CHEMICAL A N D E N G I N E E R I N G
NEWS VOLUME21
F E B R U A R Y 1 Ο, 1 9 4 3
NUMBER 3
Walter J . Murphy, Editor
Peacetime V a l ues from a War Technology1 G U S T A V EGLOFF, Universal O i l Products Co., Chicago, III.
IΝ A WORLD at war one g e t s the impression that all forces are solely for de struction. When war ends, the new tech nology will more quickly, efficiently, and effectively convert the w a r effort to the pursuits of peace with an amazing speed. With the tremendous increase in research and development, the commercialization of processes has occurred which would have taken years under normal conditions to reach fruition. Out of t h e welter of the war effort, values will n o w that will in crease man's effective s p a n of life with greater satisfaction for living. Science has already prolonged and saved man's life through germ-killing chemicals, new anesthetics, and synthetic vitamins. Through scientific and technical research our food supply has increased in quantity and quality. Synthetic textiles h a v e pro vided more beautiful, durable, a n d sani tary clothing. Plastics will revolutionize the building arts, for the trend is to sup plant m a n y house-building and housefurnishing materials with plastics as soon as they can be released for civilian use. Plastics and new and more efficient fuels will also play a dominant p a r t in our trans portation systems. T h e petroleum industry will play a con trolling part in the transportation situa tion. Airplanes hurtling through the air a t over 500 miles an hour carrying 1,000 or more passengers will m a k e all parts of the world less than 24 hours away from Chicago. Luxurious as the Normandie and Queen Mary were for ocean travel, airships y e t to come will operate with a smoothness and comfort unknown today. Low cost air travel a n d jitney planes should b e within t h e pocketbook of every American. The competitive impact of the new airplane industry on all other 1 Presented at the Wartime Marketing Confer ence, American Management Association, Drake Hotel, Chicago, 111., January 14, 1943.
forms of transportation m a y be quite seri ous. Increase in air travel will be made pos sible primarily by the capacity of the oil industry, increased b y wartime demands to produce 100 and higher octane gasoline, and by t h e amazing developments in air plane design, material, and construction that have been forced by the hard band of war necessity. T h e same technique and the same proc esses that produce 100-octane gasoline in almost unlimited quantities for airplane use will also mean greatly improved fuel for automobiles, in fact at least 50 per cent more miles per gallon. We may hazard a guess that the automobiles to come after the war will give new pleasure to driving because of improved design, speed, safety, and beauty. I n the short span of 25 years, man has entirely revolutionized transportation through t h e design and construction of the automobile and airplane and petroleum products. By careful study and experi mentation, it is certain better rubber than was ever obtained from trees or plants can be produced from petroleum and tires which will give 100,000 miles or more of trouble-free service are a reasonable ex pectation of the future. For years w e have been led to believe that world leadership in research and de velopment rested squarely on Germany and that the United States was laggard. E v e n now statements are made from time to time t o the effect that we are still be hind Germany in research, development, and commercialization. This is not so today. There was an element of truth in such a statement during World War I when t h e United States was short of many necessary materials owing t o its reliance o n Germany for pharmaceuticals, dyes, fine chemicals, potash, lenses,
chemical glassware, instruments, etc. We are now completely independent of any country for these and other materials. Prior to the previous war if anyone wanted to study chemistry, physics, mathematics, or medicine, he thought he had to go to Germany, but that day is also gone forever. In less than 25 years the United States has reached world leadership in research and has awakened to a miracle of scientific and technological development under our system of free en terprise. Private initiative is responsible for America's world leadership in science and industry. The tremendous effort that is being put forth in the United States, the effort that will win the war, is the work of private initiative. T h e impact of researches, carried on by private corporations and speeded up enor mously by the war, will bring vast changes in our peacetime economy. Their research departments were the organizations upon which many companies relied to bring them out of the depression. Their results are t h e backbone of t h e country's mobili zation for total war. Obviously, one can but show a few highlights in the accom plishments of research. T h e fact that many of Nature's prod ucts have been unsatisfactory has stimu lated man's inventive faculty fortified by the vision prevailing in our industries. The tremendous cooperation of industry in the United States is responsible for the spending of millions of dollars to develop a basic idea for the welfare of mankind. No industry stands alone in achievement. They are all interrelated through re search. T h e destructive nations' efforts to rule the world must b e wiped out as surely as we must defeat the insect and bacterial hordes that prey upon us.
