Sept., 1918
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 C H E M I S T R Y
CIVIL SERVICE RULES WAIVED FOR WAR GAS INVESTIGATORS EXECUTIVE ORDSR The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to employ, without reference to the requirements of the civil service act, such persons in the Research Division, Chemical Warfare Service, at the American University, as may be needed in conducting certain investigations and construction work relating to gases and chemicals used in war, i t being understood that all possible use will be made of the registers of eligibles of the Civil Service Commission. This authority shall continue only during the present war. The Commission concurs with the War Department in recommending this order because of the urgent and highly confidential character of the work involved and the fact that i t must be organized and prosecuted with the greatest dispatch and be safeguarded most effectively. THBWHITE HOUSE WOODROW WILSON July 19, 1918
RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP STATE COLLEGE OF WASHINGTON The Department of Chemistry of the State College of Washington, Pullman, Washington, announces the establishment of a fellowship, to be devoted to research on the extension of the chemical uses of magnesite, paying $600 a year. Applications are invited from young men having the Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from a college giving a four-year course. The appointee will give twelve hours a week to instructional work in elementary
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chemistry, the remainder of his time being given to research and study in advanced courses leading to the M.S. degree. Interested parties should send photograph with their application, together with letters of recommendation and statement of special qualifications. CHEMICAL ENGINEERING IN OUR UNIVERSITIES
Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: In the list of institutions given on p. 645 of the August number of the JOURNAL, I notice that we are reported as possessing no course in Chemical Engineering. I cannot understand how the writer of the paper arrived at such a notion. As a matter of fact we had one of the first complete courses given although we do not claim to have really started before 1912. You may be very sure that we have a course now and have had one since that date, a comprehensive and difficult course. By this mail I am sending you our latest catalog on page 94 of which you will find the course in Chemical Engineering set forth and I beg of you to note that there is no camouflage in it nor any so-called paper courses. We are situated near “large manufacturing enterprises involving chemical control and chemical processes.” Our students are not given “an opportunity” to visit such plants but are compelled t o do so, and are conditioned if they fail to make a proper report. DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY W. P. MASON RENSSECLAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE TROY, N. Y..August 13, 1918
WASHINGTON LFTTER By PAUL WOOTON, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C.
Two pieces of legislation which are of direct importance to chemical industries are on the point of taking final form at this writing. They are the Revenue Bill and the War Minerals Bill. Regardless of the levies on war profits and excess profits, which may be contained in the bill which the Committee on Ways and Means will report to the House, it is practically certain that the legislation will go on the statute books with an 80 per cent, or greater, tax on war profits and with nothing more than the perfecting of the existing graduating tax on excess profits. The Senate does not hold the present Committee on Ways and Means in high esteem in regard to its ability to draft revenue legislation. Extensive changes are certain to be made in the Upper House. The temper of the House of Representatives apparently is unusually critical of the work being done by the Ways and Means Committee. The bill is certain to receive a very general overhauling in the House itself. It is very certain, however, that the bill will be out of the hands of Congress prior to the launching of the fourth Liberty Loan campaign on September 28. The Ways and Means Committee expresses its opinion in the platinum controversy by applying the luxury tax of I O per cent on platinum jewelry and by singling platinum jewelry out for an additional tax of I O per cent. The War Minerals Bill, which is of vital interest, not only to the mining and metallurgical industries, but to all users of mineral materials, which heretofore have been largely imported, is in process of being rewritten by the Senate Committee. The bill which will be introduced is likely to be a compromise between proposed measures submitted by Senator Henderson, of the War Industries Board, and the Interior Department. From information reaching Washington, i t would seem that the chemical industries are well divided as t o whether control of these minerals is necessary or whether the placing of broad powers in the hands of a government agency would not produce more harm than good. An insistent demand for a bonus on gold production is coming from the West. Economists in the government service are giving the matter studious attention. They apparently are not convinced that a bonus will do more than double the yardstick.
The matter has come prominently to the attention of the Com mittees on’Mines and Mining of the Senate and of the House. Attention by Congress to the problems involved is assured. Those best informed are of the opinion that no more can be done than to remove the petty annoyances that are hampering gold mining. They take little stock in the various proposals whereby the industry would be cleared of its difficulties by a single radical step. That encouraging things are being done already is shown by the action of the Priorities Board in announcing that it will give preferential treatment to tools, machinery, and equipment, and will use its influence in securing ample fpel and labor supplies and the maximum of transportation service. Decided aid also was given the gold mining industry by the stabilization of the price of silver, which now is enjoying what is tantamount to a fixed price in excess of $41.00an ounce. More should be done to utilize potash-bearing materials, in the opinion of one of the best known authorities on this subject in the country. With the reluctance so characteristic of scientists, he declines to allow his name to be attached to an informal statement but his thought on the subject is as follows: According t o t h e figures given out by the U. S. Geological Survey. the production OF potash for the first half of this year was between 20,000 and 25,000 tons of KzO. and i t is estimated that the total for t h e year will reach 60,000 tons. This is abouc 25 per cent of our pie-war importations, and if this country is to become independent of Germdny, immediate steps should be taken t o develop further our own sources of supply. The cement works and blast furnaces alone should be able t o supply our total requirements, but so f a r these industries have done very little. By the end of 1918 about a dozen cement compaaies will be recovering potash as a by-product, and incidentally abating the dust nuisance. The blast furnaces are doing practically nothing, although it is generally recognized t h a t they would benefit considerably by obtaining cleaner gas for the stove6 and gas engines The manufacturers can hardly be blamed for not putting money into the necessary additions to their plants under the present unccrtainty of the whole potash question. Although the present prices are high, no one knows how long they will last, and under the proposed revenue bill, most of the profits would be taken by the Government as taxes The manufacturers would not object to this if they were
