Ν ΕWS
70
E D I T I O N
Vol. 10, N o . 6
Mexico G. G. COLIN, 3a, Guerrero, 74, Mexico, D . F . The report of the Department of Statistics gives the following information concerning industrial activities in Mexico during 1929. T h i s report w a s issued in May, 1930. I N D U S T R I A L ACTIVITIES D I V I D E D ESTTO N I N E G R O U P S
The census i s divided into nine large groups: Group I , food industries, covering grain mills, coffee, sugar, alcohol, meat, fish, starch, ice, etc.; Group I I , extractive industries and their products, comprising power plants, cement, lime, gypsum, foundries, metal furniture, metal curtains, hardware articles, tin, springs, china, salt, artificial stone, brick, ceramics, etc.; Group I I I , textile industries; Group I V , clothes and sundries, including women's ready-made dresses, ties, umbrellas and canes, raincoats, corsets, garters and suspenders, artificial flowers, embroideries, furs, clothes for workmen, brooms, beds and mattresses, buttons, hats, toys, etc.; Group V , chemical in dustries, comprising chemical products, hydrogen and oxj'gen,
GROUP
I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.
NUMB EH OF ESTAHLISHMEN-TS
Food Industries Extractive Industries Textile Industries Clothes arid Sundries Chemical Industries W o o d and AVood Products Turpentine Leather, Rubber, and Paper Shoe Manufacturing Machinery, Tools and Sundries ÎS Machine Shoos Various Industries Tobacco
14,911 S.149 7,503 3.257 1,157 1.166 17
2,781 3,177 798 984 178 138
pharmaceutical products, soap, toilet articles, candles, fireworks, matches, explosives, writing amd printing inks, paints and varnishes, glass, mirrors, shoe polish, mineral oils and lubricants, enameled ware; Group VI, wood and wood products, including various articles where wood is used i n manufacture with only turpentine a s a chemical by-product; Group V I I , leather, rubber and paper, comprising tanneries, leather shops, shoe manufacturing, rubber stamps, and -various articles made of rubber, paper, etc.; Group V I I I , machinery, tools and sundries, covering machinery a n d agricultural implements, machine shops, electrical apparatus i n general, copper shops, accessory equip ment for the textile industry, jewelry shops, orthopedic equip ment, optical equipment, lead shot; Group DC, various in dustries, including tobacco (cigars and eigarets), signs and posters, popular artistic industries, bone, ivory, onyx, horn and other articles, musical instruments, e t c .
STATISTICS OF MANUFACTURE DURING 1929 CAPITAL LABORERS SALARIES EMPLOYED INVESTED PAID
S239.276.007 345,043,732 194,543,983 14,212,346 60,090,111 9,589,154 755,807 46,604,011 10,834,794 1,120,915 10,669,992 3.638.534 34,756,247
103,315 38,862 76,840 13,849 12,284 5,310
Opportunities in E m p t y Shelves C- M. MCCAY, Animal Nutrition Laboratory, Cornell University, Ithaca, Ν . Υ. I N THE annual report of one of our well-known industries I h a v e j u s t read t w o statements with pleasure and interest. "Our research activities have continued as in previous years and t h e current year will see no curtailment in these activities. Another n e w and patented product for commercial purposes has been developed**** a n d i t should find considerable demand in the dairy and farming industry." B u t w h a t do these familiar statements have to do with empty shelves? I believe that every time an industry produces such a product, it should take up some more room on the shelves of a thousand research laboratories. A s soon as such a product is available w h y do they not mail me and 999 others, a 5-pound sample in a sturdy container with a fat mimeograph statement of chemical-physical properties? The samples might collect dust o n m y shelves for m a n y years, but some of them would certainly come to n e w uses. I have labored i n a half dozen of t h e good biochemistry laboratories of this country and I believe every o n e of t h e m has shelf room, if they are the centers of active research. Ma3 r I c i t e a few examples? A friend devised a new machine to scale fish. I t worked, and he had fish scales in ton lots t o dump. H e sent m e a small shipment. I dried the sweetsmelling ( ? ) product and shelved it. A few months later a n other friend came along seeking a medium for rearing clothes moths in t h e study of these pests. I passed out a sample of fish scales, t h e moths prospered, a n d the entomologist was happy. A physician concerned w i t h skin diseases wanted new agents to test for promoting hair growth. T h e fish scales