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with the color of dissolved gum in minute quantities. The presence of bituminous substances would be indicated by a brown or black color. It would be desirable t h a t the sulfur of vulcanization be limited to exclude reclaimed rubber, which contains the sulfur of its previous vulcanization, b u t the committee has not yet developed an acceptable method for determining this quantity. It is therefore, confronted with the choice of either placing a limit on the total sulfur or giving up the attempt t o exclude shoddy by sulfur limitations. Option is therefore given to the purchaser to insert or omit the limit on total sulfur. Such insertion will a t times exclude reclaimed rubber and the committee believes it possible t o make a suitable compound with this limitation. The committee thinks that a sulfur limit positively excluding reclaimed rubber, would place too great a hardship, in other ways, on the manufacturers. Where the specification
Vol. 6 , NO.
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is used with no total sulfur limit, the use of many kinds of, or much, reclaimed rubber, will be guarded against by the limits of the various components of the acetone extract. When the limitation on total sulfur is omitted, sulfur-bearing fillers, which possess certain advantages, may be used. This specification should be supplemented by appropriate elasticity and tensile strength tests, in order t o add to the assurance t h a t good rubber has been used and that the vulcanization process has been properly carried out; also by appropriate electric stress and resistance tests, to assure proper insulating qualities and homogeneity of structure, The exact values of the limits for these tests will depend upon the use t o which the material is t o be put. JOINTRUBBERINSULATION COMMITTEE W. A. DEL MAR, Secretary OCTOBER, 1913
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE OZONE Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: In the November issue of THISJOURNAL,Mr. Buswell concludes from the papers of Jordan and Carlson, and of Sawyer and the Misses Beckwith and Skolfield, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that the use of ozone as a n adjunct in ventilation has been proven totally unjustifiable. In so far as ozone is expected t o sterilize the air, Mr. Buswell is correct, but when he concludes t h a t ozone has no function whatever in ventilation, and t h a t its harmfulness and inutility have been demonstrated, he is in error. Ozone is applied to ventilation for the purpose of destroying odors which result from the presence of people, animals and decaying organic substances. Its value is demonstrated in numerous cases where i t has stood the empirical test of giving satisfaction t o the user, and by researches conducted under actual working conditions. Its application is suggested in the first place by the logical expectation t h a t it will destroy offensive odors in crowds, because it does this in the laboratory, and because this is in accordance with the theory of the chemical action of ozone. Following the practical demonstration of satisfactory results from the employment of ozone, it was natural and proper t h a t physiologists should have endeavored t o demonstrate whether or not ozone were capable of harmfully affecting people exposed t o its influence, and accordingly numerous attempts have been made to settle this question. The evidence t o date is t h a t no single instance of harm from the use of ozone in the quantities recommended has been published, but, on the contrary, numerous efforts t o prove its harmfulness have been unsuccessful. Jordan and Carlson fail utterly t o show any harm to the animals exposed to weak concentrations of ozone, and are driven to the dubious expedient of insinuating that harm might result after fifty years ofsexposure. The same line of reasoning might be applied withiequal logic t o the use of electric lights, subways and prepared breakfast foods. On the other hand, Leonard Hill states that no one could unconsciously be poisoned by ozone, as the danger signals are clearly set, and t h a t no one could remain in a n atmosphere too strong with ozone. H e states, moreover, that the only penalties from breathing too strong ozone for a short period are a slight irritation of the mucous membranes and perhaps a headache. The writer has had considerable experience with ozone and has observed numerous co-workers who, with himself, have been exposed during five years to various concentrations of ozone, which, according t o the authors above quoted, should have proven highly injurious if not fatal, but he has never noted the
