LETTERS
"Tygon -like" "Almost Tygon" "Tygon -type" "Simulates Tygon1J I
CA and small colleges SIRS: I read with dismay that the ACS Board of Directors voted to discon tinue the special grants to small col leges toward subscriptions to Chemical Abstracts. I believe that this is a move in the wrong direction; ACS should expand the program of grants to small colleges rather than end it. I do not see how small colleges can continue to afford to subscribe to Chemical Abstracts, and I believe that their problem has been essentially ig nored by ACS. For example, the data presented below show that while in 1960 small colleges paid 3 8 % of the price t o industry for a subscription to CA, in 1971 they will pay 7 5 % of the price to industry for a subscription. I do not believe this is fair; I do not be lieve it is in the best interests of chem•w » . j ,
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reaction in five- to seven-ton pots using soda ash, glowed charcoal, and N,>. However, temperatures above 1000° C. were needed and costly steel pots lasted for only one batch. As a cheaper alternative, we adopted the Beilby process, using NH 8 instead of the Ns. This process still required a temperature of 900° C. for NaCN and was not economical. However, mil lions of pounds of KCN made from N2C03, charcoal, and NH 3 at 750° C. during the war undoubtedly con tributed t o ultimate success in the war itself. R. B. Elliott P.S. NaCN and KCN are now made by neutralizing NaOH or KOH with HCN, the latter made from methane and NH 8 . W/fmington, Del.
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Base ($) Colleges and universities ($> Subscribers Supplementary grant ($)
1956 350
1960 570
1964 1000
1968 1550
1969 1550
1970 1950
1971 ?
80 16,907
150 16,107
500 6802
1050 6475
1050 6442
1450
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?
?
275
275
475
none
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Hogwash!
Audi bun min Department of Chemistry, Cornell Col lege, ML Vernon, fowa
Fixation of nitrogen
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SIRS: Reading the letters in the June 1 C&EN about the Bûcher reaction for fixation of nitrogen and making cyanide, I cannot forego reminiscing about our experiences at Du Pont with both the Bûcher and Beilby processes for making NaCN and KCN during World War II. Our "research" was not in 2-inch pipes but in 8-ton pots. Like the atomic bomb work, we had no time for pilot plants. Before World War II NaCN was made by the Eastner process, reacting glowed charcoal, metallic sodium, and ammonia at about 700° C : Na + C + NH 3 - > NaCN + Va H* With the war much of the Na was diverted to tetraethyllead for our pistondriven planes, leaving very little for NaCN, the latter much needed for plating airplane bearings and making acetone cyanhydrine for methyl methacrylate. The latter was used for plastic airplane "hothouses." Diverting TEL from civilian markets was necessary. Most of us can remember the " p i n g " of our motors those days, using lowoctane gas. Now we may be faced with this " p i n g " again owing to some poorly informed air pollution "experts" who feel TEL is damaging our health. The urge t o make cyanide without sodium during World War II is obvious. We actually succeeded in making NaCN of 75 to 8 0 % purity by the Bûcher
Inventors' incentives SIRS: Re a letter from Dr. George H. Hitchings (C&EN, June 15, page 6); Historically, inventors have been found to need some sort of protection against those who would lift their creations without fair compensation. One reason the patent systems were created 500 years ago was to even up the balance between the inventor and the users of the invention. As a result, the framers of the Constitution included Article I, § 8: "The Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." It is significant that the exclusive right does not go to the employer who has other economic incentives t o protect his interests in promoting progress of useful arts. The Moss bill is laudable in preventing the automatic appropriation of the exclusive right by the corporate employer. Dr. Hitchings' argument that all rewards to employed inventors "have repeatedly been found to be counterproductive" is not convincing. While some of the "schemes" used by corporations t o compensate employed inventors may be defective, there is no evidence that the principle of compensating the owner of an exclusive right of a patent is not sound. I believe employed inventors are not now treated fairly and the lack of appropriate compensation is a major facContinued on page 4
LETTERS
Continued from page 2 tor in the trend of creative employees' leaving large corporations and forming smaller ones, where the inventor is rewarded in a much more direct way for his efforts in promoting "progress of useful arts." Germany has a system of incentive payments for employed inventors and the experience there should be useful· in facing the problem in this country. Whether the German model, the Moss bill, or some other is the best form of protecting patentees is not clear at this point. Nevertheless, a problem truly exists and it should not be ignored simply because Dr. Hitchings finds it "difficult to see how this could be codified without creating more problems than it solves." John P. Sutton L/mbach, Limbach & Sutton, San Francisco, Caiif.
