From the Editor's Desk.... ËCéiéHo Salutes
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Speeial tributes to t h e AC'S on the occasion of tlu· 111th national mooting were arranged hy the ACS News Service and broadcast coast to coast on 36 radio programs. Stories on tlu highlights of the meeting, prepared and distributed by t he News Service, wen· used by comment at ors and radio news rooms throughout the country. Perhaps t h e most important contribution to publicizing tlu· meeting over the air was made jointly by Wendell Stanley, Xobel Prize winner of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and the t^uiz Kids. On April 13, t h e Sunday preceding the meeting, Dr. Stanley participated in the Quiz Kids weekly program, asking the children, "What is α virus?" and com menting briefly on their answer. In in troducing D r . Stanley, Quizmaster J o e Kelly congratulated the ACS on t h e meeting and reminded the audience that D r . Stanley is soon to receive t h e Willard Gibbs Medal of the Chicago Section of t h e SOCIETY.
The first salute to tlu* SOCIETY was given over the Voice of Firestone on Mon day, April 7. Xext, on Friday, April 11, Cities Service dealers on their Highways in Melody paid tribute to the SOCIETY and reminded their listeners: " T h e industries producing food, medi cine, plasties, fuels, and many other prod ucts vital to our way of life have found t h e services of t h e chemist essential to their development and the key to peace a n d plenty.'' T h e following day, Saturday, April 12, one of t h e oldest and most popular pro grams on radio, Allis-Chalmers' National F a r m a n d Home Hour, carried a similar announcement, telling members of t h e radio audience that t h e chemist and t h e farmer are teammates, producing necessi ties for each other. Du P o u t ' s Cavalcade of America car ried t h e following testimonial to the ACS on its April 14 program: " T o d a y at. Atlantic City, X. .1., t h e AMERICAN C H E M I C A L SOCIETY opened its
111th national meeting. T h e SOCIETY is 71 years old this month but it may be a surprising fact t o many people to hear t h a t t h e foundations of the science of chemistry were being laid as far back as three centuries ago—and it is surprising too,
that
t h e AMERICAN
CHEMICAL S O
CIETY should have over 52,000 members: men a n d women connected with the 10,000 manufacturers of chemicals a n d related products in the United States, those work ing in universities a n d colleges, or those otherwise associated with t h e science of 1394
ehemistry. It is at meetings such as tliis one, which will cont inue t hrough t he week, that chemists mid p:ipers a n d exchange the ideas and experiences which contrib ute so vitally to t h e modern world in which we live." On Wednesday, April 10, two Procter and (iambic programs, Lowell T h o m a s and Mystery of the Week, carried t r i b u t e s to the SOCIETY uud .Johns-Manville's Bill Henry a m i t h e '.\'c\vs congratulated t h e chemists " w h o have contributed s o much t ο the well-being of our n a t i o n " . The ( Vlanese (\>rp., which sponsors 2S «laytime programs in the largest cities in
the United States each M o n d a y , Wednes day, a n d Friday, broadcast a different testimonial on all its programs for each of t h e six d a y s from April 7 t o April 18. Adventures in Science, t h e well-known sustaining program which t h e Columbia Broadcasting System produces in cooper ation with Science Service, honored t h e SOCIETY on S a t u r d a y , April 19, when Watson Davis interviewed your editor who endeavored to give a thorough over all account of t h e meeting a n d briefly treated some of t h e features of o u t s t a n d ing popular interest. Although there seems to be no way of estimating t h e a m o u n t of publicity o b tained through c o m m e n t a t o r s and regular radio news broadcasts, t h e News Service has received many reports of such cover age.
