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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
News
Edition
Salt in Michigan The salt deposit underlying Detroit and along the river system connecting the Great Lakes—strata of salt aggregating a thickness of 1000 ft.—is t h e basis of a number of industries of commanding importance to this locality. Common or table salt is prepared from these deposits in all degrees of purity from the rock salt as mined t o the highly purified form of dazzling whiteness which made famous t h e slogan, "When it rains, it pours." Besides table salt there are also prepared sodium bicarbonate for baking, carbonate or sal soda for washing, soda ash for glass Mux, caustic soda for soap making and in the manufacture of rayon, etc., and sodium hypochlorite for cleaning, bleaching, and technical uses. Most of t h e salt is brought to the surface—from 1000 ft. down where the salt deposits first appear—by forcing water down in a closed system, the saturated solution coming u p through pipes to a reservoir. I t is then treated in the manner appropriate for the desired product. Besides obtaining t h e salt by the solution method, shafts have been sunk to t h e purest stratum of salt where it is mined and sent to the surface in 2-ton "skips." This salt is often of such purity that one can read through a large crystal two or three inches thick. Much of this, however, is used for t h e salting of hides and other purposes where fineness of crystal and a high degree of purity are not necessary. An important feature of the process of purifying table salt is the removal of the more or less deliquescent salts including the chlorides of calcium and magnesium which is primarily done to overcome caking. At t h e same time any iodine salts present are also removed. It is now found advisable to add a small proportion of sodium iodide to table salt manufactured in the Detroit district a s an ingredient essential to health. I t requires only a minute amount of the iodide—about 10 mg. per week to prevent or cure adolescent goiter. Years of leaching of the soil has depleted it of the necessary proportion of this ingredient, and table salt because of its universal use serves as a vehicle so t h a t we m a y also unconsciously maintain the all-essential iodine balance of the diet. The region of Michigan between Lakes Huron and Erie has many deposits of salt some with notable amounts of bromides and iodides, others like t h a t in Detroit and its immediate vicinity with only the smallest traces of these ingredients. T h e bromides and iodides, when present in sufficient quantity, are removed and sold as such or as bromine and iodine. The Solvay Process Co., Michigan Alkali Co., Pennsylvania Salt Co., The Detroit Salt Co., and the Mulkey Salt Co., are industries—some of them immense—based on the local deposits of common salt whose origin may be traced back to t h e time when this was a submerged area.
Sigma Xi at Cincinnati Installation of a chapter of Sigma X i at the University of Cincinnati took place at 3 P. M., April 29, in the Woman's Building at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Forrest R. Moulton, of the University of Chicago and president of the national society, and Dr. H. P . Ward, of the University of Illinois, former president of the society and acting for t h e national secretary, were t h e installing officers. Following the installation, a banquet was held where the address of welcome was given by Dr. Frederick C. Hicks, president of the University of Cincinnati. Dr. H. M. Benedict was toastmaster. Responses were made for the chapter by Dr. Nevin Fenneman and by Dr. Herman Schneider, dean of the College of Engineering. Dr. Ward gave a short address on "Yesterday and Tomorrow," being a discussion of the history and objects of the society. The main speaker was Dr. Moulton, who gave a n illustrated address on modern ideas in astronomy. The officers of the new chapter are : President, O. C. Von Schliehten, Department of Geology; Vice President, G. D. McLaughlin, Department of Leather Research, Tanners' Council of America; Secretary-Treasurer, Saul B. Arenson, Department of Chemical Kngineering. A gift of $50,000 from the estate of the late John D Larkin. of Buffalo, N . Y., made through his son, John D . Larkin, Jr., has been announced by Lafayette College, which is to be added to a fund of $200,000 given in 1924 by Mr. Larkin for the maintenance of the department of chemistry. The Fourth National Colloid Symposium will be held, a s announced in previous issues, a t t h e Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., June 123, 24, 2.". Brian Mead, of the Institute faculty, is secretary of the local committee. J. A. Nieuwland, head of the department of chemistry of Notre Dame University, recently gave a radio lecture on Acetylene in Industry from Station W S B T .
Obituary H e r b e r t Franklin Davison Herbert F. Davison, assistant professor of inorganic chemistry at Brown University, suddenly stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage, passed away a t his home in Providence, April 28, 1926. Professor Davison was born in Pawtucket, R . I., in 1881. He was graduated from Brown University in 1905, subsequently receiving the master of a r t s degree from his Alma Mater. He taught elementary chemistry a t a private school in Concord, Mass., and at the Pawtucket high school. At t h e l a t t e r school he was also assistant principal. H e came to Brown in 1918, where he had charge of the courses in freshman chemistry. H e was a member of the University Glee Club, t h e Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, t h e Society of the Sigma Xi and the American Chemical Society. I n July, 1024, Professor Davison was married to Miss Daisy Capron of Pawtucket. One outstanding trait of his christian character was positiveness. T h e doubting or negative side did not appeal to him. He was a positive ion, always charged, always pushing forward, always seeking the eternal t r u t h . Stricken in the prime of life, in one short moment after a d a y of pleasant labor, he leaves a host of friends who deeply m o u r n his passing. L. A. B I G E L O W
Clement C. Speiden Clement C. Speiden of New York, manufacturer and importer of chemicals, died M a y 25, of h e a r t disease in Malvern, England, according t o cable dispatches. M r . Speiden, who was 60 years old, went abroad on a business trip in J a n u a r y and was stricken ill while in England. Members of his family went over on receipt of news of his illness and were with him a t his d e a t h . T h e career of M r . Speiden in t h e chemical business began forty years ago. A t the time of his death he was c h a i r m a n of the board of directors of Innis, Speiden & Co., Inc., president and a director of t h e Isco Chemical Company, Inc., and vice president and a director of t h e Isco-Bautz Company. H e is survived by his wife a n d four children.
Industrial N o t e s ELECTRIC C O N T R O L L E R & M A N U F A C T U R I N G C O .
The Electric Controller & Manufacturing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, h a s recently developed a completely self-contained, oilimmersed automatic starter for 2300 volt synchronous motors. This starter is built for across-the-line starting of slow speed motors and for reduced voltage starting of t h e higher speed motors. NAYLOR SPIRAL, P I P E C o .
The Naylor Spiral Pipe Company, Chicago, manufacturers of nonriveted pipe, a r e prepared t o supply their spirally wound pipe made from 10 to 16 gage sheets from 4 to 30 inches in diameter and in sections up t o 4 0 feet long. This pipe is put together with a special lock-seam which strongly reinforces the pipe and may be had plain, galvanized, painted, a n d asphalt coated t o meet varying requirements. Industry will more t h a n hold i t s own in the Middle Atlantic States during the second quarter of 1926, a s compared with the corresponding quarter of 1925, according t o t h e Atlantic S t a t e s Shippers Advisory Board. A survey b y 2 5 major industries in this territory to determine freight car requirements for the next three months shows t h a t nine industries expect an average increase in business of 12 per cent, 13 industries expect to d o t h e same volume of trade, a n d 3 industries look for a slight decrease. Wheeler P . Davey, of the research laboratory of the General Electric Company, delivered two talks on the subject, " W h a t t h e Chemist Can Learn from Crystal S t r u c t u r e , " before sections of the American Chemical Society during May. T h e first talk was given May 18 at a meeting of the Central Pennsylvania Section, at State College, P a . ; t h e second was at a meeting of t h e Philadelphia Section on May 20.
