A hi D E iTGI iV E E RI itT G C H E M I S T R Y accomplished much in reducing the terrible death rate. I n the last five years of his life he saw a slowly but steadily decreasing death rate and while it gave him much joy, it only added t o his almost superhuman efforts in behalf of the men. It is thought that Dr. Holmes’ frequent visits to mines in which there were disasters and his continual insistence on going where only his trained rescue crews should go, sharing the dangers that should have gone only t o more robust men, seriously affected his health. On his trip t o Alaska two years ago to learn concerning the great coal fields there he met with many hardships and severe exposure and it is believed that this hastened his end. Dr. Holmes is indeed a martyr to the cause of safety among the miners, and his name is added to the honor roll of three bureau rescuers w-ho in the past gave up their lives t o this cause. The mining industry suffers a keen loss in his death. VAN. H . MANNING
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he regarded as right, together with his gracious good fellowship, all endeared him t o the large number of us who knew him. And while we record our poignant grief a t his passing, we are glad t o acknowledge both appreciation and pleasure in that ours was the privilege t o be associated with cne who ordered his life t o such good ends and whose friendship was indeed a benediction to those who shared it. “This Board extends its sincere condolences t o his bereaved family, and directs that a copy of this minute, properly engrossed, be sent t o it ” At a special meeting of the Directors of the Chemists’ Building Company held June twenty-first, the following Minute was unanimously adopted : “In the death on June seventeenth, one thousand nine hundred and fifteen, of Mr. Albert Plaut, VicePresident of this Company, a Director since its organization, and one of the moving spirits in the ALBERT PLAUT generous group that made The death of Albert possible the present club Plaut, on June 17th, a t house for the chemists of his apartments in the this country, not only this Hotel Ritz-Carlton, New Board has suffered the York, was a great shock loss of a close friend, and t o his large circle of friends wise counsellor, but the and business acquaintchemical world as well is ances, and a serious loss deprived of one whose to the chemical profession, integrity of purpose, genial in which he was so well personality and wide inand favorably known. He terests have made for him was an active member of a lasting place in the hearts the American Chemical of all who enjoyed the Society and of the Society privilege of knowing him. of Chemical Industry. “Resolued, that il suitHe served as a delegate, ably engrossed copy be appointed by President transmitted to the beTaft, t o represent the reaved family of our laUnited States a t the mented fellow, with theexS e v e n t h International pression of this Board’s Congress of -4pplied personal grief and deepest Chemistry in London, and sympathy in their loss.” was a member of the hIr. Plaut was preExecutive Committee and eminently successful in his Chairman of the Entercommercial undertakings, tainment Committee of and was recognized as a the Eighth International leader among the merCongress held in New chants of S e w York. The York. firm of which he was the Mr. Plaut gave much head became, under his time and energy to the administration, one of the development of the ChcmALBERT PLAUT leading pharmaceutical ists’ Club of New York. He was personally active in the building of the present new Club houses in America. He was Past-President of the National House and was a t the time of his death Treasurer of the Club m.‘holesale Druggists’ Association, First Vice-president of the Merchants’ Association, a founder of the Metropolitan Drug and a member of its Board of Trustees. The portrait of Club and of the Druggists’ Supply Corporation, an active memPriestley, which hangs in the social room of the Club, was presented by him, and many other features of the Club owe their ber of the ITew York Drug and Chemical Club, and past-chairorigin or existence t o his interest and generosity. At a special man of the Drug and Trade Section of the New York Board of meeting of the Board, held on the day after his death, the follow- Trade and Transportation. Born in Eschwege, Germany, in 1858, hIr. Plaut came t o the ing minute was adopted: “The death of our Treasurer and fellow member of this Board, United States with his parents when eleven years old and reAlbert Plaut, inflicts upon the Chemists’ Club and its members ceived his education in the public schools of Kew York City, a very great loss. His unflagging interest in the Club’s affairs, the College of the City of Kew York, and the h-ew York College his generous helpfulness on every occasion that offered itself, of Pharmacy. He served a five-year apprenticeship with his his keen interest in the work of chemists, and his encouraging father, Isaac Plaut, in the drug business, after which he entered appreciation of those efforts, his sturdy maintenance of what the firm of Lehn & Fink as a stock clerk. He was admitted t o ~~
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
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partnership in this Company in 1886, on the retirement of Mr. Lehn. I n 1910 Lehn & Fink was incorporated, with a capital of $600,000, and Mr. Plaut became President of the concern. The business structure a t 1 2 0 William Street was erected by Mr. Plaut in 1901 and the factory and general laboratory in Brooklyn were established by him in 1906. Mr. Plaut showed a keen interest in educational work. He served many years as trustee of the New York College of Pharmacy and was a t the time of his death First Vice-president and Chairman of the Committee on Instruction of that institution. In 1914 he founded the Isaac Plaut Travelling Fellowship, in memory of his father, to be awarded annually to the postgraduate student who had shown special aptitude for original investigation. The holder of the fellowship receives a stipend of $500 for a year’s study in some foreign university. Mr. Plaut also established an endowment fund of $5,000 for the Princeton Chemical Club in order to enable its members to enjoy the advantages of outside lectures on special chemical topics. During his lifetime he was a generous supporter of many
Vol. 7 , No. 8
