Apr,
1914
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
s e t t l i n g f o r a p r o p e r t i m e t h e r a c k i s t u r n e d t o an upr i g h t p o s i t i o n , t h e flasks p l a c e d u n d e r the o u t l e t c o c k s as in F i g . 5 and t h e m i x e d e t h e r s and fat d r a i n e d off. If closer d r a i n a g e i s desired t h e t u b e s m a y b e h e l d in t h e h a n d while t h e last p o r t i o n is d r a i n e d off. F u n n e l s and filter p a p e r s m a y b e p l a c e d i n t h e f l a s k s if desired. STATEFOODCOMMISSION 1623 MANHATTAN BUILDING, CHICAGO
MODIFIED APPARATUS FOR THE PUTRESCIBILITY TEST B y A. M. BUS WELL^
The p u t r e s c i b i l i t y test as d e s c r i b e d b y J a c k s o n and H o r t o n 2 i s m a d e i n a 2 5 0 cc. b o t t l e p r o v i d e d w i t h a one-hoie r u b b e r s t o p p e r c a r r y i n g a medicine d r o p p e r w i t h a 5 cc. r u b b e r b u l b : 3 7 . 5 O C. is t h e t e m p e r a t u r e of i n c u b a t i o n . T h e b u l b i s collapsed a t t h e beginn i n g of t h e t e s t b u t soon b e c o m e s p a r t i a l l y filled, d u e t o t h e e x p a n s i o n of t h e l i q u i d a n d t h e e v o l u t i o n of s o m e of t h e gases originally i n s o l u t i o n . E x p a n sion i s t h u s allowed f o r w i t h o u t p e r m i t t i n g t h e a b s o r p t i o n of a i r . It has b e e n f o u n d , h o w e v e r , t h a t the rubber bulbs deteriorate very rapidly. This not only m a k e s the c o s t of u p - k e e p of the a p p a r a t u s h i g h b u t
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occasionally a test is lost, due to the failure of a bulb during incubation. T h e s e f a c t s l e d t h e w r i t e r t o design for the p u t r e s cibility b o t t l e the modified f o r m of stopper shown in t h e figure. T h e modification consists in r e p l a c i n g the medicine d r o p p e r by a J s h a p e d c a p i l l a r y tube of 0 .j m m . bore. T h e long e n d of t h e t u b e e x t e n d s t o t h e b o t t o m of a s m a l l test t u b e which c a t c h e s the 250 cc. overflow. T h e diffusion of gases t h r o u g h c a p i l l a r y t u b i n g i s so s l i g h t t h a t the p r e v e n t i o n of a i r a b s o r p t i o n i s effected. Aside f r o m b e i n g m o r e d u r a b l e t h e modified s t o p p e r c a n be a p p l i e d m u c h m o r e easily and r a p i d l y than the old f o r m a n d t h e c o n v e n i e n c e i s q u i t e an i t e m w h e n j o t o I O O b o t t l e s h a v e t o be m a d e u p at o n e t i m e . T h e modified s t o p p e r h a s b e e n u s e d i n a series of comparative tests made b y students in this laboratory a n d t h e results o b t a i n e d so far a r e e n t i r e l y s a t i s f a c t o r y . LABORATORY OF SANITARY CHEMISTRY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK
ADDRESSES MODERN CHEMICAL INDUSTRY3 By FRITZHABER
It is a special honor to me to speak here in appreciation of a man who recognized and represented the importance of physical thinking in applied chemistry at a time when almost without exception technical chemists declined t o take this view. Thirty years ago, when Hurter’s activity was a t its height, the center point of chemical industry was the Leblanc soda process. Here in England a number of technical methods for the manufacture of sulfuric acid and Glauber’s salt, bleaching powder, soda, potash and the alkalies had been developed up t o a remarkable standard. It is impossible t o admire too much the richness of inventive genius and the clearness of judgment which the technical chemists of this period developed in your country. The world has learned of them how t o convert chemical laboratory reactions into industrial technical processes and how to build up a system of analytical controls which enables the manager t o follow the chemical change in a complicated system of reactions on a large scale. The picture that technical chemistry exhibits to-day is quite different from t h a t of thirty years ago. There is more brilliancy around the accomplishment of the organic than of the inorganic industries. The replacement of natural dyes by the products of coal tar, the extension of our medical resources by the manufacture of synthetic medicines, has gone far t o extend the appreciation of chemical work and t o produce the general conviction that chemistry is a n inexhaustible field of economic possibilities. Indeed, one natural product after another falls into the domain of chemical synthesis, and chemistry is becoming the important factor in the economy of the tropical products which are used for industrial purposes. As soon as Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry, Columbia University. THIS JOURNAL, 1 (1909), 328. 8 The Hurter Memorial Lecture, delivered before the Liverpool Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, November 26, 1913 and printed in the Jour. Sac. Chem. Ind.. SS (1914). 49. 1
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the price of such a product exceeds a certain limit organic chemistry enters the field and synthesizes it in Western Europe. Thus indigo has succumbed to the onslaught of organic chemistry. Tanning materials a t present are in a struggle with the condensation products of formaldehyde and phenolsulfonic acids. Camphor could maintain its position only by large price reduction, and the ptospect of synthetic rubber holds down the would-be inflated prices of the natural product. The basis of this marked development in organic chemical industries is the combined working of science and technology. The fact and the success of this intermingling is so obvious t h a t we need not dwell on the point. I n the territory of inorganic technical Chemistry things are somewhat different. Here also a great change has taken place. The historical sulfuric acid and soda processes have lost much ground t o the ammonia-soda and electrolytic processes, and to the contact process. New branches of industries have taken root and grown up. I n this field, however, the connection between scientific and technical progress is neither so obvious nor so well recognized as in the realm of industrial organic chemistry. The reason is that the advance in inorganic science, during the last decade or two, has resulted less in the discovery of new facts which had direct technical applications, than in the unravelling and working out of new theoretical views. I n fact, the introduction of physical laws and physical methods into the working sphere of inorganic chemistry has led t o the greatest scientific progress. The invasion of physics into chemistry has produced the splendid development of physical chemistry, the basis of which is the second law of thermodynamics, the phase rule, and the theory of electrolytic dissociation. The introduction of the electroscope into chemical analysis has opened up the new chemical world of radioactivity. Now, in my opinion, inorganic chemical industries can gain almost as much by regarding their problems from a physical point of view as organic industries do by the application of structural considerations.
