June, 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 ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
WILLARD GIBBS MEDAL AWARD The tenth award of the Willard Gibbs Medal was made by the Chicago Section of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETYon Friday evening, May 21, 1920, to Dr. Frederick G. Cottrell, assistant director of the United States Bureau of Mines. In connection with the presentation of the medal, a reception and dinner were held, following which Dr. Willis R. Whitney presented the medal. The subject of the address of the evening, by Dr. Cottrell, was “International Scientific Relations.” CALENDAR OF MEETINGS International Conference of Pure and Applied ChemistryRome, Italy, June I j, 1920. National Fertilizer Association--n 7th Annual Convention, White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., week of June 21, 1920.
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American Society for Testing Materials-Annual Meeting, Asbury Park, N. J., June 2 2 to 2 5 , 1920. Forest Products Laboratory Decennial Celebration-Madison, Wis., July 2 2 and 2 3 , 1920. American Institute of Chemical Engineers-Semi-Annual Meeting, Montreal, June 28 and 29; Ottawa, June 30; Ontario, July I ; Shawinigan Falls, July 2 ; La Tuque, July 3 ; Chicoutimi, July 4; Quebec, July 5 , 1 9 2 0 . Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education-Annual Meeting, Ann Arbor, Mich., June 29 t o July 3, 1920. American Chemical Society-Sixtieth (Annual) Meeting, Chicago, Ill., September 7 to I O , 1920. Sixth National Exposition of Chemical Industries-Grand Central Palace, New York, N. Y . , September 20 to 2 5 , 1920.
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE
THE BOOKPLATE OF DR. JOSEPH PRIESTLEY Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: In connection with the revival of interest in Joseph Priestley among American chemists, as shown by the appointment of a Priestley Memorial Committee by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY and by the announcement of the removal of the Priestley House in hrorthumberland to the campus of the Penn State College, the following reference to the bookplate of the distinguished discoverer of oxygen may deserve a notice. I have seen no mention or reproduction of this plate in any of the biographies of Priestley.
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ceipts for working gold, silver, etc., and published in London in 1738. The plate was- engraved by Allen of Birmingham and represents a stream of water gushing through a spout from under a massive rock into a smooth glassy pool. A stone curb, overgrown with grass and flowers, surrounds the spring, on one side of which lies a cup for the convenience of the thirsty wayfarer. The moss-covered rock above the pool has carved upon it the name JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. For simplicity and charm the writer has seen no bookplate which surpasses this one. For a chemist who worked so much upon the composition of water, the theme of the engraving is most appropriate, while for those who have drawn inspiration from the life and works of Priestley, and who have watched the streams of progress which trace back t o his early efforts, the symbolism of a fountainhead has an added significance. “ A t once the fountain, stream and sea; They were-they are-they yet shall be
N s w YORKSUGAR TRADBLABORATORY, INC 80 SOUTH STREET, New York City
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c. A.
BROWNE
May 10, 1920
T W O LETTERS ON A NEW TYPE OF CONDENSER FOR
The original plate from which the accompanying photograph was made is in one of the books that formed a part of Priestley’s library which was pillaged during the Birmingham riots of July 1791. It will be remembered that Priestley, as a dissenting clergyman and sympathizer with the French revolution, had aroused the animosity of a fanatical mob which, over a thousand in number, burned Priestley’s church, plundered his house, destroyed the apparatus of his laboratory and scattered his books and manuscripts to the winds. Priestley and his family barely escaped with their lives. Some of the books in Priestley’s library were afterwards recovered, yet many valuable works were lost. Priestley in a letter1 written over a year later states that one of the most disagreeable circumstances attending the riot with respect to his recovered books was that the sets were almost all broken. The book which bears the plate has lately come into the writer’s possession from England and is entitled “The Laboratory or School of Arts,” a translation of a German collection of re1
Bolton’s “Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Priestley,” Letter No.
78, p. 130.
THE DETERMINATION OF CRUDE FIBER Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: In the March number of THIS JOURNAL, 12 (1920), 288, Mr. C. A. Clemens describes what is doubtless an efficient reflux condenser for use in determination of crude fiber. Referring to numerous previous condensers, he says, “The latest and best of these is the one designed by Howell D. Spears.”l I can all the more heartily agree with that statement for the reason that the condenser which Mr. Spears designed and described in 1919,I described in 1910,and designed and used some years previously.2 This is the language used in that description : Fig. I (accompanying illustration) shows the manner of digesting the fiber: A beaker 7 to 8 cm. in diameter, about 15 cm. deep, capacity 600 to 800 cc., covered by a round-bottom flask through which flows cold water. Any convenient number of such digesters may be connected in series by rubber tubes 25 t o 30 cc. long, and the water run through the series from first flask to last. There is no loss of digesting liquid by evaporation; and if the boiling is started and conducted slowly, no great trouble from foaming, since each digester may, without disturbing its neighbor, be lifted and swirled. There are, of course, minor differences between Spears’ device and mine-the main one being that the cooling water passes 1 THIS JOURNAL, 11 3
(1919), 140.
Ibid., 2 (1910), 280.
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