JE DAY - American Chemical Society

J. E. DAY. J. R. WITHROW. Metal Objects Now Made by Electricitg. ... come, Dr. Blum believes, by careful research and scrupulous control of operating ...
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taining membership. (4) The arrangement of the programs of certain intersectional speakers was discussed. (5) It was suggested that the entertaining section make its first announcement of the date of the meeting a t least seven or eight weeks in advance. A dinner in honor of Professor and Mrs. Ernst Cohen was given at the Hotel Sinton in the evening. Dr. Snoddy presented Professor A. P. Mathews as the toastmaster, who, in turn, introduced the speaker of the evening. Professor Cohen in his delightful way gave us a praise-worthy fragment of his well-known hobby on "Caricature in Science." About 120 were present for the evening program. On Saturday the assembly broke up into smaller parties and enjoyed trips to the Rookwood Pottery, the Procter and Gamble Company, the U. S. Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Company, the Columbia Power Company, the tomb of William Henry Hamson, and The Fernbank Dam. The meeting was a pronounced success. On to Erie and Lexington! J. E. DAY J. R. WITHROW Metal Objects Now Made by Electricitg. The manufacture of metal tubes and sheets by electricity which has always been the fascinating dream of the inventor, is a t last beginning to he a reality, Dr. William Blum, electro-chemist of the U. S. Bureau of Standards, explained to members of the American Chemical Society. Until recently the project has attracted large investments and yielded few returns, hut now copper sheets and iron tubes are being made successfully on a commercial scale in the United States. Whether or not the processes will survive competition it is yet too early to tell, Dr. Blum said. The attraction in this way of making metal shapes lies in the fact that the most complicated forms are apparently easy to make, and unlike the rollmg and drawing processes, the thinner walled ones are cheaper t o make than the heavy ones. The method has developed slowly because it is hard to get impervious deposits and uniform distribution of metal of suitable structure and quality. These difficulties can be overcome, Dr. Blum believes, by careful research and scrupulous control of operating conditions. One of the most important requirements is to keep the solution of the metal that is to be deposited in the shape desired, free from suspended matter and other impurities.-Science Serdce Sun Injures Silk but Dry Cleaning Does Not. The silk d m s milady has just bought this fall will probably last longer than the one she wore during the sunny afternoons this summer. The wearing qualities of silk are greatly lessened by exposure to sunlight, it has been learned from tests recently completed a t the U. S. Bureau of Standards. The strength of unweinhted - dved silk decreased 25 oer cent, it was found, when exposed to sunlight far 100 hours. Silk of cheaper grade that had been weighted with metal to give it a rich shimmerinn lost as much as from 50 to 75 per cent in ~eneraltensile strength. - moearance .. The silk garment that hangs in the closet or reclines in a bureau draner is safe, appareutly, for the tests showed that silk kept in storage for two and a half mouths gave no signs of deterioration. No harmful results were found, either, from the action of drycleaning solvents on differat silk fabrics.-Scince Serdcs