May, 1920
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
on Power for Electrochemical Purposes was calculated to draw out every electrical engineer and every electrochemist within possible reach of Boston. Chairman Townley divided the program into three groups, viz., papers treating on the general question, discussion of specific electric furnace requirehents, and presentation of the advantages of specific power sites. In the first class came the following: J. I,. Harper, discussing the general requirements of power by electrochemical industries of various kinds; E. A. Wilcox, on the central station man’s view of electrochemical customers and their requirements ; A. Smith, on abuse of power demands by electric furnace operators, in particular the necessity of controlling excessive surges on the lines. In the second class, H. I,. Hess discussed the requirements of electric steel furnace plants; H . A . Winne the use of reactors on electric furnace circuits to reduce the momentary surges or peaks in the power demands; J. A. Seede, on automatic controllers for regulating arc furnace electrodes so as to stabilize the current. In the third class of papers, C. T. Maynard described the power available a t Rumford Falls, Maine, only two hundred miles from Boston; F. F. Fowler, the water powers of the Pacific Coast, developed and potential; J. W. Beckman, the power developments of Norway and Sweden, showing how far these countries have out-distanced the United States in developing their power for electrochemical industries. The Saturday morning session in the new Lecture Hall a t Harvard University was lively and interesting. Professor T. W. Richards-“Atomic Weights” Richards-gave the visitors a hearty greeting. The proceedings included the following : J. W. Richards-“Metallurgical Calculations” Richardsdescribed the Soderberg self-baking, continuous electrode, which is already extensively used in Europe and is being installed on some ferrosilicon furnaces a t Anniston, Alabama; C. A. Keller’s paper on synthetic, electric-furnace pig iron, described the great importance this product attained in France during the war, in utilizing steel turnings and producing cast-iron shells; E. F. Kern described experiments on reducing manganiferous silicate slags in an electric furnace to silico-spiegel; P. B. Short, a step-induction regulator of new form for electric furnaces;
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C. J. Weed, the general application of the electric furnace to metallurgy; L. B. Lindemuth described in detail the position of the electric furnace in manufacturing steel, concluding that it is the most flexible and most generally useful of all steel-making apparatus; H. M. St. John, on the evolution of the electric brass furnace. Some statements in the last paper as to advantages and power required for melting brass were questioned by Mr. Winder, giving rise to a very lively interchange of opinion between Messrs. Gillette, Baily, FitzGerald, Hering, Richards, and others, which, in general, substantiated the statements in the paper. After the session, Professor Richards invited those present to inspect the Gibbs Research Laboratory, which opportunity was eagerly accepted. Lunch followed a t the Harvard Union, and then a visit to the Huff Electrostatic Separator plant a t Arlington closed the program. The visitors found the last item very instructive and interesting. Thus Boston and the Electrochemical Society came together for the third time, t o their mutual profit and advantage. LEHIGH UNIVERSITY J. W. RICHARDS SOUTH BETHLEHEM, PA. April 13, 1920
CALENDAR OF MEETINGS American Pharmaceutical Association-Annual Convention, Washington, D. C., May 6 to 8, 1920. Society of Cotton Product Analysts--I I t h Annual Convention, Grunewald Hotel, New Orleans, La., May I O and I I, 1920. National Foreign Trade Council-Convention, San Francisco, Cal., May 12 to 15, 1920. National Fertilizer Association-27th Annual Convention, White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., week of June 21, 1920. American Institute of Chemical Engineers-Semi-Annual Meeting, Montreal, June 2 I and 2 2 ; Ottawa, June 23 ; Shawinigan, June 24 and 25; La Tuque, June 26, 1920. Sixth National Exposition of Chemical Industries-Grand Central Palace, New York, N. Y., September 2 0 to 25, 1920.
