July, 1930
I,VDUXTRIAL B S D ENGINEERING CHEMlXTRY
specifications are accepted, and better still that l i d s are obtained only from a few well-established houses of good reputation. Three such bids provide intelligent competition. Buying on price only means encouraging the supply of poor quality and where a man specifies, for example, a 50-cc. buret and lets it go a t that, he d l receive such a buret, but what a buwt it will be! Assuming you n ish to prove that apparatus obtained on the market is poorly made, ill-suited to its intended purpose, and inaccurate, there could be no better way of gathering specimens than to follow the practice of some buyers. Tou would send out lists for bidding, being sure to include dealers of little experience and less responsibility. Cpon receiving the estiniatrs you would put them in parallel columns and in every case award the ordtlr to the lowest bidder. Obviously, a laboratory equipment business may either put the utilitarian value first, and make the price secondary, or low price may be considered and the stock selected with that in view. It is possible to secure competitiTe bids on either basis, but they should never he confused. If any laboratory thinks it saves time by buying unstandardized Tveights or reagent chemicals that have not been analyzed by the laboratory of a reliable maker, then there is something wrong with its cost-accounting system. We have heard of cases where fifteen dollars was paid for a set of analytical weights and two days’ time of a valuable man in the laboratory devoted to rechecking them. KOone k n o w what it has cost to reanalyze and restandardize chemicals bought only on a price basis. The principle cost in operating a laboratory is for salaries. It is doubtful if the total for chemical reagents and equipment is more than 10 per cent of the total operating cost. Obviously, it is poor economy to save 10 per cent of this 10 per cent or 1 per cent on the total cost of operation, if as a result inferior materials are obtained. Particularly where procurement is left to one who does not use the material, there should be the closest cooperation between the user and the buyer. The chemist will find his cooperation welcome to the buyer, and the buyer will be rmdering a better service to his principal. We have commented before on the wisdom of supporting the supply houses known for their satisfactory service. Bid KO. 62 was just :i little too much; hence this plea for rational bidding in husines. Economical buying is not determined by price alone. Whet is received in return for the price determines economical buying.
Natural Gas E d R E all familiar with nat,ural gas and some of its history, since there are those of us who have lived in areas once benefited by this ideal fuel, but nolv--thanks t o uncontrolled waste-practically deprived of it. Great’ things are taking place in the field of natural gas. Its long-distance distribution is regarded as a, notable economic achievement. S e w industrial regions are soon to be benefit’ed, and already the construction of hundreds, not to say thousands, of miles of pipe lines has been singled out as important in reducing unemploynent . I n our May issue we gave some attention to natural gas distribution, but do you appreciate that since December, 1928, Memphis has been .supplied with natural gas froni Louisville, as has St. Louis at a distance of 450 miles? Do you kno.rv there is a 420-mile pipe line built across Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to deliver nat’ural gas from Louisiana to Birmingham and Atlanta? Monterey, Mexico, is served from Texas; a 200-mile pipe line carries gas from Xew Xexico into El Paso. From Wyoming, natural gas will go to the
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great Anaconda smelter in Montana, and still other lines are planned to carry gas to great consuming markets. The reported available supplies run into astronomical figures. Tarious types of welding and pipe protection involving chemical contributions have been important in this new achievement. Corrosion is a n important factor in determining the cost of a pipe line, and the life of the line may be prolonged 50 per cent if a proper pipe-coating is employed. S o t only is the transportation of natural gas a n undertaking requiring chemical contributions, but the availability of thiG great natural resource bring, new chemical opportunity.
A Court of Patent Appeals HE Bnierican Engineering Council, a t the suggestion of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, propose\ to have its patent committee consider the question of a single court of patent appeals. To those of our readers experienced in patent matters, vie need hardly emphasize the importance of what is proposed. The present situation, where n e have nine co-equal courts of appeal, ia intolerable. As we have previously emphasized, even though the owners of a patent procure a decision of a Circuit Court of Appeals holding that patent to be valid and to have been infringed, the defendant can get the Supreme Court of the United States to review the case if any other Circuit Court of Appeals should decide differently either the question of validity or that of infringement; and that holds, even though the case cited should be against another defendant. However, on the other hand, should the Court of Appeals hold the patent to be invalid or not infringed, the patentee cannot get a review b y the Supreme Court until some other Court of Appeals has decided one of those questions in the patentee’b favor. Moreover, it is only in case the Supreme Court is convinced that some question of law affecting the public generally is involved that it will take up a patent case a hen there ha3 been no conflict of decisions of two Courts of Appeals. It is well known, too, that the Supreme Court is o.ierivorked and can be expected to consider only a very few patent cases. T7’hile all of this is going on in the courts, the life of a patent i. rapidly running to its termination. A most important consideration is the difficulty of obtaining judges really competent to decide patent cases in technical matters froni the intricate and highly specialized testimony introduced. The committee has riot yet reported to the American Englneering Council, but is expected to do so ere long, and to suggest some iqay by which, instead of nine separate Courts of Appeals-one in each of the nine circuits of the United States, and each making its decisions independently-we can have a single court nhere one, and a final, decision for the whole country can be obtained a t the hands of men especially trained for this type of work. What is proposed is >o logical, and we believe so necebsary, that when the tinie comes we shall urge our reader. to support such action as inav be recommended by the specialista.
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Benn Brothers’ Jubilee
S MUST be well known, Benn Brothers, Ltd., the pro-
prietors of Chemical Age, are leading technical publishers with headquarters in London. It may not be ‘ 0 well known that 1930 marks the jubilee year of t h k firm. The history, in brief form, appeared in Chemical Age for May 24. Our readers in America will remember their pleasure in meeting F. E. Hamer, the editor of Chemical Age who has visited us on several occasions, and they will join us in felicitating Benn Brothers upon the successful completion of fifty years’ constructive work.
