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T H E JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
blue, Victoria blue, and hydrosulfite. It has also set up necessary installations for manufacturing intermediate products, such as chloroacetic acid, alizarin and vat dyes, flavazines, tartrazines, etc. Obviously we are still somewhat lacking as concerns intermediate products, and the option rights granted to the Allies (particularly France) by the Versailles Treaty will play a less and less important part as our production capacity increases. INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE The International Bureau of Labor is studying very care-
Vol. 13, No. 7
fully questions concerning the hygiene of workers, and particularly of workers in the chemical industries. The methods of investigation used are precisely those developed some time ago in the Bureau of Labor in the United States. Unfortunately, i t seems that the conclusions to which these investigations lead have not the approval of all technologists. Attention is drawn particularly to the fact that in the case of white lead the toxicology of that product would not permit demanding its absolute prohibition, contrary to the ideas which have been in vogue for the last ten years. June 13, 1921
INDUSTRIAL NOTES A report on lead poisoning in the pottery trades has recently been completed by the United States Public Health Service. The investigation was begun in 1919 and covered 92 potteries situated in New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, employing 53 per cent of the total pottery workers in the United States. Risk of lead poisoning was found to differ greatly in the many occupations of the pottery trade, the highest per cent of poisoning being found among the dippers and dippers’ helpers. The percentage of poisoning drops as the percentage of lead used in the glaze decreases. The report gives directions for the use of fritted lead glazes, by which great improvement may be brbught about. The following officers of the Manufacturing Chemists’ Association have been elected for the ensuing year: Charles L. Reese, president; H. H. S . Handy and C. Wilbur Miller, vice presidents; S. W. Wilder, treasurer; and John L. Tierney, secretary. The executive committee consists of Henry Howard, chairman, Adolph G. Rosengarten, Lancaster Morgan, C. Wilbur Miller, D. W. Jayne, H. H. Dow, and E. L. Pierce. Official sanction has been given to the removal of the Chemical Warfare Service activities a t Lakehurst, N. J., to Edgewood Arsenal, and the work of removal has been begun. The location a t Lakehurst comprises about 16,000 acres. It was established during the war for proving and testing purposes and the building and plants represent an outlay of approximately $1,500,000. The plants, together with machinery, material, and personnel, will be moved to Edgewood. It is believed that the consolidation of the two Chemical Warfare Stations will result in increased economy, efficiency, and harmony for the Service, as it centralizes all the technical activities a t Edgewood and will remove much duplication that formerly existed. Edgewood Arsenal will now carry the process of manufacturing the chemical agent from the test tube, through the various stages of development, to filling it into the shell, and finally proving in the field. It is expected that at least 90 per cent of the proof firing can be carried on a t Edgewood, where conditions are very favorable. The John Fritz Medal Board of Award has awarded its gold medal and diploma to Eugene Schneider, head of Le Creusot Steel Works, France, “for achievement in metallurgy of iron and steel; for development of ordnance, especially the 75 mm. gun, and for notable patriotic contribution to the winning of the war.” The medal and diploma will be presented to Mr. Schneider in France by a party of American engineers, who will also present
the John Fritz gold medal and diploma, which was awarded some time ago, to Sir Robert A. Hadfield “for the invention of manganese steel,” so useful in the war and in the industries of peace. The gold medal has previously been awarded to sixteen eminent American and foreign engineers and scientists. The United States Geological Survey has recently compIeted a series of experiments on the use of fluorescein by oil men. When mixed with water under certain conditions, fluorescein can be detected easily in a dilution of one part of the dye in 10,000,000,000parts of water. While most of the experiments have been carried on in regard to surface waters, a firm of engineers has been experimenting with a view to finding out something of the movement of the fluids in the oil sands. I n one instance the fluorescein was poured into a well and the hole was shut tight, while the other wells were pumped regularly. It took the solution four days, five hours and a half to appear in a second well more than a mile distant which had practically the same rock pressure. The New Jersey State Board of Health has served notice on Hemingway & Co. to show cause why an injunction should not be issued forbidding the company to handle phosgene. This action follows the escape of phosgene a t the Hemingway plant which resulted in the death of one man and the gassing of many others. In accordance with the decision of the court on May 4, 1921, permitting the Hercules Powder Company to buy the Aetna Explosives Company, Inc., the Aetna stockholders have sanctioned the sale and the transaction has been closed. By this purchase the Hercules Company will acquire high explosives or dynamite plants near Birmingham, Ala., Emporium, Pa., Sinnamahoning, Pa., Ishpeming, Mich., and Fayville, Ill. ; two black blasting powder plants, one a t Goes Station, Ohio, and the other near Birmingham, Ala.; a plant for the manufacture of blasting caps and electric blasting caps a t Port Ewen, N. Y., and a plant for the manufacture of fulminate of mercury for use in blasting caps, a t Prescott, Ontario, Canada. The Hercules Company was originally created by a decree of a federal court in an action brought by the ,United States against the du Pont Company under the Sherman Act. I n sanctioning the purchase of the Aetna, the court stated that actual competition would be undiminished and even probably increased by the transaction, especially in regard to the du Pont Company, the strongest rival.
PERSONAL NOTES Mr. C. S. Butcher, for the past sixteen years connected with the Semet-Solvay Co., has left that firm to go with the St. Louis Coke and Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo. Mr. W. Blair Clark, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, is a t present an inspector on the border control work of the Plant Quarantine Law enforcement of the Federal Horticultural Board at El Paso, Texas. Prof. H. A. Geaque, head of the chemistry department a t Simpson College for the past two years, holds a similar position at Lombard College, Galesburg, Ill. Mr. F. F. Fitzgerald is now chief chemist of the American Can Co., Maywood, Ill., having left the National Canners Association, Washington, D. C. Dr. T. F. Buehrer has accepted an instructorship in analytical chemistry in the University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. He recently received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California.
The death of Mr. John W. Leitch of Milnsbridge, England, has recently been reported. Mr. Leitch studied at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, and graduated B. Sc. at Glasgow University. He then took a post as secretary and chief chemist to a firm of chemical manufacturers a t Milnsbridge. Later he established the firm of Messrs. John W. Leitch & Co., at Milnsbridge, and for many years had specialized in the manufacture of coal-tar intermediates and certain dyes. Mr. Hal T. Beans and Mr. Thomas B. Freas, associate professors a t Columbia University, New York City, and Miss Marie Reimer, associate professor a t Barnard College, New York City, have been given the rank of full professors. Mr. Samuel J. Kiehl, instructor in chemistry, and Mr. E. G . Miller, Jr., associate in biological chemistry, have been made assistant professors, according to the Trustees’ announcement. Mr. C. L. Bryden, chief engineer for the Kelly Filter Press Co., New York, has associated himself with W. P. Heineken, engineer and manufacturer, of New York City.