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE FRENCH GAS WARFARE1 Little by little the mysteries of the great battle are being cleared up. Soon all the secrets will be known. To-day those of the murderous gas warfare are disclosed by Colonel Vinet, head of the office of chemical research’at the Ministry of War. Our enemies first used this barbarous weapon on April P Z , 1915, on the Belgian front between Bixschoote and Langemark. A t five o’clock in the evening, a heavy cloud of greenish vapor appeared over the German trenches and, pushed along by a light wind, covered the French lines. The assaulting waves followed. An entire division of the tenth army was overcome. Our men were seized with violent coughing fits and suffocated. Many held firm but paid for their resistance with their lives. Germany had once more flagrantly violated the laws of war. On July 2 2 , 1899,at the Hague she had indeed signed the international convention prohibiting combatants to “spread asphyxiating or poisonous gases.” This attack most evidently took us by surprise. We had to improvise everything. The task was pressing. We had first of all to seek the means to protect our soldiers against these poisons, then give them the means to retaliate. M. Kling, director of the Municipal Laboratory of the City of Paris, was hurriedly called to the front, and after a quick survey gave the preliminary instructions with decided farsightedness. The means a t hand had to be used-wads of 1 Translation of an article by Lucien Chassaigne Paris, February 24, 1920.
in Le Jouvnol,
cotton saturat-.d with hyposulfite of soda, ordinary goggles to protect the eyes. An appeal was then sent to the chemists and the work was soon organized. A commission for chemical research was created, happily realizing the importance of its role, and jostling a little the established bureaucrats who were a little wary of these things which they had not foreseen. Every source was utilized, and the young school of French chemistry showed itself equal to its task. The Pasteur Institute, the School of Pharmacy, the Sorbonne, the College of France, the Conservatory of Arts and Trades, the Faculty of Medicine, all cooperated with ardor in the necessary research work. Three sections were established: Studies on the front, directed by M. Kling; studies of means of offense, directed by Professor Mouren; and studies of means of protection, directed by Professor Vincent. Intimate relations were also established with general headquarters, which had started a gas warfare service, and had nominated “officers, army chemists.” In 19x7 this service became interallied, and soon we were ready for both attack and defense. Germany, in April 1915, had employed simple liquid chlorine escaping from metallic cylinders in which it had been compressed. In June, bromine first put in its appearance, being used in projectiles fired from mine throwers. It was from this time on that gases were used in artillery projectiles. The first serious use was in the Argonne, a t the Bois de la Gruerie. Successively, new compounds, of which formaldehyde and chlorine
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y were generally the bases, were used by the enemy. A salvage service allowed us to make investigations very quickly so as to determine the exact nature of these products, their physiological action, and to deduce the therapeutics and the means of effective protection. These last arrived a t a fine degree of perfection. Our soldiers, wearing their masks, could in the last months of the war remain without inconvenience several hours in an atmosphere containing a high percentage of poisonous gases. Horses, dogs, and carrier pigeons, all had their protective devices. From September 1915 to September 1918, 12,400,000masks of different models were manufactured and delivered. From August 1915 to April 1916, ~o,ooo,ooo pairs of goggles were also delivered. The effort to find means to retaliate was no less active. Beginning in September 1915, during the Champagne offensive, we used again the German shells loaded with tetrachlorosulfide of carbon, the only product which we had in sufficient quantities. Messrs. Urbain and Lebeau then invented a gas with hydrocyanic acid base, calling it “Vincennite,” which produced instant mortal action, but which our chiefs through an excess of humanitarian scruples, which were indeed superfluous, decided not to employ. The same decision was arrived a t for phosgene, used in the beginning of the Battle of Verdun in February 1916, and which produced a panic which is recorded in the German orders of the day. The chemists, not discouraged, then turned their efforts towards other products of chlorine or formaldehyde. Finally the choice fell on a product which the Germans had first used in July 1917 a t the Battle of Ypres, and which was called for that reason “Yperite,” and which is chemically a sulfide of dichlorethyl. This possesses both toxic and blistering qualities. The manufacture, despite the great difficulties and the dangers which it entailed, was pushed fast. Eleven factories made the necessary chlorine, and up to the armistice’ had produced 24,000 tons. In the seven months, from April to November 1918, 2,172,334 shells for the “75,” 90,810 for the “105,” and 142,035 for the “155” had been loaded with yperite. In all, there had been loaded and fired against the enemy 13,193,000 “75” shells, 3,930,000 heavy shells and trench bombs, and 1,140,000 grenades loaded with gas. We have, besides, ceded 8,000 tons of asphyxiating gases and over a million loaded projectiles to our allies. These figures are enough to show what a formidable effort was made by our French scientists and manufacturers, an effort of which they may be justly proud, and how well merited was the glorious citation given by Marshal Petain to the chemical services in the war.