SIRS: I found Dr. Hitchings' comments on industry payoff for inventions in distinct contrast to my own experiences as an inventor in industry for some time (25 years). Thus, Dr. Hitchings has found his creativity rewarded with the normal trappings of industrial success; contrarily, I have left numerous patents with numerous companies throughout my own career (including a method now supported by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to eliminate hydrocarbon pollutants from auto exhausts—which preliminary tests show to do just that) with very little to show. It has been my observation that industrial organizations really cannot afford the expense of developing to a product more than a very few items per year; once the innovative idea has been forthcoming, the company, therefore, has little further use for the inventor for an extensive period, and his very position is in jeopardy during that interval. As Dr. Hitchings suggests, the creative person is, himself, a marketable commodity, and should search to find a company that will reward him properly. My personal search has led me through many organizations, and I now find peace and reward as a private inventor who sells his ideas and his services to a number of carefully selected organizations—after first obtaining agreements that his ideas will not be stolen and an award will be made when the idea has shown its merit. Leonard Greiner Chemical Energy Specialist, Costa Mesa, Calif.
SIRS: The letter of Dr. Hitchings on patent compensation for employed inventors includes most of the stale excuses used by industrial research bureaucrats to avoid providing a reasonable incentive for individual innovators in their organization. 4 C&EN AUG. 24, 1970
In my opinion, this attitude is an important cause of the present low level of productivity in many research laboratories in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Mr. Hitchings says that most incentive systems have been counterproductive and have been abandoned. I challenge his information on this point. The fact that any one concern, through bad management, had to abandon an inductive system is a poor argument against the principle. Why not cite the many examples, such as in Germany, where incentive systems have been customary for many years? The article "To Promote Invention" (Carl Barnes, Intl. Sci. & Tech., December 1966, page 67) presents a very thoughtful discussion of the problem of providing suitable incentives to inventors in industrial laboratories. It should be required reading for research managers. Barnes anticipated the arguments advanced in the last paragraph of Dr. Hitchings' letter and demolishes them. For Dr. Hitchings' benefit, my credentials also include a management position in new product development, some university degrees, and many foreign and U.S. patents. Eugene F. Hill Belmont, Calif. EDITOR'S NOTE: For more on this subject, see C&EN, March 30, page 14.
Restructure local sections SIRS: Your June 22 issue makes in-, teresting reading. You have (a) a group of letters protesting McCurdy's "political" editorials; (b) an editorial by McCurdy recommending the article on the Connecticut Valley Section; and (c). said article. The last recounts efforts to find a function for the local section. The efforts were based on the assumption that the appropriate role is in the area of controversial issues. This is also McCurdy's bias, but what he seems not to realize is that the article provides evidence against it. We are told of two strikingly unsuccessful efforts in the fields of chemical warfare and marijuana and it takes no crystal ball to predict that the projected "environmental" program will be unable to compete with TV coverage of the same topic. I submit that a perusal of C&EN over the past few years supports the following conclusions: (a) A majority of the vocal members of the Society are neither radical nor liberal in the modern sense, but conservative. They find the logic of the radical left fuzzy and its tactics repulsive. The innocent idealists who get sucked into these movements are considered naive fools, and contrary to the modern watchword ("They've got to be listened t o " ) no one is obliged to pay attention to a fool. (b). The local section as now constituted has as much raison d'etre as the Bull Moose party.
