924
ILVD USTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Refrigerants from the Tropics Y O U N G as we are, we can remember the days when sailing vessels carried cargoes of natural ice from Maine to Cuba, and we believe even as far as Calcutta. How times have changed! There is now en route to New York from Mexico one of three vessels, each of which has been equipped with a compartment insulated against heat exchange by 12 inches of cork board to bring solid carbon dioxide to the metropolis for refrigerating purposes. One of the petroleum companies in drilling for oil struck a supply of carbon dioxide, which rushed to the surface a t a pressure of 1000 pounds per square inch, and the present project has for its purpose the exploitation of this natural resource. It is much too early to discuss the economics of this venture. Inasmuch as the gas must be cleaned of its impurities before it can be made into solid carbon dioxide, it is doubtful whether the natural high pressure will be of much advantage, and undoubtedly there have been some nice technical difficulties in the purification of this particular supply of gas. We have yet to learn, too, with what efficiency and what percentage of loss the solid gas has been stowed in the hold, transported, unloaded, and distributed. These are technical details concerning which no information has so far been made available. However, the whole venture is intriguing, The mere thought of preparing a refrigerant in the tropics for shipment into the Temperate Zone is so complete a reversal of the old established practice as to afford another example of how chemistry is helping to remake the world.
Vol. 22, No. 9’
and will be afforded much help in locating his particular niche in a great organization. Officials, through weekly addresses, place emphasis on phases of the company’s affairs which might otherwise be overlooked. This training plan is really one of selective apprenticeship which, through a series of years, should find men fully capable of discharging exacting duties in the lesser as well as in the more important positions of the organization. Not so many years ago young men and women trained themselves and hoped to find a place in which they would fit. A few pointed for work which they knew they wanted, and some were able later to engage in it. Today the exceptional man is sought by the industry, is given an opportunity for specialized training, and is materially assisted in making himself valuable to his employer. It is a good thing for industry, and even better for the well-trained individual.
International Critical Tables E ARE about to see concluded a monumental work which has engaged the active attention of a group of
chemists and physicists and the collaboration of numerous colleagues for almost a decade. When Volume VI1 of International Critical Tables makes its appearance during the year, the curtain will be rung down on what we hope is but the iirst of a series of compilations planned to make immediately available certain products of scientific research to their ultimate consumers. International Critical Tables were undertaken as a National Research Council project to provide an improved LandoltBornstein more readily available to those who have but limited working knowledge of technical German. Originally the plan also called for an edition in English of a work similar NDUSTRIES largely founded on the work of science not to Beilstein, this to be undertaken by our British colleagues, only have made greater progress than those time- but it was later abandoned. The National Research Council honored activities based on experience, but are the first to effort began with the appointment of a committee to secure recognize the necessity for developing trained personnel if they necessary funds, the creation of a board of trustees, later the are to maintain their relative position, let alone make prog- selection of an editor and editorial board, and this was followed by a thorough organization of the work, the results ress. The Eastman Kodak Company is one of those farsighted of which are now well known to many of our readers. It organizations which believes in beginning now to train the has been a big undertaking, whether viewed from the standmen who presently must carry on its activities in different point of the number of scientists cofiperating and the countries places and in different ways. This summer an integrated they represent, the extent of the work, the mass of accumuprogram of employing young men and giving them speciaI- lated information, the number of copies distributed, or ized experience to fit them into specific phases of the organi- the sum of money involved in preparation and publication. zation’s work was undertaken. The initial group incIuded These details may later be available. The total sales have fifty-two young men from different parts of the country. been more than 6600 sets, of whioh approximately 4800 These men had had a technical training and many possessed have gone to the United States, over 3300 to individuals advanced degrees. While no rule has been formulated speci- purchasing, with the remainder taken by companies, libraries, fying that only college graduates are eligible, it is notable that and educational institutions. Canada has required 151 -the broad training which a properly seIected college c o r n sets, Great Britain and Ireland 379, Germany 225, Japan 146, should give is possessed by the men who have been the first and other countries nearly 900. No one looks upon International Critical Tables as a perchosen. Some of the young men fitted by definite training and ex- fect piece of work. There were too many limiting circumperience were placed in particdar subdivisions of the com- stances to permit this, but it has been a highly useful underpany. Others were assigned to production, research labora- taking, which should be regarded as a starting point. It will lose much of its value if not continued. Those who have tories, merchandizing, statistical work, while still othersthe majority of the g r o u p w e r e placed in one of two general been close to the whole enterprise believe that it should be training courses to fit them for posts within the company or reduced to a five-volume set without a strict limit on the perhaps for managerial work in foreign branches. These be- number of pages per volume. These should be revised on a ginners have been given regular duties and definite jobs in the definite schedule, producing a volume biennially, and hence a departments to which assigned, but with the opportunity to complete revision every decade. Such a program would undertake other types of work at intervals during the first allow for proper expansion, for perfection, and for the conmonths of training. They are not merely interested ob- tinual availability of the products of research. Would that servers, but by moving from one department to another a those who support research on a scale that is but to be comcomprehensive conception of the organization may be gained, mended could be made to appreciate the enormously added the individual will have a chance to try himself at many tasks, value that comes from making these results available, and
Fitted b y Experience
I