Letters to the Editor =
==» lielvase
Japanese
Dalti
DEAR S I R :
I rend with interest your item in t h e Feb. 3, P.U7, edition of C&KX titled "Should \Ye Investigate .hi]") Technical Secrets?" Ϊ was director «d the oil a n d chemical division of t h e Γ. S. Strategic Bombing Survey which enrried out extensive inves tigations in Japan during t h e last m o n t h s of 1945. While our responsibility was pri marily in t h e survey of bomb damage, there was required nevertheless a fairly comprehensive review of t h e status a n d accomplishments of t h e industries in volved. Other divisions of t h e bombing survey covered such (dements of the.Japa nese economy as steel and heavy indus try, electric power, transportation, a n d medicine. During our stay in Japan, there was also operating therelho l". S. Naval Technical Mission t o Japnn which was a counterpart of the earlier mission in Kurope a n d con cerned with lunch t h e same subjects. That technical mission had groups which were stu« lying llie technology of the oil, chemical, ami many other industries. There were in J a p a n , of course, several groups which concerned themselves pri marily with military studies, such a s those relating to the atomic bombs. Contrary t o our observations in Kurope, it was t h e opinion of all of u s t h a t J a p a n had very little now technology. Never theless, 1 agree that your position is justified i.e., that we should be sure t h a t everything of value is revealed a n d made known t o American institutions. 1 sug gest, however, that first there should be arranged t h e declassification a n d distri bution of t h a t information which our variC H E M I C A L
t&e £cltto% ous agencies already have 1 collected. O u r own reports, lor example, are still r e stricted a n d hence not available to t h e general public. Following t h e dissemina tion of this available material, we could more intelligently decide what types of investigation might remain to be made. I would hope that y o u r offices might be able t«i hasten t h e declassification a n d re lease of the available information, so t b a t if additional studies a r e considered neces sary, time would still be available. M. K. SPA ci ι IT Xar York, A". Y. hi S«pc*r«pf Session DEAR SIR:
T h e following is a summary of t h e more outstanding papers presented at the Division of Alchemy meeting in Atlantic City a fortnight ago. A large number of papers that ordinarily would have been read at the Alchemy Divisional meeting overlapped into other fields and were therefore referred to t In appropriate meetings. Some very in teresting work, however, was described by o u r distinguished speakers, some «>f whom had to overcome unusual difficulties in order to get to t h e meeting. T h e results of experimental work by the Abou Ben Atom (C&EX, 2 5 , 1090) group with radioactive sulfur in the study of t h e reaction of fin» with brimstone were presented. D r . Ben Jonson disclosed the considerable progress that h a s been made in t h e isolation of a purer Philos opher's Stone. T h e best source has been found to be t h e sclerotic dragon kidney, which is homogenized in white wine and purified chromatographically on a A N D ENGINEERING
NEWS
For Chlorine in Convenient- to-Use Form Cse Hooker Sulfur Chlorides Wd*s V
T h e H o o k e r Sulfur C h l o r i d e s , i n o u o a n d di-, provide c o n v e n i e n t sources of chlorine in c h e m i c a l processes w h e r e the u s e of e l e m e n t a l chlorine is not. feasible. In t h e s e H o o k e r p r o d ucts y o u c a n always be sure of a c a r e fully controlled c h l o r i n e c o n t e n t . T h e Monochloricle c o n t a i n s a m i n i m u m of 5 0 % chlorine, while t h e O i c h l o r i d e has a minimum, of βΟ^ό c h l o r i n e . Besides t h e more c o m m o n uses a s c h l o r i n a t i n g agents, t h e Sulfur C h l o rides have a wide v a r i e t y of possible a p p l i c a t i o n s in m a n y différent fields. In r e a c t i o n s with u n s a t u r a t e d h y d r o c a r b o n s it i s possible t o i n t r o d u c e t h e sulfur or chlorine or b o t h i n t o t h e molecule.
Sulfur fJ ivlilariile may be used as a chtoridizing agent in the refining of various sulfide ores; as a reagent in the manufacture of organic acid anhydrides, various rubber substitutes and other organic chemicals.
Sulfur Monochloricle is also used in the manufacture of a variety of organic chemicals. I t has been used as an agent for the cold vulcanization of rubber products and in the manufacture of rubber substitutes. It may be used as a solvent for sulfur and as a polymerization catalyst to increase the viscosity of fatty acids. Hooker Bulletin 3C28A, "Chlorinating Agents," gives more detailed information on the possible uses of these two Hooker products as well a s other Hooker Chlorinating Chemicals. Technical D a t a Sheets Nos. 759 and 7G0 describe in more detail t h e physical properties of the Hooker Sulfur Chlorides. Copies of these bulletins will be sent when requested on your business letterhead. Your problems in handling these Hooker Chemicals will receive the careful attention of our Technical Staff.
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