Jan., 1 9 2 1
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
PERKIN MEDAL AWARD Announcement is made by the Committee of Award that the Perkin Medal for 192I has been awarded by the American Section of the Society of Chemical Industry to Dr. Willis R. Whitney, Research Director of the General Electric Company,
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in recognition of his distinguished work in the chemical field. The presentation of the medal to Dr. Whitney will be made a t the regular meeting of the American Section OP the Society of Chemical Industry, in Rumford Hall, Chemists’ Club, New York, N. Y., on January 14, 1921.
CORPORATION MEMBERS O F T H E AM ERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Abbott Laboratories Co., The Amalgamated Dyestuff & Chemical Works, Tnc. American Agricultural Chemical Co. American Cellulose & Chemical Mfg. Co , Ltd. American Chain Co., Inc. American Optical Co. American Trona Corporation American Zinc, Lead & Smelting Co. Anaconda Copper Mining Co. Antiseptol Liquid Soap Co. Arbuckle Brothers Arkell Safety Bag Co. Arlington Mills Armour Glue Works Arnold Print Works Baker, H. J. & Bro. Barrett Co., The Bausch & Lomb Optical Co Beaver Board Companies, The Binalbagan Estate, Inc. Bishop & Co., J., Platinum Works Bour Refractories Co., L. J., Inc. Braender Rubber & Tire Co. Brown Co., The Bush & Co., W. J., Inc. Calco Chemical Co. California & Hawaiian Sugar Refining Co Cambridge Color & Chemical Co Carnotite Reduction Co. Chemical Catalog Co., Inc. Chemical Company of America, Inc. Coal Tar Products, Inc. Coca Cola Co. Colgate & Co. Commonwealth Chemical Corporation Campagnie National de Matieres Colorantes & de Produits Chimiques Compagnie des Forges de Chatillon Commentry e t Neuves-Maisons Consolidation Coal Co. Contact Process Co. Davison Chemical Co., The Dearborn Chemical Co. Diamond Alkali Co. Dow Chemical Co Drakenfeld & Co., B. F.,Inc. Drying Systems, Inc., Eastern Malleable Iron Co. Electric Heating Apparatus Co. Electro Bleaching Gas Co. Eli Lilly & Co., The ’ Everlasting Valve Co. Fairbank Co , N. K., The Falls Manufacturing Co., The Fels & Co. Fisk Rubber Co., The Garrigue & Co., William, Inc. General Briquetting Co. General Chemical Co. General Tire & Rubber Co.
Gillette Rubber Co. Gleason-Tiebout Glass Co. Glidden Varnish Co. Globe Soap Co., The Grasselli Chemical Co. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Great Western Sugar Co. Hamilton & Sons, W. C. Hammermill Paper Co. Heath & Milligan Mfg. Co. Heinze Co., H. J. Herrick-Voigt Chemical Corporation Heyden Chemical Works Hommel Co., O., The Horween Leather Co. Humboldt Mfg. Co. Imperial Varnish & Color Co., Ltd., The India Refining Co. Interocean Oil Co. Jeffrey Mfg. Co., The Kelly-Springfield Tire Co Kendall Mfg. Co. Kewaunee Mfg. Co. Kidde & Co., Walter, Inc. Kimble Glass Co. Kirk & Co.,James S. Kistler, Lesh & Co. Knight, Maurice A. Koppers Co., The Krebs Pigment & Chemical Co., The Lennig & Co., Charles Lindsay Light Co. Little, Inc., Arthur D. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works Merck & Co. Merrell Co., Wm. S., The Metal & “hermit Corporation Midland Linseed Products Co. Miehle Printing Press & Mfg. Co. Milwaukee Coke & Gas Co. Minnesota & Ontario Power Co. Miranda Sugar Co. Moorman Mfg. Co. Morrill & Co., Geo. H. Morris & Co. Muralo Co. National Aniline & Chemical Co., Inc. Natural Products Refining Co. New Jersey Zinc Co. Newport Co., The Niagara Alkali Co. Nichols Copper Co., Norwich Pharmacal Co. Noyes Bros. & Cutler, Inc. Oakland Chemical Co. O’Brien Varnish Co. Onyx Oil & Chemical Co. Patent Cereals Co. Pennsylvania Rubber Co. Peoples Gas Light & Coke Co.
