Science's Recording Eye In laboratory and plant, cameras are being used today in ways un dreamed of 10 or 15 years ago
Science's Eye: Electronic flash photography is used t o obtain instantaneous shapes and sizes o f bubbles moving in a liquid f i e l d . Dr. Robert C. Kintner, professor o f chemical engineering at Illinois Insti tute of Technology, Chicago, checks the w o r k o f g r a d u a t e student Shaukat Azim
A Kodak high-speed camera aids in study o f agitation action in a vat at Procter & G a m b l e
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Ι τΐοτ too m a n y years ago, the j o b of the industrial photographer was pretty m u c h limited to taking p a n o ramic views of the plant or flashpowder portraits a t the a n n u a l c o m p a n y banquet. Times, of course, have changed. T o d a y , industrial photographers shoot thousands of pictures a day—of all types. Pic tures are taken of new employees, new equipment, plant layouts, com pany documents, test specimens, lab oratory a n d pilot plant experiments. T h e y ' r e used for record keeping, engineering design, scientific studies, employee relations, advertising, p u b licity. I n the plant, the c a m e r a is becoming practically as c o m m o n place as the automobile. I n the laboratory, it's becoming just about as indispensable as the thermometer. T a k e Esso Research and Engineer ing, for example. At its laboratory in Linden, N . J., Esso requires the full-time services of no less t h a n seven industrial photographers. This, of course, does not include the m a n y Esso scientists a n d engineers who themselves use photographic film routinely in their work. I n scores of companies, special staffs of professional photographers are re quired to handle picture-taking as signments in all phases of c o m p a n y operations. I n the laboratory, photography is being m o r e widely used t h a n ever. M a n y labs that in former years m a d e only sporadic use of cameras (often not too far removed from the Brownie class) now find t h a t their work d e m a n d s frequent use of pre cision 35-mm. cameras, press c a m eras, copying cameras, motion pic ture cameras. T h a n k s in p a r t to the development of more versatile equipment a n d more sensitive films, cameras today are being used in ways u n d r e a m e d of 10 or 15 years ago. As one of its greatest advantages, photography provides an accurate,
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
p e r m a n e n t record. It can furnish a lasting image of people, equip ment, laboratory observations, in strument readings, samples before and after test. Moreover, photographs take the guesswork out of observations. Es pecially in the case of rapidly chang ing events, a person can be ex-: tremely fallible a b o u t w h a t he thinks he sees. W i t h photography, h e no longer has to rely on memory. . W i t h a camera, he also gains wide control over time. H e can make time stand still. W i t h a movie camera, h e can retard or accelerate time at will. H e can make a pre cise record of high-speed events a n d study t h e m frame by frame a t leisure. Photographic film permits small details to be greatly enlarged. I t enables the eye to see the invisible, such as ultraviolet rays a n d nuclear radiation. W i t h photography, o b servations can be m a d e in dangerous or inaccessible places. Thousands of people m a y be able to witness events t h a t might otherwise be seen by just a few. And in scientific work, the c a m e r a finds countless ingenious applications—in every thing from recording the spectral lines of a n ionized gas to detecting the u p t a k e of radioactive phosphorus in a t o m a t o leaf. Broad Applications
W i t h photography, new funda mental particles of m a t t e r have been discovered. T h e camera, in conjunction with the electron micro scope, has permitted detailed studies to be m a d e of surface imperfections in crystals, the fundamental struc ture of catalysts, the physical p r o p erties of soaps t h a t produce the best greases. Color photography has opened u p new knowledge of the dyeing properties of fibers, the com bustion of rocket fuels, the effects of high t e m p e r a t u r e on metals. D u Pont, for example, has used photography to study the spray p a t t e r n of aerosol paints. Photog r a p h y has also provided D u Pont with a p e r m a n e n t record of flammability tests on aerosol insecticides and the foaming properties of aero sol shaving creams. Procter a n d G a m b l e has used photography to study the sudsing action of deter gents, the texture of extruded bars of soap, the clarity of glassware washed with synthetic detergents.
PATTERN for PROGRESS 1917:
Cottonseed Oil Hydrogenation
ments which contributed greatly to industry's knowledge of the o p t i m u m conditions for hydrogénation was published in the M a y 1917 INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY.
Each m o n t h , the editors of l&EC s h o w h o w articles published in earlier volumes of l&EC m a y h a v e been important steppingstones to present c o m mercial processes. Last m o n t h , the utilization of waste sulfite liquor w a s featured. This m o n t h , the spotlight falls on 1 9 1 7 a n d the hydrogénation of cottonseed o i l .
T is difficult to exaggerate the importance of the hydrogénation process in m o d e r n oil and fat technology. It is employed on a vast scale in the edible fat a n d soap industries, for converting liquid oils to hard or plastic fats, and to improve the oxidation-resistance of fats a n d oils. T h e most obvious result of the widespread use of hydrogénation has been the establishment of liquid oils, such as cottonseed a n d soybean oils, as a d e q u a t e substitutes for originally more expensive hog and beef fats. Early attempts to solidify these oils involved the use of chemicals; the oils were heated with zinc chloride or potassium hydroxide. T h e modern hydrogénation process had its origin in the classical research of Sabatier a n d Senderens, carried out within the period 1895-1905. These two scientists demonstrated the feasibility of carrying out hydrogénation without a n u n d u e occurrence of side reactions, using nickel or other relatively cheap metal as a catalyst. Sabatier's experiments were mainly on hydrogenating oil in the vapor phase. I n 1903, W .
