Jan., 1914
T H E J O C R S d L O F I S D l * S T R I A L AJVD EA\TGIAVEERIA\7G C H E M I S T R Y
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
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T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
Carborundum Company’s plant at Niagara Falls since 1902, died on Oct. 23, 1913, at the age of 41 years. Prof. F. Haber, of Berlin, delivered the Hurter Memorial Lecture before the Liverpool Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, on Nov. 26, 1913. Subject: “Modern Chemical Industry.” Messrs. H. Solomon, D. E. Chadwick and L. S . Cunningham were recently appointed assistants in chemistry in the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, Agricultural College, Miss. Dr. C. E. K. Mees, Director of the Eastman Kodak Company Research Laboratory, talked a t a recent colloquium of the General Electric Company Research Laboratory, on Photographic Research. The new chemical laboratory of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College is being occupied. The building is four stories high and contains about 40,000sq. f t . of floor space; it is practically fireproof and provides commodious quarters for the state chemical work, as well as ample laboratories for regular college classes. The International Oxygen Co. have removed their executive offices from f15 Broadway, New York City, to their works a t Newark, N . J. Additional buildings have been erected to house the executive offices. The general sales offices will remain at 115 Broadway.
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The Association of Official and Agricultural Chemists met in Washington, Nov. 17th-19th. The following officers were elected for the year: Honorary President-H. W. Wiley, Washington. President-E. F. Ladd, Fargo, N. D. Vice-presidentC. H. Jones, Burlington, Vt. Secretary-C. L. Alsberg, Washington. Additional Members of the Executive Committee-J. D . Turner, Lexington, Ky.; W. F. Hand, Agricultural College, Miss. Mr. C. J. Ramsburg, formerly Assistant Engineer of the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia, is now and Vice-president of the H. Koppers Company of Chicago. Mr. M. D. Malcolmson has accepted a position in the P-esearch Department of Thomas A. Edison at Orange, N. J. Dr. W. D. Coolidge of the General Electric Company Research Laboratory has returned from a trip t o Berlin in connection with the German patents on ductile tungsten. The Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society has appointed the following committee to wait upon the Mayor of Chicago and offer their services, gratis, as a n aid in the solution of all chemical problems relative t o city waste: Prof. Harry McCormack, Professor of Chemistry, Armour Institute, Chairman; Mr. A. Lowenstein, Chief Chemist, Morris& Co.; Dr. J. H. Long, Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University; Dr. Julius Stieglitz, Director of University Laboratories, Chicago University; Mr. William Brady, Chief Chemist, Illinois Steel Co.
BOOK RFVIFWS
Mineral and Aerated Waters. By C. AINSWORTHMITCHELL, B.A. (Oxon) F.I.C. 2 2 7 pages. Illustrated. New York, D. Van Nostrand Co. $3.00. This book, as stated i n t h e preface, is intended t o give an outline of the early methods of making artificial mineral waters and t o trace the gradual evolution of the primitive forms of apparatus first invented into the carbonating plant of the present day. Aside from the historical part there is little of interest t o t h e chemist, with the exception of the chapters on carbon dioxide and radio-activity. The latter chapter (IV) is not only new but very instructive. The author gives tables showing the amount of helium, etc., in a number of the natural mineral waters, also a n illustration and description of the apparatus for measuring the radio-activity of radium and other radio-active bodies, and for the preparation of artificial radio-active mineral waters. Considerable space is devoted t o washing and bottling machinery. The illustrations are good, but of little value to the American manufacturer as only English types are given. The chapter on the Examination of Mineral Waters mentions the metallic contaminations, b u t with the exception of Arsenic gives no directions for detecting them. I n regard t o the Bacterioscopic examination and injurious Fermentatioris he gives considerable information. In this chapter we find rather a surprising statement in regard t o the use of distilled water, i. e., “It by no means folluws t h a t soda water prepared from it is any purer hacteriologically than that prepared from ordinary hard waters. I n fact bacterioscopic examinations of soda water made from distilled water, have, in some cases given worse results than those obtained with soda water made from ordinary tap water.” These conditions may exist in England b u t are not in accord with experiments made in this country. In the preparation of Artificial Mineral Waters no idea is given of the methods in use at the present time. The author makes a good suggestion in regard t o the public advantage of enforcing precautions t o prevent bacterial contamination, and t o ensure the utmost cleanliness in the factory, and states t h a t in any case, a system of inspection of factories
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a t irregular intervals would be a much more efficient safeguard of purity than even a frequent examination of samples bought at random. The Bibliography is very complete, and should prove very useful to readers interested in this subject. A. P. HALLOCK Technical Gas and Fuel Analysis. By ALFRED H. WHITE. 276 pp. Price, $2.00. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York. This book is a very complete treatise covering the subject fully and in a way t h a t should be a great help to any chemist or engineer interested in the sampling and analysis of gases or fuels. The author has freely quoted from other works, and has pointed out the most accurate and practicable method of securing results of sufficient accuracy for all commercial work. He has summarized and discussed the work of committees of the various societies relative t o calorimetry, photometry, coal analysis, etc. The author has laid particular stress upon the importance of sampling both gases and fuel and has pointed out many precautions t h a t are too often overlooked. Several useful tables are included in the appendix. E . G. BAILEY Die Verwendung der seltenen Erden. By C. RICHARDBOHM. 107 pp. I O illustrations. Veit and Company, Leipzig, 1913. This little handbook is a critical review in which this authority on the rare earths has brought together the more common as well as the unusual applications in the sciences and arts of these interesting elements. The review is well done, and is as thorough as the literary work of the author invariably is. The descriptions of the various uses of these earths should prove profitable reading t o the chemist, and particularly t o the research student. N o description is given of the use of the earths in the gas mantle, as t h a t side is discussed by the author in a separate volume. VICTORLENHER