Peterson & Co., Leonard, Inc. Pfaudler Co., The Philadelphia Quartz Co. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. Powers-Weightman-Rosengarten Co. Procter & Gamble Co., The Providence Dyeing, Bleaching & Calendering Co. Rahr Sons Co., William Raymond Bros. Impact Pulverizer Co. Republic Chemical Co., Inc. Riordon Pulp & Paper Co., Ltd. Riverside Acid Works Robeson Process Co. Roessler & Hasslacher Chemical Co Rohm & Haas Rome Soap Mfg. Co. Royal Crown Soaps, Ltd., The Schoenhofen Co. Sears, Roebuck & Co. Sharples Specialty Co., The Shell Company- of California Sherwin-Williams Co., The Singer Mfg. Co., The SocietC Anonyme de Produits Chimiques de Droogenbosch Solvay Process Co. Southern Cotton Oii Co. Sowers Mfg. Co. Special Chemicals Co. Squibb & Sons, E. R. Standard Parts Co. Standard Ultramarine Co., The Stanley, John T. Steel Brothers & Co., Ltd. Steere Engineering Co. Swan Mfg. Co. Swift & Co. Talbot Dyewood & Chemical Co. Tar Products Corporation Thomas Co., Arthur H. Thorkildsen-Mather Co. Titanium Pigment Co., Inc. Union Carbide & Carbon Corporation Union Oil Company of California United States Rubber Co. Universal Oil Products Co. Universal Portland Cement Co. Valentine & Co. Vanadium Corporation of America Vulcan Detioning Co. Wallace & Tiernan Co., Inc. Welsbach Co. Western Paper Makers Chemical Co Whitall Tatum Co. White Tar Co. Whitmore Mfg. Co. Will Corporation, The Will & Baumer Co., The Winkler & Bro. Co., Isaac, The Wisconsin Steel Works
NOTES AND C O R R F P O N D E N C E PURE PHTHALIC ANHYDRIDE Editor of the Journa2 of Industrial and Engineering Chem+try: A United States patent’ has been granted to C. A. Andrews, which claims as an article of manufacture “phthalic anhydride in the form of colorless, needle-like crystals substantially chemically pure and having a melting point above 130’ C., corrected.” 1
U. S. Patent 1,336,182; filed Oct. 14, 1919; granted April 6, 1920.
I n a recent article by H. D. Gibbsl the fallacy of this claim has been shown by reference to previous publications in chemical a n d patent literature. We are in position to substantiate Gibbs’ statement with some additional evidence. Pure phthalic anhydride in the form of colorless, needle-like crystals and having a melting point above 130’ C. has not only been prepared previously in various labora1
THISJOURNAL, 12 (1920), 1017.
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tories but has been for many years a product of regular manufacture. It is true that organic handbooks, etc., give the melting point of phthalic anhydride as 128' C., but it has been known for some time by makers and users of this product that the figure given in the chemical reference literature is about 3O too low. Prior to 1915 we imported phthalic anhydride during 6 or 7 yrs. from German and Austrian sources, and our analytical records show that this product usually was of a very high degree of purity and quite often had a melting point above 130' C. The melting point was determined on an average sample of each shipment in the usual manner. In some cases the crystallizing or solidification point was determined with IOO g. of the product representing a composite sample from each of the barrels of a shipment, and this crystallizing point also was frequently found to be above 130' C. Comparative tests have shown the melting point determined in a capillary tube to be a t least 0.5' higher than the crystallizing point determined as described above. Cryst. Pt. on 100-G. Sample
DATE 4/14/13 5/16/13 7/15/13 7/14/14 . .
BBLS.
............ ............ 27 4 ............ ............ 10 IO
............. .......... ............
4/1/14 6/20/14.. 9/11/14
a
4 1
O c . 129.7 130.3 130.3 130.7 Melting Point in CaDillarv Tube 131.5 130.5 130-131 ~
-
-
APPEARANCE Short needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles
The quality of the products of our own manufacture furnishes additional evidence for the correctness of our contention. Prior to the filing date of the Andrews patent we produced quantities of phthalic anhydride in regular manufacture with a melting point above 131' C., as shown by the following data taken from our analytical records: Cryst. Pt. on 100-G. Sample
DATE 7/1/19.. 7/8/19 7/28/19., 8/14/19 8/20/19 9/5/19.. 9/22/19. 9/30/19 10/4/ 19..