are off t h e shelf again- N o , the fish-scale producers are not thriving, but w e are learning something of fish scales and moths and hair. Then remember h o w little it cost t o mail m e a few pounds of fish scales and my shelves occupy blank walls. M y laboratory may n o t b e ornate, b u t I prefer samples and shelves. Tomorrow some o n e will come i n and ask for a new compound to sterilize the floors of the dairy barns. Some one else will wish a better spray t o keep t h e flies from cows during milking. Another will wish a new poison for cockroaches or rats; a n other will want some new plasticizers t o try as preservatives for fish nets o r waterproofing agents for camping tents. Another will want a. new solvent to extract the phospholipids from pig blood. Another will want a better extractive t o remove t h e vitamin A from corn silage. Another will want a harmless meat preservative to use i n f o x feeds. Another will want a n anti septic that can be secreted in t h e milk of cows t o check udder infections. Another will want a potent iron compound to check anemia in pigs. The shelves will b e dusted but I hope not bare. This is n o t a n appeal for free chemicals. We have adequate
301
17,572 13,270 1,747 17,427 2,070 4,680
§34.674,716 26,126,103 47.376,092 6.220,107 10,688,322 3.347,220 77,923 15,849,827 6,149,594 595,704 19,266,255 1,234.083 4,256,917
RAW
NATIVE IMPORTED MA.TEHIA.LS UAXV MATERIALS
S122.307.745 10,439,899 11,1X9,171 11,1X9,171 18,576,007 2Θ4.224 5X9,886 19,734,259 9,493,205 549,277 4,785,802 539,157 7,594,083
$19,747,378 4,306,412 5,476,332 5,476,332 X3,245,1S9 None None 6,518,699 1,658,534 590,685 4,030,860
V A L U E OF PRODUCTION
§313,668,474 118,704,443 29,989,030 29,989,030 63,469,010 12,604,065 673,886
62,077,972 24,229,120 2,459,812 30,457,554 3.503,922 34,845,661
maintenance funds a n d b u y chemicals, the need of which we foresee for o u r special projects. This is an outline of a method for manufacturers to have their products on t h e job so they will be given a trial when t h e opportunity arises. T h e cost of filling these shelves and files would mean little to the producer in cash outlay a n d might mean an ultimate income. I would make empirical trials of several hundred compounds each year if t h e y were on m y shelves, b n t I will hardly be tempted if I am obliged first t o look up a suitable compound, t h e extent of its production, t h e cost, etc., and if I have t o write five letters t o branch-branch offices and. finally receive a reply from a sub-sub stenographer to the eiïect t h a t she never heard of fish scales being fed bald—headed women.. B u t if m y patience prevails and I overcome t h e prejudice of a sub stenographer m y troubles have just started, because I must wage war with a state bureaucracy to l e t m e order 5 cents worth of fish scales, which I may give to a foreign department for moth feed, while m y own job i s to raise bigger and better cows. C O L O R AND FORM: OF BICHLORIDE T A B L E T S Editor, News Edition, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. I N T H E N E W S E D I T I O N of February 20,1932, page 40, attention is drawn to t h e importance of making mercuric chloride tablets as easily distinguishable as possible b y giving them a characteristic èolor and shape. I t seems t o me in marketing products that m a y possibly be taken internally with disastrous results we have ignored the advantage of using our noses a n d tongues, as well as our eyes. If a drop of a substance of a characteristic odor were p u t in every bottle o f bichloride tablets, it would be a warning t h a t could hardly b e ignored, even in -fche dark. I would suggest a drop of the higher fractions of synthetic alcohols as being very characteristic a n d not so disagreeable as t o interfere with t h e use of the tablets i n the sick room. If, in addition, we were t o add a small quantity of a n exceedingly bitter substance, such as a salt of quinine or of a diaryl guanidine, I think we might count o n a diminution i n the number o f accidental poisonings by mercuric chloride. R. E .
ROSE
E . I. d u P o n t d e Nemours à C o . P . 0 . Box 518 Wilmington, Del. March 1, 1932 = _ _ = = — T H E SOCIETY O F CHEMICAL INTDUSTRY has formed a food group
among i t s members. For the present, at least, there is n o additional subscription beyond the usual society membership dues. Further information, will be furnished o n request to Poster ID. Snell, Honorary Secretary of the American Section, 130 Clinton St., Brooklyn, Ν. Υ .
