ward tailor-made polymers, overlapping of polymer types is kept at a minimum to ensure maximum production efficiency. Public Law 469, enacted on March 31, 1948, establishes the policy for the future conduct of the national synthetic rubber program. Essential provisions are that ( D a technologically advanced synthetic rubber industry shall be maintained, (2) the industry shall be capable of meeting essential military and naval needs of the country in times of emergency, and (3) an orderly disposal program of governmentowned facilities to private industry undertaken. Over the last five years the Government has maintained a technologically advanced synthetic rubber industry bv undertaking an extensive research program. Direct expenditures for research to date have amounted to more than $22 million. The research program undertaken has been planned on a long-term basis, even though research contracts were made on a yearly basis. Approximately 10% of the funds '.ViT" devoted to fundamental rosea rrh. 3 0 % to applied research, and the remaining 6 0 % to developmental research. The fundamental research was planned on a five-year basis and conducted through universities and institutes, while the applied research »vas planned on a two-year basis with the rubber companies. The developmental research was planned on a yearly basis through the rubber companies and t he government laboratories. A complete exchange of technical information bv means of reports and numerous technical meetings has resulted in an unprecedented advance in synthetic rubber chemistry and technology. T h e outstanding achievement of this splendid team work of American chemists and engineers is the discovery, development, and production of lowtemperature rubber. Numerous technical articles have appeared during this current year describing this great accomplishment. An
AMERICAN CHEMICAL
SOCIETY staff-
industry review article concerning the production in the Reconstruction Finance Corp. plant at Baton Rouge should be of special significance to those interested in technological problems of production (Ind. Eng. Chem.. 40, 769-77 f 10481). This new synthetic rubber polymerized at low temperatures, sometimes referred t o as cold rubber, has shown a 2 5 % improvement over standard GR-S when used as a tire tread stock. New carbon blacks for special use in synthetic rubber have been developed by private industry to improve the treadwear performance of synthetic rubber an additional 25%. Thus, the combination of the new synthetic rubber and the new carbon blacks have resulted in tire treads of substantial performance improvement over natural rubber. The industry demand for this new rubber has resulted in the RFC's installing low temperature facilities to produce approximately 200,000 long tons per year. These facilities will be in full production by the
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summer of 1949. At present, several lowtemperature polymers are available in only limited quantities. The requirement of industry for various low-temperature polymers will be met as the need arises, as has been the policy with GR-S. From a national security standpoint, it is most essential that any synthetic rubber produced be of the highest quality. During the early part of World War IT, GR-S was a substitute for natural rubber; by the end of the war, GR-S had established itself as a semicompetitive raw material. It is predicted that the new low temperature synthetic rubbers will be preferred to natural rubber for many uses in the near future.
The
Predictions for rubber consumption for 1949 indicate that a slightly lower level will be obtained. Industry predicts for 1949 a somewhat diminished over-all consumption of rubber hydrocarbons; however, this is assuming that no unforeseen emergencies or technological advances require large quantities of rubber. Undetermined factors governing the political situation in the Far East may seriously influence these predictions. The new low-temperature rubber may influence the ratio of synthetic rubber to natural rubber consumption. It is too early, however, to predict how the requirement ratio will stabilize itself.
Cover,
Linns Carl Panling The President of ACS for 1949, Linus Carl Pauling, a native of Portland, Ore., became deeply interested in molecular structure and the nature of the chemical bond in 1919. He began experimentation in that branch of science in 1922, during which year he received a B.S. from Oregon State College and became a teaching fellow at California Institute of Technology. He has been at both ever since (exploring molecular structure and at Cal Tech), but his influence and the subject matter of his researches have extended literally all over the chemical world. Though varied in nature, his investigations have all had the common feature of emphasis on structure. He received a Ph.D. at Cal Tech in 1925. In his Gibbs Medal address in 1946, he calls Lomonossov "boldly imaginative" in his explanations of the properties of matter in terms of moving molecules. This phrase characterizes Pauling himself, who has continually blazed new trails and ventured to predict that our knowledge of structure would eventually guide us i n the solutions of such great practical problems of biological and medical research as those presented by cancer and cardiovascular disease. Fame began for him in 1931, when at the age of 30 he was chosen first recipient of the ACS award in pure chemistry, given to chemists of unusual promise at the threshold of their careers, and he was hailed as a prodigy of American science. He had studied at the University of Munich, Copenhagen, and Zurich. He was given the honorary D.Sc. degree by Oregon State in 1933, and later b y the University of Chicago, Princeton, Yale, and the University of London. His latest honorary doctorate is from the University of Paris, and he has only just re-
CHEMICAL
turned from a one-week visit t o France to receive it. At Cal Tech he was research fellow 1925-27; assistant professor 1927-29; associate professor 1929-31; professor since 1931; and chairman of the division of chemistry and chemical engineering and director of Gates and Crellin Laboratories of chemistry since 1937. H e has held other lectureships and fellowships, and among t h e many honors heaped upon him have been those of Nichols medalist (1941), fourth Stieglitz memorial lecturer (1943), and Harrison Howe lecturer (1946). In 1947 he was awarded the Richards medal of the Northeastern Section of ACS, and later in the year the D a v y medal of the Royal Society, London, "for his distinguished contributions to the theory of valency and their application t o systems of biological importance." H e was George Eastman professor at Oxford in 1948. During World War II he carried on work for several divisions of the National Defense Research Committee and for the Committee on Medical R e search. For this work h e was awarded the Medal for Merit from the Department of the Army. H e has been an editor of the ACS Monograph series, and an associate editor of J ACS and the Journal of Chemical Physics. He has published over 160 articles in 20 scientific journals. Besides coauthoring several books, he wrote what is now considered a classic in the field: "Nature of the Chemical Bond" (1939). He married Ava Helen Miller, also of Portland, in 1923, and they have three sons and a daughter. H e is a member of the Royal Society, London, and of AAAS, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.
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