fl
T H E JOURNAL. OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
406
Captain J. R.Anderson, of the Geneva Experiment Station, and Lieutenants W. A. Perlzweig, Henry R . Cates and Charles N. Frey, are making a nutritional survey of the army camps situated in the southern states. The survey is part of the work at present conducted by the Surgeon General’s Office to determine the character of the food supplied to the American soldiers. Dr. W. B. Bentley, head of the department of chemistry of Ohio University, has been commissioned as captain by the War Department, and is stationed a t Watertown, Massachusetts, in the department of inorganic chemistry, of the Watertown Arsenal. Prof. Watson Bain, of the department of applied chemistry in the University of Toronto, has been granted leave of absence for the duration of the war. He is going to Washington, D. C., where he will be on the staff of the Canadian Mission. Dr. John W. Kimball, instructor in chemistry and physics at the dental school of Western Reserve University, has been called to Washington to undertake chemical work for the Army. Dr. Kimball has been granted leave of absence from the university and will leave immediately to take up his new work. Dr. Francis C. Frary, research chemist of the Aluminum Company of America. has been commissioned as captain in the Ordnance Reserve Corps and assigned to research work in the trench warfare section, Engineering Bureau, office of the chief of ordnance, Washington, D. C. The death is announced of C. I. Istrati, professor of organic chemistry and dean a t the University of Bucharest and president of the Roumanian Academy of Sciences. Mr. F. I,.Locke has resigned as superintendent of the chemical plant of the Chattanooga Chemical Company to join the technical staff of the British-American Chemical Co., Inc., of New York City, t o assist in the design, and later superintend khe operation of extensive additions now being made to their plant.
Vol.
IO,
Dr. A. D. Brokaw, assistant professor of mineralogy and chemical geology a t the University of Chicago, has been called to Washington to take charge of the oil production east of the Rocky Mountains. Dr. H. H. King, associate professor of chemistry at the Kansas State Agricultural School, has been advanced to the head of the chemistry department. He is now a t the University of Chicago completing the work for his Ph.D. degree. Mr. A. V. DeLaporte, chemist in charge of the Provincial Board of Health of Ontario, has joined the overseas forces and is now in England qualifying as an officer in the Royal Engineers. He had formerly been attached to the Hydrological Corps with the rank of Captain and served a t the Toronto Exhibition Camp last winter. Dr. John E. Bucher, professor of chemistry in Brown University, has been granted leave of absence for the second semester of the academic year, in order to devote himself t o experimentation in chemical processes in the industry. He will continue t o direct the work of certain advanced students in the University laboratory, but will be relieved of all teaching during tbc remainder of the year. Dr. Robert F. Chambers, a Brown graduate, will be acting head of the department during the second semester. Dr. E. V. McCollum, professor of chemistry in the school of hygiene and public health, Johns Hopkins University, gave the Cutter lectures on preventive medicine and hygiene a t the Harvard Medical School on March I g, zo and z I . Mr. Henry A. Gardner, until recently assistant director of the Institute of Industrial Research, a t Washington, D. C., has received a commission as Senior Lieutenant in the Naval Flying Corps, At present he is stationed in Washington. Mr. William H. Barrett, president of Barrett and Barrett, vinegar manufacturers of Chicago, Minneapolis and Bangor, Maine, died recently in Jacksonville, Florida, a t the age of sixtyeight.
