the catalyst is a mixture of cuprous chloride and copper oxychloride operating between 600° and 1200° F. Chlorine recovered from the residues makes up about 30% of the feed requirement. The monomer is refined to provide a polymerization-grade product. The Transcat system uses only a single reactor with total recycle. Ethane utilization efficiency is about 80% and chlorine utilization efficiency is about 90%. Ethane/ethylene mixtures may also be used as hydrocarbon feeds. The Transcat process shows about a 1 cent-per-pound advantage in manufacturing costs over ethylene-based processes for vinyl chloride. Since the cost advantage is based primarily on savings in feed costs, the advantage is applicable to any size plant. According to Lummus, the world demand for vinyl chloride has grown steadily during the past 10 years. The growth rate has been about 10% per year in the U.S. Of the total world production of vinyl chloride of 10.5 billion pounds, 30% is produced in the U.S., 45% in Europe, and 20% in Japan. Lummus projects U.S. demand for vinyl chloride at 6 billion pounds in 1975 and 10 billion pounds in 1980.
EDUCATION
Newspapers to carry college courses Next September, perhaps as many as 150 newspapers in the U.S. and abroad will begin carrying a college course weekly (C&EN, Dec. 18, 1972, page 18). Planned to start as a regional pilot program in only six newspapers, the "Courses by Newspaper" project has excited "unbelievable" interest, according to project director Caleb A. Lewis.
Under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of California, San Diego, has developed a course of 20 1400-word lectures on "America and the Future of Man" by 20 distinguished scholars. Covered are such topics as "Science— Hero, Villain, or Scapegoat?" by biologist H. Bentley Glass of State University of New York, Stony Brook, and physicist Philip Morrison of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and "The Future of Man, the Organism: The New Biology" by biologist Robert Sinsheimer of California Institute of Technology and biochemist-bioethicist Leon Kass of St. John's College in Annapolis, Md. Besides these and other lectures dealing with the impact of technology on society, the newspaper lectures will also touch on history, economics, law, and other fields. This first course by newspaper is designed as a "smorgasbord," a sampler on different topics, Mr. Lewis says. "The most important audience we hope to reach is the casual newspaper reader, who perhaps thinks that 'education is just for kids.' We want to hook the guy who comes home from work and has a bottle of beer with his newspaper," Mr. Lewis says. For those readers with more interest, a $10 kit of supplementary materials will be available. For a third audience, those who wish to seek college credit for the course, arrangements are being made with colleges in the circulation area of each newspaper. (Meetings will be held with these readers to answer questions, give additional material, and hold exams.) Such major newspapers as the Denver Post, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, and Houston Post have already signed up. At least one Swiss newspaper will carry the course, as will El Papel, a San Diego newspaper, which will carry the lectures in both Spanish and English, printed side by side.
Soviet Union ousts physicist Chalidze In an apparent further move to snuff out dissent among Its scientists and other intellectuals, the Soviet Union has stripped Dr. Valery N. Chalidze of his citizenship and barred his return to the U.S.S.R. Formerly a polymer physicist at the Plastics Research Institute in Moscow, Dr. Chalidze, 34, came to the U.S. on Nov. 23 for lectures on the Soviet human rights movement, in which he was a leader. Dr. Chalidze stresses that world opinion and public protests by U.S. scientists are important to aid Soviet scientists experiencing harassment, including those seeking to emigrate to Israel (C&EN, Dec. 11, 1972, page 12). "It reminds the people and authorities of a state that defense of human rights
is the business of all humanity— and that in our time it is important to recognize the principle of limited sovereignty of a state over an individual."
12 ORGANO-MODIFIED SILICONES
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Jan. 1, 1973 C&EN
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