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T H E J O U R N A L O F I N D U S T R I A L - 4 N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y Vol. 12, No.
which M. Claude has perfectly solved by the use of cup-leather joints. These joints, resistant to hyperpressures, will open to investigators a new field, for the use of hyperpressures is still in its infancy. Since the starting material, nitrogen, is easily obtained by the liquefaction of air, the question of the other ingredient, hydrogen, must be considered. M. Claude mentions as a solution of the problem gas from coke ovens, illuminating gas, or
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water gas. Extraction of hydrogen from this gas seems to be practicable. However, we would note one point upon which M . Claude has not been very exact; that is, the economical extraction of the hydrogen. It is necessary to use very pure hydrogen in order not to diminish the efficiency of the catalyzer, which rapidly becomes exhausted; and such purification of hydrogen from these sources has not yet been completely realized September 9, 1920
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INDUSTRIAL NOTES
According to a recent announcement the Bureau of Standards is in need of the services of several well-qualified young chemists for work in various lines. Candidates who have had graduate work or special experience in physical chemistry are especially desired. No examination is required. The entrance salaries will range from $1400 to $2400 per annum, depending upon the qualifications of the applicant. Applicants should write to the Civil Service Commission for Announcement 2236 and Form 1312, and should also communicate directly with the Bureau of Standards. A t the recent meeting of the American Dyes Institute the following committee on the nomenclature, spelling, and pronunciation of chemical products as applied to the dyestuffs industry was appointed: Mr. J. Warren Kinsman of E. I. du Pont de Nemours Br Co., Dr. D. W. Jayne of The Barrett Co., Mr. J. R. M. Klotz of the Newport Chemical Works, Inc., Dr. J. M. Matthews of the Grasselli Chemical Co., and Mr. L. H. Cone of the National Aniline & Chemical Co. The Committee on Sanitation and Safety, composed of Mr. Victor L. King and Mr. Moses Crossley of the Calco Chemical Co., Mr. George B. Bradshaw of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., and Albert G. Peterkin of The Barrett Co., made a report of its Philadelphia meeting, which included preliminary study of a plan outlined by Dr. Francis D. Patterson, chief of the Division of Industrial Hygiene and Engineering of the Department of Labor and Industry of the State of Pennsylvania. The Bureau of Mines has completed arrangements for a cooperative research on the carbonization of lignite. $~OO,OOO is to be supplied by private parties for the erection of a plant a t New Salem, N. D. The Bureau of Mines will be in charge of the technical and experimental side of the investigation. Because of the scarcity of limestone for use in the manufacture of sulfurous acid, on account of car shortage and other reasons, six of the largest paper companies in New York have organized the Richville Limestone Company to operate the limestone quarries a t Richville, N. Y. A @-year lease of the quarries has been taken, and the necessary machinery and equipment will be installed immediately. The corporations forming the combination are the Dexter Sulphite Pulp and Paper Co., of Watertown, the Kewton Falls Paper Co., of Watertown, the Carthage Sulphite Pulp & Paper Co., of Carthage, the Oswego Falls Pulp & Paper Co., of Fulton, the De Grasse Paper Co., and the Gould Paper Co., of Lyons Falls. The Newport Chemical Company is shortly to begin the erection of two large factory buildings in Passaic, N. J., which will cost in excess of $zoo,ooo. The present buildings will be abandoned when the new ones are completed. The Honorary Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of Canada has awarded &j,ooo to assist Prof. J. C. Mc1,ennan of Toronto University in investigations on helium, to determine its uses for lamps, amplifying values, high resistances, etc. One of the chief objects is to discover a method of conservation to prevent the present wastage which is estimated at 1,000,ooocu. f t . per month. The Italy-America Society has announced that an American has secured from the Italian government a concession for the utilization of 800 h. p. of the waterfalls at Terni, 7 0 miles from Rome, for the production of nitrogenous plant food. Synthetic ammonia manufactured by water power a t Terni has already been put on the market OTI a paying basis. With its present equipment the plant is capable of producing one ton of ammonia daily. A new course in textile engineering is to be added a t North Carolina College. This will make the fourth course offered by the textile department, as follows: Four-year course in textile manufacturing, four-year course in textile engineering, four-year course in textile chemistry and dyeing, and two-year course in textile manufacturing. The Mathieson Alkali Works, Inc., has established a western district sales office a t 327 South LaSalle St., Chicago, Ill.
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The 1919report of the English National Physical Laboratory, which has just been issued, contains the report of the executive committee for 1919,the statement of work proposed for 1920--21, a list of papers published by the laboratory during 1917, 1918, and 1919or communicated by members of the staff to scientific societies.or technical journals, and the report of the director for 1919.