INDUSTRIAL NOTES LIST OF APPLICATIONS MADETO THE
No. 5
I
FEDERAL TRADECOMMISSION FOR LICENSESUNDER ENEMY-CONTROLLED PATENTS PURSUANT TO THE ENEMY ACT” ASSIGNEE
YEAR PAT. NO. 1905 782,739
PATENTEE Emil Fischer, Berlin, Germany
1906
837,017
1913
1,075,171
1912
1,043,349
Carl Auer yon Welsbach, Vienna, Treibacher Chemische Werke Austria Gesellschaft, m. b. h., of Treibach Austria-Hungary Albrecht Thiele and Georg Cbemische Fabrik auf Actien Wichmann of Berlin, Ger(vorm. E. Schering) of Berlin, many Germany Heinrich Ostwald of Cologne, Germany
PATENT
THE
“TRADING WITH
APPLICANTS
E. Merck, Darmstadt, Germany C-C-dialkylbarbituric acid and Antoine Chiris Co., 18 Platt St.,
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The Marden, Orth and Hastings Corporation has obtained control of the Calco Chemical Company, a $7,000,000 corporation of New Jersey, The Calco Company was incorporated in 1916,and since then has been engaged in manufacturing dyes, intermediates and other chemicals. The American Cellulose and Chemical Co., Ltd., capitalized a t $25,000,000, has filed application for a charter a t Dover, Del., and will deal in cellulose and its products. The incorporators are Henry J. Bigham of New York City, Frank C. Williams, New Rochelle, N. Y., and Oscar R. Houston of Great Neck Station, N. Y. An important private company has been registered in London, England, under the title of the British Cellulose and Chemical Manufacturing Parent Company with a capital of $I~,SOO,OOO. The board of directors includes Herbert McGowan of Nobel’s Explosives, Sir Trevor Dawson, of Vickers, Ltd., which company it IS rumored is about to merge with the British Dyes, Ltd. The Edible Cocoanut Oil Corporation of Wilmington, Delaware, has applied for a Delaware charter to manufactuie perfumes and derivatives of cocoanut oil. It has a capital of $IO,OOO,OOO. The incorporators are C. L. Rimlinger, M. M. Clancy and F. A. Armstrong. Chemical industry in Japan is growing rapidly. A number of new companies have been organized to manufacture a variety of substances including ammonium sulfate, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, bleaching powder, nitric acid and dyes. The manufacture of chlorate of potash is an important industry which has developed since the war, and it is reported that the quantity shipped to this country from Yokohama during this period exceeds 10,000barrels. Another industry that has made remarkable progress is the extraction of vegetable wax, the output of which amounts to about $850,000 per year.
process of making same Pyrophoric alloy
New York The Pfanstiehl Company, Inc., North Chicago, Ill.
Process for the manufacture of 2-phenylquinolin-4-carboxylic acid Ball-mill
Calco Chemical Brook, N. J.
Co.,
Bound
F. I,. Smidth & Co., 50 Church St., New York
Chemicals for war purposes will be manufactured a t Saltville, Virginia, in a $ Z ~ O , O O Oplant which the War Department has decided to build there for operation with the Mathieson Alkali Works. Preparations have begun for constructing the necessary buildings. The recent action of the President in fixing the price of aluminum calls attention to the rapid growth of this industry in the United States. The great increase in our production in this line places the United States far in the lead among the aluminumproducing countries of the world. In fact, about one-half of the world’s output of aluminum is now produced in the United States. Bauxite, the mineral from.which most of the world’s aluminum is produced, is found in many parts of this country, though the bulk of that now used in the industry is the product of the State of Arkansas. Secretary of the Interior Lane has designated Bartlesville, Okla., as the location of the new experimental station of the Bureau of Mines for the investigation of problems relating to the petroleum and natural gas industries. The station is one of three new experimental stations for the establishment of which the sum of $75,000 was appropriated by the last Congress. The two other stations have been located a t Minneapolis, Minn., for the study of iron and manganese problems, and a t Columbus, Ohio, for research connected with the ceramic and clayworking industries. In the April issue of THIS JOURNAL we printed a report, taken from Drug and Chemical Markets for March 13, that the DOW Chemical Company’s plants a t Midland and Mount Pleasant, Michigan, were to be commandeered by the Government. According to the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter for March 18, and also for April 15, the Dow Chemical Company says that there is-no foundation to the rumor.
