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T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D EjVGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y .
Massachusetts produces a little less than j per cent. The notable increase in the industry in the last I O years has been in New Jersey and Pennsylvania where, on a basis of product value, the honors are about equally divided. Imports of raw silk, admitted free of duty, are valued a t about $75,000,000 a year, nearly 6 0 per cent. of the total being bought in Japan. The remainder comes chiefly from Italy and China. The bulletin notes t h a t ‘‘ with the possible exception of China, for which no complete statistics are available, the United States is now the largest silk manufacturing country in the world. This position has been taken from and maintained against France, since 1905.’’ IMPORTANT DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE NATIONAL PURE FOOD AND DRUGS ACT.
Together with its trust decision the Supreme Court handed down, on May 2gth, a most important decision in the case of Dr. 0. A. Johnson, of Kansas City, Mo. Johnson was indicted in the Federal courts of Missouri in 1909 on a charge of having violated the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906. It was alleged that Johnson, doing business under the name of a company, shipped from one State t o another certain articles designated as “ cancerine tablets,” etc., the labels upon which were false and misleading in t h a t they implied t h a t the articles would cure and were effective in bringing about the cure of cancer. It was alleged in the indictment that this statement was untrue and the articles were worthless and ineffective for such purposes. The Supreme Court decided t h a t provided there is no misstatement on the bottle or package as to its contents, the manufacturer is free t o sell his goods. Justice Holmes announced the majority opinion, Justice Hughes delivering a dissenting opinion in which Justices Harlan and Day concurred. The court acknowledged t h a t “ i n a certain sense the statement on the label was false, or, a t least, misleading,” but it held that the language of the pure food law is such t h a t the statement contained therein as t o the meaning of misbranding “is aimed not a t all possible false statements, but only at such as determine the identity of the article, possibly including its strength, quality and purity.” If a label were to state t h a t the contents of a bottle was water when as a matter of fact it was other than water, it would come under the misbranding in the meaning of the law, according t o to-day’s opinion. But the opinion adds that when the statement on the box or bottle of medicine is “shown t o be false only in its commendatory and prophetic aspect,” it did n o t come within the act. This decision appears to be of importance for the patent medicine business in the United States and is a defeat for the government officials in charge of the National Pure Food and Drugs Act who always claimed that labels must not bear any inferences as t o “ cures,” etc., because such claims were misleading and false.
July, 191I
A NEW CANE SUGAR PROCESS.
A new process of sugar-making is being tried by one of the large sugar companies in Cuba. I n the ordinary process the juice is extracted from the cane by pressing it between sets of rollers. I n the new process the cane is broken up, dried and finally treated b y a diffusion or a solution process, similar to that used in treating sugar beets, which recovers a larger proportion of the juices than can be recovered b y squeezing between rolls. The cane is fed t o a disintegrating machine having drums, 4 feet diameter, which are fitted with teeth and have a peripheral speed of about 6,500 feet per minute. The cane is thus broken up very small, about half the product resembling coarse sawdust while the remainder consists of short thin fibers. The two kinds of material may be separated in a revolving screen or may be handled together. This product is fed by force-feed rollers into drying kilns where i t travels back and forth on conveyor belts running in opposite directions. These belts are staggered about 18 inches and the material from each belt falls t o a lower one running in the reverse direction. Air heated t o about 190’ b y exhaust-steam radiators is admitted to the kilns and is further heated t o 240 or 2 5 0 ’ b y means of live-steam coils. The feed of material into the kiln and the speed of the belts in the kiln are under the control of the operator, who also controls the admission of exhaust steam to the radiators and live steam t o the superheating coils. The dried material is discharged from the lowest belt onto a transverse elevating conveyor which delivers it to a compress or baler; the bales are about 14 X 18 X 36 inches, with a density of about 5 0 lbs. per cubic feet. The material can then be stored or sent direct t o the refinery, where the sugar is extracted b y the diffusion process. The pulp remaining contains but a very small proportion of sugar (only a fraction of I per cent.) and it is suitable for papermaking with much less cooking than is required with ordinary material. The process is the invention of Mr. Geo. W. McMullen, of Chicago, and the first plant is now in experimental use a t a mill of the Nipe Bay Co. The machinery was built b y Roberts Brothers, of Chicago. Under the ordinary roller process the cane is fed in layers, 6 or 8 inches thick, t o a set of three large rolls (two lower and one above); these crush and compress the cane and expel the juice, The crushed cane then goes to a second set of rolls and more juice is expelled, but after all the rolling the crushed waste material or ‘ I bagasse ” contains a considerable proportion of sugar (from 15-30 per cent.). Much of the bagasse is fed t o the furnaces, but is so wet that a considerable amount of wood is required t o make it effective as fuel.-Engineering News. RADIOACTIVE INVESTIGATIONS IN RUSSIA. Special Correspondent.
Although Russia is rich in mineralogy embracing a number of the known rarer metals, i t is generally deplored among Russian scientists that in that country
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