October, 1928
INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
mi& The nlat,r has evident.lv a fine a a i n structure.
The
with the aluminum. Figure 2 shows a cross section of the aluminum plate on copper after the plate has been thoroughly buffed. It should be noticed that the plate pulled away from the surface of the copper, but. stayed intact. I n Figure 3 is r e produced t h e x-ray diffraction pattern of the aluminum layer in the underlying copper electrode. I n o r d e r to obtain the diffraction lines characteristic of aluminum alone, the specimen was adjusted so that a beam of x-rays defined by pinholes inpinged at a small grazing angle of i n c i d e n c e uvon the Fisure 3-X-Ray DiEracflon Patfern uf of tho alumiPlate by Surface Reeecrlon Method num. Under t h e s e conditions the beam penetrated only the aluminum, since t,he pattern is free from effects due to the rolled copper sheet, The pattern demonstrates the followingfacts: I-The
half rings correspond to the lattice of pure aluminum.
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face-centercd cubic. with a unit crystal cell 4.04 X 10-8 M. on
metals under certain conditions. This &ifies.that’the aluminum film is free from any directional properties and is undouhtediy closely adherent. 3-The grain size is uniform and within thc ranee of IO-’ to 10-6cm.
It has heen suggested t,hat. this general method of electroplating might be utilized in atomic weight investigations of metals because of the purity of the product as indicated by the x-ray diffraction pattern. Possibilities of Method
It is believed that this general type of elcctroplating will eventually solve the problem, not only of electroplating aluminun1 but of many other metals which were thought to be impossible to deposit as an electroplate. The suhstit,ution of this method for the common water-solution method will probably mean in certain cases an increase in efficiency of operation and the production of a superior plate. In order to develop these ideas, the authors will attempt electroplating of tit,anium, tungsten, iron, and chromium. Acknowledgment
The authors wish to express their appreciation to T. E. Phipps for his valuahle ideas, to S. K. Colby, president of the American Magnesium Company, for the photomicrographs, and to G. I,. Clark for the x-ray photograph.
Research and Profits’ Carl S. Miner Tar: M ~ N BLasonrronrlrs, R 9 SOUTHCI.INTON Sr.. Ciocrao. ILL.
ESEARCH is a highly controversial word. Both its meaning and its pronunciation might easily he discussed a t great length, but probably with event,ual agreement as to both. Profits are easier to define hut this discussion is to be limited to the consideration of the strictly monetary profits that the business man thinks and speaks of, ignoring such profits as those inherent in any increment of human knowledge. As to research, only industrial research-that which is supported by industry and is deliberat.ely and exclusively devoted to the interests of industry-will be considered here. It will be obvious that many statements must he equally true as regards piire science research. At a meeting of the Council of the AMERICAN CIBXICAL SOCIETY several years ago, when the subject of corporation support of pure science research was under consideration, an official of a company which then support.ed a large amount of such research challenged the group to tell him how his corporation could legally spend money for such a purpose. “Ofcourse we are doing it,” he said in suhstance, “but if anyone ever questioned the legality of the practice, I don’t believe we could possibly defend it.” I believe dhat he was right and I’m not sure but that he might truthfully have said also that they had no moral right as a corporation to support such research. The officers of a corporation exercise their powers as trustees of the stockholders, their
Et
,
preoentedbe,ore the Midwerf Regional Chemical Soriety, Miont~poiia.Minn.. June 7 f~ 9.
of the Amcticsn
1928.