May, I g r 8
T H E JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
We learn from T h e Little Journal for April that Mr. C. F. Eckart, a leading authority on sugar planting in Hawaii, has developed a process in the raising of sugar cane in Hawaii which reduces the cost of labor 50 to 7 0 per cent and increases the yield 28 per cent. His process consists in laying yard-wide strips of paper longitudinally over the rows, holding them in place by covering the edges with cane field trash. The paper must be strong enough to keep down the weeds but not strong enough to kill the young cane. Five or six weeks after applying the paper the weed seeds that could germinate have done so and their sprouts are smothered, while the shoots of the sugar cane, being stiff and sharp, have either come through the paper or show their presence by little tent-like elevation in the paper which can be slit with long knives by laborers passing between the rows. A pretty problem in industrial research was presented to the Arthur D. Little, Inc., laboratories when the question of making a paper from bagasse suitable for this purpose was put to them. Many sorts of paper have been made from bagasse but they have tended to be hard and tinny, whereas there mas required here a paper which would be strong enough to withstand the Hawaiian rainfall and yet give way under constant, gentle pressure. Also i t had to be dark in color and very, very cheap. This problem was solved and plans are being made for a paper mill to take care of Mr. Eckart’s plantation. Some interesting pictures appear in The Little Journal comparing cane 4l/2 months after planting, one showing cane which had received the Eckart treatment, another that which was cultivated and hoed in the usual manner. According to the Canadian Chemical Journal another recent achievement of the American chemist is the perfecting of a process for treating cotton cloth for the making of a suitable gas mask for use in the second line trenches. A product has been found which withstands the effect of cold and hard usage. The aviation branch of the service presents many problems difficult to overcome, among the chief of which is the numbing effect upon the aviator of the cold, wind and rain a t high altitudes. A Canadian chemist has perfected an invention whereby the inside of an outer garment can be kept a t a comfortable temperature by means of a network of fine wires connected with a small electric generator in the machine. An American chemist has perfected a process of treating cotton cloth for garments so as to render it water-proof and unaffected by the low temperatures and high winds experienced a t high altitudes. Prof. A. W. Grabau, of Columbia University, addressing the New York Academy of Sciences recently a t the American Museum of Natural History, commented on the world-wide need of potash, and said that “if Germany should lose Alsace a potash supply for many years would be assured to the rest of the world for a period long enough either to re-establish friendly relations, or, if that may not be, t o bridge over the space of time which must elapse before the known non-German deposits can be made available or new deposits found by careful and systematic search.” Profpssor Grabau was speaking on “The Salt and Potash Deposits of Alsace-Lorraine and Their Significance in the Present Conflict.” An exhaustive study which he has made of this subject shows that the potash deposits of Alsace consist of two beds of chloride of potassium which lie in an intercalated rock salt deposit nearly 800 feet thick. The total quantity of the imtons, equivalent t o pure potash salt is estimated a t ~,~oo,ooo,ooo 300,000,000 tons of pure potash. Professor Grabau said in part: “The world needs potash. In spite of arduous search no great potash deposits are known from accessible regions, and we must turn t o the more expensive utilization of potash brines and potashbearing minerals of refractory type. It is true that there are potash deposits in northeastern Spain, but they have not been made accessible, and it looks as if they would not be within reach for many years to come. There are potash salts in eastern Abyssinia and fr6m them 20,ooo tons a year have been obtained in recent times. But these are over fifty miles from the coast, and they must be transported on camel back across a country whose inhabitants are at best none too friendly. If Germany should lose Alsace, a potash supply for many years would be assured to the rest of the world.” The Trade Board announces “List No. I of restricted imports, which establishes a prohibition against the bringing into this country, under certain conditions, of 82 commodities falling into the “less essential” category. Metals, foodstuffs, luxuries and other products not necessary to the war are placed under the ban, which became effective on April 15 and does not apply to rail shipments from Canada or Mexico of goods originatcng i n these countries. The list includes the following items of interest in the drug, chemical and dyestuff trade:
p
40 7
Asbestos, blacking, candle pitch, palm and other vegetable stearine. All acids, muriate of ammonia, alcohol, tar distillates, except synthetic indigo, fusel oil or amylic alcohol, citrate of lime, all salts of soda except nitrate of soda and cyanide of soda. Sumac, ground or unground, chicory root, raw or roasted, clocks, watches and parts thereof, cocoa and chocolate, prepared or manufactured. Manufacturers of cotton, cryolite, except not to exceed 2,000 long tons for the year 1918. Explosives, except fulminates and gunpowder, manure salts, fluorspar. All nuts except coconuts and products thereof. Gelatine and manufactures thereof, including all from Europe. Sulfur oil or olive foots, grease, hay, honey, hops, infusorial and diatomaceous earth and tripoli. Mantels for gas burners. Matches, friction and lucifer. Nickel. Oilcake. Oilcloth and linoleum for floors. All expressed vegetable oils from Europe only. Lemon oil. Non-mineral paints and varnishes. Photographic goods Plumbago or graphite (until July 1, 1918, thereafter not exceeding 5,000 long tons for remainder of 1918). Pyrites (except not exceeding 125,000 long tons to October 1, 1918). Rennets, artificial silk and manufactures thereof. Soap. Tar and pitch of wood. Vinegar. Manufactures of wool. Manufactures of hair of camel, goat and alpaca. Zinc.