Spring Meeting of the A . C. S., Detroit, Mich., April 1 2 to 1 6 , 1943
U. S . D. A . PHOTO
A t its Northern Regional Research Laboratory, Peoria, III., the U. S. Department of Agriculture seeks new industrial uses for agricultural products such as cornstalks. First step in making plastics from corn stalks is to digest or cook t h e cut-up stalks. H e r e Irwin L. Tubb is shown putting the experimental cornstalks into t h e digester or cooker.
Health Engineering Man's struggle to survive is ever pres ent. He has either vanquished or domes ticated large animal life. Our present battle is to overcome the ravages of rats, insect life, and bacteria; it would seem that the smaller the scale of life the more difficult is the problem of its extermina tion or control. Even the very nature of some of the smallest forms has presented man with some of his greatest difficulties of discovery and eradication by chemical or physical means. Great strides in this direction have been made, but t h e ulti mate solution is still far off. Increased tempo in research a n d experimentation along many fronts will ultimately present t h e remedy, but with the vastly improved tools man is constantly providing for him self, the end is certain to be on the favor able side for mankind. From the necessities t h a t war has forced upon man have grown the scientific principles of health engineering so vitally necessary to man's well being as a fighting force. Accurate knowledge of vast areas
hitherto seldom visited by dwell ers in temperate r e g i o ns h a s been- the motive force behind a medical explora tion of tropical territories that may well be car ried over in the future develop ment of our own hemisphere. When it be came necessary to provide troops with antis e p t i c meas ures a g a i n s t tropical and subt r o p i c a l dis eases, it was the problem of the medical force to provide accurate knowledge ot the type of health dangers encoun tered and to pro vide prevention and cure of ma laria, c h o l e r a , t y p h u s , hook-
worm, bubonic plague, sleeping sickness, dys entery, and typhoid. Mosquitoes, rats, leeches, fleas, flukes, bats and a host of other disease-bear ing or spreading agents had to be studied and their control and extermination planned. Drugs of all types had to be ready for disease combat and the checking of infection. In the Far Eastern and African campaigns insects and infections have beset our armies. Our men went down with malaria and other diseases. Among these are dengue fever, dysentery, tropical ulcers and sores, as well as the bites of malarial mos quitoes and tropical spi ders, some as large as crabs. There is a drainage of
our soldier's vigor in this pestilential atmosphere wherein he fights, eats, and sleeps b u t a few hundred miles from the Equator. As one eyewitness expressed it about t h e Buna campaign: Every ounce seems to grow to 10 pounds when carried through a jungle through knee-deep m u d . T h a t means giving soldiers jungle equipment, including the lightest kinds of carbines, tropical uni forms, waterproof shoes, more efficient and lighter packs, as well as smaller mos quito nets. What has research done to modify this type of torture and death t o which our fighting forces are subjected? The meth ods of attack are chemical, physical, medi cal, a n d engineering. An indispensable tool in the study of man's health for many years has been the microscope, discovered over 300 years ago. Slow improvements had been made i n this instrument until a few years ago when a revolutionary principle was dis covered through the use of the electron. This made possible a magnification of over 200,000 times compared to the 3,000 from the best previous microscope. Anti-insect sprays, delousing, swamp dranage, felling of certain trees, sanita tion, o i l and chemical dust spreading, and other methods are used to keep our troops i n fighting condition and will have great value industrially and agriculturally dur ing peace.
U . S. D. A . PHOTO
Effect of corn pollen extract i n regulating growth of bean plants under test at U . S. Horticulture Station is shown here. Bean plant at right, treated with hormone extracted from corn pollen, has grown taller than untreated plant.
The AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY assumes n o responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced b y contributors to i t s publications. Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, Publication Office, 20th & Northampton Sts., Easton, Penna. Editorial Office, 1155 16th St., N . W., Washington, D. C ; Telephone, Republic 5301; Cable, Jiechem (Washington). Advertising Department, 3 3 2 West 42nd S t . , New York, Ν. Y . ; Telephone, B r y a n t 9-4430. Entered a s second-class matter a t the P o s t Office a t Easton, Penna., under t h e act of March 3 , 1879, a s 24 t i m e s a year on the 10th and 25th. Acceptance for mailing a t special r a t e of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized July 1 3 , 1918Annual subscription rate, $2.00. Foreign postage t o countries not in the P a n American Union, $0.00; Canadian postage, SO.20. Single copies, $0.15. Special rates to members. No claims can be allowed for copies of journals lost in the mails unless such claims are received within 6 0 days of the d a t e of issue, and no claims will be allowed for issues lost as a result of insufficient notice of change of address. (Ten days' advance notice required.) "Missing from files" cannot b e accepted as t h e reason for honoring a claim. Charles L. Parsons, Business Manager, 1155 16th St., N. W. f Washington, D - C , U. S . A.
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CHEMICALAND
ENGINEERING
NEWS
A number of synthetic chemicals, such as the sulfa drugs, synthetic quinine, and synthetic vitamins are finding amazing uses on t h e fighting fronts. World War I record w a s four deaths out of five owing to germ infection of abdominal wounds, the present record is one out of five. Quoting Howard Blakeslee (New York Times, January 10, 1943): On t h e 2,000-mile front, in all the war, only 1.5 per cent of the Russian wounded have died. That is slightly higher than the remarkable recovery rate at Pearl Harbor, 96 out of each 100. The report says the Russian recovery rate is 98.5 per cent of all wounded. The Russian rate is one-half of 1 per cent worse than the Guadalcanal miracle of 1 per cent of wounded dying. The Russians claim some new medical advances of their o w n . When plasma is made in America, t h e red blood cells are thrown away. The Russians report that, they have made a process to use these cells to manufacture blood. Nerve sections taken from the dead have been success fully grafted into the wounded. The peri tonea of animals, t h e inner linings of vis ceral cavities, have been used as living bandages for gaping wounds. I t is claimed that cure i s facilitated and that the scars are not so heavy. A compound that is not a vitamin, y e t has the blood-clotting effects of vitamin K, is in use. T h e Russians say they have found a method to obtain thrombin in thousands of quarts volume. Thrombin is a natural clotting substance in blood. The latest sulfa drugs which are work ing wonders against infection and disease are sulfathiazole, sulfapyridine, sulfaguanidine, a n d succinyl sulfathiazole which have been synthesized for specific dis eases. Each soldier's kit contains first aid doses of sulfanilamide for the purpose of checking infection at the time a wound is received.
Pentothal, which is i n jected intrave nously, is o n e of t h e v e r y b e s t of t h e newer anes thetics, having no e x p l o s i v e h a z a r d s such as ether a n d the hydrocar bon gases. In addition, t h e equi ρ m e η t necessary for its administra tion i s simple. A s h o t in t h e arm is all it takes to p u t one asleep. Bacteria, soil mol d s, a n d molds found in the intestines of animals or insects create chemicals t h a t are highly use ful in destroy ing infection. OWENS-CORN I NO FIBERGLAS CORP. Penicillin, a Draperies manufactured from Fiberglas hang gracefully. They are new drug pro both fireproof and moistureproof, and, in addition, will not fade. duced in soil mold, is about 100 times as effective as sulfanilamide for combatting infection and far less toxic. Gramacidin, from soil bacteria, has been found to be a powerful germicide for b o t h pneumococci and streptococci, two ex tremely dangerous germs to m a n .
A M E R I C A N C Y A N A M I D CO.
Electron
U. S .
O. A. P H O T O
A . W . Bisset dusts tomato plants at the U . S. Horticultural Station with o n e of the new insecticides d e v e l o p e d by entomologists of t h e U. S. Department of Agriculture. V O L U M E
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- F E B R U A R Y
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One cannot pass public health without mention of t h e vitamins. Many diseases of baffling nature have been due to dietary deficiencies and upon treatment with the proper vitamins have been cured. N e w methods of production, mainly chemical synthesis, h a v e made vitamins available. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin B1 143
OWENS-CORN I N Q FIBERQLAS CORP.
