Bituminous Coal Research BITUMINOUS
Architect's drawing of new Merck laboratory
Merck Analytical Control Laboratories P L A N S have been completed for new analytical control laboratories to be built at the headquarters plant of Merck & Co., Inc., at Rahway, X. J. The control division which will occupy the new building is responsible for testing all raw materials, ingredients, products, and packages for the company, which turns out some 3000 separate items in 13,000,000 containers per year. Original features of the laboratories are the result of extensive studies of operation and function made by the laboratory staff in cooperation with the company's industrial engineers. Most striking is the design of chemists' laboratory tables, which are in the form of a cross. Each angle is designed to provide a working area for one chemist whose writing desk will be within the individual angular area. Opposite ends of each cross will be assigned, respectively, to sinks and to compartments for clean glassware and balance areas for weighing samples. A fume hood will rise from the intersection and will provide individual access points for each chemist. High precision analytical balances will be located within a few feet of each working area. According to the new bench design, each chemist will work in a semiprivate bay with all necessary facilities within or adjacent to his station. The main operating laboratory will be on the top floor where artificial lighting will be supplemented by skylight illumination of the saw-tooth type. Throughout the building, interior lighting will be achieved with fluorescent tubes. Special laboratories on the second floor include those for analytical research, bacteriology, package inspection, microanalysis, physical apparatus, and spectrography, a photographic darkroom, also laboratories equipped for the maintenance of constant temperature and humidity. Areas have been allocated for dusty operations and for those likely to produce excessive fumes. Ovens and furnaces will be located in a separate and specially ventilated department. More than 30 fume and dust hoods will be equipped with
individual exhaust tans. Filtered fresh air will be forced into the building and distributed through a system ot ventilating ducts, permitting change of air every 5 minutes. To technical specialists, perhaps the most interesting feature of the control laboratories will be the range of precision, analytical, and test facilities. For some years in their work with vitamins, Merck chemists have found it necessary to use and in some cases further develop methods and equipment for determining exactly the physical nature, chemical formula, quality, strength, and other standards with regard to a host of organic materials. Developments in physical chemistry in which the Merck Research laboratories have been taking particular interest now make it possible to includv a wide range of specialized apparatus in the new quarters of the control division. Facilities for spectroscopy have been greatly excluded; likewise the latest types of optical laboratory procedure. Service lines will be provided for hot and cold water, distilled water, steam, gas, air, vacuum, hydrogen sulfide, and electric current. With a view to possible expansion, spare outlets from all service lines will be established at many points. Re-enforced concrete construction will be employed and exterior walls will be of brick. Inside the building, floors will be of mastic tile, laid on concrete. Main floor area will be 72 by 140 feet. Construction of the building and installation of equipment are expected to require from six to eight months.
1099
COAL RESEARCH, INC.,
the
research agency of the bituminous coal industry sponsored by the National Coal Association, lias announced the inauguration of a $200,000 program of research aimed to advance the competitive position of coal by the development of better equipment for its use in home and industry. Arrangements have been completed to carry on the program at the Bat telle Memorial Institute. The program will include studies of methods by which close control of heating and smokeless operation may be combined with the natural advantage of coal as a low-cost source of energy. The direct application of coal as a fuel for metallurgical and ceramic furnaces, methods for the complete gasification of coal for industrial and residential use, and the direct conversion to mechanical energy through the use of coal in a new type of internal-combustion engine are among the problems to be attacked. Further researh on materials for the dust proofing of coals, with particular attention to those porous coals now difficult to treat economically, is expected to broaden the distribution of coal that is clean to handle. Financed jointly by the coal producers' associations, individual producers, and the coal-carrying railroads, the program is set up for a minimum period of three years. A technical committee of fuel engineers representing the companies participating in the program will cooperate with the laboratory, and a smaller advisory group will meet with the research staff at frequent intervals. At Battelle, Ralph A. Sherman, supervisor of the fuels division, will direct the work. The present program marks the resumption of a previous program of three and one-half years by Bituminous Coal Research, Inc.
Chemistry in the Draft Editor, News Edition: W H I L E scanning long list of draft numbers my eye was caught by two numbers drawn in rather rapid succession. First drawn was the atomic weight of hydrogen (1008); several numbers later the molecular weight of hydrogen was drawn from the bowl (2016) SAMUEL R. SCHIOLES, JR. ALFRED L'NIVBHAITY ALFKBD. N. Y.
October 30. 1940
