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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
Research in Refractories
in suspension. The problem was solved, but rather than pay a reasonable fee the client preferred to have this chemist manufacture the polish for him. I n the end the chemist realized forty times the fee. It pays to consult experienced chemists.
HE Refractories Manufacturers’ Association has undertaken to obtain from the industry exact information with regard to furnace conditions which the material must encounter in actual service. Research in refractories as an activity of this association has been in progress for some time, but has been largely confined to the laboratory. It now becomes important to obtain the greatest possible amount of data from the industries where rapidly changing conditions have made it necessary for refractories to meet a correspondingly extensive change in service requirements. While bricks of various characteristics have been developed, there has not been the coordination between all factors that can be obtained when the data from research are translated into works practice, and a study of furnace conditions is made with sufficient breadth, not only to understand the causes of many troublesome failures, but from a knowledge of conditions to predict service and avoid expense, disappointment, and dissatisfaction. The questionnaire that is being distributed deserves thoughtful response. If cooperation is widely obtained, every consumer of refractory brick will undoubtedly derive benefit from the progress reports for the various industries, which are to be issued at intervals during the two years required for the survey.
Earning Power of Research T IS refreshing to find in a daily paper a statement by the I“Undoubtedly vice president of a great motor-vehicles corporation that the improvement of quality in automobiles has been due to the development and work of laboratories more than to any other single factor. Laboratories have been an influence, not only in determining qualities of materials, but they have been potent in guiding the design of cars as well. Every idea bearing on the service rendered by the automobile to its owner has first been subjected to the severest kind of tests in the laboratories and on the roads. I n no industry have laboratories played a more practical and vital part than in the automobile industry. And in but few industries indeed has their influence been anywhere near so great.” This corporation employs one hundred twenty-five skilled men in its various laboratories, including chemical laboratories, and considers it a practical investment. It feels, and properly so, that it might be difficult to uphold a reputation built through many years of service to the public without that safeguard to quality in which the laboratory plays a vital part every day in the year. At one of the early chemical expositions, the American Electrochemical Society displayed the chassis of an automobile and indicated by placards and ribbons the parts for which electrochemistry was responsible. A little thought will suggest the multitudinous ways in which chemical research plays a part in the modern motor vehicle. The chemist needs no better example than the automobile to illustrate the practical worth of research. The duplication of proprietary compounds affords another striking example of what the chemist can do for industry. A liquid metal polish containing iron oxide owed part of its popularity to the fact that this iron remained in @uspension in the liquid. Analysis showed calcium to be present, but the analyst interpreted it as an impurity in the iron oxide. Then a more experienced chemist suggested that the lime might have been added to form a lime soap with the oils present, and that it was this lime soap which tended to keep the iron
Vol. 15, No. 2
Ethics ,
Y VOTE of the Council, the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SoCIETY some years ago decided not to formulate a code of ethics. We have no quarrel with that decision, but it has been our experience that many groups of men find it advantageous to lay down a code of ethics for the salutary effect on some members of the organization and also on the public. The latest of the great, technical societies to adopt such a code is the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, with a membership of approximately twenty thousand. It is believed that this code will be of great assistance to those employing or having business relations with engineers. There is much in the code adopted which applies to other professions and it is quoted here for the benefit of chemists: 1-The engineer will carry on his professional work in a spirit of fairness to employees and contractors, fidelity to clients and employers, loyalty to his country, and devotion to high ideals of courtesy and personal honor. 2-He will refrain from associating himself with or allowing the use of his name by an enterprise of questionable character. 3-He will advertise only in a dignified manner, being careful to avoid misleading statements. 4-He will regard as confidential any information obtained by him as to the business affairs and technical methods or processes of a client or employer. 5-He will inform a client or employer of any business connections, interest, or affiliations which might influence his judgment or impair the disinterested quality of his services. 0-He will refrain from using any improper or questionable methods of soliciting professional work, and will decline to pay or to accept commissions for securing such work. 7-He will accept Compensation, financial or otherwise, for a particular service, from one source only, except with the full knowledge and consent of all interested parties. 8-He will not uSe unfair means to win professional advancement or to injure the chances of another engineer to secure and hold employment. 9-He will cooperate in upbuilding the engineering profession by exchanging general information and exDerience with his fellowengineers and students of engineering and also by contributing to work of engineering societies, schools of applied science, and the technical press. 10-He will interest himself in the public welfare in behalf of which he will be ready to apply his special knowledge, skill, and training for the use and benefit of mankind.
Technical Representatives E BELIEVE there are many, many cases involving expert representation where the interests of all concerned would be better served by the chemist than any other spokesman. I n several industrial establishments the services of the chemist have been called upon in adjusting questions involving raw materials and finished products, and not infrequently the chief chemist of a plant is the man always sent where these questions arise. When the tariff occupied the center of the stage, it was the chemists and men with technical training who were able to answer the questions and who created the best impressions upon Congress. A favorable attitude toward the helium program has been assured because a chemist has made clear with the aid of experiments conducted in the committee rooms just what it is all about and its real importance to our defense program. With knowledge came enthusiasm and open-mindedness.
