928
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
that they cannot be grown successfully in this country, will continue to be imported. While the forthcoming census of dyes and coal-tar chemicals, now under preparation by the Tariff Commission, is expected to show many interesting developments, such as growth in total production, and greater variety of products with many new colors, collection of statistics has not yet reached the stage where any definite conclusions can be drawn. A. R. Willis, who is in charge of the census, has not yet begun any analysis of the figures which he has received. This delay can be attributed to the difficulty of collecting statistics through the field force of the bureau of the census of manufactures of the Commerce Department. The report is expected to be ready in about a month and a half, although a very large number of the principal schedules upon which it is based are still to come from the bureau of the census.
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cording to Dr. Parsons. Disturbed conditions throughout the world, together with internal conditions in Germany, will, however, prevent the immediate launching of any competitive attack. There seems little doubt but that the Germans believe keen competition is a prospect of the future and are preparing themselves for it. The War Trade Board Section of the Department of State has requested the Department of Justice to investigate the offering for sale of German colors by several companies. The companies which have offered the German colors for sale have not been granted import licenses, nor have consumers to whom import permits have been granted applied to the board for permission to dispose of part of their supplies. Immediate investigation has been promised by the Department of Justice, but inasmuch as the matter came to official attention only a few days ago nothing has as yet developed.
B U R E A U OF MINES REPORTS
RESIGNATIONS
Reports of investigations into talc and soapstones, conducted by Raymond B. Ladoo, and a motor gasoline survey, by N. A. C. Smith, petroleum chemist of the Bureau of Mines, have recently been made public by the Bureau. The second semiannual survey of the motor-gasoline industry has just been completed and the analytical results apparently show “that there has been a greater decrease in the volatility of motor gasoline than can be accounted for as the normal change from winter to summer quality,” as Mr. Smith declares in his report. Investigation of the fundamentals of oil-shale retorting also is the subject of a Bureau of Mines report, prepared by Martin J. Gavin, refinery engineer of the Bureau, and Leslie H. Sharp, chemical engineer of Colorado.
Dr. R. C. Tolman has been chosen to succeed Dr. A. B. Lamb, as head of the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory of the Nitrate Division of the Ordnance office of the Army, located a t the American University. Dr. Lamb is retiring from his work in the Army to return to Harvard University, which granted him a leave of absence during the war’. The change takes effect September I. Dr. Tolman has been connected with the laboratory as an assistant to the head. Resignation of Dr. Rodney H. True, as chief of the Drug Plants Division of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture, was announced a few days ago. Dr. True is one of many scientific and technical men who have recently left government work for various reasons. Their departure, in practically every instance, however, has been in answer to a much more lucrative offer from private concerns who are willing to pay better for the valuable services which the Government gets for so little. The resignation of James T. Newton as commissioner of patents and the appointment of Robert F. Whitehead as his successor has been a recent development. Mr. Newton entered the Patent Office on March IO, 1891,as a fourth assistant examiner, and worked his way up until he became head of the office. He is to take charge of the American business of the English patent firm of Marks & Clerk. Mr. Whitehead, who was promoted from first assistant commissioner, entered the Patent Office early in 1902 as fourth assistant examiner and rose by successive promotions. Melvin H. Coulston, of New York, assistant commissioner, was named first assistant commissioner by the President a t the same time. He also entered the Patent Office within two weeks of Mr. Whitehead in 1902. Failure of Congress to grant relief to Patent Office experts has resu!ted in a continued loss of patent experts to the government service. Coming as it does a t this time in the face of largely increased applications for patents, such a depletion of the force can mean only serious delay to the work. “There can be no hope until Congress passes a measure giving us the relief we need,” one of the officials of the office said. The Nolan bill providing for reorganization of the Office did not get final action at the last session of Congress. After a determined fight, Senator Norris, in charge of the bill in thesenate, fina!ly brought it up for Consideration during the last hours of the session. In an effort to get i t in the technical position of “in conference” between the House and Senate, he accepted, more or less philosophically, amendments which killed the bill very effectively. As passed by the Senate, it actually would reduce the number of employees granted the patent office, and no salary increases are granted. It will have to be amended in conference to conform to the House bill in this connection.
OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT WORK, B U R E A U OF CHEMISTRY
Establishment of an Office of Development Work in the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture has been announced. The staff of the new service will be made up of engineers rather than chemists, and David J. Price, chief engineer in the dust-explosion investigations conducted by the department, will be in charge. The purpose of the new office is to assist commercial and industrial concerns to apply new processes and discoveries of the chemists in the Department. Its establishment was urged upon Secretary of Agriculture Meredith by Dr. Carl I,. Alsberg, chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, who declared that it was “urgently needed to translate the work of the Bureau into terms that could be understood and applied by the manufacturer and investor.” Data upon the supply of raw material, cost of production, and uses to which the product is adapted will be furnished by the development work office. T H E GERMAN DYE SITUATION
Present-day conditions in the German dye and chemical industries have been more or less accurately described in recent published reports, according to Dr. Charles L. Parsons, secretary of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, who has recently returned to Washington from Europe. During his visits to Germany he discussed the outlook with chemists and officers of the great German chemical cartel. Like other industries in all European countries, the German dyestuffs industry is a t present hampered by inability to get sufficient coal. The plants are in working order, and the technical staffs and the labor of the various companies are intact, Dr. Parsons reported, and with sufficient coal the German dye industry is ready a t once to produce to its capacity. Growth of the dyestuffs industry in the United States, Italy, England, together with the Swiss industry, and the more or less successful efforts which have been made in Japan, France, and other places, has been carefully noted by the Germans, ac-
I I
August 14, 1920
LONDON LETTER B y STEPHEN MIALL,28, Belsize Grove, Hampstead,
T H E SOCIETY O F CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
The annual meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry was held this year a t Newcastle-on-Tyne and was well attended. The award of the Society’s medal to Monsieur Paul Kestner, the popular president of the Societe de Chimie Industrielle in France, marks not only our esteem for M. Kestner personally, but also our desire for greater cooperation with our French neighbors. The latter we all desire, but it is not easy of accomplishment. The French have logical minds and their educated men have a felicity of expression and a vividness of thought which the compromising and comparatively awkward British do not readily appreciate or attain. M. Kestner
t
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N. AT. 3, England
has done much both for French industrial chemistry and for Franco-British understanding. During the last year or two the chemical engineers in the Society have formed an organization to insure due consideration by the Society of the problems of chemical engineering. They have held some interesting conferences, and on this occasion they had arranged a valuable series of papers and discussions on “Filtration.” Several of the papers dealt with the separation of solid and liquids by centrifugal filtration and detailed descriptions were given of the Sturgeon centrifuge, the Sharples centrifuge, the Gee separator, and the Kelly and Sweetland filters. The papers are appearing in the Journal of the Sockty