duty being to make the corporation produce as large a profit as possible by legal and honorable means. The only basis on which they properly can support research therefore is on the hasis of dividends. If they are thoroughly c o n i b e d that the research contemplated ultimately will return to the stockholders a reasonable profit on the necessary investment, then and then only are they justified in authorizing the expenditure. They must consider a research undertaking in the same light that they do any other commercial project and make their decision on the basis of prospective profits. Speaking accurately, these statements apply only to corporations, but in practice all business organizations actually do make their decisions on the same strictly financia1 basis. The present attitude of business toward research is decidedly friendly. I n fact, research is as popular with industry as vitamins are with the general public and just ahout as well understood. Both are being given an enthusiastic trial. If the public finds that by increasing the proportion of the mysterious A B C D E’s in the diet, the public liealt,h is actually improved, they will probably come to b e lieve in vitamins. They feel now that all this scientific talk may be true but they don’t know. They are, however, rather anxious to be convinced. The industrialists feel much the same way about research. The war advertised its value far beyond the wildest d r e a m of its most enthusiastic partisans, and straightway research became fashionable in business circles. Large numbers feel
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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
that research is the sure salvation of their economic souls. Many organizations have sampled this new-style business accessory and a few of them have made it a permanent part of their equipment. Another small group have tried it, convinced themselves that for them it has no value, and put the idea, as they believe, definitely and finally into the discard. With industry in general, however, research is on trial and the results of the near future will determine in a large measure the speed with which industry generally will adopt research. It is perhaps unnecessary to repeat that the success of such research will be measured by the magnitude of the accruing profits. No doubt chemists will agree that industrial research is desirable from the standpoint both of the industrialist and the scientist and, since the production of dividends is essential to its success, we properly may consider how such work may be made to yield profits. We have the advantage of numerous demonstrations that the thing can be done, and from them we should be able to deduce, a t least roughly, certain fundamental principles. Choice of Problem
I n order to make research yield dividends it is necessary to recognize limitations in the choice of a problem, and select one which offers reasonable probability of solution and from the solution of which profits can be expected. Axiomatic as this seems, it is a rule which appears to be frequently violated in the selection of industrial research problems. Much too often work on a given problem is undertaken, merely because some financial interest believes its solution will be profitable and is willing to finance the expense of an effort to solve it. We must not accept problems on such a basis alone. Those who are handling industrial research during the present crucial period will be primarily responsible for the rate of growth of the movement. If through intelligent selection of problems and firm refusal to undertake those that seem uncertain or impossible of solution, there is brought about a condition where a substantial percentage of the problems undertaken are profitably solved, we shall have done the greatest thing possible to advance the cause of this class of research. A venal attitude on the part of research workers, which will permit them to accept money for work on problems when they know the chance of success is slight, can do more harm, especially now when industry is in a receptive mood, than would a complete cessation of all research activites in the industrial field. A certain number of our colleagues honestly believe that an able and vigorous attack on practically any important problem connected with almost any industry is worth while in the same way as is an attack on practically any problem of pure science. This may be true theoretically, but if such a system were generally followed in the industrial field it would unquestionably result in the prompt extinction of this particular species of research. This does not mean that the scientific man should take a dogmatic attitude in regard to the problems suggested by industry. All too frequently our scientists have in the past answered the lay world’s questions as to why certain things were true by blandly asserting that those things were not true, and therefore it obviously was not worth while t o attempt to explain them. Doctor Haines, the toxicologist, used to tell a story that is pertinent. He was a very careful witness, what he knew he testified to, and as for matters that he did not know to be absolutely untrue, no matter how foolish they sounded, he could nDt be led into denying their possibility. He had his lesson early, When he was a young interne freshly graduated, there was an old doctor on the hospital staff who ex-
Vol. 20, No. 10
cited the derision of his highly scientific young colleagues by insisting that a particularly bright red flannel should be used to bandage rheumatic joints. Of course the younger men all knew that was silly and said so, for no sane man could believe that the color of the flannel had anything to do with its efficacy as a bandage. “But” said Doctor Haines, “years later I learned the reason for this seemingly foolish prejudice when I found that only a pure woolen fabric could be dyed that particularly bright red.” So by using this bright red flannel the old doctor was certain, though he didn’t know the hows or whys, of getting a pure wool bandage. Many chemists remember with chagrin the days when they pooh-poohed the idea of the alleged efficacy of cod-liver oil simply because chemistry couldn’t tell any reason why it should be different from other oils. Now when one has advised against undertaking industrial problems unless there is a fair chance of solving them and has further simplified the problem by issuing a warning against trusting his own adverse judgment too far, he has not been very helpful. However, there is a definite rule, which, although not infallible, may be suggested as a guide in decision8 of this sort. Consider yourself a stockholder of the corporation, or better still the sole owner of it, and then decide whether you would spend the corporation’s money on the research in question. Obviously, the final decision should be made by those p r o p erly fitted to have a judgment or the rule is worthless. Researches are normally most successful when they are undertaken after consult,ation with scientific men who know the industry thoroughly and who know the science thoroughly, and these, of course, need not necessarily be the same men. Otherwise, despite the best intentions, mistakes are almost certain to be made in the selection of problems. Choice of Workers
