Apr., 1918
T H E J O U R N A L O F IAVDUSTRIAL A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
pyrites could not be brought over in adequate quantity to provide sulfuric acid to make them. The greatest pyrites mine in the country had been flooded-as likely as not by one of von Bernstorff’s agents. Without high explosives the allied line would surely have weakened, and owing to the machinations of German agents the manufacture of munitions in this country almost came to a stop. At this point the results of the genius of the American, Herman Frasch, and the altruistic attitude of the great company which he founded came into play. By releasing their vast store of sulfur a t a nomiJal price for the making of munitions the march of Prussian madness was stopped and the awful fate of Belgium and Picardy and Champagne was averted for Brittany and Normandy and even England itself. When we think of the countless thousands of men and women and little children thus saved from the atrocities of the German hordes, we may well be proud that one of our number was of such potent influence as an instrument of mercy!
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Every one of us has his world within himself. What we touch and smell and see and hear will often make it or mar it for us. A kindly glance, the pressure of a hand, a word of encouragement: these things have their moments of fate. We shall now have, thanks to the abundant generosity of Mrs. Frasch, the likeness of our friend and lellow member for companionship. Thanks to the subtle art of Mr. Vos, it speaks. And thanks to his own good fellowship, his integrity of purpose and his resolution for the right, the voice is kindly, full of pleasant memories to those of us who knew him, and full of encouragement to those of us who are young.
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The party then entered the Social Room where the portrait was unveiled by Mrs. Frasch and formally accepted for the club by Vice President Thompson.
PERSONALS Lieut. A. W. Davison has been transferred from Washington to Niagara Falls, New York, where he is supervising chemical plant construction and experimental operation a t the Oldbury Electrochemical Company. Mr. W. S. Allen, for many years chief chemist of the Laurel Hill plant of the General Chemical Company, has been transferred to ATew York. Mr. J. B. Barnett is the new chemist in charge a t the Laboratory. Dr. Paul H. M.-P. Brinton, professor of analytical chemistry in the University of Arizona, has been commissioned Captain in the Ordnance Reserve. Mr. Pope Yeatman, consulting engineer of New York, has been placed in charge of the non-ferrous metals department of the War Industries Board, succeeding Eugene Meyer, Jr. Mr. Nicholas Kozeloff has been appointed bacteriologist of the Louisiana Sugar Station to succeed Mr. W. I,. Owen. The U. S. Bureau of Mines has broadened the scope of its station at Urbana, Ill., to include work in coal and metal mining and the metallurgical industries of the Middle West. The present safety work will be continued and all work will be conducted under a cooperative agreement with the mining department of the University of Illinois. The bureau staff is under the superintendence of E. A. Holbrook, supervising mining engineer and metallurgist. Other members are W. B. Plank, in charge of safety, and I?. K. Ovitz, chemist. M. Henri Jequier, metallurgist of the SociCte Meniere et Metallurgique de Penarroya, and Dr . Auguste Hollard, consulting engineer, are on a visit to this country. The Penarroya Company, which has its headquarters in Paris, and mines and works in Spain, is the largest smelter and refiner of lead in Europe. Dr. Yogoro Kato, professor a t the Tokyo College of Technology and Director of the Nakamura Chemical Research Institute in Tokyo, who is on a professional visit to this country, attended the recent annual meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in New York. The Patent Office Society announces that a composite committee has been created by the National Research Council to make a preliminary study of the problems of the U. S. Patent Office. This committee is understood to comprise the following members: Leo H. Baekeland, Wm. F. Durand, Thos. Ewing, Frederick P. Fish, Robert A. Millikan, E. J. Prindle, Michael I. Pupin and S. W. Stratton. The action of the National Research Council in forming such a committee is rnderstood to be in conformity with the wishes of the Commissioner of Patents J. T. Newton and Secretary of the Interior F. K. Lane. The special committee of the Patent Office Society urges all interested t o forward any patent reform suggestions to Dr. Wm. F. Durand, National Research Council, Washington, D. C. It is not expected that patent reform can claim primary consideration during the continuance of the war, but i t is felt that the time is ripe for at least a study of conditions. Dr. B. Johnsen. formerly of the Forest Laboratories, Montreal, Canada, as chemical engineer in pulp and paper, is now research chemist for the Hammermill Paper Company, Erie, Pa.