least ill effect from repeated and often prolonged exposures t o these relatively high concentrations. The bacteriological experiments referred t o are of little or no interest, for two reasons: First, Because they are in accordance with what is already well known; second, Because sterilization of the atmosphere is not of any value whatever in sanitation. Few sanitarians believe that diseases are transmitted by bacteria in the air; therefore the fact t h a t ozone will not destroy bacteria in the air is entirely aside from the question and no disqualifier of ozone. Regarding the experiments with animals on which tracheotomy had been practiced, and into whose lungs ozone, in concentrations of from twenty t o fifty times the concentrations recommended for ventilation purposes, had been directly introduced, we can say t h a t the results might have been predicted, and t h a t they have no bearing on the question of ozone in ventilation. Jordan and Carlson themselves point out t h a t ozone, as used in ventilation, does not get into the lungs, but is absorbed in the nasal passages. They admit t h a t it does not follow that, because strong concentrations of ozone are poisonous, weak concentrations are also poisonous, and further, they prove this t o be the case in their experiments. Referring t o the efforts t h a t were made t o prove t h a t ozone masks and does not destroy organic odors, i t can be said that experiments carried on in a room such as Jordan and Carlson used, are subject to, a t least, one great source of error, namely: condensation and absorption on the walls and heterogeneous objects in the room. Bail has studied this and points out t h a t after-odors may be referred to this cause. Czaplewski and also Van Kupffer have dwelt on this source of error. I have experimented personally and also have had tests conducted by others qualified to make precise observations, with what appears t o be a more accurate method, namely: with clean glass bottles in which the surfaces could be washed free from adhering emanation, and the results have shown that organic odors generally are destroyed, and not masked by ozone. Jordan and Carlson contend t h a t the removal of odors is vicious as destroying an indicator of contaminated atmosphere, but, as is generally known, there are no poisons in vitiated air, and odor exists as odor alone and as such constitutes a nuisance whose destruction vouchsafes a most important function to ozone in ventilation. As a matter of fact, the main attack on ozone is based on two implied premises both notoriously discredited, viz.: ( I ) that there are organic poisons in vitiated atmospheres which are indicated by odors, and ( 2 ) t h a t dry floating bacteria in the air are active agents of contamination. It is conceded that bacteria in the air are of little or no im-
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portance in sanitation; t h a t organic poisons do not exist; t h a t odors are a nuisance. It has been shown that ozone removes these odors, and while i t has been demonstrated t h a t in strong concentrations ozone destroys these odors, many writers, including Jordan and Carlson, persist in the unsupported allegation, t h a t in weak concentrations, ozone although admittedly banishing them, merely masks these odors. Wide experience attests that ozone improves the condition of the air, and inasmuch as all attempts have failed t o prove the least harmfulness of ozone when properly used, its utilization is as fully justified as is the use of such empirical remedies as, for instance, colchicum in gout. hIILTON W. FRANKLIN 188 N O R T H ’XALXUT S T , EASTORANGE,Ii. J.
PLATINUM THIEF
Editor of tlLe Jourrtal of Industrial and Engineering We desire to call the attention of the Society to the recent theft of platinum from this laboratory. The party suspected is a man calling himself Harry E . Newton and representing himself as a graduate of the Rolla School of Mines at the University of Missouri, ’99. He claims to have been connected with
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smelter work in Southern hlexico and also with the rubber industry in t h a t country. H e is a man approximately 35 years of age, 5 feet 5 inches in height and weighing about 135 pounds. His complexion is dark and when last seen he was smooth shaven, with a face showing marks of considerable exposure to the weather. He has the appearance of a man addicted t o the use of drugs in some form. We have communicated with the secretaries of the four nearby sections and would be glad to receive any information as to his present whereabouts. \VILLIAMETTE PULPAND PAPERCOMPAXY OREGOS CITY,OREGON DECEMBER 1, 1913
