INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMIXTRY
February, 1923
Symposium on Insecticides and Fungicides A t the Pittsburgh meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SoCIETY,the Division of Agricultural and Food Chemistry voted to hold a symposium on insecticiges and fungicides at the New Haven meeting in April. This will be the first gathering of chemists working along these lines, and an interesting program is being arranged. The symposium will be held on Thursday, April 8, and in order to allow for adequate discussion of the papers an all-day meeting will probably be held. Members wishing to present papers or to offer suggestions should address Dr. F. C. Cook, Bureau of Chemistry, Washington, D. C.
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give a history of the pre-war activities. Accordingly, anyone who knows of the facts pertaining to the manufacture or chemistry of artificial dyes in the United States prior to 1914, is asked to communicate with R. Norris Shreve a t 342 Madison Ave., New York City.
Chemical Education Section
A t the Pittsburgh meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, a resolution was passed to have a symposium on “Tests in Chemistry” a t the New Haven meeting. Professor Glenn, of Teachers College, Columbia University, will arrange this symposium. Papers have already been scheduled for the discussion of the Symposium on the Synthetic Coal-Tar Dye status of analytical chemistry in our universities and colleges. Industry in the United States Prior to 1914 It is expected that there will be a report of the committee on A t the spring meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, the “Correlation of High School and College Chemistry.” It is also expected that there will be a report of the committee to be held in Xew Haven, April 2 to 7, 1923, the Division of Dye Chemistry is planning a symposium to tell of the accom- working on a list of research problems that are fitting for those teachers who have a limited amount of time or equipment for plishments of the Americans in the dye industry before the war. So much has been said and written about our doings since research. Professor Chapin, of Oberlin College, is chairman of 1914, that we are apt to underrate and pass over the truly the committee. Papers containing constructive work for the teaching of cheminteresting and worth-while results obtained by those who istry are invited. pioneered. The aim is to have the symposium so complete that it will NEIL E. GORDON, Secretary
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE Generation of Artificial Gas. A Guess a t the Future Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: It has been suggested that, when cheap oxygen becomes available, it will be possible to carry out the complete gasification of coal in an apparatus like a blast furnace, to which oxygen and steam are fed. This will give a gas whichmight be described as a mixture of coal gas, water gas, and producer gas, minus the diluting nitrogen of the present producer gas. It should be possible to control the temperature by varying the proportions of oxygen and steam, and to flux the ash so as to eliminate the troublesome clinkering of the present water-gas process. This most promising idea for a large-scale gas generator is wholly dependent on cheap oxygen. Cheap oxygen can also be applied to the gas so produced in two or three other ways which do not seem to have been suggested in this connection-i. e., to the removal of hydrogen sulfide and to the drying and enrichment of the gas. By feeding a sulfur burner with pure oxygen instead of air, thus producing pure sulfur dioxide, we can utilize the reaction: 2H2S
+ SO1 = 2H20 4-3s
The precipitated sulfur can be taken out by Cottrell precipitation, or by bagging. Any excess sulfur dioxide can be removed from the gas by washing. Cheap oxygen probably means that calcium carbide can be efficiently produced in a blast furnace. If such a furnace were operated as a part of the gas plant, the carbon monoxide from the carbide furnace could be added to the gas from the main gas generator. The carbide produced could be used as an efficient drying agent for the gas. Not only will the substitution of acetylene for water vapor in the gas do away with all the pipe and holder troubles, such as stoppages and freeze-ups, hut the gas will thereby be enriched. Of course, further enrichment
beyond the acetylene equivalent of the removed water can be made, if desired. These subsidiary uses for oxygen add to the feasibility of the main scheme and seem worth while bringing to the attention of your readers. FREDERICK G. DAWSON 5740 WOODROW AYE. DETROIT,Mica. November 25, 1922
New Calculating Chart Editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: With regard to the article by me in the November, 1922, issue of your journal on “A New Calculating Chart,” some have had difficulty in handling improper fractions or fractions in which the first digit of the numerator is greater than the denominator. Such divisions are performed a t the left of the heavy “1” line; or, where the readings are too fine by this method. by dividing the denominator by the numerator and then obtaining the reciprocal. In the reciprocal method, the vertical is the denominator, the radial the numerator, and the radial from the intersection of the slant over the vertical “1” is the value of this fraction. E. L. RICE WASHINGTON, D . C. January 15, 1923
Report of the Viscosity Committee of the Cellulose Division- Correction In this report, published in THISJOURNAL, 14 (1922), 1164, in the list of specifications,the eighth item should be changed to read:
. . . . . . . .. .. . . ....
Temperature of solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . , . . . . . . . . . Temperature to be maintained by water jacket within
25’ C .
5 0.5O.C.