Workmen unroll white glass w o o l which blankets roofs and walls at bomber assembly plants built for the army by The Austin Co.
cherry, plum, peach, and walnut, bringing them to fruition much faster. Where the growth season is too short to allow the full maturing of trees owing to the inclement weather in parts of Russia, so that flower formation and fruit setting are delayed, butylène has been used to hasten the growth period. The method of treating a tree is to enclose it in a tent for two weeks before the normal or desired leafing, i. e., start of the growth cycle. Butyl-
(thiamin chloride) are probably the most outstanding examples. In 1933 the cost of vitamin C was S213 per ounce and in June 1942 the price had been reduced to $1.65 per ounce. Vitamin B1 was s o l d for $8,000 per ounce in 1935 and is now marketed at $15 per ounce. Owing to the huge reductions in price, these vitamins as well as several others can be added to fortify various foods, giving them protective factors for health never before included in their manufacture.
Food Food plays t h e dominating role in all nations. Rationing has hit all of us, hence our keener interest in this subject. Research h a s made available foods relatively new to o u r civilization, not alone from the standpoint of n e w varieties b u t chemicals used for treatment increasing their quality, size, and vitamin content. Petroleum plays a role i n the newer methods of increasing food supply. When oil is cracked t o produce motor fuel, olefinic gases are by-products. These gases, such as ethylene, propylene, a n d butylènes hasten fruit ripening and growth. Ethylene was first used for the purpose of ripening oranges rapidly, by putting a tent over each tree or storing the unripe fruit in a room a n d adding small percentages of ethylene- By using this method of ripening, the fruit could b e shipped without loss owing to rotting. T h e growth of potatoes has been stimulated by ethylene and propylene. It has been reported that the speed of growth of potatoes has been increased. 100 p e r cent when t h e seedlings have b e e n treated with ethylene. The growth time t o maturity w a s shortened, the pota-toes were more numerous and larger, a n d contained higher percentages of vitamin C. The Russians have studied the use of butylène gas showing that it has a stimulating effect o n the speed o f growth of trees, sixch as the apple, apricot, pear, 144
tracted from the plant. T h i s powder when applied to seeds, leaves, or buds of a plant increases growth of fruits and vegetables to double their normal size. Colchicine also gives rise to new varieties of fruits and vegetables never known before. The colchicine acts at a critical point in the germination of the seeds. When cell division is ready t o take place, the cell does not divide, which is usual i n Nature. The specie-bearing chromosomes remain in t h e seed i n double the n u m b e r and give rise t o new species o f fruits and vegetables. Shipping o f food supplies to t h e United States fighting men abroad is i n a critical situation owing to lack of transportation. To overcome this obstacle a number of processes h a v e beeri developed to dehydrate foods in order to c u t down their bulk and weight. "Quick Freezing" of fruits, vegetables, and meat h a s added materially to food supply, particularly in decentralized communities, a n d also conserves steel and tin in the form of cans. T h i s development has great economic value for peace and war. T h e impact of these researches on the food economy of t h e world will develop enormously i n that one m a y work out new hormones a n d chemical stimulators which will give rise to new plant life. Developments already a c h i e v e d present an almost incredible picture of our food supplies of t h e future. Obviously these developments will make it possible to raise more food o f higher nutritive quality on less acreage, with far less labor compared to present methods. Textiles a n d Clothing
PITTSBURQH PLATE GLASS CO.
A lisht of Flexseal laminated glass developed for airplane windows.
ene is passed into the tent in concentrations of 1 part in 100,000 parts of air at temperatures between 69° and 100° F. for a period of 1 to 2 hours. Small heaters are probably used to raise and maintain the temperature of the air around the tree in order to obtain maximum effects of the growth inducing hydrocarbon, butylène. Acetylene, so important in the production of synthetic rubber, plastics, and other materials, is being used in Australia to increase the growth of pineapple plants. Calcium carbide derived from coal and limestone is placed in the heart of the plant, and rain or dew reacts with it to produce acetylene in sufficient quantities to increase the growth of the pineapples. In California fruit orchards are fertilized b y ammonia added to the irrigation water, which has markedly improved productivity. This ammonia is produced from the nitrogen in t h e air and the hydrogen from cracking of petroleum. The autumn crocus contains a yellow powder called "colchicine", which is exCHEMICAL
For years the silkworm was the sole producer of the r a w material used in weaving fine silk fabrics s y m b o l i c of rich-
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