My personal observation is that during my residence in various parts of this country the only healthy sections I have seen were where the industrial chemists were a majority and the teachers stayed home or where the academics predominated and the industrialists abstained. Unless ACS is dedicated to the proposition that industrial and academic chemists ought to want to associate, whether they in fact do or not, a restructuring along these lines might produce something viable. S. W. Bowne Professor of Chemistry, Edinboro State College, Edinboro, Pa.
Chemical reaction engineering SIRS: We appreciate the coverage given the recent 1st International Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering, which was an outgrowth of the previous four European symposiums (C&EN, June 15 and 22). However, I feel that I should clarify your report (June 15, page 12) of a point made in my opening address in which I stated that in the view of many, the five symposiums have literally defined the field of modern chemical react/on engineering. Unfortunately, the word "reaction" was omitted in the article. I would not presume to speak for developments and directions in all of chemical engineering. Kenneth B. Bischoff School of Chemical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
SIRS: I am writing some comments relative to your article "Chemical engineering enters era of reaction modeli n g " (C&EN, June 22, page 63). In general, the article was good and informative. I would take exception to a statement on page 64, to wit: "The perpetual promise of the fluidized bed as a chemical reactor still doesn't appear to be fulfilled." The statement is made that Sohio's acrylonitrile reactor and the catalyst cracker have been successful. Of course, the catalytic cracker can hardly be classed as a chemical reactor in the strictest sense. By this, I mean it is not an application for chemical or petrochemical production. Your article overlooks one very outstanding but successful application of the fluid bed in a strictly chemical reactor in that of American Cyanamid Co.'s catalytic aniline process. Cyanamid operates commercial plants for aniline production at both Willow Island, W.Va., and Bound Brook, N.J. Both plants use a fluidized catalyst in a highly efficient fluid bed reactor sys tern. I know quite a bit about this since I helped develop the catalyst. Another application of fluidized bed techniques in the chemical industry is the phthalic anhydride process. Although many new plants are going in with fixed bed reactors, the fluidized bed technique is well worked out and still is applicable to this process.
The real trick in adapting fluidized bed reactors to commercial chemical plants is in getting the catalyst developed. It is a lot harder to develop a fluidized bed catalyst than it is a fixed bed one. I can testify to this from personal experience. You might wish to refer to the article in Chemical Week, Sept. 26, 1959, page 68, for a description of the aniline fluid bed process. Additional details may be found in U.S. Patent No. 2,891,094. O. C. Karkalits Assistant Director of Technology, Petro-Tex Chemical Corp., Houston, Tex.
Industrial research SIRS: Dr. Reiss missed the spirit and need for industrial research in the recent article "Industrial Research Careers" (C&EN, June 29, page 18). Industrial research is done for a purpose, to find and develop new products that people want and need, or to make them available at less cost, at a profit of course. We in the United States can have more and better things because research, coupled with engineering, business, and production make them available. Industrial chemists don't have to rely on Government or private gifts to support their research. We do useful work which pays its own way. Patents attest to our work. We can publish when the nature of the work warrants it. Industrial chemists have become authorities in their fields. Industrial research is harder, more demanding, because one must work to grow technically, and then one must be able to work with engineers and businessmen to help translate laboratory work into products. He cannot be satisfied with a neat solution to a problem, but must factor in costs and explore alternatives to find the least expensive process or product. The work is often interdisciplinary, or leads to changes in the field of work, which requires a continued effort to learn and become competent in new areas. Industrial research is more rewarding because it results in needed products or services, because the chemist plays a vital role in his company's business, because he can be a professional, publish, and be recognized by his peers for scientific contributions. By doing a good job he helps maintain the health of his company, and in so doing, helps provide more jobs for other people, more taxes for the support of necessary government functions, including academic research. Clarence E. Albertson Villa Park, III.