LES.
a
154 ........... 367 ............. 300 .......... ............ 175 ............ 475
c.
APPEARANCE Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles Colorless needles
131.0 131.1 131 .O 131 .O 131 .O 131 0 131.0 131.0 131.0
400 ........... 1405 ...........1075 ............ .......... 700
In view of these facts it is evident that phthalic anhydride having a melting point above 130' C. is not a new product and, therefore, not patentable. MONSANTO CHEMICAL WORKS JULES BEBIE ST
LOUIS, MISSOURI November 23, 1920
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STANDARDIZATION OF INDUSTRIAL LABORATORY APPARATUS Through the efforts of certain apparatus manufacturers, there met informally a t the Chemists' Club, New York City, on August 2, representatives of the following companies t o discuss the advisability of drawing up standard specifications for laboratory apparatus to be used in their industrial research and works control laboratories: Barrett Company, General Chemical Company, Atmospheric Nitrogen Corporation, Grasselli Chemical Company, National Aniline & Chemical Company, New Jersey Zinc Company, Solvay Process Company, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, and E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company. Since most of these companies are members of the Manufacturing Chemists' Association of the United States, a committee composed of these members was appointed by the Association to pass on the proposals of the informal committee and to recommend the adoption of the specifications resulting from the informal committee's work as standard for the members of the Manufacturing Chemists' Association. Arrangements have been made for full cooperation with the Committee on Guaranteed Reagents and Standard Apparatus of the American Chemical Society, and also with the Committee on Standards of the Association of Scientific Apparatus Makers of the United States of America. These specifications will be considered carefully by committees of these three societies, and it is expected that they will then be published as tentative for a period of 6 mo. in order to give time for general criticism. At the end of that time the specifications will be adopted as final. In carrying on this work an effort will be made to obtain specifications which will insure the cheapest mode of manufacture of a given instrument consistent with the duties that it must perform. The committee desires to cooperate fully with all industries, and any communications should be forwarded t o the chairman, Dr. E. C. Lathrop, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Delaware.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BAKING, RESEARCH FELL0WSHIPS Arrangements have recently been made by the American Institute of Baking by which the work done by its research fellows at the University of Minnesota may be applied toward the doctor's degree a t that institution.
WASHINGTON LETTER ' THE NOLAN BILL
Relief for the U. S. Patent Office, although long delayed, is apparently a prospect of the near future. The House has sent the Nolan Patent Office reorganization bill to conference. The bill was passed by the HouseJast session and sent to the Senate There, during the closing hours oE the session, Senator Norris of Nebraska, chairman of the Senate Committee on Patents, was forced to accept amendments so vitally changing the bill as passed by the House that if enacted into law the result would be a reduction in even the present force of the Patent Office. The amendments were accepted, however, in order to assure passage by the Senate during the last session, thus advancing its parliamentary status. Representative Nolan of California, chairman of the House Committee on Patents, succeeded in having a special rule providing for sending the measure to conference between the House and Senate by the end of the first week of the present session. That all memb-rs of Congress are not supporters of the measure is indicated by the opposition expressed on the floor of the House. Representative Black of Texas made an effort to have the House concur in the Senate amendments. The effect of this would bs to enact the bill into law in the shape it passed
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the Senate. This motion, however, was snowed under by a vote of 210 t o 1j4, and the measure sent to conference with the House disagreeing t o the Senate amendments. Representatives Nolan of California, Lampert of Wisconsin, ranking Republican of the House Patents Committee, and Davis of Tennessee, Democrat, were named as the House conferees, while Senators Norris of Nebraska and Brandegee of Connecticut, Republicans, and Senator Kirby of Arkansas, Democrat, were named Senate conferees. Attached to the Patent Office reorganization bill proper as one of the Senate amendments is the measure providing for acceptance and administration by the Federal Trade Commission of patents worked out by government scientists and technical experts. Senate conferees are desirous of keeping this provision in the bill. House members, however, anxious that the situation in which the Patent Office now finds itself be relieved, fear that inclusion of this provision may be the cause of the defeat of the entire bill, and will make a fight in conference to have it stricken out. Senator Norris is in favor of having,the provision remain in the bill. Other Senate conferees also feel that the provision should be retained, and it is on this question that the principal fight will ensue. There is no dis-