other charitable and educational institutions in New York. He left a large estate which, after ample provision for his employees and numerous charitable bequests, is to be shared by his son, Edward Plaut, who succeeds to his business interests, and his daughters, Mrs. M. J. Falk and Miss Constance Plaut. The funeral services were held a t the Society for Ethical Culture Hall, and the interment was made in the cemetery a t Point Pleasant, New York. The honorary pallbearers were I. Frank Stone, President of the National Aniline & Chemical Co.; Thomas F. Main, President of Tarrant & Co.; Wm. J. Schieffelin, President of Schieffelin & Co.; William C. Breed, President of the Merchants’ Association of New York; Berthold Levi and Francis F. Holliday, representatives of the National Wholesale Druggists’ Association; Professor M. C. Whitaker, President of the Chemists’ Club; Frederick William Fink, former partner in the Lehn & Fink Corporation; Franklin Black, of Charles Pfizer & Co.; and F. L. Lavanburg. M . C. WHITAKER
CURRENT INDUSTRIAL NEWS By M. I,. HAMLIN
WORLD TRADE IN FERTILIZERS L’Institut International d’dgriculture has published in Rome (September, 1914) a pamphlet containing very complete data, chiefly in tables, of the production, movement and consumption of various classes of fertilizers. Those figures which concern the United States are the following, the amounts being given in metric tons (approximately equal to United States long tons) : 1912 PRODUCTION Natural phosphates: Extracted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3,231,636 Sold. ....................... 3,146,573 Ammonium sulfate.. . . . . . . . . . . . 149,700 14,000 Calcium cyanamide(a). . . . . . . . . . 308,328 Sulfur. ........................ Copper sulfate., , . . , , , , , , . , , . 17,908 IMPORTS Guano. ....................... 19,467 34,704 Bone meal, etc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44,07 1 Potassium sulfate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Potassium chloride.. . . . . . . . . . . . 218,751 Manure salts(b). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694,133 444,134 Sodium nitrate.. 54,016 Ammonium sulfate.. . . . . . . . . . . . Synthetic nitrogenous fertilizers.. 2,339 Sulfur.. ....................... 27,315
.
.
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R r.. P -. .....n a r s
1913 3,202,636 3,020,905 176,900 14,000 316,575 24,643 19,411 35,173 40,172 217,191 600,168 635,876 59,670
.....
14,870
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1,388,362 Natural phosphates.. 1,225,824 708 620 Potassium chloride. 73,911 Miscellaneous fertilizers. 75,780 14,870 Sulfur.. 27,315 1,910 3,097 Copper sulfate., CONSUMPTION 6,169,736 Artificial fertilizers. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,575,392 23 1,690 Potassium-containing 215,966 - products(c) . 589,187 Sodium nitrate.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441,047 Nitrogen fertilizers: 485 ,000 As sodium nitrate.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235,000 As ammonium sulfate.. ( b ) Min. 20 per cent KzO. ( a ) Capacity of plants. (6) Calculated on basis of pure potash.
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The pamphlet also contains tables showing market prices
at different times and places and concludes with an extensive bibliography.
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TOLERANCES IN TESTS OF PERMISSlBLE EXPLOSIVES At the invitation of Van. H. Manning, Acting Director of the United States Bureau of Mines, a number of the prominent manufacturers of permissible explosives used in coal mines met in conference a t the Bureau of Mines offices in Washington, June 7th, to discuss the tolerances that may be permitted in tests of field samples or manufacturers’ samples of permissible explosives. At the request of Mr. Manning, Dr. Charles E. Munroe, consulting explosives chemist of the Bureau of Mines, presided at the conference and explained its objects. Addressing the
manufacturers he said: “Today there are 133 different explosives on the permissible list. There have been others admitted to the list and later removed. In all, over 150 explosives have been tested by the various methods and the results carefully recorded in the archives of the bureau. It was found that the bureau could not rest content with simply testing the original samples submitted and saying that hereafter that was a permissible explosive provided it was used in the manner described by the bureau. It was felt that in order that the bureau might know that the explosives were of the proper kind, samples should be obtained in the field and that such samples should be tested by the same methods. When this was undertaken, the question came up as to how nearly the tests should conform t o the results of the tests made on the original samples. It is well known that it is physically impossible for a man to exactly duplicate results in two tests. After a large amount of data had been gathered, a committee was appointed by the Director to consider the problem; the committee has been working on the matter for a long time, the data have been tabulated, and have been thoroughly investigated by the members of the committee. The results were set forth in a report to the Director, a copy of which has been sent to all manufacturers of permissible explosives and you are here to discuss that report today. The committee felt it was necessary to determine these tolerances before proceeding with the investigation of explosives in the field and before saying that they did or did not conform to the requirements. We should have complete agreement between the manufacturers and the Bureau of Mines in regard to this retesting of explosives.” The questions submitted by the committee of the bureau were taken up in detail and the tolerances recommended and agreed upon a t the conferences are as follows: In order to define moSe exactly what is meant by the phrase “similar in all respects” in the definition of a permissible explosive, viz.: “An explosive is called a permissible explosive when i t is similar in all respects to the sample that passed certain tests by the United States Bureau of Mines, and when it is used in accordance with the conditions prescribed by this bureau,” the following tolerances are recommended for field samples or manufacturers’ samples of explosives, beyond which such lot of explosives can not vary and still be considered permissible for use in coal mines: Provided, that where the Bureau of Mines finds a sample which does not come up to the tolerance limits, the bureau shall simply declare that particular lot of explosives not permissible, and a copy of the notification t o the
