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T H E JOURNAL OF I N D U S T R I A L Ah’D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
LONDON LETTER By STEPHENMIALL,157 Haverstock Hill, i T.W. 3, Hampstead, England
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I have heard no regrets that the year 1921 has now come to a close. It has been the worst year for chemical industry in history. There mag have been in the middle ages worse years from the point of view of the progress and we!l-being of mankind, but in those early days applied chemistry, as such, did not exist. We seem here-it may be a delusion-but we seem to have passed the worst of the depression. The textile industries are a little better than they were, the engineering industries are no worse; they hardly could be. The home markets are on the whole not quite so stagnant as they were six months ago, and the export business seems to be a little brighter. Of the manufacturers of chemicals, no large firm has gone into liquidation, and of the merchants very few. The soap industry seems now to be blessed by a number of brders and in some other branches of industry the outlook is brighter. No reasonable man here expects good trade in 1922 but almost all think it will be better than during the last few months. The political horizon has undoubtedly cleared even in Europe, where fears and animosities dating back a few centuries are apt to flare up a t intervals because some sentiment of nationality or something equally unsubstantial has been aroused. It happens that this continent is a t the moment fairly peaceably inclined and it is quite possible that in the course of the current year some of the old antagonisms will die down. It is, of course, hopeless to expect the Prussians to be friendly with the French or the Turks with the Greeks, but we may get to the stage where they can do business together.
Sometimes in the English papers we read of developments in applied chemistry but when they are closely investigated they turn out to be waiting for further capital or something of that sort. This is the fate of the Claude process for synthetic ammonia here and of other means of getting rich beyond the dreams of Avarice. I have after a good deal of search come across one development actually in being-not an epoch-making one, certainly, but of interest for all that-an improved method of making sodium silicate. Instead of dissolving the lumps of crude sodium silicate obtained by roasting together soda-ash and sand, and then evaporating the aqueous solution to a sirup, the new method introduces into a ball-mill a limited quantity of water and the lumps of crude silicate, which are ground up together until a mass is obtained which sets to a solid on cooling and contains 75 per cent of silicate. The new process is operating on a considerable scale in- South Yorkshire and is said to be successful. The owners of the works claim a very considerable saving by eliminating the usual dissolving and evaporation. Probably the process with some modifications is capable of being adapted to other varieties of manufacture. Those engaged in low-temperature carbonization of coal continue to speak with confidence of the satisfactory working of the plant a t Barnsley, and they promise to disclose some new features a month or two hence. If these claims are well founded I hope to visit the works again and to give a detailed description of the novel features. January 9, 1922
PARIS LETTER By CHARLES LORMAND, 4 Avenue de I’Observatoire, Paris, France
PATENTREFORM French inventors are under the law of 1844 in the matter of industrial ownership. This legislation has been recognized as superannuated for a long time, and a campaign for its reform is now being conducted. The chemists, who are the inventors most frequently involved, are specially active in this campaign. For instance, a scientific communication made by the A c a d h i e des Sciences or in one of the chemical societies becomes public property, by this very fact, especially if a patent has not been taken out a t the same time. Furthermore, it may happen that a scientsc communication may not contain patentable material, though it may possess the highest technical interest; it does not always constitute a novelty, but frequently it may involve a condition of reaction which may lead to a great industrial improvement. Also, certain chemists take out patents but do not immediately find manufacturers and financiers to make possible their development; patent fees are paid for some years; then the chemist becomes discouraged and stops these payments. Some time later he is surprised to see his patents and processes put into operation. All these gaps would need to be filled by creating what the Syndicat des Invelzteurs, who are a t the head of the movement, call “le droit de suite,” a right which would obviously be limited to a certain period, fifty years, for example. There would be an almost complete fusion between this droit and what we French call “le droit d‘auteur.” Scientific treatises would be deposited, just as models or machines, and to this depot the droit d’auteur would be paid by the concessionaire. Chemists differ on the question of how to know whether or not a new compound should be patented, and after a long discussion a t the Congress of Industrial Chemistry it was decided that a new chemical compound could be patented as a new industrial product, but that the holder of the patent would be obliged to grant a license to any inventor who found a better method of preparation for this product. The conditions of this license would be settled by agreement of those interested or fixe,d by the authorities.
Further, the vote was passed that patents of chemical products could be expropriated by the State for public use.
PROPOSED RESEARCH COUNCIL The French Senate is now considering a first draft of a law organizing an “Office national des recherches scientifiques, industrielles et agricoles.” This organization is modeled on the National Research Council in the United States. This plan has been fought from the first by Parliament, who see in it a duplication of the laboratories of the big teaching establishments of the state. It has been decided that the part of the new office would be one of coordination between the different (laboratories, not only of the state but also of private industry. There have been established in France some laboratories analogous to the Mellon Institute, and these organizations would cooperate in the work of this office.
AMERICANDEGREES FOR SALE An ill-wordedrannouncement which appeared in a E’rench chemical paper has disturbed a number of our American friends. Individuals without authority have been offering to secure advanced degrees in American universities upon payment of a sum of money. I, who have seen many of your universities and laboratories, know that a degree can be obtained only by serious research work. The activity of the numerous American chemical societies and their many publications are still further witnesses that students a t the universities are forwarding science and that the diplomas are the fruit of their labor. It is no less true that many Rrench chemists have received from America circulars offering to secure these diplomas. In France, we are publishing notices discrediting this, but it would also be well if the foreign ambassadors of the United States would publish an advertisement in order to avoid such attempted trickery in the future. January 8, 1922