The Netherlands Dyestuffs Factory has recently been established a t Amsterdam with the cooperation of large industria1 and banking concerns, to promote the manufacture of dyes and intermediates which were formerly chiefly imported from Germany. Attention has been particularly directed to the preparation of ethereal oils, essences and perfumes, inorganic and organic acids and salts, medicines, tar distillates and their derivatives, including aniline dyes. The production of bituminous coal in the United States for the 199 working days ending August 2 1 , 1920, as compared with corresponding periods in previous years was as follows: 1917 1918 1919 1920
.......................... .......................... .......................... ..........................
Tons 352.011,OOO 375,395.000 2P7.270.000 335,967,000
The production of anthracite up to August 21, 1920, was 55,7 1 2 , 0 0 0 tons, as compared with 52,678,000 in 1919. The coal production for the first three months in Canada was 4,126,523 tons in 1920, as compared with 3,735,654 in 1919. The Commission appointed by Supreme Court Justice J. F. Minturn to investigate the damages to dyeing companies resulting from the diversion of water from the Passaic River has awarded $302,852 to the Wiedmann Silk Dyeing Company and the National Silk Dyeing Company. $97.35 I are levied against Jersey City, $48,675 against Newark, and $5,400 against the Acquackanouck Water Company. Counsel for the municipalities has given notice that the case will be appealed from the award of the commissioners. The report of the Commissioner of Patents shows that during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, 81,948 applications for inventions were filed, as compared with 62,755 during the previous year. The total number of applications of all kinds was roz,g40, which is 27,283 more than in 1919. The cash receipts from all sources amounted to $2,615,697.33, and the total expenditures to $2,436,561.37, leaving a net surplus of $179,135.96. The seven months' exports from London to the United States, January to July 1920, showed: Drugs and chemicals, $6,462,593 as against $3,574,541 in 1919; gums, $3,ooz,o37, as against $997,604 in 1919. At the August meeting of the American Institute of Fertilizer Chemists, which was organized a t the annual meeting of the National Fertilizer Association in June, the details ef the organization were discussed and the aims and purposes of the Institute were formulated. The Canadian government has made experiments which prove the practicability of making paper from flax straw. The flax crop of Canada in 1 9 1 9 would have produced 1,00o,ooo tons of straw which would have made IOO,OOO tons of pulp for paper, thus relieving the drain on the forests. Manufacturers have signified their intention of cooperating with the government. During the last seven months of 1919 dyes were manufactured in France as follows: TONS
................. 175 July. .................. 23 I August.. ............... 270 September. ............. 326 October.. ..............441 Novemher.. ............ 410 December.. ............. 602 June..
These were divided as follows: Acid colors, 1 2 1 tons; basic colors, I O tons; direct colors, 48 tons; sulfur colors, 175 tons; indigo, 225 tons.
ocp., 1 9 2 0
T H E JOURrVAL OF I X D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Exports of aniline dyes from the United States for the six months ending in June 1920 totaled $10,855,959, the totals per month being as follows: Dollars January. .................. 9 17,574 February.. 1,850,662 March,. 2,648,401 April.. ................. 1,829,77 1 May.. 2,120,606 June. 2.389,5 15
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T h e following table shows the distribution of dyes by countries f ~ the r months of May and June: MAY
Japan., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $625,607 109,503 China..
................. ........... ............... ................ ....................
Mexico... ... ... .. ... .. . .. ... .. ... ..
British India.. Canada.. France.. Italy Spain.. ................. England.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Argentina.. Brazil. ..................
.............
124.828 133;155 193,211 112,375 72,020 155,293 136,659 124,571 5 1,492
JUNS
$680,215 622,345 4.229 199;036 134,705 188,731 40,803 110.340 128,353 38,893 43,840
One man was killed and several others injured by a fire which destroyed the percolating building of the Toledo Seed & Oil Company recently. The damage is estimated at $50,000. The first factory for the manufacture of sulfuric acid in Uruguay has been established by the Instituto de Quimica Industrial a t Capurro. and has alreadv commenced production a t the rate of 3 , 5 0 0 kilograms daily. -Nitric, hydrochloric, and other acids are to be manufactured later. The Stellar Company of Minnesota, organized to extract turpentine from pine stumps, is ready for operation. The plant is to run night and day and shipment of turpentine, creosote. pine oil, rosin oil, boiled tar, and charcoal is to begin a t once. Three or four carloads of Norway pine will be used each week.
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The creation of an All-India Chemical Service with a central research institute a t Dehra Dun and laboratories in each province has been recommended by a committee presided over by Professor J. F. Thorpe of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. The object is to assist by scientific investigation in overcoming the difficulties and deficiencies in Indian industrial organization. It is intended that the research .staffs shall be composed mainly of Indians, so far as those with adequate training are available. A gas obtained from the destructive distillation of straw is being produced on a small scale a t the experimental farm of the U. S. Department of Agriculture a t Arlington, Va. The g,as has been used for motor fuel, and for illuminating and cooking purposes, but its commercial value has not been determined. Fifty pounds of straw will produce about 300 cu. f t . of gas, and the Office of Development Work is working on the problem of liquefying or condensing the gas to enable i t to be used practically as a motor fuel. Several valuable by-products are obtained in the process of manufacture. About 1o6,ooo tons of fuller’s earth valued a t $z,ooo,ooo were produced in the United States in 1919. These figures show an increase of 217 per cent in quantity and of 563 per cent in value in I O years, being an increase of 25 per cent in quantity and 74 Per cent in value Over 1918. Florida Produced nearly nine-tenths of the 1919 output. The mica mine a t Blue Mountain, Stony Lake, Canada, has been purchased by American engineers who expect to start operations immediately, shipping IOO lbs. of mica a day. Except for 6,000 tons of government guano per annum and a small supply of bone manure, the Union of South Africa is entirely dependent on foreign sources for artificial fertilizers. The total imports of manures and fertilizers in 1919 amounted to 12,617 tons.
