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"Soft" Tungsten Mystifies Reduction of the pure oxide with calcium produces a tungsten that can be cut with a hacksaw
High Molecular Weight
JCVESEARCHERS at the U.S. Bureau of
Polymeric Plasticlzer
Mines, Albany, Ore., have stumbled onto an unusual form of tungsten. So far as they can tell from their tests, the metal is almost pure tungsten. Yet, by comparison with ordinary tungsten, it is softer, less brittle, and more deformable. Biggest difference is in crystal size, which is many times smaller than crystals of tungsten pro duced by arc melting, for example. The BuMines group at Albany has been working on pure metals for some time. One of its approaches—purify metal oxides chemically, reduce them with pure calcium, magnesium, or other suitable metal. It has been working its way through the reactive metals, hit this finding when it got to tungsten. The Albany scientists, along with many other metallurgists around the country, have also been trying to purify these metals by various types of vacuum melting. These workers have blamed brittleness of most of them on adsorbed interstitial gases, have been able to up ductility in most by getting rid of these gases. But BuMines doesn't yet have enough data to tell whether the ductil ity of its tungsten is related to adsorbed gases. In fact, the finding is so new that it doesn't even have hardness fig ures on its experimental tungsten yet. The metal has been hammer forged at 900° C—a temperature considered quite cool for tungsten—to 70% of its original thickness. At the same time, porosity was eliminated without crum bling. A more impressive measure of the metal's softness: It can be hacksawed. Tiy this with ordinary tung sten and you'll simply run out of blades. Problem now is to find out more about the metal so it can be put to some practical use. If it can be successfully formed into sheets, the most obvious application, BuMines says, is as a fab ricating material in high speed aircraft. No metal has a higher melting point than tungsten. BuMines prepares the metal in a re
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CHEMICALS
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duction bomb, a sealed, insulated tube used widely in making vanadium and uranium. In this case, metallic calcium reacting with tungstic oxide in the bomb produces enough heat of reac tion-well over 3400° C— to melt the tungsten metal that is formed. Solidi fied, the tungsten is rather porous, probably as a result of contact with calcium vapor. Another thing puzzling the BuMines researchers: The "soft" tungsten be comes ordinary tungsten when it is remelted by standard methods.
Plastics Men Get Together Scientists working with plastics can look forward to a better understanding of their foreign counterparts. The In ternational Organization for Standard ization (ISO) is expected to approve and publish soon an international stand ard, listing for 800 plastics terms the equivalent expressions in English, French, and Russian. An appendix will cover equivalents in Spanish, Ger man, and Italian. The ISO technical committee on plastics, meeting in Munich last fall, set up the standard. The work was prompted by misunderstandings which have arisen from inconsistent nomen clature and began in 1951. With the new standard, words will have the same meanings to all plastics scientists. Ex ample: "accelerator," which will mean "substance which increases catalytically the hardening rate of a synthetic resin." Besides nomenclature, the technical committee is covering other world-wide plastics problems. Among these: test methods to determine properties; speci fications for plastics.
• Phenylmercuric
propionate
in
powder form is now available from Metalsalts, Hawthorne, N.J., for use as a mildewcide and preservative for oleoresinous or aqueous paints. The prod-
Jefferson backs the industry's best ethylene oxide with a wealth of technical data and services As a result of new production facilities and techniques employed in 1959, Jefferson was able to announce "the tightest ethylene oxide specifications in the industry." Among the benefits that customers may expect with this higher quality ethylene oxide are: less water, lower aldehyde contents, lowered acidity, less non-volatile residue, lower chlorides, and nil acetylene. Jefferson augments this new improved ethylene oxide with comprehensive technical data and technical application services. The Jefferson engineers' three-inch manual pic-
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CHEMICALS
uct, called Metasol 57, is in a watersoluble package. C 1
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TRULAND has recently installed a new Rodney Hunt Stainless Steel TURBAFILM® Processor . • . available for obtaining vacua as low as 0.5 MM Hg Absolute with mechanically aided heat and mass transfer, particularly suitable on time-at-temperature-sensitive materials and viscous liquids. Requiring just one continuous and swift pass,.TRULAND'S new TURBA-FILM® Processor greatly simplifies difficult and complex low vacuum processing problems. You are cordially invited to inspect this new facility and to discuss your specific application with our technical staff.
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T R U L A N D C H E M I C A L C O M P A N Y Division of THE TRUIEK LABORATORIES E a s t R u t h e r f o r d , N e w J e r s e y 42
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• Three low molecular weight polyethylene resins have been developed by Eastman Chemical Products, Kingsport, Term., for use in rubber, coatings, polishes, textile finishes, and plastic molding and extrusions. All have molecular weights of about 1500. C2 • Potassium nitrate joins Fisher Scientific's list of primary standardsreagents of highly precise assay suitable as a reference and in the preparation of standard solutions. This one, the Pittsburgh, Pa., firm says, is designed for analysis of fertilizers by AOAC's referee method. C3 • Phenolic adhesive on a paper film, from Reichhold Chemicals, New York City, is designed for use in place of liquid glues to get around the need for glue spreading equipment. The adhesive sheet is placed between the two surfaces to be joined—plywood, veneers, overlays, and the like—and is cured either in a hot press or by high frequency field heating. C4 • Two C 14 -labeled compounds have been added to its line by Nuclear-Chicago, Chicago, 111. Adenosine-8-C 14 and a-aminoisobutyric-1-C14 acid are especially applicable to studies of carbohydrate metabolism and proteins respectively, the company says. Both are packaged in 50-microcurie, license-exempt units, as well as in larger sizes. C5
• One-part sealant based on Du Pont's Hypalon chlorosulfonated polyethylene comes from Grayguard, Wilmington, Del. The sealant bonds to moist materials, cures to an ozone-resistant rubber, and resists oxidizing chemicals, Grayguard says. C6 • Two sodium dispersions—in naphthalene and in mineral oil—are now offered by Acton Laboratories, Newark, N.J. They are available in one-pound lots. C7 • Instrument cleaning chemicals—a nonchlorinated liquid to do the cleaning and a quick-drying solvent to remove the cleaner—are now being marketed by Clarkson Laboratories, Philadelphia, Pa. C8 I I
Further useful information on keyed Chemical items mentioned is readily available . . .
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