V. IMPORTANT INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS AWAITING SOLUTION
Some are inclined to smile when the suggestion is made that lists of research projects should be compiled covering various fields. It is certainly true that most men engaged in research work accumulate rapidly a list of prohlems that very quickly far surpass the capacity of any individual or staff to solve. The mere accumulation of additional unsolved problems is not a very promising field of endeavor. I t is, however, undoubtedly true that the nature of the prohlems on which an individual, or a laboratory, concentrates attention has much to do with the success or the failure of the individual or the laboratory. There is no way in which outstanding capacity for successful research is more clearly and definitely shown than in the choice of those problems on which effort is to be expended. No man can foresee clearly the limit, or even the direction, of future scientific or technical advancement. No really able director of a research laboratory ever attempts to place a definite limit on progress. But every director can, and does, continually use the most careful judgment in deciding on those prohlems on which effort shall be concentrated. Once the problem is chosen there is required the most painstaking and continuous effort to assure that the work required is confined as strictly as possible to those essential elements upon which the solution of the problem really depends. There is a tendency to become quickly involved in a mass of detail which has little to do with the final success or failure of the attack on the problem. Alluring roads continually lead off in directions not conducive to an early amval at the objective. Pour things seem essential in securing the successful prosecution of research work: Careful selection of the problem for investigation; courage in the expenditure of the necessary time and money; ability to discriminate the important phases of the investigation from the unimportant; and the presence of an eternal question mark at every stage of the investigation. These things often lead to success when a little less would result in failure. In the field of fundamental scienti6c investigations and in the continuance of such investigation along paths already marked out there exists a boundless opportunity. When industrial prohlems are considered there is still abundant opportunity, but there is at once a clear-cut 2275
2276
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
OCTOBER, 1930
limitation on the problem-it must pay dividends. The dividends are desired in the not-too-distant future. Many investigators are rendered almost helpless by this limitation. do not know enough about the business end of the industry. It is difficult for them to realize the cost and trouble of changing a manufacturing process, or of putting a new process on a dividend-paying basis. They are inclined to consider an investigation complete when from a commercial point of view the problem has only begun. It often requires good management to place a laboratory discovery on a dividend-paying basis in five years. Moreover, the dividend-paying feature which attaches to the solution of an industrial problem places another decided limitation on the investigator. This limitation can be made clear by an illustration. Viewed as an industrial problem it is entirely useless to prove that starch can be produced more cheaply from the sweet potato than corn starch can be produced from corn, if the investigation stops a t that point. It is equally important to find the exact use for which the starch can be sold. This may require an intimate knowledge of, and experimentation with, the laundry or textile industry. Ordinarily one man, and often one laboratory, cannot carry out both phases of the investigation. Therefore, industrial problems usually require organization and cooperation for their successful prosecution. All that has been said is intended to lead up to the following obswation: the South has many important problems of an industrial nature requiring chemistry for their solution, but the South has a t the present time little organization that will enable these problems to be successfully solved. There are fifty-one industrial research laboratories in the South listed in Bulletin No. 60 of the National Research Council on Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States (1927). These organizations are usually small or are branches of larger organizations in other sections of the country, and their investigations are usually confined to certain strictly limited fields. The South has not sufficiently organized to solve its industrial problems. There is much excellent work a t certain edncational institutions and experiment stations, but this individual work is not organized and is often not completed, and returns from the work in the way of dividends and increased prosperity are slow. The point discussed above is of very real importance to the future progress of chemical industries in the South. No organization should ever attempt to limit individual initiative or to dictate the research problems and policies of institutions. But i t should be recognized that the problems which require solution themselves place very definite limitations on the success of unorganized effort. The only answer would seem to be definitely organized cooperative effort to include industrial concerns.