PERSONAL NOTES Mr. George A. Brewster, an active member of the AMERICAN Mr. Thonvald A. Carlson has completed his work in conCHEMICAL SOCIETY,the American Steel Treaters Society and nection with his Metallurgical Research Fellowship in the Dethe American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, partment of Metallurgical Research, University of Utah, and died August 17, 1920. Mr. Brewster was born in 1877, was is now in the testing department of the Anaconda Copper Mineducated a t Ohio Northern University and held various posi- ing Co., Anaconda, Mont. tions in connection with the chemical industry, his last connecMr. G. E. Daibey has resigned his position as superintendent tion being with the American Radiator Co., of Buffalo, N. Y., of the smelting plant of Benj. Harris & Co., Chicago, Ill., and as chief chemist. is now with the Eastern Brass & Ingot Corporation of New Mr. John A. Dawson, one of the charter members of the York, Waterbury, Conn. California Section of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY and one Mr. C. E. Vail has resigned his position as chemist with the of the oldest chemists on the Coast, died recently. Mr. Empire Refineries, Inc., Okmulgee, Okla., and is now assistant Dawson was educated as a pharmaceutical chemist, and chemist on the staff of the Colorado Experiment Station, Fort early in life became connected with the U. S. Customs House Collins, Col. in San Francisco as examining chemist for foreign imports, Mr. R. T. Haslam has left the National Carbon Company, serving in this capacity for thirty years. Cleveland, Ohio, to become director of the School of Chemical Dr. Harmon N, Morse, professor of chemistry and director Engineering Practice of the Massachusetts Institute of Technolof the chemical laboratory a t Johns Hopkins University, died ogy, Cambridge, Mass. recently a t his summer home on Chebeague Island, Me. Dr. Dr. Harrison E. Patten, for several years research chemist Morse was born in Cambridge, Vt., in 1848. After his graduawith the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, tion from Amherst College in 1873 he studied a t the University D. C., has accepted the position of chief chemist of Gottingen and returned to Amherst as an assistant in chem- Washington, the phosphate plant of the Provident Chemical Works, St. istry in 1875. He went to Johns Hopkins as an associate pro- of Louis, Mo. fessor in 1876. Mr. Lewis C. Slater has resigned as assistant professor of Mr. Russell W. Moore, past president of the Chemists’ Club, industrial and engineeridg chemistry a t Louisiana State Unidied on July 31 a t his home, 44 West 77th St., New York City. versity, and is now chemist for the Bogalusa Paper Co., Inc., Mr. George P. Gray has resigned his position as assistant Bogalusa, La. professor of entomology and chemist, insecticide laboratory, Mr. DeWitt 0. Jones, formerly in charge of the research a t the University of California, to become chief of the Division laboratory of Armour Fertilizer Works, U. S.Yards, Chicago, of Chemistry of the newly established Department of AgriIll., has taken a position with the Newport Company, Carrollculture 3f the State of California, Sacramento, Cal. ville, Wis. Mr. Daniel H. Simpson has resigned his position in the physical Mr. Charles H. Breed, until recently metallurgist with the chemistry section of the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C., Crown Cork & Seal Co., Baltimore, Md., has joined the staff and is now in the sales division of the Edison Electric Appliance of Daniel M. Luehrs, industrial consulting engineers, CleveCo., Inc., Chicago, Ill. land, Ohio, as consulting metallurgist in charge of the metnllurgical laboratories. Mr. A.. J. Gailey has left the W. L. Cunimings Chemical Co., Lansdowne, Pa., to accept the position of research chemical Mr. F. L. Righter, for the past year a graduate student in the engineer for the Electrometallurgical Co ., Niagara Falls, chemistry department of Cornel1 University, has joined the N. Y . staff of the research laboratory of the Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, hT. Y. Mr. Florian A. Cajori, formerly Captain in the food section of the Sanitary Corps and on duty in Jugo-Slavia with the American Mr. David Jones, holder of an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship Relief Administration, has completed his graduate work at Yale from London University a t Johns Hopkins University; is at University and accepted a position as instructor in physiological present with the chemical division of the Eastman Kodak Co ckernistry a t Leland Stanford, Jr., University, in California. Rochester, N . Y .