Once the problem is selected the question of the choice of the worker or workers who are to undertake its solution becomes paramount. The essential qualifications of the industrial research chemist are fundamentally the same as for a successful research worker in pure science. Certain phases of the specific question may, however, be worthy of mention. The average man trained in science to a point where he is a properly qualified candidate for a research position is an industrious and ambitious worker. His training in theory is excellent on the whole and as complete probably as is feasible in the time devoted to it. The greatest trouble is in finding men who are able to do any independent thinking whatsoever. This is a statement of experience and perhaps a criticism of our present system of education. I have a suspicion as to one, probably superficial, contributory cause of this failure to produce independent thinkers. Graduate students so often work on problems closely allied to the specialty of the man with whom they are doing their research that his interest in and knowledge of the problem leads involuntarily to the substitution of his initiative for that of the student. After all, the purpose of the graduate school is to train men rather than to produce papers. Yet this may not be an effec- ’ tive factor. Perhaps neither this nor any other criticism has any value. It may after all be quite impossible to teach people to think, but at least it is worth trying since if they are to solve the problems of science they must somehow, somewhere, learn to do their own thinking. It seems to many of us who are connected with industrial chemistry that there occasionally is discernible in the attitude of newly graduated chemists a certain condescension toward the industrial branch of the science. Nothing should be done that will tend to lessen the students’ veneration for the pure science of chemistry as taught and practiced in the uni-
October: 1928
I-VD USTRIAL A S D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
versities, but a conscious effort should be made to generate in them a reasonable degree of respect for that portion of the science which has to do primarily with immediate benefits to humanity. Many of them will enter the industrial field and if they are not taught to honor the work they are going to do. they will never be happy or successful in it. Supervision
There are, however, other factors vital to profitable industrial research. The selection of problem and personnel is only a beginning. The research must be carried out successfully and its results must then be put into practice profitably in the industry. S n essential to success is adequate supervision, since in very few cases is there only one worker involved. This involves planning the attack on the problem and keeping it moving along correct lines until the problem is solved. Incidentally, it involves many other things-one of the most important of which is that mysterious thing which it is fashionable to refer to as “morale.” As it relates to research workers, it may perhaps be summed in the injunction to keep them happy. To do successful research it is essential that the worker shall expend a maximum of his available energy in the attack on his problem and a minimum on matters not essential to it. It is therefore vital to protect him from unnecessary worry-financial, domestic, or otherwise. The successful director of research must recognize that the facts that research worker A’s three children are all having whooping cough or that a payment on his home is coming due a t the same time as the insurance bills are matters vital to the progress of A’s work, and therefore the consideration of such problems is an important one of the many duties of the director’s job. Cooperation between Departments
Even after the completion of the strictly scientific phases of the research there still remains much to be accomplished before the work can be made to yield a profit to the industry, and it is in this no man’s land, where cooperation between the research, production, sales, and legal, in fact all departments of the business is so necessary, that the ultimate results are determined. Here the corporation inexperienced in research is most likely to meet failure in its initial research efforts. It is difficult to lay down rules, but certainly the
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importance of this phase of the development must be borne in mind and a suitable appropriation of brains, time, and money made for this very vital part of the research program. Patent Department
Another part of the industrial research organization which is highly essential to the production of profits is the patent department. It is very frequently through patent protection that profits from the research department are limited to the corporation supporting the work and not contributed to the whole industry. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the connection between the patent department-the term is used broadly to cover whatever agency is responsible for decisions on patent matters-and the research department be very close, normally involving the presence a t the research conferences of some one with a knowledge of patents and capable of detecting patentable develop ments or ideas, since it will be obvious that a research policy requently may be deter mined by the patent situations, for example, in the case of an adverse decision on the question of taking up a certain line of work because the number and nature of the patents suggests the impossibility of developing anything that can be monopolized, or the case of patenting some seemingly simple feature of a development which may seem to its originator unpatentable or not worth patenting. Conclusion
Just a word in defense of profits as a criterion of successful industrial research. Industrial research is the effort to discover something that the public or humanity-to use a word which means much the same but sounds quite differentwants, and profits are the measure of the humanity’s opinion of the benefits derived from that effort. Perhaps after all, this is frequently a truer measure of values than we chemists are willing to admit. It may be that the work done under the pressure of the dividend-hungry business world is really more worth while than we think. At least since it is becoming more and more necessary to obtain from business men financial support for our rapidly expanding program of pure science research, is it not worth while for us to advertise the value of science to those same business men by showing them its utility in the form they can best understand, profitproducing research?
Treatment of Boiler Feed Waters of Low Incrustant Content’ S. C. Johnson2 WATER SUPPLY
DEPARTMENT, CHESAPEAKE A N D
A
LTHOUGH the saving resulting from the improvement of boiler feed water by proper treatment has been universally recognized for many gears, considerable progress is yet to be made before the law of diminishing returns starts functioning. American railways were of necessity early in opening the productive field of water treatment, but statistics show that only 20 per cent of the 500 billion gallons used annually by railroads is treated. Fully 80 per cent could be treated to advantage and an annual and unnecessary loss of ~100,000,000eliminated thereby. Per1 Presented before the Division of Water, Sewage, and Sanitation at the 75th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, St. Louis, Mo., April 16 to.19, 1926. 4 Chief chemist.
O H I O RAILvJAY.
HUNTINGTON, W.VA.
haps similarly unfavorable water conditions exist among many other industries. The development of water treatment has received most attention in the Middle West, where the quality of natural water is particularly objectionable, but experience in other sections of the country has shown that it is very costly to utilize water for boiler feed purposes with even relatively low incrusting solid content, This classification is intended to include waters ranging in hardness from 34 to 86 p. p. m. (2 to 5 grains per U. S. gallon), in alkalinity from 17 to 68 p. p. m. (1 to 4 grains), and with dissolved solids not exceeding 170 p. p. m. (10 grains). A large number of natural waters and many public supplies, even after modification by