The United States consuls have been instructed not to issue consular invoices on and after April 15, 1918,for the articles mentioned in the list without first being furnished with the number of the import license or being given other evidence of the issuance of such license. Shipping agencies are also advised not toraccept for shipment consignments of the articles mentionedrin thellistjwithout similar evidence of the issuance of the import license. This applies only to the articles mentioned in the list. A synthetic indigo plant-now being erected by the National Aniline & Chemical Company, Inc., at Marcus Hook, Pa., is intended to cover a t least half the requirements of the United States. Much of the equipment is now on the ground and is in course of erection. The buildings are now mainly completed. A few months hence it should be possible to undertake contracts for specific deliveries. The development of this important chemical industrial problem has been coordinated under the direction of Dr. E. S. Johnson of the Semet-Solvay Company, and Mr. Robert M. Strong, Chief Works Engineer of the Marcus Hook plant of the National Aniline & Chemical Company. When the European War broke out and the supply of indigo (an essential staple of the American textile colorist) was threatened with elimination, the General Chemical Company, The Barrett Manufacturing Company, and the Semet-Solvay Company, recognizing the chemical catastrophe represented by the lack of indigo, entered upon its cooperative development. Research men from each organization were delegated to conduct the necessary experimental investigations, and about eighteen months were consumed before, in the matter of quality and yields, the product of the great German plants had been equaled. A semi-commercial operation is now producing small quantities of indigo, in connection with the extensive installation now under way a t Marcus Hook. Recruits for poison gas offensive and defensive experimental work are being organized a t the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland. Interest in the work for the Government has been aroused by William Green, representative of the gas investigation department of the United States Bureau of Mines. He says the students who enlist will be placed in the Chemical Service Section of the Army. There are now about 150 members in this service and 750 are wanted. Dr. S. W. McCallie, state geologist of Georgia, reports the discovery of an important deposit of organic asphaltum containing the organic matter from which certain grades of German dyes are made. The deposit was first discovered in a Georgia swamp, and Dr. McCallie says i t is sufficiently large and easily accessible to justify an immediate commercial development to extract and market the dyes. It has been believed that the only deposit of this mineral in the United States was in Florida. The latest discovery is considered more extensive than the Florida deposit, in better position for mining, and it has easier access to the market.
403
T H E JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
V O ~ IO, . NO. 5
The crushing of copra in New Orleans is becoming more and more extensive. The Southport Oil Mills, Ltd., have just taken over the large plant of the Orleans Cotton Oil Co., where they are crushing copra imported from the South Sea Islands through San Francisco. As a nucleus of a castor bean industry in Louisiana, a 3000-acre tract which was once a famous sugarcane producing property, but idle for some time, is to be planted in castor beans. Experiments were recently made in Sydney, a t the instance of the Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and Industry, as to the possibility of producing alcohol a t a low cost from some natural products. A Sydney chemist has experimented with the Zamia palm, or, as it is popularly known, the Burrawong palm, which grows in great profusion along the Sea Coast of New South Wales. It is stated that the yield of alcohol from this plant is 45 gallons per ton of material. Ault and Wiborg Company, Cincinnati, has increased its capital stock from $~,OOO,OOOto $IO,OOO,OOOand is to materially enlarge its production of coal-tar dy:s.
