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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY POSSXBILITIES OF IXDUSTRY
The problen~swhich have been mentioned are those which are intimately connected with the present practical operation of the industry and are, in the writer’s opinion, problems of a character for which a satisfactory solution can be found, In addition, there is an immense field of problems whose solution is more chimerical. We have all heard the petroleum industry compared with the coal-tar industry and the belief that some day there will be a great organic chemistry of the petroleum products, the same as there is a great organic chemistry of the coal-tar products. The budding young organic chemist should be reminded that the reputations of most of the great organic chemists of the last century were based on the solution of problems connected with products from coal tar and that the time will come when some new Baeyer will open up the chemistry of petroleum products. It will probably be many, many years, however, before real progress has been made in systematically ordering and arranging the rea$ions of chemical compounds derived from petroleum. Nevertheless there are certain fields along these lines which appear somewhat less difficult than some of the others and which have great industrial importance. One is the manufacture of resins from petroleum. Fossil resins are rapidly being exhausted. Certain synthetic resins of the type of Bakelite are almost ideally adapted for various industrial uses, but resins of this type are necessarily somewhat high in price and cannot be used for all purposes. The coumarone resins, prepared by polymerization of certain liquid fractions from coal tar, are supplying a certain need for lower priced material, but there is still a big field, es-
Vol. 15, No. 9
pecially in light-colored, durable resins to be prepared from fractions of petroleum. The writer believes that this will be done within the next few years. Another similar field which offers promise is the preparation of true drying oils from petroleum. The drying oils are characterized by containing certain double bonds which in drying absorb oxygen, making the hard elastic film demanded by the paint industry. In other fields of chemistry it is possible to put double bonds into compounds a t will, and there is little doubt that properly directed work could ascertain how to do this in the field of petroleum hydrocarbons. Another field is the manufacture of acids from the higher petroleum hydrocarbons, it being assumed that such acids would be suitable for the manufacture of soaps. Much work has been done on this subject, so far without any commercial success. It is probable that this problem is a much more difficult one than those mentioned previously. The solution of chemical problems of this character will be a benefit, not only to the industry itself, but to the great general public along the lines of conservation. Our descendants will, no doubt, be shocked that the people of this generation burned as fuel oil useful hydrocarbons from which they will know how to manufacture many very valuable and necessary materials; but the use of certain fractions of petroleum for fuel is justifiable a t the present time because u-e know of no better utilization of this material. Workers in pure science can find no field of investigation offering more promise from the purely scientific standpoint, nor from the standpoint of benefiting industry and their fellow men, than in taking up some of these problems of the great petroleum industry.
Radiator for Platinum Crucibles’ By Manuel M. Green IVIASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, C A M B R I D G E ,
MASS.
SHORT time ago while carrying out an investigation for a radiator, claiming that only a small flame is needed to on the determination of potash in acid-insoluble heat the platinum crucible uniformly. While Thornton’s silicates,2 the writer decomposed the samples with apparatus is more desirable than the other, it was deemed hgdrofluoric and perchloric acids, a t first evaporating the advisable to improve on it if possible, and the following solutions of perchloric acid fumes by hand. Owing to the piece of apparatus was constructed to replace the older type. fact that there was h piece of wire gauze, 12.5 cm. square, is bent into the some loss by spatter- capsule shape indicated in the diagram, by simply hammering ing, the type of radi- the center, A , of the gauze, supported on a metal knob, as ator made of sheet iron far in as it will go, then bending back the corners, B, so as to recommended by the provide a means of suspending the apparatus on a ring stand. Geological Survey3 From a second piece of gauze a round piece, C, is cut of such was used. For such a size that when fitted into the first part it is held about a radiator, when a 2 cm. above the center, A . A triangle, D, is next fitted in platinum bottom is not 1.5 cm. above C. The triangle D may be macle froin an used, it is necessary to ordinary chrome1 triangle used in ignitions by cutting off all use the full heat of a the curled part at the corners with the exception of just enough Tirrill burner, or else to keep the triangle together. a MBker burner. As If, now, the crucible containing the solution to be evapthe investigation was orated is placed in the triangle, the bottom of the crucible carried out during the comes about 0.5 em. from the bottom C. A very small A summer months, the flame, the smallest obtainable from a Tirrill burner without discomfort accompanying the continuous use of so large a having it go out, if directed a t point A (the apparatus being flame led to a search for a more comfortable means of get- supported so that the tip of A comes about 3 cm. above the ting the desired result. tip of the flame), causes the solution to evaporate rapidly Thornton4recommends the use of a 100-cc. nickel crucible and smoothly, without spattering, to fumes or drynese as desired. 1 Received August 3, 1923. a THISJOURNAL, 15, 163 (1923). This new type of radiator has the advantage over the older 8 Hillebrand, “Analysis of Silicate and Carbonate Rocks,” U. S. Geol. types in economy of heat, economy and ease of construction, Survey, Bull. 700, p. 33. and elimination of discomfort. 4 THIS JOURNAL, 3, 419 (1911).
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