Colonel W. R. Lang, professor of chemistry and director of chemical laboratories, University of Toronto, has left for Halifax to take up staff duties in his new appointment in the Halifax Military District, under General F. L. Lessard. The March meeting of the Delaware Section was held on March 8 in Wilmington. Following an informal dinner, Prof. Edward Hart spoke on “The Manufacture of Nitric Acid.” The following officers have been elected: Chairmen, Lammot du Pont; Vice Chairman, J. G. Melendy; Secretary, R. P. Calvert; Treasurer, D. S. Ashbrook; Councillors, C. M. Stine and Firman Thompson. Mr. Henry C. Howard, Jr., treasurer and chief chemist of the Charles A. Newhall Company, Seattle, Washington, has joined the 30th Engineers and is now stationed at Ft. Myer, Va. Mr. Howard has specialized in electrochemistry and has recently developed a process for the manufacturing of potassium perchlorate, the potassium salts being derived from kelp. The process is now being operated on a commercial scale in Seattle. Dr. E. H. Leslie has resigned from his position as chief chemist of the Petroleum Corporation of Los Angeles and has assumed new duties as technical adviser to the Sales Department of the U. S. Industrial Alcohol Company and the U. S. Industrial Chemical Company. He will be located in their main offices at 27 William Street, New York City. Mr. John Clifford English, well known in Philadelphia and New York as a chemist, physicist and expert in acoustics, died suddenly a t San Antonio, Texas, where he had gone to regain his health. Dr. S. A. Mahood, formerly instructor in organic chemistry a t Cornell University, is now research chemist in the U. S. Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin. Mr. W. H. Whitcomb, formerly professor of chemistry at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, is now with the United States Rubber Company engaged in laboratory development work. Mr. T. I?. Chin, of Pekin, China, principal technical expert of the Chinese Ministry of War, is in this country with the Chinese mission to make purchases for the outfitting of an extensive chemical laboratory a t Pekin for his government. Mr. V. T.Stewart has been given charge of the new laboratory a t Silver Lake, N. J., which will serve all the plants of Thos. A. Edison located a t that point. He was previously engaged in research work on primary batteries for one of these plants. Mr. Frank L. McCartney, formerly with Sharp and Dohme, but during the past two years manager of the Albodon Company, has been appointed Captain, Sanitary Corps, National Army, and will be stationed a t the Medical Supply Depot, New York City. He is ex-chairman of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, Drug Trade Section, and is president of the New York Branch of the American Pharmaceutical Association. He has been granted leave of absence by the Albodon Company for the duration of the war. Dr. W. F. Faragher has resigned his position as research chemist for the Alden Speare’s Sons Co. to become senior fellow a t the Mellon Institute of Pittsburgh.
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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
Dr. Fred W. Upson, for the past four years professor of agricultural chemistry in the Nebraska College of Agriculture, will on June I become head of the department of chemistry in the University of Nebraska. A chemical laboratory which is modern in every respect will be ready for occupancy a t that time. The work of the departments of chemistry will be combined under the direction of Dr. Upson. Dr. George L. Clark, who left a professorship a t the University of Arizona to take the Ph.D. a t the University of Chicago in January 1918, is engaged in research a t the American University Experiment Station, Washington, D. C. Prof. D. M. Folsom, of the department of mineralogy of Stanford University, has been appointed Fuel Administrator of the Western States. His jurisdiction will cover Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, California and Alaska. Mr. Sydney J. Jennings, vice president of the U. S. Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, has been elected president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers to succeed Philip M. Moore, of St. Louis. Prof. G. H. Clevenger has resigned as research professor of metallurgy at Stanford University and is now engaged in directing cooperative experimental work which is being done by the United States Bureau of Mines, Netherlands East Indies Government, Research Corporation of New York, and others. Mr. Arthur F. Brown, formerly with Swan-Meyers Company, is now located with the Griswold Worsted Company, Darby, Pa. Dr. John Johnston has been appointed Secretary of the National Research Council. Dr. Johnston will devote his activities largely to the development of an industrial research section, the purpose of which is to assist in the organization of research by industries, a work similar to that now being carried out under government auspices in Great Britain and some of the British Dominions by the committee of the Privy Council for scientific and industrial research. Word was received late in February announcing the death of Thomas Tyrer, one of England’s most prominent pharmaceutical chemists, a t the age of seventy-six. He was one of the patriarchs of the Society of Chemical Industry, at one time its president, and at the time of his death was Hon. Treasurer of that organization. He was a fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, of the Chemical Society and of the Statistical Society. He served a5 president of the British Pharmaceutical Conference, with which body he was closely identified throughout his life. Mr. Tyrer was well known in the United States and was a member of the American Chemical Society. His last visit to this country was in 1895. I t was as a result of his unremitting labors that alcohol for use in the arts became tax-free in the British Empire. Major Samuel C. Prescott, of the Sanitary Corps, National Army, who is professor of biology a t the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is about to make an extended tour through the cantonments of the South and West. Professor Elmer P. Kohler, of the chemistry department of Harvard University, has been called to Washington, D. C. He will be stationed a t the American University Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines as assistant to the Director in charge of research problems. Professor Kohler’s work a t Cambridge will be carried on by Professor Forris J. Moore, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and by Dr. G. Albert Hill, of the Harvard chemical department. As a consequence of Professor Kohler’s call the Harvard University detachment of the Chemical Service Corps has been transferred to Washington. Included in the detachment are the following members of the Northeastern Section: Lieut. Lee I. Smith, Sergeant Roy I,. Ginter and Private Alexander D. MacDonald. Dr. William M. Burton has been awarded the 1918 Willard Gibbs gold medal by the ChicagoSection of the A. C. S. Dr. Burton was born in Cleveland, Ohio, November 17, 1865, and received his early education in the public schools of that city. In 1886 he was graduated from Western Reserve University with the degree of A.B. He then went to Johns Hopkins where he took his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1889. Dr. Burton then entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio as chemist. I n 1890 he went to the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, where he has been successively chemist, assistant superintendent and general superintendent of the company’s refinery at Whiting, Ind., and now is vice president of the company, in charge of all manufacturing activities. I n 1913 Dr. Burton brought out a practical pressure still process for converting high boiling point products of petroleum into products of low boiling point, thereby largely increasing the supply of gasoline and other naphtha products.