he^
Vor 7.No. 10
CHEMICAL PROGRESS IN THE SOUTH
2277
experiment stations, educational institutions, and certain other state and industrial organizations. Some funds would have to be provided to support such a cooperative effort. It is with the earnest hope that some organized effort tending to their solution will he made that a few important industrial problems have been selected for brief comment below. White Paper from Southern Pine There are now sixty paper mills and thirty-six pulp mills in the South manufacturing paper mainly from the southern pine. Most of it is kraft paper. Discover a process for bleaching this pulp from the pine and a much wider field is opened-newspaper, paper for books, writing paper, and wall paper. The Forest Products Laboratory and certain organizations have made great progress in the solution of this problem. But no industrial problem can be regarded as solved until it is paying dividends. The investigation should be carried to the point of manufacturing and dividends. Destroy the Toxicity of Cottonseed Meal Here we have a valuable and rich feedstuff, amounting to approximately 2,000,000 tons a year, obtained as a by-product. It cannot be largely used as a feedstuff because under present feeding practice a certain toxicity becomes evident with the crude meal as produced. There is still some dispute as to the exact cause of this toxicity. There is no need even to outline that discussion here. Find some method of destroying or removing the existing toxicity and you will have added greatly to the value of the cottonseed meal as a feedstuff, and you will enrich the South by millions annually. A real solution to the problem would probably a t least double the value of the meal. Again, we have men claiming that the problem is already solved, and with a considerable amount of evidence to support their point of view. What we need is certainty and dividends. Doctor Wesson believes (Cotton Oil Press, May, 1930) that from this meal a protein food for man can he produced. Prevent the Deterioration of Cottonseed before It Reaches the Oil Mill High humidity and high temperature, together, often cause a loss of 20 per cent of the value of the cottonseed to the oil mill before the seed reaches the mill Surely there is some way of controlling in many cases the temperature and humidity, and preventing deterioration. What is needed here is organized research. Little effort has been expended on this problem. The farmer accepts what is offered for the seed by the oil mill and knows nothing of the conditions which determine its value.
2278
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
OCTOBER, 1930
Make the Naval Stores Industry Profitable According to estimates given, this industry, with an annual output worth $70,000,000, has run a t a loss for the last five years on any fair basis of calculation. Also, it is stated that in ten years the industry could be greatly enlarged in size if only i t could be placed on a paying basis. There is no necessity here to detail the industrial changes that have decreased the value of turpentine and rosin. Apparently the chemist must be relied upon to place this industry on a paying basis by finding new and more profitable uses for turpentine and rosin. Production of Phosphoric Acid in the Blast Furnace The South is intensely interested in any method that will cheapen the production of acid phosphate. Considerable evidence exists tending to show amazingly low costs for the production of phosphoric acid in the blast furnace, and the possibility of a much more concentrated fertilizer that would save greatly in freight bills during the process of distribution to the consumer. All difficulties have not been overcome. Much more work is necessary. The present small-scale plant and manufacturing operations must be extended until finally the process has been adapted to the manufacture of commercial fertilizer. Means for Utilizing Surplus Perishable Crops The fruit, berry, and truck crops of the South are enormous. Every so often there is overproduction, resulting in losses reaching into the millions of dollars. The statement has been repeatedly made that a canning factory cannot operate successfully on surplus crops, and the reasons given deserve the most careful consideration. The problem, however, has not really been approached from the right standpoint. The real object to be accomplished is to prevent excessive losses of entire crops. One does not require that a dam to protect from overflow shall pay direct dividends. Its purpose is to avoid the loss of the entire crop. What is needed here is organization and some chemistry. The coming of good roads should somewhat simplify the solution of this problem. As an illustration, the fact may be cited that a few years ago a t certain places in the South truck-loads of the finest peaches already gathered, crated, and delivered a t the railroad station, were hauled away and destroyed because the market temporarily would not pay for the cost of shipment. Work has been done in recent years indicating the possibility of freezing peaches and preserving their flavor for use a t a later time in the manufacture of ice cream. A somewhat similar process is now widely used with the strawberry. It seems almost sinful to waste that which the world desires.
VOL.7, NO. 10
CHEMICAL PROGRESS I N THE SOUTH
2279
Better Control of Malaria Has any real effort commensurate with the importance of the problem been made to improve quinine? A relatively slight increase in the efficiency of that drug would save numerous thousands each year from prolonged periods of ill health, for quinine often does not rid one entirely of the malaria germ and a long period of ill health frequently follows the contraction of malaria. Surely sufficient results have been attained by chemotherapeutical studies in the past to warrant the belief that this problem deserves serious study. As a matter of fact it has received very little attention. No one understands the specific action of quinine. What is more astonishing, little effort bas been made to find out. Perhaps study would show some other chemical, already known, to be more potent and equally harmless. Courage and perseverance would here stand a good chance of ultimate success. Then there is the problem of controllmg the mosquito. More Complete Utilization of Waste Wood One of the greatest thrills obtained in a trip through the South was on a visit to the plant of the Masonite Corporation at Laurel, Mississippislabs, chips, pine knots, partly rotted wood, bark, all going through conveyors, finally into dividends. The day is surely coming when the waste lumber and rejected wood found so plentifully everywhere in the South will be turned profitably into material of beauty and value. Cotton Bagging Jute still comes from India, and the fashions of dress in cotton bales have not changed one iota in fifty years. Many other things have changed. Fifty years ago nearly all of the cotton was shipped North and abroad. Now more than half of the cotton used in the United States does not leave the South before manufacture. But even if the gin were placed beside the mill that is to use the cotton some sort of superstition would insist that jute must be procured from India to be put on that cotton. The writer is skeptical enough to believe that paper could he made of a grade suitable to cover a large part of our cotton crop and that cotton itself could at times be used to advantage. The entire system of marketing cotton would have to be changed. As is usually the case, the farmer is not quite the fool he seems. He does not imagine that he makes a profit on that jute. He actually does, under our present system of marketing. But somebody finally pays the bill. After all, the farmer is probably the real loser. Statewide organization in the South could handle the marketing end of the problem and such organization is essential to success.