Cell origins SIRS: As I read your feature article, "Chemical Origins of Cells" (C&EN, June 22, page 80), one of my reactions was—who are the boys trying to kid? And two of the photographs of
the authors did seem to reveal rather sly smiles. I have little doubt that life was helped into being by some of the mechanisms or similar ones proposed by the authors. But I balk at some of the trickery. For example, the authors try to sneak in reproduction, which is an ordered, directed, energydirected process, through their "budd i n g " process, which is a completely random affair. How does an ordered and directed process evolve from a random one? Why not admit that there is a tremendous problem here, rather than trying to con the reader with stuff like "evolutionary development." I might add to the spirit of the article by suggesting that an ordered and directed process is simply a special case of a random one. Another bit of sneaky logic: Life is more than the sum of its parts, we show that our protocell has properties independent of its parts, therefore another stumbling block is hereby removed. But anyway it was entertaining. M. W. Wilson Akron, Ohio
SIRS: After reading the interesting article by Fox, Harada, Krampitz, and Mueller on "Chemical Origins of Cells" I cannot avoid the conclusion that, since—according to the authors— living matter was generated from "nonliving" matter, the "nonliving" matter must be alive! Obviously we need a definition of the word " l i f e " or, if preferred, of the sentence "life as we know it." Such definition should be consistent with the paradox that the "nonliving" has generated the "living," which is the only one actually living! I am not after the solution of a verbal puzzle. However, if life exists at all, the origin of life must be reconciled with that of the existence and the creation of the world. There is no such thing as "spontaneous" generation, but there are chemical systems evolving according to laws, which operate on the scale of the universe, whether we understand them or not. Arrigo Addamiano Alexandria, Va.
SIRS: . . . The authors state that the change of the earth's atmosphere from a reducing to an oxidizing atmosphere was due to the photodissociation of water into oxygen and hydrogen, and the photosynthetic activities of plant life. It seems to me that simple kinetic processes (a la the kinetic theory) could help to explain the increase in oxygen in the earth's atmosphere also. Since oxygen molecules are approximately 16 times heavier than hydrogen molecules, at any given temperature the average velocity of hydrogen molecules would be approximately four times greater than the average velocity of oxygen molecules. Thus, the number of hydrogen molecules with velocities greater than the velocity of escape
from the earth's gravitational field would be significantly larger than the number of oxygen molecules having the escape velocity. Hence, over the years as more and more hydrogen molecules escaped from the earth's atmosphere, the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere would increase. Claybourne C. Snead Associate Professor of Chemistry, Gallaudet College, Washington, D.C.
Free want ads SIRS: ACS has recognized reality in its recent increase in the number of nocost want ads that can be inserted by an unemployed member. But why the arbitrary limit of six per year? Assume a member, unemployed, uses his six at the maximum rate, and finds himself still unemployed seven to eight months since his last employment (AND THIS CAN HAPPEN). Must he wait four months before he can again advertise at no cost? Why not allow continuing monthly insertion by any member who could certify himself continuously unemployed. Perhaps this would cost some revenue, but surely ACS finances aren't that dependent on the ad revenue from its unemployed members. An added advantage of this continuing ad program would be that it would provide a mechanism for gathering data on specifically how many members are unemployed and for how long. I do not think that the Society has any means for doing this at this time. I would also like to note that I do not believe that the present officers and directors of ACS have awareness of the problems that are encountered by the over-40, overspecialized professional facing re-employment, a problem that will increase as the post-World War II graduates (who surged our membership numbers) pass 45, as they are now doing. It's easy to say to an unemployed job-seeker, lower your pay demands, be flexible in your job requirements, or reeducate, or reorient your goals. But that neglects the number one problem —how do you make a specific employer make a specific offer? In that area, the job-seeker has little initiative. Howard E. Rice Adrian, Mich.
Glad ACS is waking up SIRS: I would like to reply to some of the reaction to your May 18 editorial in which you were criticized for calling the Kent State murders a massacre. The thrust of many of your readers' complaints is that ACS is not representing them by mentioning such distasteful matters on the editorial page. This whole matter of representation is very singular. For my part I had reacted to your editorial with optimism that ACS might be considering some of the problems facing chemistry students such as the causes of the Kent and Jackson State tragedies. When the selective slavery system was raiding the AUG. 24, 1970 C&EN 5
student affiliates, where was ACS? When the war leeched away the funds to increase our graduate assistantships, where was ACS? Now that this tire some little exercise in Jingoism has ruined the economy so that a B.S. in chemistry is fit training to sell life in surance, where is ACS? The older generation docilely marched off to World War II and Korea, never questioning the venal stupidity ex ercised at Versailles or Potsdam. Per haps it is surprising to them that my generation chokes upon trying to swal low the fruit of their "peacemaking." Martin Kilgore Fresno State College, Fresno, Calif.
