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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 CHEMISTRY
importers, who have been mentioned many times in connection with the efforts of the German chemical cartel to reestablish its hold on the American market, appeared before the War Trade Board recently to answer charges of interfering with the efforts of this country to obtain needed German vat colors. The hearings occupied two full days. What action will be taken by the War Trade Board is not known. Officials are emphatic in their refusaI to discuss the case, decIaring they can see no reason why they should depart from the custom held t o throughout the war and make any public announcement regarding this case. It will be recalled that Francis P. Garvan charged before the Senate dyes committee that the activities of the firm were largely responsible for the delay in getting German dyes into this
Vol.
12,
No. 3
country in spite of government efforts. Mr. Garvan’s charge, together with cables which he produced before the committee, have already been published. Accompanied by their attorney, members of the firm attempted to justify the actions which brought about the charge and consequent hearings on them. The hearings were held strictly confidential. The War Trade Board can refuse to permit the firm t o import any enemy dyestuffs so long as its authority continues. Cabled advices received recently state that German dyes obtained under the reparations commission now are in large part in Rotterdam and should be in this country within a short time. February 14, 1920
INDUSTRIAL NOTES
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The Foreign Commerce Corporation of America has been organized by interests identified with J. P. Morgan & Co. The corporation is designed to enter trade in Europe on a large scale and under plans that may lead to the extension of long credit to manufacturers and merchants in the war zone. E. R. Stettinius will be chairman of the executive committee. A recent fire in the vegetable oil refinery of Swift & Co., Memphis, Tenn., dgtroyed the refinery, machinery and contents and 400,000 pounds of vegetable oil, with a loss of approximately $150,000. The United States Rubber Company has purchased the entire plant and business of the Dolgeville Felt Shoe Co., Dolgeville, N. Y., manufacturers of felt shoes and slippers. The annual dinner of the officers of the Chemical Warfare Service was held a t the New Ebbitt Hotel, Washington, on the evening of January 2, 1920. Major-General William Sibert, director of Chemical Warfare Service, presided. Classification of the drug industry by branches, for purposes of the 1919 census of manufactures, has just been completed by the Census Bureau. More than 350 classifications have been provided for convenience in separating industries. As a general rule, the classification of an industry will be determined in accordance with the product of chief value. The Monsanto Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo., has issued an order stating that none but Americans will be employed in its plant, and requiring any alien employee to be naturalized or accept thirty days’ notice of discharge. The notice reads: “It is the desire of this company to have associated with it only American-born or naturalized American citizens. The Monsanto is an American institution and is firm in its desire to be American in all its work and operations. The employees’ department will assist any employee in perfecting his or her American citizenship . ’ I The California Prune and Apricot Growers’ Association is to erect a t Hemet, Cal., a factory for using apricot pits in the chemical and dye industries. Hemet is the largest apricot growing center of Southern California. The American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers has announced that the symposium on the subject of Pyrometry held in cooperation with the National Research Council and the National Bureau of Standards a t the Chicago Meeting of the Institute in September 1919, will be published as a special volume, comprising about 750 pages. Subscription price, previous to publication, is $5 per volume. The National Organization for Public Health Nursing has announced that an Industrial Nursing Section is to be formed a t the meeting in Atlanta, April 12 to 17, 1920,with the object of making known to nurses throughout the country the opportunities for education as industrial nurses. Uniform standards of service and better preparation are needed in this field. The Burrell Technical Supply Company has been organized with offices in Pittsburgh, Pa., to conduct a general laboratory and technical supply business. The officers of the company are Col. G. A. Burrell, President; J. T. Ryan, Vice President; G. H. Deike, Treasurer; and G. C. Nelms, Secretary. Catalogs will be issued shortly, one of the first being devoted to gas analysis apparatus. Bids will be opened March I O for supplying the government departments in Washington with drugs, medicines, and chemicals. The quantities to be purchased are indefinite, but are estimated on the basis of purchases during the fiscal year 1919. E. I du Pont de Nemours & Company has purchased a $140,000 warehouse in the central manufacturing district of Chicago for use as a general war-house.
The United States is the world’s largest consumer of crude cocoa, the consumption for 1918 being 386,000,000 lbs., or 50 per cent of the total world production. For the fiscal year ending in June 1919, 313,037,419 lbs. of crude cocoa were imported, 32,709,845 !bs. of which were reexported, making the apparent consumption of crude cocoa for 1919 approximately 280,000,000lbs. In spite of the decreased amount of crude cocoa available, the value of exports of prepared cocoa rose from $6,000,000 in 1918to $II,OOO,OOO in 1919. The General Chemical Company has just issued its annual report to the stockholders. The report shows a general decline in profits.due to rising cost of production without corresponding rise in prices. The Company has recently declared a quarterly dividend of 2 per cent on common stock, payable March I , 1920.
