WILLIAM S. HILL Member, Examining Corps, United States Patent Ofice Method of Making Mirrors. No. 2,363,354. William Peacock, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, assignor to Lihbey-Owens-Ford. The method of forming silver mirrors by mixing the atomized vapors of silver and reducing solutions as they are applied to the glass base has had considerable commercial success. The inventor of this well-known process now adds the improvement of using a neutral reducing solution in the form of glyoxal. A preferred formula of silvering solution is 3 oz. of silver nitrate and 2 to 2.5 oz. of ammonium hydroxide in a gallon of water. This is designated solution A. Solution B is the reducing solution prepared by dissolving 2 oz. of glyoxal in a gallon of water. Equal quantities of solutions A and B are simultaneously atomized and sprayed upon the surface to he coated in a manner such that the separate sprays converge and mix very close to the surface being dlvered. The usual reduction reaction occurs and a film of silver is deposited. It is preferred that the sprayed surface be inclined a t an angle so that any water which forms is washed down and removed by the force of the spray. Solvent Extraction. No. 2,363,298. Armand J. de Rosset, Chicago, Illinois, assignor to Universal Oil Products Company, Chicago, Illinois. It is often desirable to separate from a composite feed gaseous paraffins and gaseous olefins of the same number of carbon atoms, since there ?re a great many processes in which a gas predominantly olefinic or paraffinic in character is required. For example, in the catalytic sulfuric acid alkylation process in which isobutane is alkylated by butylenes to form octanes, itis desirable that the feed gas to the process possess a relatively high ratio of isobutane to olefin. The invention centers in the discovery that aliphatic amino alcohols exhibit a far greater solubility for the normally gasous olefins than for the normally gaseous paraffins. In general, the amino alcohols which are employed in this process are characterized by having a t least one amino group and a t least one hydroxyl group, each attached to the aliphatic structure. Examples are methanol amine (HO-CH2-NHz), ethyl ethanol amine (CHaTCH2-NH-CH-CHa-OH), and many others which fall within this designation.
' Copies of any of the patents, digests of which appear in this column, can be obtained by sending 10 cents in coin (no stamps) to The United States Patent Office. Washington, D. C., as can copies of almost all U. S. patents providing they are still in print. Books of coupons can also he purchased from the Patent Office for this purpose. They are very convenient if patents are ordered often. The patents selected for digesting and publishing in this column are selected from the regular weekly issue of from five t o six hundred and are chosen because they are thought to be of especial interest t o educators.
One method of operation is to pass the gaseous hydrocarbon mixture upward through an absorber countercurrently to the solvent, the lean gas or raffinate be! ing withdrawn from the top of the absorber and the rich liquid or extract being drawn off a t the bottom. Thereafter the extract may he heated and flashed or treated in any other suitable manner to separate the desired concentrated olefinic fraction from the solvent. The solvent may then he returned to the top of the absorber to complete the cycle. Treatment of Plants. No. 2,363,325. Albert E. Hitchcock et al., Yonkers, New York, assignors to Boyce-Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Inc. Reference is made to a previous patent nmnbered 2,341,867, a condensation of which appeared in this column, THIS JOURNAL, May, 1944, page 228. Their previous patent was related to the discovery that certain plant hormones when applied to plant buds retarded their growth and prevented too early blossoming, with its attendant dangers of having most of the buds killed by late frosts. Some of the substances found most effective were naphthalene substitution products of acetic acid such a s naphthalene acetic acid, naphthoxyacetic acid, and the alkali metal salts and lower alcohol esters thereof. The present patent deals with the eftect of time of treatment on the growth-retarding effect. It has been found that when the buds are sprayed in early summer smaller amounts of hormone are needed than when treatment is made in the autumn. The optimum time of treatment for most plants was found to be around August. The patent also describes how different branches of the same tree may be treated to stagger the bud development either for ornamental effect or for more practical purposes such as in growing mangoes and avocadoes. Treatment of a large number of diierent kinds of fruit trees is related to results of treatment of their buds with potassium alpha-naphthaleneacetate, using Aerosol OT as a spreader. Method of Beautifying and Protecting Surfaces of Aluminum and Aluminum Alloys. No. 2,363,339. George Kraft, Englewood, New Jersey, and Nathan L. Solomon, Mount Vernon, New York. Although oxygen does not deteridrate aluminum surfaces as it does ordinary iron and steel, still it forms an adherent oxide coating which tends to dull the surface. For this reason aluminum surfaces do not appear bright and lustrous like untarnished silver or stainless steel. This patent describes a simple method of providing aluminum with a pearly and iridescent finish which remains permanently bright and lustrous.
