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T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
Mr. R. J. Quinn has left the Wahl-Henius Institute and accepted a position with the Midland Chemical Company. Dr. J. W. Turrentine is directing the work of the Government’s experimental kelp-potash plant a t Summerland, near Santa Barbara, Cal. The plant is in operation and is producing crude potash. Apparatus is now being installed which will make possible the production of refined potash and by-products, particularly iodine, for both of which chemicals there is a large demand for industrial and military purposes. Professor Charles H. LaWall of the Philadelphia Section has been elected president of the American Pharmaceutical Association. Major S. J. M. Auld, of the British Army, addressed the Northeastern Sect,i,on of the A. C. S., a t Boston, on December 8, on “Gas Warfare. The United States Civil Service Commission announces an open competitive examination for junior chemist, for both men and women. Until further notice, applications will be received a t any time. Salaries range from $1020 to $1800. There is special need of eligibles who are qualified as physical, biological or metallurgical chemists. The Commission also announces an examination for assistant petroleum chemist, for men only, to be held on January 15. Salaries range from $1680 to $1920. For further information apply for Form 1312, Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C., stating the title of the examination desired. Mr. Guy R. McDole, Assistant in Soils, in the University of Minnesota, and formerly Research Assistant in Agricultural Chemistry in the University of Nebraska, has enlisted in the Gas and Flame Regiment (Thirtieth Engineers). Mr. H. Gardner McKerrow, for the last two years associated with the Marden, Orth and Hastings Corporation in the establishment and management of their textile department, is now connected with E. F. Drew and Co., Inc., 50 Broad Street, New York City. Mr. McKerrow will have the management of the textile department, and it is proposed to go into dyestuffs as well as the mill chemicals and industrial oils. Special attention will be given to American dyestuffs. Through the efforts of Mr. McKerrow and others a convention will be held in New York City, January 2 2 and 23 a t the Chemists’ Club, at which it is hoped all the manufacturers of American dyestuffs will be represented, for the consideration of a proper means of standardizing American colors. Mr. McKerrow will have associated with him, Mr. T. F. O’Keefe. Mr. Carl F. Speh, secretary of the Turpentine and Rosin Producers Association, has been appointed on the sub-committee of the National Paint, Oil and Varnish Association t o look after legislative matters of interest to naval stores, producers and manufacturers, and distributors of paints, oils and varnish. Mr. Charles H. McDowel, president of the Armour Fertilizer has been Company Of by the government to aid in chemical research work and development. Dr. R. K. Strong, of the University of Chicago, has been engaged as professor of industrial chemistry a t the Oregon Agricultural College.
I
Vol.
IO,
No.
I
Twenty-five members of the Southern California Section of the A. C. S. accepted the invitation to the Technical Societies of Los Angeles to inspect the wonderful one hundred inch reflector of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, on November 2 4 and 2 5 . This was the first occasion in its history where the rigid schedule of the Observatory was broken for any reason. The Michigan Smelting & Refining Co., announces that Charles T. Bragg takes the position of Works Manager of its Detroit plant, January I, 1918. Mr. Bragg had been Chemical Engineer of The Ohio Brass Co. for six years and was for over four years Technical Director of Berry Bros. of Detroit. Canada recently appointed Sir Henry Drayton royal commissioner to investigate exportation of Canadian Niagara power and controller of the distribution and production of electrical energy in Ontario. The University of Illinois will give a Short Course in Ceramic Engineering January 7-19, 1917. The Course will be under the direction of Professor E. W. Washburn, Head of the Department of Ceramic Engineering, and Mr. A. V. Bleininger, Ceramic Chemist of the National Bureau of Standards, assisted by Professors C. W. Parmelee and R. K. Hursh, of Illinois, and a corps of lecturers on special topics. The two-weeks’ course is intended to cover in an elementary and practical manner the scientific principles underlying the practice of clayworking. A common school education will suffice for the work of the course and no tuition fees will be charged. The course is open to all who are interested. Prof. John Charles Clark, of James Millikin University, has been elected to the presidency of the Illinois Academy of Science. The 276th meeting of the Washington Section of the A. C. S. was held on December 13 a t the Cosmos Club. Mr. Atherton Seidell spoke on “Utilization of the Adsorptive Power of Fuller’s Earth for ,,Chemical Separations” and Mr. Oswald Schreiner spoke on Potash Situation in Relation to Food Crops.” A special meeting was held a t the same place on December 18, a t which time Prof. Wilder D. Bancroft of Cornel1 University spoke on the subject of “Contact Catalysis.” Mr. I,. M. Larscn has accepted a position in the research laboratory of Ault and Wiborg of Cincinnati. On Saturday, December 8, Professor Grignard and Lieut. Engel of the visiting French Commission gave addresses before the Robert Kennedy Duncan Club of the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research a t Pittsburgh. Professor Grignard was made the first honorary member of the club. The two distinguished guests were entertained a t the University Club a t luncheon. After luncheon, Prof. Grignard gave a short informal address in French which was translated in substance by Lieut. Eneel. The IoIst regular meeting of the California Section of the A. C. S. was held on December 15, in San Francisco, in conjunction with the annual banquet. Among the after-dinner speakers were Prof. Edmund O’Neill of the University of California, Prof. John M. Stillman of Stanford University, and Dr. Harry East Miller of the International Precipitation Company. Y -
INDUSTRIAL NOTES
To help out in the use of sugar, Italian scientists have developed a process for obtaining a large yield of sugar resembling honey from grapes. This product is very suitable for preserving fruits and marmalades and for use in soda fountain syrups. If this industry attains any magnitude it will affect the trade in half refined tartar which is obtained from grapes, which will in its turn affect the woolen dyers who use this substance as one of the ingredients in the production of olive drab. The Ideal Laboratories Company has been incorporated under the laws of Delaware with a capital stock of $z,ooo,ooo. Incorporators, T.W. Cole, Chicago, Ill.; K. S. Wilson and Marion Luce of Oak Park, Ill. A shipment of platinum received December 1 2 at a Pacific Coast port from Russia was the cause of much satisfaction t o Government officials. The shipment weighed 2 1,000ounces and was valued a t more than $z,ooo,ooo It was consigned to the Secretary of Commerce who will supervise its distribution. Because of the internal conditions in Russia it is feared that the shipment will be the last exported from that country for some time to come.