2280
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
Ocrossn, 1930
Better Control of Certain Pests I t has been estimated that insect and animal pests in the United States cause an annual loss of $2,000,000,000. The South can boast its share of such pests. On some it has almost a monopoly; others, it shares with other sections of the nation. The following are among the most important insect pests: Cotton boll weevil Mediterranean fruit fly Corn barer Cut worm Tobacco worm Gypsy moth Mexican bean beetle
Mosquito House fly Red spider Cotton aphis Coddling math Grain weevil Cattle tick
Other pests add much to man's troubles: Hookworm Disease germs Organism causing cotton raot rot Organism causing anthracnose
Various molds Marine boring organisms such as the teredo
No attempt is made to make this list of man's enemies even approximately complete. Practically every crop has serious pests against which the producer must wage continual warfare. Chemistry must play a major part in their destruction or control. Quarantine, crop management. parasitical control, and mechanical methods are oftentimes extremely valuable aids in controlling pests, but all of these measures, even when applied, leave abundant opportunity for the chemist. Patient, continued, cooperative effort is required to improve the present methods of combating these pests. Outstanding success is scarcely to be expected even from continued effort. But the annual loss from the pests is so great that probably few expenditures for research really pay dividends as great as those obtained indirectly from research on pest control. Expenditures for such research should be liberal and continuous.
A Larger and Better Ceramic Industry Recently it was stated that an important ceramic industry in the South was impossible and effort in that direction wasted. The reply was made that there were 13 glass factories now in Oklahoma, and that it looked as if natural gas might offer certain advantages. Attention was called to freight rates on heavy ware such as brick. In reply to this obsemation a man was cited who had lost all of his money in a brickyard in the South. Since certain brickyards have paid well the argument proceeded. A generation ago many thought a large textile industry in the South an impossibility. Forty years ago the Carolina Fiber Company of
VOL.7, NO. 10
CHEMICAL PROGRESS IN THE SOUTH
2281
Hartsville, South Carolina, was organized to make paper from the old field pine because northern manufacturers would not take the pulp offered. That mill is still in operation and there are fifty-nine other paper mills and thirty-six pulp mills. The question is-"To what extent is the South going to manufacture ceramic ware?" The answer is probably going to depend on the ability of the leaders in the South, and on the demand for such ware, and on little else. There are problems, yes-that is where the ability comes in. Starch from the Sweet Potato, and into Commerce The Agricultural Experiment Station of South Carolina showed many years ago the possibility of producing starch cheaply from the sweet potato. The other end of that problem-the sale of the starch-still requires careful investigation. Starches ditfer. Textile mills in the United States, for the most part, use corn starch for sizing because it is the cheapest starch. Textile mills in Europe use Irish potato starch for the same reason. Can starch from the sweet potato actually be delivered to the textile mills cheaper than corn starch, and will the mills use it? Or can sweet potato starch be made to show properties which would command a special price for special purposes? Also, the sweet potato contains sugar and enzymes. Are these to be used or thrown away? These are the problems for investigation. The Production in the South of More of the Chemicals Needed by Southern Industry One industry calls for another. The textile industry makes almost as little use of chemistry as any other large industry. Yet Gilchrist in 1927 (I) estimated that the textile mills of North and South Carolina alone consumed $31,500,000 worth of chemicals annually. In manufacturing the chemicals needed by the textile mills of these two states an industry would be required the value of whose annual production would be nearly one-half the value of the entire naval stores industry of the South. In 1927 Crooks (2) estimated that the paper mills of Louisiana and Arkansas alone required yearly 1250 cars of salt cake, 1500 cars of lime, 500 cars of alum, and 75 cars of soda ash. Based on this estimate the paper mills of the South would require more than 13,000 carloads of chemicals a year. The oil refineries of Oklahoma use (3) more than 200,000 tons of sulfuric acid annually and a somewhat similar amount of caustic. These are but examples of some of the requirements of the new industrial era in the South. Shead (3) stated in 1927 that in the water purification plant at Oklahoma City the lime used came from Missouri, the alum used came from Illinois,
2282
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
.OCTOBER, 1930