According to Drug and Chemical Markets, a color which has not been obtainable in the United States since the war, and was formerly manufactured only in Germany, has made its appearance on the American market and is now made in this country. It is said that the American product cannot be differentiated from the German color formerly imported. The offer of Rhodamine B, the dye referred to, came as a surprise to the dye and textile trade and led to much speculation as to the source of the supply. Some incredulous dealers, who did not believe it could be made in America, suggested that the product was imported from Germany by way of Russia and Japan to the Pacific Coast. It is interesting to learn that the color is made by an expert who formerly made Rhodamine B in Europe, but his name and previous connections are kept secret for trade reasons. Possibilities for increasing the sup'ply of ferro-alloys were discussed in Washington on March 22 by makers of these products with representatives of the War Industries and War Trade Board. In the morning a group of chrome men met with Government officials and made a complete canvass of the situation. The aim of the conference was to devise measures of developing domesK. Arndt in the Vossische Zeitung for February 5, 1918, tic production and eliminating dependence to the present extent on foreign sources. The manganese situation was discussed states that alcohol is being produced from calcium carbide. Acetylene is passed through acidified water, contain- during the afternoon and tungsten also was taken up. I,. I,. ing a mercury salt, whereby acetaldehyde is formed; the latter Summers, head of the section on explosives and chemicals of the is vaporized, mixed with hydrogen and the mixture passed over War Industries Board, was a leading figure a t the manganese a nickel catalyst, when alcohol results. Alternatively acetalde- meeting, while that on chrome was in charge of Pope Yeatman of the raw material division. hyde is converted into acetic acid by passing the vapor, mixed A $5 ,ooo,ooo plant, including a by-product coke oven and two with oxygen, over a nickel catalyst. I t is stated that a plant is being built near Visp in Wallis, Switzerland, capable of an blast furnaces, is to be erected for the St. Louis Coke and Chemannual production of ~oo,ooo,oookg. alcohol by this process, ical Company on a goo-acre tract of land in Madison County, this being sufficient to cover the whole requirement of Switzer- Illinois. The location of the new plant was determined upon because of its nearness to coal supply and to numerous metalland. consuming industries. An annual production of a million gallons Drug and Chemical Markets reports that a representative of toluol will be among the products of the new plant. of the German War Committee for Oils and Fats recently The Allied Industries Corporation is a new undertaking addressed a meeting of the agriculturists and mill owners of the launched for the purpose of permanently establishing Americandistrict of Solingen (Prussia) on the subject of the extraction of oil from the germ of grain. The speaker stated that although made goods in seventy markets in foreign countries, the plan being to represent groups of manufacturers and sell their goods only 40 per cent of the German mills have so far made the necessary arrangements for the work, 1,321,000 gallons of oil under their own trade-marks on a selling commission basis reguhave been obtained from this source in nine months. The germ lated by the amount of goods shipped and sold. The association is affiliated with the French-American Constructive Corporation contains I O to 12 per cent of oil, which can be utilized for the production of margarine. After the extraction of the oil, the which has secured business amounting to $140,000,000 for execuresidue of the germ yields a valuable albuminous food. A still tion after the war. Included in the directorate of the new greater advantage resulting from the removal of the germ, corporation are Alfred I., William and Francis I. du Pont of Wilsaid the speakr, is the impossibility of the flour obtained from mington, Delaware. The markets named by the company include the principal countries and colonies in Asia, Africa, Austhe grain becoming musty. The flour is in no way inferior tralia, eleven European countries, and South and Central America after the removal of the fatty substance; it bakes better and the and the West Indies. bread does not so easily turn moldy.
GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS By R. $. MCBRIDE, Bureau of Standards, Washington
NOTICE-Publications €or which price is indicated can be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. Other publications can usually be supplied from the Bureau or Department from which they originate. Commerce Reports are received by all large libraries and may be consulted there, or single numbers can be secured by application to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce, Washington. The regular subscription rate for these Commerce Reports mailed daily is $ 2 . 5 0 per year, payable in advance, to the Superintendent of Documents. CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES
Coal and Asphalt Deposits. Minutes of Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on the House Resolution 195 for the sale of coal and asphalt deposits on segregated mineral land in Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, Okla. 64 pp. Dated January IC-17, 1918. The report of the committee to the Senate on this subject is Senate Report 207. Dated January 18. 4 PP. Fuel in the United States. House Report 246. Submitted January 18. 2 pp. This is a Mines and Mining Cqmmittee report to the House of Representatives on House Resolution 7235 which relates to the uniform selection and purchase of fuel to be used in the United States.
PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION
License of Ammonia Industry. z pp. Presidential Proclamation. Dated January 3. No. 1421. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
The Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. A volume of over 607 pp. which includes the following articles of chemical interest. The report is known as Publication 2449. Price, cloth $I .oo. WILLIAM ( I ) Ideals of Chemical Investigation. THEODORE RICHARDS. (2) Molecular Structure and Life. AMS PICTET. (3) The Earth, Its Figure, Dimensions, and Constitution of Its HARRYFIELDING REID, JOHN F. Interior. T. C. CHAMBERLIN, HAYFORD AND FRANK SCHLESINGER. (4) Petroleum Resources of United States. RALPHARNOLD' (5) Outlook for Iron (with bibliography). JAMES FURMAN KEMP. (6) On Origin of Meteorites. FRIEDRICH BERWERTH. (7) Relation of Pure Science to Industrial Research. J. J. CARTY.