Announcement has been made that the Consolidated Gas Company of New York has reached an agreement with Washington officials to manufacture toluol to help meet the shortage which exists in this war essential. The Government is to pay for the erection of the stills a t the Company’s plants and the Consolidated Gas Company is to furnish the labor for the actual manufacture of the toluol from its gas. The product is to be furnished the government a t the actual cost of its manufacture. It is understood that contracts have already been let for the erection of some of the stills and that work has already been started a t the Company’s plant in Long Island City. We learn from the General Chemical Bulletin that the discovery of platinum in Alaska has led the Government to assign experts to study the situation there and report whether the discoveries can replenish the platinum supply cut off by the cessation of activity in the Ural Mountain mines. The T. N. T. plant of the Aetna Chemical Company a t Heidelberg, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pa., was damaged to the extent of $ Z ~ O , O O Oby an explosion on December 5, causing the death of eight men and seriously injuring many more.
Jan., 19x8
T H E J O U R N A L 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
American sulfur production will be augmented by the development of New Mexico deposits, which are claimed to be of high grade and extensive in quantity. To undertake this development the United Sulfur Development Company has been incorporated with $3,000,000 capital by J. J. and M. de Praslin of Lake Charles, La., and J. B. Bailey of Wilmington, Del. Perchlorate Explosives Company of Poughkeepsie has been formed with a capital stock of $2,100,000. Incorporators: I,. Bedell, C. W. H. Arnold, H. B. Vosburgh, Poughkeepsie. The Amalgamated Dyestuff and Chemical Works of New York has increased its capital stock from $50,000 to $500,000. Aluminum, antimony, arsenic, bismuth, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium are all found in the state of Queensland, Australia Platinum is found but in small quantities. Wyoming Sulfur and Refining Company, dealers in sulfur and chemical products, has been incorporated under the laws of Delaware with a capital stock of $2,000,000. Exports of cinchona bark and alkaloids and their salts from the United Kingdom have been prohibited to all destinations, according to a cablegram from the American consulate a t London. Advices received from Havana, Cuba, state that planters in Cuba are turning their attention to the growing of castor beans. The shortage of castor beans in this country has turned attention towards the possibilities of bean cultivation in the island of Cuba. Plantings have been made and the reports from the growers are encouraging. Soil and climatic conditions are declared to be entirely adapted to the cultivation of the castor bean, and it seems assured that the new industry will be given a real terk on the island. The salicylic acid plant of E. I. duPont de Nemours and Co., at Newark, Delaware, was burned recently, entailing a loss of The fire apparently was the result of approximately $IOO,OOO. an explosion. The Commonwealth Silica Co., Chicago, Ill., has been incorporated with a capital of $ I , ~ O O , O O O , to mine silica, lime and other substances. The incorporators are L.I,. and B. F. Cowan and P. Zak. According to British Imperial Institute reports, a considerable amount of attention has been given in recent years to the recovery of wax from the waste produced in the extraction of sugar from the sugar-cane, and this industry has now been started on a small scale in iVata1. Samples of the first consignment of Natal sugar-cane wax shipped to England have been examined a t the Institute and have been found to be of good quality, quite equal to that of the first trial samples made and examined. Sugar-cane wax is now becoming better known on the market, and could be used as a substitute for the betterknown carnauba wax in the manufacture of gramaphone records, polishes, candles, etc. In a paper read before the New York Section of the American Chemical Society on November 23, E. D. Boyer called attention t o a new use for Portland cement brought about by the war, namely, the construction of ships and barges of concrete. He states that ships of this character have recently been successfully built in Norway, and a 5000-ton ship is a t present being constructed in San Francisco, while on iVovember 21, a 250-ton ship was successfully launched a t Montreal. The American Concrete. Institute and the Portland Cement Association have organized committees who are making a study of the construction of vessels of this type, and these committees have designed a reinforced concrete barge of 2000-ton carrying capacity, with every reason to believe it will be successful. The Federal Trade Commission has entered order for licenses to three firms to manlffacture and sell the product heretofore known as “Salvarsan, “606,” “Arsenobenzol,” “Arsaminol,” patent rights which have been held by German subjects. Hereafter this important drug will be manufactured and sold under the name of “Arsphepamine.” The three firms designated are Dermatological Research Laboratories of Philadelphia, Takamine Laboratory, Inc., New York, and Farbwerke Hoechst Company (Herman A. Metz Laboratory), New York. The supply of the drug was heretofore almost exclusively obtained by importation from Germany. The enormous shortage of supply on this important product will immediately be relieved, and the article placed in the hands of the Government, the hospitals and the medical profession a t a much lower price. It is reported that the Spreckles interests of California have purchased extensive deposits of soda salts in southern Oregon and will start development work in the near future.
