Feb., 1913
T H E JOUR-VAL 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
employers’ liability and a n improvement in the physical surroundings and conditions of factories. All of these tendencies have been fostered and to a great extent initiated by employers. But even today these are by no means generally adopted. Another tendency, less pronounced in character, has as its object the improvement of the personal relations between the employees themselves and between the employee and the employer. It is the effort to establish the best of factory working conditions in those things not physical in nature, to develop and maintain a shop atmosphere free from all harassing and hindering influences. I t is a n attempt t o make use of the results of experimental psychology in improving working conditions. But the most important change and one t h a t comprehends the others, is in the mental attitude toward the problems of production. The tendency is toward a n attitude of questioning, of research, of careful investigation of everything affecting the problems in hand, of seeking for exact knowledge and then shaping action on the discpvered facts. It has developed the use of time study ’and motion study as instruments for investigation, and the planning department as a n agency t o put into practice the conclusions drawn from the results of research, and methods of wage payment which stimulate cooperation. * All of these changes have affected the production department much more than the designing department. The effect is to,extend the principle of trans-
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ference of skill t o production, so t h a t it completely embraces every activity in manufacture. The skill of management is consciously transferred to all of the operations of the factory. This extension is expressed by these phases; the drawing-room is the planning department of design, and the planning department is the drawing-room of production. To obtain information on present conditions, the committee wrote t o the recognized experts, to executives of plants in many lines of industry, to students of industrial problems, and it has had many interviews with men in these various fields. The responses t o the requests were in the main most generous, and the replies convey the ideas of a conscious effort t o ascertain and study facts and systematically to apply them t o instructing the workmen and in controlling every department of industry. Setting these against the underlying principle of the transference of skill, they conceive the prominent element in present-day industrial management t o be: the rnezztal attitude that consciously applies the transference o j skill to all the activities of industry. Here emphasis is placed upon the word all, for the restricted application of this principle to machines and tools has been highly developed for a long period. But its conscious application in a broad way t o the production departments, and particularly to the workmen, we believe has been made during the last quarter century.
ORIGINAL PAPERS THE HYDROGENATION OF OILS’ B y CARLETONELLIS
The treatment of unsaturated oily bodies with hydrogen t o obtain saturated derivatives is of great scientific and technical interest. I n the fat industry a most fascinating problem has been t h a t of the conversion,of oleic acid or olein into stearic acid or the corresponding glyceride. Oleic acid and hydrogen combine, molecule for molecule, t o yield stearic acid according to the reaction:
made, Reviewing this subject in 1897’ Lewkowitsch refers t o the ease with which the lower members of the oleic series are converted into saturated acids and states t h a t “oleic acid itself resists all attempts a t hydrogenization,” further remarking that he had “carried out a large number of experiments in this direction under most varied conditions, but hitherto all of these gave negative results.”
Prior t o this, however, Goldschmidt, in 1 8 7 5 , ~ had reduced oleic acid by means of hydriodic acid and amorphous phosphorus a t 200-210’ C. This preC,*H,,O, + H2 = C,*H,tlO, ,sumably led t o the attempted commercial developThus 2 8 2 pounds of oleic acid require 2 pounds ment of a process by de Wilde and Reychlers involving (or about 0.7 per cent.) of hydrogen for the production heating oleic acid t o 280” C. with I per cent. of iodine, of 284 pounds of stearic acid, and similarly the transadding and melting therein a certain quantity of tallow formation of olein into stearine requires the use of soap, and then boiling with acidulated water. The about 0.68 per cent. hydrogen. product was then distilled and the iodine, in part, One thousand cubic feet of hydrogen weigh approxirecovered from the pitch. The yield of stearic acid mately j . 6 pounds, hence a pound of olein calls for or saturated fat is stated t o be approximately 7 0 a little over 0.1 of a n ounce of hydrogen equivalent per cent. of the theoretical. Only about two-thirds to approximakly 2500 cubic feet of hydrogen per of the iodine could be recovered so the process apparton (of 2 0 0 0 pounds) of olein. Thus by weight only ently did not find technical use.4 Should the much a relatively small quantity of hydrogen is needed, lauded method of treating kelp, primarily for obtainwhile by volume the amount required, of course, is ing potash salts, come into use, a cheap supply of iodine considerable. J . S.C.I., 389 (1897). Many attempts t o hydrogenate oleic acid have been Presented before the New York Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, November 22, 1912. 1
2
Sztz. b. d . Wiener A k a d . d. W i s s . , 73, 366.
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Bull. SOC. Chim., [3]1, 295 (1889). Chem. Z t g . , 1889, 595.
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T H E J O U R N A L OF I,VD U S T R I A L A N D E S G I S E E R I - Y G C H E M I S T R Ir
would be available which might then make the Wilde a n d Reychler process of some technical interest. Chlorine in lieu of iodine has been tried, b u t great difficulty has been experienced in securing a n autoclave of resistant material. ImbertI recommends using quantities of chlorine and alkali exactly calculated on t h e iodine number of the f a t t y acid and operating a t a temperature of I 2 0 O t o I 50 O C. and pressure of about five atmospheres for a period of six hours. Ziirrera chlorinates t h e f a t t y acid and then heats with water i n ‘ t h e presence of a finely divided metal a s zinc or iron. Lewkowitsch alleges t h a t the treatment of monochlor-stearic acid in this manner causes a reversion t o oleic acid. Tissier, in 1897,slays claim t o a process for t h e reduction of oleic acid b y nascent hydrogen. Powdered metallic zinc is placed in a n autoclave, water and t h e f a t t y material containing olein introduced and treated under pressure. Under t h e circumstances the glyceride is hydrolyzed t o f a t t y acid and glycerine, and according t o Tissier nascent hydrogen is evolved b y virtue of the finely divided metal a n d . reduces t h e oleic t o stearic acid. ‘Freundlich and Rosauer4 claim the Tissier process t o be inoperative. The conversion of oleic acid into palmitic Fnd acetic acids b y means of caustic potash in accordance with t h e Varentrapp reactions has not proved t o be of much commercial significance, although it appears t h a t certain firms have been making use of the process in a limited way. The Schmidt zinc chloride process6 involves heating oleic acid and zinc chloride a t exactly 185’ C. while interaction is taking. place.
