For example, says Frank, disodiooctadiene reacts with formaldehyde and with ethylene oxide to give mixtures of 10-carbon and 12-carbon glycols. Reaction with oxygen gives 8-carbon glycols. Along a different line, organosodium c o m p o u n d s m a y be used to transmetalate reactive hydrocarbons. Toluene transmetalating to benzylsodium is an example. By condensing with reactants other than carbon dioxide, disodiodiphenylb u t a n e yields a number of derivatives besides diphenyladipic acid. The synthesis, says Frank, can b e further ext e n d e d b y hydrogenating diphenyladipic acid to give dicyclohexyladipic acid—a n e w compound.
Pfizer Scans Fibers Takes option on V - C s V i c a r a ; research b r o a d e n e d a n d expansion continued
C^HAS.
PFIZER
& Co.,
fineo-chernical
and pharmaceutical manufacturers, confirmed last week t h a t it h a d taken t w o major steps that might take it into t h e synthetic fiber manufacturing field. • I t has taken an option t o acquire t h e Vicara synthetic fiber division of Virginia-Carolina Chemical. • Synthetic fibers, including cornderived Vicara fiber, will be subjected to a research program being conducted for Pfizer at t h e Textile Research Institute, Princeton, N. J. It could n o t be learned whether Vicara, a "wool-like" protein fiber which blends readily with other textiles, is t h e objective of t h e n e w Pfizer research. Comment on this was also withheld b y Virginia-Carolina officials at Richmond, Va., w h o otherwise confirmed t h e option and t h e research program. No mention was made of the fiber project a t t h e annual stockholders' meeting of Pfizer last week, b u t president John E. McKeen said t h e company was building "major n e w research and production facilities over the next two or three years." The program will cost a r o u n d $60 million. Of this total the company spent $14.5 million last year, a n d a further expenditure of $20 to $25 million is planned for this year.
"We have n o t curbed our plans for expansion," McKeen declared. " O n the contrary, we are pushing ahead with greater vigor. T h e recession so far has been confined largely to those industries manufacturing heavy g o o d s aircraft, automobiles, steel, machinery, appliance producers, and the like." Pfizer, he said, h a s felt the effects of the downturn only to a modest degree. Reviewing the progress achieved in a n tibiotics and other medicinals, McKeen said Pfizer is n o w staffed a n d equipped to carry out research, development, a n d production in t h e all-important field of biologicals. T h e virus is one of man's worst enemies. T h e best way is to deal with it before i t starts, with vaccines. Pfizer did business last year with 41,000 customers i n the U . S. alone, which placed 504,000 orders, as cornpared with h u t a few hundred customers 1 0 years ago. In each market, McKeen emphasized, competition is keen. In vitamins, company has been faced for a number of years with price d e clines in bulk shipments and with a general weakness in bulk penicillin a n d streptomycin. Sales, however, h a v e continued,, to rise, a n d there are some indications that vitamin prices are leveling off.
Briefs · · · • Philip Morris takes another step toward diversifying, acquires polymer industries of Springdale, Conn. Polymer makes industrial adhesives and textile chemicals a n d intermediates.
Phosphate Makers Slated to Merge A p p r o v a l given t o combine Hooker Electrochemical a n d S h e a Chemical A N O T H E R MERGER of p h o s p h a t e
Hooker has been basic for many years in chlorine, caustic, caustic potash, phenol, a n d formaldehyde. The Niagara Falls producer acquired Durez Plastics and Chemicals, producer of phenolic resins, about three years ago. It entered the field of phosphorus chemistry in 1956 by consolidating with Oldbury Electro-Chemical. This step also strengthened its position in chlorates. According to the present plan, Hooker will be t h e continuing organization and its name will be changed to Hooker Chemical Corp. Shea has four plants—at Columbia, Tenn.; Dallas, Tex.; Jeffersonville, Ind.; and Adams, Mass. In addition to dicalcium phosphate a n d phosphoric acid, Shea's phosphorus output will supply Hooker's operations. Terms of the proposed merger call for issuing 800,576 shares of Hooker common stock in exchange for the presently outstanding 1,401,000 shares of Class A and Class C common stock of Shea Chemical. Another 41,200 shares of Hooker common would be exchanged for t h e 6000 outstanding shares of Shea's $7.00 cumulative preferred stock.
pro-
ducers g o t under way with the a n nouncement t h a t formal agreement to consolidate Hooker Electrochemical and Shea Chemical has been approved by both companies. If given the green light by stockholders, t h e merger will bring together two chemical makers with total assets of $148.4 million a n d sales last year of more than $128 million. Of the latter, Hooker's total was $107.9 million. However, Shea recently stated t h a t its ratio of sales to dollars invested in plant facilities is t h e highest in t h e phosphorus industry. Its growth h a s bordered on t h e phenomenal. In its first year, 1952, Shea's sales w e r e $150,000, but between 1956 and 1 9 5 7 sales were doubled, went from $10.2 million in 1956 to $20.5 million in 1957.
• Lockheed's Georgia division forms an operating branch that will design and make nuclear reactors for industrial heat. Georgia Nuclear Laboratories is name of tht n e w operation. • American W a t e r w a y s Operators Inc. reports that 151 plants along inland waterways have been built or expanded during 1958's first quarter. AWO, which has been tabulating waterside industrial data since 1952, recorded 565 waterside site locations in 1956 a n d 486 in 1957. T h e current recession, A W O says, has made many companies more selective in choice of plant sites, so that waterside rate will continue at a fairly high level. Full impact of recession will probably be felt later this year or in 1959, as building commitments run out and fund programing tightens. • Kennecott Copper curtails its operations further in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, APRIL
2 8,
1958
C&EN
29