CHEMICAL PREPAREDNESS Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: Some time ago you gave a talk before some of the chemists of our company assembled in the library. At that time it occurred to me that in spite of receiving encouragement from such men as yourself to keep up our good work, there has been one phase of the general subject of patriotic protective activities not generally considered. It is doubtless true that as a body of highly trained scientists the American chemists can easily adapt themselves to possible war-time activities, but most of us are really very far from knowing just what we can best do in an emergency. What a chaotic condition is bound to follow when a few thousand men are all suddenly attempting to produce something new and to learn how t o do it a t the same time1 To parallel the general agitation for universal military trainCHEMICAL SOCIETYand the ing, why should not the AMERICAN large chemical industries get behind the development of a val-
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uable system of peace-time education of their chemists for the pursuit of definite, coordinated and specialized activities in times of possible war? How many of us know anything definite about the manufacture of phenol, picric acid, ethylene, mustard gas, formaldehyde, acetone or wood alcohol, nitrogen fixation, or about large-scale work upon such fundamental processes a s nitration, sulfonation, etc., to say nothing of many other technical processes, doubtless of great war-time importance? It has occurred to me that the American chemical industry might in part repay the country for its many recent advancements if in peace-time in connection with the Government i t should adopt a policy of lending its chemists two weeks each year for the purpose of pursuing special studres in “chemical war technology.” A so-called “Chemical War College” would in fact be more of a university with its various specializing “colleges” made up of the laboratories and plants of actually functioning industrial plants in various parts of the country. If the chemists were to be loaned the Government then the Government might pay traveling expenses and any peculiar living expenses necessarily incurred by the “war technology” student during his course of training. It would not be many years before we would have in this country an army of chemists each of whom would know exactly what his duty should be, where he should go, with what he would have to work, and how to go about his task in any emergency. These men should be classified and their names and records kept on file, each being subject to emergency call for technical or scientific service at proper salary. Would i t not be worth while to give this matter some discussion in the columns of the JOURNAL? C. A. LYFORD NATIONAL ANILINE& CHEMICAL Co. BUFFALO, N. Y.,April 3 , 1920
DECENNIAL CELEBRATION FOR THE FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY The Madison Association of Commerce and Forest Products Laboratory have made preliminary arrangements for the celebration a t Madison of the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Laboratory. Present plans call for a two-day meeting during the latter part of June, with addresses by men of national reputation in science and industry, a banquet, tours of inspection through the laboratory, informal discussions, and various forms of entertainment. Detailed arrangements will be announced later. The Forest Products Laboratory is a branch of the United States Forest Service, established in 1910 in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin, and is a consolidation of a number of testing laboratories and other units of the Forest Service which had been located a t various points throughout the United States. It is engaged principally in industrial research on problems connected with the manufacture and use of forest products, including beside lumber, posts, poles, ties, and similar products, pulp and paper, naval stores, hardwood and softwood distillation products, and other chemicals and pharmaceuticals. A t the present time the laboratory employs about zoo people and occupies five buildings in whole or in part.
AMERICAN FELLOWSHIPS IN FRENCH UNIVERSITIES The Society for American Fellowships in French Universities offers each year for open competition among graduates of American colleges and other suitably qualified candidates, 2 5 fellowships to encourage advanced study and research in French universities. Fellowships of the annual value of $1,000are granted for one year and are renewable for a second year. Application blanks and further information may be obtained from the Secretary, Dr. I. L. Kandel, 576 Fifth Ave., New York City.