the ferrous sulfate from Alabama, and the chlorine from New York. I do not know whether to be glad or sorry that Shead has not investigated the source of the other chemicals used in the South. The point is that many industries already established require a large increase in the production of the chemicals used in those industries. The opportunity for their manufacture in the South should be carefully examined. More Technical, Chemical, and Engineering Control of Existing Industries-Textile, Oil Mills, Laundries, Dairying, Etc. Too many of the industries in the South undertake to save expense by omitting all expert technical control in their processes. If you have any acquaintance a t all with such industries you can understand the saving thus made. It may reach several hundreds or several thousands of dollars a year. Also if you have any acquaintance with these same industries you can equally well understand the losses this lack of control occasions. The losses will generally reach ten times the amount of the savings, sometimes much more than that. Reliable analytical laboratories and consulting chemists exist in every southern state. Industries will find it very profitable to make frequent use of the knowledge and facilities now available for checking the quality of materials bought and their own manufacturing operations. I t is just as hard to bring salvation to the captains of industry as it is to the farmers. In either case a few converts have to be made. Others finally notice the difference. Some would rather go bankrupt than change. Some survive because of ability in other directions. The solution of any one of the problems mentioned above would add appreciably to the wealth of the South. The solution of any five of the problems would probably make a readily visible improvement. Not one of the problems mentioned stands the slightest chance of being solved through the effort of a single individual, though one individual might make outstanding and basic contributions toward the final solution. Among the problems mentioned, that which most nearly approaches the type of problem which could be solved by individual effort is perhaps the investigation calling for better control of malaria. One individual could possibly improve the drug quinine. But the test of such improvement would call for the cooperation of numerous physicians. Other phases of the problem-the control of the mosquito and the treatment of individualscall for the cooperation of thousands. The outstanding success of many large organizations and industries has been due in large part to the research organizations which they maintain. A few years ago such a statement would have been questioned.
VOL. 7, No. 10
CHEMICAL PROGRESS IN THE SOUTH
2283
Today few men would dispute its truth. There should be frank recognition of the fact that few such research organizations exist in the South and that the growth of such organizations as do exist will of necessity be somewhat slow. The writer pleads, therefore, for some organization of existing facilities su'fficieut to insure the solution of certain technical problems in a reasonable time. No dictation by such an organization as to the work to be done, or the methods of work, is possible or thinkable. Cooperative effort is the only policy that would lead to success. If the various states, industries, and institutions in the South organized to attack the problems mentioned results of importance would inevitably follow. Organized effort is essential in the research laboratories of industrial organizations and it is equally necessary to the effective and rapid solution of the industrial problems of a given locality. Further industrial activity in the South is essential to prosperity. There is no use to tell men not to plant cotton unless you give the individual man something else to do. Fruit and truck are at times more profitable than cotton but on the whole more subject to overproduction and loss. No one seriously disputes the overproduction of grain crops, and automobiles and trucks at present do not consume much hay. The best thought of the South has been coming more and more to the belief that only one answer is possible to the South-increased industrial activity. All new industrial activity is welcomed. The efforts of leaders during the past few years have produced amazing results. Let the progress continue and as labor learns efficiently to perform new duties end the cry of cheap labor. Many of the industries of the South are not owned in the South and profits from those industries go to other sections of the country. Why? Partly because of lack of capital in the South, but even more largely, perhaps, because of ignorance of the technical details involved in the industry. The South has not the expert knowledge and large research organizations which have made some of those industries possible. Better libraries must come, more research, increased knowledge. Only fourteen of many possible problems were selected for brief discussion above. Experts have been asked to state the problems of certain chosen industries and the chapters which follow give many suggestions. But knowledge of any industry always reveals problems. If those chosen for discussion stimulate real effort-planned effort-for the solution of any industrial problem of importance to the South, the purpose of this partial presentation will have been accomplished.
References ( I ) C k m . Met. Eng., 34, 690 (1927). (2) Ibid., 34, 688 (1927).
2284
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
O~OBER 1930 ,
(3) I M . ,34, 433 (1927). (4) WESTand R~sxEn,"Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States," National Research Council Bulletin No. 60 (1927).
(5) "Directory of Commercial Testing and College Research Laboratories." Bureau of Standards. Miscellaneous Publication No. 90. (6) PARTRIDGE, "Industry, Chemical Engineering, and the South." Ind. Eng. Chen., 22, 412-27 (1930). Note references given with this article.