RECOVERY O F IODINE FROM T H E WASTE LIQUOR I N COPPER TITRATIONS Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: The waste liquors obtained from copper titrations by the iodide method contain large amounts of iodine This may be recovered by adding hydrogen peroxide (a few cc. of 30 per cent to about 2 , j liters). The free iodine is precipitated at Once and can be easily separated by filtration, GREGORY TOROSSIAN 11014 DETROIT AVE , CLEVELAND. N O V E h l B E R 20. 1913
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PERSONAL NOTES Provost Edgar F. Smith, of the University of Pennsylvania, has been elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, t o succeed Dr. Ira Remsen. Dr. F. W. Frerichs, of St. Louis, was awarded the Medal of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers a t the 6th Annual Meeting in New York, on account of his papers on “Problems in Chemical Engineering.” Dr. Bernard Herstein, formerly Chemical Expert for the Tariff Board, has gone to the Philippines to take up his new duties as Insular Collector of Customs. Dr. Carl L. Alsberg and Dr. A. L. Winton, of the Bureau of Chemistry, have been elected Honorary Members of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. The General Electric Company Research Laboratory at Schenectady is about to move into a new building specially designed for its use and in which about 50,000 square feet of floor space are devoted t o experimental work. Caswell A. Mayo, Editor of the American Druggist,has been elected President of the American Pharmaceutical Association. Mr. Heinrich J . Freyn, formerly Consulting Engineer of the Gas Engine Department of the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee, has recently joined the H. Koppers Company of Chicago in the capacity of 3rd Vice-President. The Chemists’ Club of S e w York has received and is preparing for use the Friedrich JV. C. Schniewind Library which consists largely of complete journal sets covering the field of coal, coke, gas and by-products of the coal gas industry. Prof. I. B Mendel, of Yale University, spoke on “Food Fads ” under the auspices of the Washington University Chapter of Sigma Xi, St. Louis, on December j , 1913. Prof. Alfred H. White, of the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Michigan, addressed the Detroit Section of the A. C. S. on Nov. 28, 1913, his subject being “Cnder what Circumstances can Portland Cement be Considered a Reliable Building Material for Permanent Structures?” Dr. Sidney Born, of New York, has recently accepted the position of Director of the Laboratories of the Wm. J. Lemp Brewing Co., St. Louis. Mr. Henry Sellman, engineering specialist in pebble mills
and grinding installations, has been employed by the Abbe Engineering Co. This company has purchased the Sellman Mill Co. business and t h a t of Geo. R.I. Ball & Son, manufacturers of pulverizing and grinding machinery. Prof. -4lexander Smith was to have assumed the duties of head of the Department of Chemistry in Princeton University in the autumn of 1914. By consent of both parties, Prof. Smith’s acceptance of the position has now been withdrawn, and he will remain at Columbia University. G. S. Fraps, President of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, delivered his presidential address before the 13th Annual Meeting in Washington, Nov. 18, 1913, on the subject, “Progress of the Chemistry of Agriculture.” This address is printed in full in the Nov. 29th issue of the American Fertilizer. Dr. John A. Wilkinson, formerly a t Ohio State University, is now at Missouri State University as head of the Department of Analytical Chemistry. A portrait of the late Prof. Morris Loeb was presented by Mrs. Loeb t o New York University on Dec. 4th. The gift was accepted by Chancellor Brown on behalf of the University and memorial addresses were made by Professors Hill and Baskerville. Prof. A . A. Noyes, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will give a course of lectures a t the Throop College of Technology, Pasadena, Cal., during the second semester of the year. Mr. Frank E. Carruth, a graduate of Wesleyan University, and a recent fellow in Cornel1 University, has been appointed assistant chemist in the North Carolina Experiment Station. Mr. Richard K. hleade, Consulting Engineer, Baltimore, has been retained by the Louisville Portland Cement Co., t o prepare plans for their new 60-ton per day hydrated lime plant. h l r . Meade is also directing the erection of a new steel and concrete stockhouse with self-emptying bins and a pack house equipped with Bates-Valve sacking machines for the Thomas Millen Co., Jamesville, N . Y. Mr. R. A. Fetzer, a graduate of Davidson and Clemson Colleges, has been appointed instructor in chemistry in the S o r t h Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Mr. Ashmead G. Rodgers, General Superintendent cf the