A large Oriental copra corporation has begun construction of a large plant on Richmond Harbor. Cal., for the handling of copra. Two large copra plants are already established a t Richmond, one of them belonging t o Procter & Gamble. A scarcity of olive oil in Sydney, Australia, has been reported, the market relying largely on importations from Italy and Spain in the failure of the South Australian product. According to a report by the president of the Board of Agriculture to the New Zealand House of Representatives, the phosphate reserves of the Island of Nauru in the Pacific are sufficient to meet the demands of the world for 200 years. 80,000 to IOO,OOO tons or more are available, and the quality is said t o be of the highest grade. The average yearly production is now in the neighborhood of 150,000 tons. The Pacific Chemical Co., of Los Angeles, Cal., has recently been organized with a capital of $50,000. The Federal Trade Commission has entered charges of unfair methods of competition against the following companies United Chemical and Color Company, New York City Andreykoviez and Dunk, Inc., Philadelphia Arkansas Distributing Company New York City F. Bredt and Company, New York City New York Color and Chemical Company, New York City H. Behlen & Bros., Inc.,New York City Franklin Import and Export Company, Inc , New York City Heller & Merz Co., New York City Shibakawa and Company, Inc , New York City Taiyo Trading Co , I n c , New York City
The companies have forty days in which to file answers, after which time the cases will be set down for trial. The Plomo Specialty Manufacturing Co. and the Riverside Refining Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, have been ordered to cease from unfair methods of competition in the manufacture and sale of turpentine and oils. C. Bischoff & Co., of New York City, manufacturers of dyestuffs and chemicals, have been ordered to refrain from unfair competition in interstate commerce. The National Research Council has announced an exhibit of the wireless telephone a t 1201-16th St., N. W., Washington, D . C., beginning February 6, 1920. The exhibit includes special apparatus reproducing fundamental electrical discoveries in the development of the wireless telephone, moving line-dra wing illustrating wireless telephone action, portraits of scientists who have contributed t o its development, and Yyireless telephones which visitors may use. The exhibit was installed by the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and the Western Electric C o . with the cooperation of the Signal Corps and the Air Service of the U. S. Army. Damage estimated a t $50,000 was caused by a fire which followed an explosion of tanks of acid a t the Naugatuck Chemical Company, Naugatuck, Conn., recently.
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T H E JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
10r,221,784barrels of crude oil were produced in California
in 1919 mmpared with 101,637,870 barrels in 1918. Oklahoma
is the only other state with a yearly production in excess of ~oo,ooo,ooobarrels. The United States Civil Service Commission has announced that the government service needs a large number of chemists, physicists, metallurgists, electrical laboratorians, etc. Further information and application blanks may be obtained from the U. S.Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C. The U. S. Civil Service Commission has announced a competitive examination, open to both men and women between 18 and 35 years of age, for laboratory assistant, a t a salary of $900 to $1200 a year. Persons unusually qualified may be appointed a t a higher salary. Applications must be filed with Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C., on or before March 9, 1920. At the suggestion of Herbert C. Hoover, president-elect of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, coal operators from all over the country met a t New York, February 17 to 18,to discuss the stabilization of the coal industry. The meeting was addressed by Dr. Van H. Manning, Director of the Bureau of Mines; Dr. George Otis Smith, Director of the Geological Survey; Professor H. H. Stoek, of the University of Illinois; S. I,. Yerkes, Vice President of Grider Coal Fields Co., of Birmingham, Ala.; and A. K. Knickerbocker, of the Missouri School of Mines. The Reliable Chemical Products Corporation has been chartered in Delaware with $IOO,OOO capital for the manufacture of chemicals.
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The Grasselli Chemical Company and the Sterling Products Company of Rensselaer, N. Y., are planning extensive additions to their plant. A new railroad spur track has been constructed, and new building are to be built on land adjoining the present plant. Herningway & Co., a prominent New York dyestuff and chemical house, has recently been merged with the SherwinWilliams Co. The Hemingway & Co. plant a t Bound Brook, N. J., will be operated as a separate company. The merger was preceded by the absorption by Hemingway & Co., of Frank Hemingway, Inc., a selling company, and Frank Hemingway, manager of that company, will act as manager of the development department of the Sherwin-Williams Co. The British Dyestuffs Corporation Board of London has announced a dividend of 8 per cent on 24,077,000 preferred capital, after paying 7 per cent on ~4,106,000 preference capital. N o dividend has been announced on the f980,ooo deferred. The Bureau of Standards has announced the installation a t Petrolia, Texas, of an apparatus for continuously recording the percentage of helium in a gas mixture. Analyses of the natural gas used a t the plant in the extraction of helium on a large scale are frequently required in order to control the operation and the new recorder has proved its superiority over the lengthy processes formerly used. A committee of expert users of dyes, consisting of representatives of English textile, woolen, cotton, paint, and varnish industries is going to Germany in behalf of the London Board of Trade t o purchase Ez,ooo,ooo worth of five dyestuffs. Purchases will be in addition t o the 1,500 tons assigned to British consumers under the Reparation Clause of the Treaty.