I
N o r m a n n was granted a British p a t e n t for the liquid phase hydrogénation of fatty oils. Title to the patent was given to the British firm of Joseph Crossfield & Sons. First commercial use of the hydrogénation process is said to have been in the treatment of whale oil in England. I n 1909, the Procter & G a m b l e Co. acquired the rights to the Crossfield patent, and in 1911, Procter & G a m b l e placed its hydrogenated cottonseed oil shortening Crisco, on the market. I t remained now for the scientists in this country to put this new art on a firm scientific footing, to transform the art into a carefully controlled unit process. Soon after the courts invalidated the Burchenal p a t e n t , u n d e r whose broad claims the Procter & G a m b l e shortening was then manufactured, the way was clear for the manufacture of similar products by other firms. This also signalled the beginning of a n era of experimentation in which scientists tried to establish o p t i m u m pressure, temperature, and concentration for the hydrogénation process. O n e paper on these experi-
T h e paper, entitled " T h e Incomplete Hydrogénation of Cottonseed O i l , " reported experimental work conducted by H u g h K. M o o r e , G. A. Richter, and W. B. V a n Arsdel. These three scientists provided much-needed information on the influence of hydrogénation of the percentage a n d kind of catalyzer. Valuable information on temperatures, pressures, and changes in chemical constants of oil during hydrogénation were also reported in this paper. W i t h the gradual accumulation of technical d a t a , the hydrogénation industry grew rapidly. I n 1920, over 200 million pounds of vegetable oil were hydrogenated. By 1956, over 2 billion pounds of edible oils were being hydrogenated every 12 months. I n recent years, shortening m a d e by the hydrogénation of anim a l fats has been placed on the consumer market. T h e basic advantage of a shortening m a d e from animal fats is the lower price of fat compared to cottonseed or soyb e a n oil. T h e hydrogénation of margarine oils, a highly critical process, also developed rapidly after experimental d a t a establishing precise conditions for hydrogénation were published in I & E C and other technical journals. I n 1918, only 250 million pounds of margarine were produced. I n 1956, almost 1.5 billion pounds of m a r g a r i n e were produced.
I/EC W i t h the aid of photographic film, Armstrong Cork has obtained a precise record of dimensional changes in flooring materials exposed to varying t e m p e r a t u r e a n d humidity. At Hercules Powder, high-speed photography at 1/10,000 second has helped to explain the action of chemical flotation agents. Last year, General Motors researchers reported that a small a m o u n t of .fuel a r o u n d the walls of a n automobile combustion c h a m b e r fails to b u r n because of the cooling
action of the walls. T h e presence of this thin layer of u n b u r n e d fuel was demonstrated by photographs taken t h r o u g h a q u a r t z window in a laboratory test engine. Photography also plays a vital role in university research. At Illinois Institute of Technology, electronic-flash photography has helped to determine the shape a n d size of bubbles rising rapidly t h r o u g h liquids. Photography has also helped to indicate the flow patterns of liquids during mixing. H e r e the
experimental technique included the photographing of tiny, immiscible tracer droplets swirling t h r o u g h the liquid. I n the pictures, these d r o p lets showed u p as streaks. T h e velocity of a droplet (and thus of the liquid at that point) was calculated from the length of the streak and the time of exposure. After separating a mixture of inorganic iodine-131 a n d carbon-14 tyrosine by paper c h r o m a t o g r a p h y , researchers at the University of Kansas identified the components VOL. 49, NO. 5
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by their radioactive effect on multilayer color film. At the University of Florida, photography has been used to study the burning properties of flames. At Pennsylvania State University, a c a m e r a in combination with a field ion emission microscope has permitted pictures to be taken for the first time of single atoms of tungsten. Pictures That Move
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In the laboratory, widespread use is also being m a d e of motion pictures. I n studies of boiling, movies have been taken at speeds as high as 20,000 frames per second, although speeds of 2000 to 4000 frames a second are usually a d e q u a t e . W h e n slowed down to about 16 frames a second, these films can be extremely useful in the analysis of all phases of the boiling process. At Esso Research a n d Engineering, high-speed movies have recorded w h a t happens to a n a u t o mobile tire when subjected to sudden shock. At Dow Chemical, motion pictures have helped determine w h a t goes on inside the walls of a plastics injection molding machine. These movies have turned u p valuable information on the flow of plastic material in the mold, as well as on the packing, discharge, a n d sealing of the mold. I n the past, m u c h of this information has been based merely on theory a n d guesswork. A motion picture c a m e r a at Wright Air Development Center has provided round-the-clock readings of dials a n d gages in the creepr u p t u r e testing of metals. At regular intervals, the lights go on, the shutter is clicked, a n d the film is advanced to the next setting. T h i s conveniently eliminates the need for engineers to stay u p all night to take readings. I n a somewhat similar use, O h i o Power Co. has relied on photographs to obtain readings simultaneously on a large n u m b e r of rapidly fluctuating meters—a j o b that might be extremely difficult by any other means. Inside chemical plants, the c a m e r a is also being used in dozens of other ways. As one example, photographs are helping to replace or supplem e n t engineering drawings. At General Aniline and Film a n d other companies, photographs are par-
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ticularly effective in indicating pip ing changes. T h e engineer, instead of preparing complex blueprints, merely marks the desired changes on a transparent overlay placed over a p h o t o g r a p h of the existing piping. This method can be cheaper, faster, a n d easier t h a n making complete engineering drawings. It's espe cially recommended where the j o b must be t u r n e d over to unskilled workers w h o might boggle at reading blueprints. I n all phases of research, analysis, a n d production in the chemical in dustry, the c a m e r a is making its i m p a c t felt. Although m a n y in dustrial uses for photography have come to the fore only within the past few years, others are as impor t a n t today as they were decades ago. T h e n as now, the c a m e r a is provid ing for a presumably grateful pos terity e n d u r i n g images of the plant a n d of those merry-making guests at the a n n u a l c o m p a n y banquet. H.J.S.
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