Vol.
IO,
So. 4
Lieut. Ellery K. Files of the Gas Defense Service has been transferred from Washington to be instructor of the National Army camp at Yaphank, L. I. Mr. James Brown, formerly professor of chemistry a t Butler College, has entered the commercial field and is now located in New York City. Mr. Grover €3. Purkey, assistant foreman in the chemical department of Eli Lilly & Company, died February 2. IliIr. Purkey was born a t Morocco, Indiana, and was a graduate of Purdue University. Dr. Martha Tracy, of the Philadelphia Section, has been appointed Dean of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. The Bureau of Standards has announced the appointment of Mr. Samuel S. Wyer, a consulting engineer of Columbus, Ohio, and Mr. Willard F. Hine, chief gas engineer of the Public Service Commission of the First District, New York State, as consulting engineers on the staff of the Bureau of Standards. These engineers will assist the Bureau in conferences and special investigations from time to time in order that the Bureau’s regular staff may be augmented for particular and important work. These two appointments are the first which have been made by the Bureau under its new program of appointing permanent specialists in different fields to assist it as advisers and consultants in its investigations, Dr. Francis G. Benedict, director of the nutrition laboratory of the Carnegie Institute, BroDkline, Mass., has received a gold medal from the National Institute of Social Sciences, in recognition of his “notable service to mankind.” The medal was presented a t the recent fif*h annual dinner of the National Institute in New York City. Dr. Arthur H. Elliott, emeritus chief chemist of the New York Consolidated Gas Company and emeritus professor of chemistry and physics in the College of Pharmacy, died on March 2 , a t the age of seventy years. Mr. H. E. Ives, of the United GasLmprovement Company of Philadelphia, Pa., has entered the Science and Research Division of the Signal Corps, and may be reached at 1023 Sixteenth Street, Washington, D. C. Lieut. Col. Allerton S. Cushman, U. S. A,, now connected with the Frankford Arsenal, will speak before the Philadelphia Section of the A. C. S. on “Chemistry and Its Applications to the Manufacture of Military Primers” on April 18, 1918. Dr. Charles L. Reese, of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., will deliver an illustrated lecture on “Explosives” before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, on April 4. Mr. Samuel Batterman has entered the government service. He is in the Division of Forestry. Mr. A. P. Peterson, formerly with the Western Electric Co., is now Second Lieutenant, U. S. R., 26th infantry, A . E. F. Dr. Julius Stieglitz, Mr. A. V. H. Mory and Mr. William Hoskins were the delegates of the A. C. S.to the Congress of National Service, which was held in Chicago, February PI, 2 2 and 23. The Congress was under the auspices of the National Security League. Lieut. Harold J. Brownlee, Company C, 110th Regular Engineers, has been promoted to Acting Captain. He is located at Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, Okla. The National Aniline and Chemical Company held its annual meeting on February 18. Stockholders voted to increase the number of directors and the following names were added to the Board: I,. C. Jones, Clinton S. Lutkins, R. C. Taggesell and Orlando F. Weber. The other directors re-elected are J. F. Schoellkopf, J. F. Schoellkopf, Jr., C. P. Hugo Schoellkopf of the Schoellkopf Aniline and Chemical Works, Inc. ; W. Beckers, Eugene Meyer, Jr., Charles J. Thurnauer, of the W. Beckers Aniline and Chemical Works, Inc.; I. F. Stone of the National Aniline and Chemical Company; Henry Wigglesworth, J. M. Goetchius of the General Chemical Company; T. M. Rianhard, W. H McIllravy of the Barrett Company; H. H. S. Handy and E. L. Pierce of the Semet-Solvay Company. At the adjourned meeting of the board of directors held on March 12, the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President and Chairman of the Board, William J. Matheson; Vice Presidents, William Beckers, Robert Alfred Shaw, I. F. Stone and C. L. Jones; Treasurer, Henry I. Moody; Assistant Treasurers, G. W. Yates and T. S. Baines; Secretary, William T. Miller; Assistant Secretary, W. E. Rowley; Chairman of the Executive Committee, Henry Wigglesworth.
