is still in the formative stage. It is striking out along new lines and the intention is to have it most realistic. It is a place where science and industry collaborate, that the public, through exhibits, may better comprehend world progress. Here, too, the chemist will find much to interest him. We have already called attention to the educational institutions to be found in the Chicago area. The laboratories of the University of Chicago and at Northwestern will be interesting for what they are, as well as for what has been accomplished in them. Armour Institute of Technology has the distinction of having conducted a separate department of chemical engineering for a longer time than any other American institution. Lewis Institute performs unique service and its organization will interest many educators. Loyola University, De Paul University, and the University of Illinois College of Medicine present their own specialties, while to the north is Lake Forest College. The chemist will also find added attractions in the trade associations and consulting laboratories of Chicago, the institutes of fermentology, and the special laboratories of industry. With so much of interest
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offered, the program that is being planned by the Chicago Section, the symposia, and general sessions of various divisions, the distinguished foreign guests who are expected-small wonder that plans are being history. made for the largest meeting in the SOCIETY'S * *
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DAPTABILITY. A number of years ago we printed an editorial in which we spoke of the chemist versatile and emphasized that the training he receives well fits him for many important tasks other than research, control, production, analysis, and similar activities which he at f i s t may prefer. We pointed out especially the opportunity frequently offered in the advertising, purchasing, sales, and executive departments of industry. That editorial was criticized by a contemporary which seemed to feel that for a chemist to engage in anything but pure and applied chemistry was a waste of his training and a debasement of his talents. Since that time many chemists have perforce been tried in these other lines of occupation, not divorced from their science, but where their training and experience in chemistry has stood them in good stead and has opened up new fields of interest. Their knowledge of chemistry has made them more valuable. ' At least one great chemical manufacturer, finding it necessary to curtail laboratory activities, gave his technical men an opportunity in the sales division and both employer and employees have found the experiment good. One of our local sections in aiding unemployed chemists has stressed that as industry obviously becomes more technical we must expect to find chemists, chemical engineers, and similar scientifically trained men not only dictating what shall be purchased, but acting as the purchasing agents. There are concurrent opportunities in the sales department for, with a technical buyer, who can approach him as well as a technical salesmane This leads into advertising and other fields of commercial activity where the exact knowledge, the trained discrimination, the love of fact and truth, the skill in explanation are recognized virtues. Once expressing the hope that psychologists would perfect tests whereby the field for which a youth might be best fitted could be predetermined, a great follower of that science explained that that was not the ideal accomplishment of his profession. What he hoped might be learned was how best to train men to be adaptable. We have come to know that a chemically trained man is valuable outside his laboratory. A wider recognition of his powers and good qualities may lead him these days into unusual fields and new paths, but he can remain a chemist for all that. We need the chemist adaptable, as well as the chemist versatile. We must learn to do the best we can with whatever we have, wherever we find ourselves.