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Further data have been received by the United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce on the successful incombustible substitute for celluloid. Announcement of this invention by a professor in one of the Japanese universities was made about a year ago and aroused considerable interest in the United States. The new product has been given the trade name of “Satolite” derived from the name of the inventor, Prof. S. Sato, and a company for its manufacture has been started with a capital of $I,OOO,OOO.Satolite is a galolith made of the glucine of soya bean, coagulated by formaline. It is said to be produced much more cheaply than celluloid, and to have several advantages for industrial use not possessed by the latter. The factory is t o be built in the Mukojima district in Tokyo, and the actual production will soon begin. At the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, held a t the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, November 20 and 21, Dr. Simon Flexner of the Rockefeller Institute, announced that two American physicians, Doctors Jacobs and Heidelberger, of the Rockefeller Institute, have evolved a new remedy to replace salvarsan. Dr. Flexner stated that it has many advantages over salvarsan, one being its cheapness. It is stated that it is less injurious to the human tissues and more readily manufactured than salvarsan. Like salvarsan it is an arsenic compound. The cottonseed oil refinery being erected by Swift and Company in Houston Heights, Texas, is near completion. The approximate cost of the plant is about $250,000. The plant as a whole will include three buildings, the power house, packing house, in which the oil is refined and the acidulating building. Three large storage tanks have been built with a capacity of 27,000 barrels of cottonseed oil. This company is also planning the construction of a large fertilizer plant, to cost about $500,000, at Hammond, Ill. The United States Industrial Chemical Company, which was chartered recently under the laws of Maryland with a capital stock of $24,000,000, is reported to have secured land for the erection of a plant near Curtis Bay to manufacture chemicals, fertilizers and hydrocarbons. It is also reported that the new company will take over the entire plant of the Curtis Bay Chemical Company, subsidiary of the United States Industrial Alcohol Company of New York. The new company’s incorporators are Patrick H. Loftus and Francis C. Nickerson of Brooklyn and Stewart M. Seymour of New York. Directors for the first year are George S. Brewster, William R. Coe, Edward W. Harden, William S. Kies, Adrian H. Larkin, Percival J. McIntosh Horatio S.Rubens. Richard P. Tinsley and Milton C. Whitaker: Nineteen schools of technology are now maintained by the Japanese government a t various sections of the island empire. So far as is possible each school is specialized to meet the general agricultural, mining and industrial needs of that portion of the country in which it is located. At Tokyo and Osaka, dyeing, bleaching and printing, the tanning of leather, industrial designing and the manufacture of oils, soaps, and colors are among the courses offered, and the faculty of the Tokyo school alone numbers eighty-eight, including two foreign instructors.
A training school for the higher technical education of women was recently opened in Lyons, France, the centre of the silk industry in that country. So severe a drain has been made on French manhood of all classes that i t was deemed imperative that women should be offered an opportunity in the more important fields. The courses of study offered cover most of the technical courses hitherto confined to men. A school of industrial chemistry, the first in Italy, is being organized a t the University of Pavia. Restrictions are being placed upon copra exports to France, apparently with a view of assuring a greater supply for the domestic production of edible cocoanut oil. Platinum production in Colombia is increasing. Prospecting has shown that the metal occurs in the steam gravels and in the high gravels for long distances on the Arato and S a Juan River. A thorough and scientific investigation of the dyestuffs industry in the United States is being undertaken by the United States Tariff Commission for the purpose of ascertaining the need of further tariff protection and also in relation to the production of explosives. Brazilian manganese is now being imported in large quantities by the United States, owing to the closing of other sources of supply.