Pitzer resignation SIRS: Your editorial on the Pitzer res ignation (C&EN, July 6) seems to miss the more important lessons to be learned, and suggests a greater tragedy than need follow, from this relatively predictable event. The lessons, axio matic to many but recurrent novelty to others, are: 1. When the true purpose is dis ruption, neither sympathizing with stated aims, granting specific requests, nor yielding to unreasonable demands will satisfy the disruptors. 2. Theoretical (or even academic) competence is no guarantee of admini
strative ability and just making deci sions is not administration. (Also, the alternative is not the political leader— also no guaranteed administrator.} Industry has learned (and, unfortu nately, on occasion has to relearn) the second lesson. As a long time "administratee," I have found that good administration is getting done what must be done to keep an organi zation accomplishing its purpose. A good administrator must not only have all the authority he needs to do his job, he must also be willing to use it. His "sympathies" are not involved in his decisions though his sympathy with the "purpose" must be deep enough to assure decisions that do not accu mulate scars. (Nothing wrong with scars—just with their accumulation.) All this is nothing new. The really great college presidents have not been privacy-loving educators, neither have they been glad-handing politi cians or autocratic absolutists. But they have been people who believed in the purpose of their institution. I'm sure they would have been appalled at the idea of faculty committees de termining administrative policy or stu dent councils selecting curriculum con tent. Lab technicians do not select research projects and process engi neers do not set financial policy. I believe that, like the skilled sur geon who is willing to leave a small scar when removing a malignant tumor,
any really good college president would risk a short-term unpleasantness to as sure full academic freedom, surely a fundamental tenet of his institution's purpose. Leo Durocher's "nice guy" really doesn't even care about the game—much less winning it. Edward D. Henze Martinsville, NJ. SIRS: Re your editorial on the Pitzer resignation (July 6): 1. Blurb: "Who will lead our universities?" and 2. "What sort of man can stand up to the hood lum elements who have infiltrated the ranks of serious students? . . . " 1. Perhaps no one has been lead ing them—just following and running scared—at least this is true of my alma mater. 2. A man with a helluva sense of humor. There are far too many stuffed shirts in the scientific and academic worlds—all others also. A person must be able to laugh—at himself mostly— or for sure he'll go bananas. C. J. Tietema Franklin Park, III. SIRS: Re the Pitzer resignation— "What sort of man can stand up to the hoodlum elements who have infil trated the ranks of serious students?" A MAN—as I remember him at Yale. G. V. Caesar Starch Products Consultant, Harbor Beach, Mich.
Potpourri
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SIRS: I read your editorial in the May 25 issue and I thought it stated very well something that needed to be said. I thought you would like to know that C&EN has some readers who do read the editorials and even agree with them. Thomas G. Gibian Vice President, W. R. Grace & Co., Clarksville, Md.
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SIRS: Permit me to go on record as endorsing, 1 0 0 % , from the first sen tence to the last, the "Statement on Discriminatory Behavior, ACS Midland Section" (C&EN, May 1 1 , page 74). It is my sincere hope that either the Society itself, or all of her local sections individually, adopt this statement as an expression of their basic policy in this sensitive field. There has been too much confusion and too much vacilla tion for too long on this issue. William H. Sachs Consultant, Chemical Specialties, At lanta, Ga. SIRS: I was pleased to see (C&EN, May 4, editorial). P. McCurdy recognize Parkinson's rule "that organizations once set up tend to exist for themselves rather than for the mission." Often it seems that ACS has reached that stage. Rothsch//d, Wis. Henry W. Hoftiezer