PERSONAL NOTES 1902 to 1917 he was the eminently successful editor of The Jouvnal of the Dr. Francis C . Phillips, aged 69 years, expert on chemistry, American Chemical Society, in which positional capacity he devoted his died a t his home in Pittsburgh, Pa., on February 16, 1920,of influenza and pneumonia. In 1875 he left Delaware College, best energies t o the advancement of chemical knowledge and thought. Wilmington, Del., where he was in charge of the Chemistry There are, indeed, few scientists who have accomplished so much through Department, t o go to the University of Pittsburgh, where he their own efforts. ' was professor of chemistry for forty years. Dr. A. V. H.Mory, formerly chief chemist of Sears, Roebuck & Co., Chicago, Ill., has been appointed administrative head of David S. Pratt, 34 years old, former professor of chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, died of pneumonia on January the chemical division of Procter & Gamble Co., Ivorydale, Ohio. Associated with Dr. Mory in this work is Mr. H. J. Morrison 28, 1920,a t his home in St. Louis. Dr. Pratt was a graduate of who has been appointed special and consulting chemist for the Cornel1 University and did work in European schools. company. Dr. David Moore Balch, scientist who perfected the extraction At a recent meeting of the executive committee of the Corporaof potash from kelp, died in San Diego, Cal., November 17, tion of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was de1919. cided that no acting president is to be appointed to fill the vacancy Dr. S. Mackay, professor of chemistry a t Dalhousie University since 1896, died from pneumonia in Halifax, N. S., on January 6 . caused by the death of Dr. Richard C. Maclaurin. The executive committee has appointed an administrative committee Dr. Nackay was born in Nova Scotia in 1864and was educated consisting of Dr. Henry P. Talbot, Prof. Edward F. Miller, a t Dalhousie and Johns Hoplrins Universities. and Dr. William H. Walker, which will be charged with those A t the Mid-Year Commencement Exercises of the University duties ordinarily performed by the president in relation to the of Pittsburgh. on February 19, honorary degrees were conferred international and educational affairs of the Institute. A subupon Dr. William Henry Nichols, past president of the AMERICAN committee has also been elected consisting of Messrs. Morss, CHEMICALSOCIETY and Dr. William Albert Noyes, present Hart and Webster. It is the belief of the executive committee president, upon the recommendation of the Mellon Institute that its sub-committee working in close association with the adof Industrial Research. ministrative committee will make it possible to carry on the work In presenting Dr. Nichols to Chancellor Samuel Black Mc- of Technology without any interruption and with complete Cormick, Director Raymond F. Bacon said: harmony and effectiveness. I have the honor t o present for the degree of Doctdr of Science the Field Mr. Harvey J. Skinner, for many years vice president of Marshall of American Chemical Industry, Dr. William Henry Nichols, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, Mass., has severed his conChairman of the Board of Directors of the General Chemical Company and nection with that organization and has opened an office as a respected counselor in the administrative conduct of an assemblage of consulting chemical engineer in Boston, Mass. other great corporations This distinction is most appropriately bestowed Mr. Richard H. Catlett, formerly assistant engineer of the upon Dr. Nichols in recognition of his activities in opening up fields for International Coal Products Corporation, Irvington, N. J., research during the course of developing our key-industries. But while recently became partner in Charles E. Richardson & Co., Engaining a world-wide reputation as a chemical industrialist, Dr. Nichols gineers, New York City. has also found time constantly t o advocate the orderly synthesis of the Mr. G. A. Williams, formerly assistant chief chemist a t the sciences in inquiries of technologic concernment and to advance ardently Atlas Crucible Steel Co., Dunkirk, N. Y., is now in charge of the the best interest of the chemical profession. He has rendered inestimably heat treating department of the Rich Steel Products Co., Battle valuable service as president of the Society which he participated in organizCreek, Michigan. ing, namely, the AMERICANCHEMICALSOCIETY;and he has also served with (eminence as president of the Society of Chemical Industry and as Mr. John Gore, formerly with the Chemical Wariare Service president of the Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry. and later chief chemist for the Pawtucket Gas Co., Pawtucket, R. I., is now chief chemist and chemical engineer for the Russ Director Bacon introduced Dr. Noyes as follows: Gelatin Co., Westfield, Mass. It affords me great pleasure t o present for the degree of Doctor of Mr. Edwin J. Mullen, recently discharged from the U. S. Chemistry the distinguished successor of Dr. Nichols as president of the Army, has rejoined the General Chemical Co. as superintendent AMERICANCHEMICALSOCIETY,Dr. William Albert Noyes. Dr. Noyes of their Camden Works, Camden, N. J. stands in the forefront of the chemical profession as one of the most erudite investigators, and, as the active Director of the Chemical Laboratory of Mr. C. E. Mangels is a t present located in Washington, D. C., the University of Illinois, he has rendered noteworthy service in the teachwhere he has accepted the position of investigator in commercial ing of chemistry and in the training of research men. I n addition, from dehydration, Bureau of Chemistry.