The process is electrolytic, the aluminum being made provides a more certain test for diabetes than does testthe anode and either carbon or copper the cathode. ing for sugar in urine. Characterized by its simplicity the test makes use of The electrolyte is a 5 to 40 per cent solution of hydrofluosilicic acid (H2SiFB)in water. The aluminum is a powder.made u.p preferably in the following formula: first cleaned, as by immersing in a bath of sodium hySodium carbonate (anhydrous granular). ... .. ., 4 9 3 percent droxide (4 oz. of NaOH per gal. of water) held a t 160°F. Ammonium sulfate (anhydrous granular). . ... . , 4 9 5 per cent Sodium nitroprusside (anhydrous powder). .... . 1.0 per cent and followed by dipping in a 50 per cent solution of nitric acid. The work is then rinsed and ready for platTo use the reagent in making a quantitative test for* ing. A potential of about 15 volts is used with a curacetone, 0.2 g. of the powder is placed in a small mound rent density of 10 amps. persq. ft. If a copper cathodeis on white paper. On this mound is deposited one drop of used the area of the copper should be about three times urine from a dropper which gives drops of 0.05 ml. each. the area of the work. The temperature of the electroA color change occurs which ranges from light green to lyte is kept a t about 65'F. and plating time is one to dark purple-blue depending upon the amount of acethree rhitiutes. tone present. Comparison is made with a color chart The work mav then be dried bv beine d i n ~ e din hot within one minute, since the color deepens upon standwater and then in sawdust. although the article mav ing. also be air dried. The aluminum comes out of the The mechanism of the test reaction is thought to be plating tank with a lustrous pearly iridescent coating as follows: When the drop of urine moistens the rewhich needs no further polishing. To produce colored agent, the sodium carbonate and ammonium sulfate iridescent effects the plated aluminum may be dipped react to produce ammonium carbonate, which in turn in an aniline dye. hydrolyzes to produce ammonia and carbon dioxide. In the presence of ammonia, acetone reacts with sodium Rubberlike Interpolymers and Preparation of Same. nitroprusside, producing a colored compound of as yet No. 2,364,034. Oskar Huppert, Newark, New (according to the patentee) unknown composition. Jersey. The product whose preparation is described in this Method for Chemical Demineralization of Sea Water. No. 2,363,020. Clair R. Spealman, United States patent is designed for use as a thermoplastic molding Navy. material or bonding agent in laminated materials, and as an ingredient of lacquer emulsions, spirit varnishes, Since the beginning of the present war the lives of distempers, and textile auxiliaries. It is also intended thousands of shipwrecked sailors and airmen could as a starting material for wool-like protein fibers. have been saved if they had had a means a t hand for The interpolymers here described are a rather un- converting sea water into palatable drinking water. usual type of synthetic rubber since they are made from The present patented process may not be the final ana protein derivative. Pseudo-thiohydantoin zein is swer to the problem but i t offersinteresting possibilities. first obtained by reacting 1000 parts of zein, 25 parts of As an example of the process, to about 1 liter of sea monochloroacetic acid, and 19 parts of ammonium sul- water are added 55.6 g. of silver oxide. This precipifocyanide, all dissolved in phenol and heated on a tates chloride ion as silver chloride and also removes water bath. Water is finally removed by heating in a magnesium and cilcium ions as insoluble oxides, hyvacuum. Hydroxybenzyl alcohols are then prepared droxides, and carbonates. The high-school chemistty by reacting phenol and formaldehyde and the zein de- student will note these simple reactions with which he is rivative and the alcohols are then polymerized together familiar. to form the rubberlike substances.
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Reagent for Testing for Acetone. No. 2,362,478. Alexander Galat, New York City, assignor to the Denver Chemical Manufacturing Company.
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Although this patent provides a process which has A suitable stoppered container is provided. The congeneral laboratory utility it has a specific use in the tainer with the liter of water and the silver oxide is medical field In recent years there his been a tend- shaken frequently for about 30 minutes and then filency to regard the presence of acetone bodies in the tered into a suitable second container. -This yields urine of a diabetic patient as even more significant about 930 ml. of water to which is added 63.9 g. of uric than tHe presence of sugar. The formation of aeetone acid. The second container must be shaken a t intervals in the body and its presence in the urine result from in- for about one hour. This precipitates the troublesome complete oxidation of the fatty acids. The oxidation of sodium ion as insoluble sodium urate. The quantity of chemicals illustrated yields about fatty acids requires a normal functioning of carbohydrate metabolism, and when this is disturbed, fatty 750 ml. of palatable drinking water which means a acids give rise to acetone bodies. The detection of ace- qnantity of water eqnal to 10 times the volume of the tone in the urine is therefore diagnostically important chemicals that must be carried. Theoretically the volas it indicates a deficient carbohydrate metabolism and ume should be 17 to 1.
