.Aug., 1921
T H E JOURhrAL OF I N D U S T R I A L A h D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
As has been said, the radiation loss is quite large from a rotary kiln, but this can be reducdd materially by the employment of a lining of sil-o-cel blocks between the regular fire brick lining and the steel shell. CHEMICAL CONTROL IN FUEL ECONOMY-The COmpkteneSS Of combustion can always be determined by an analysis of the waste gases of the kiln whether i t be gas-or grate-fired, and the temperature of these gases will show how well the heat has been
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transferred to the s t h e . Pyrometers in the walls of the kiln, properly protected, will show the conditions and rate of burning also. Neither the pyrometer nor the gas analyzer requires trained chemists. Any intelligent workman can be broken in to use both, and even to interpret the results in terms of kiln efficiency. The latter, so far as the exit gases are concerned, is summed up in three phrases-low carbon monoxide, high carbon dioxide, and low temperature.
Standardization and Research‘ By S. W. Stratton CHIEF,
U. S. BUREAUOF
STANDARDS. WASWINGTON, D.
Standardization and research go hand in hand. The term “standardization” has come to mean a great deal more than i t did formerly. We used to think of standardization in connection with measurements simply; then we passed on to measurements in all the various branches, and then to measurements of specifications. STANDARDIZATION OF
QUALITY
A specification is nothing more than a standard of quality, and we find that such standards are absolutely necessary if we are going to use materials intelligently. One of the greatest factors in this standardization is arriving at definitions, which we understand to mean agreeing upon definitions of materials. All of this enters into the standardization of quality, and in many ways places industry upon an entirely different basis in its dealhgs with the public. The public needs education in the use of all of these materials, and it is the business of the Bureau to bring together the public and the manufacturer on a common ground and to teach the public to understand materials. We do everything we can for the manufacturer and the public in improvement of quality. SIMPLIFICATION OF STANDARDS
There is another kind of standardization which has come very much t o the fore recently, which we have termed simplification, M r Hoover, in his work on standardization, is very much interested in this part of it. It means confinement to the fewest number possible of sizes and varieties of manufactured articles. You may have twenty sizes and varieties, whereas three or four would answer every purpose. I n some of these materials we need varieties and sizes, but we want that variety to be as small as consistent with public needs, and we want each variety to be carefuljy defined so you can speak of it in terms which both the public and the manufacturer can understand. This term “simplification” is a very important factor in our economical program. The Secretary is very much interested in this feature of standardization, and Congress has recently given us some money to carry out this work. We believe we are going to be af much greater assistance to you in the future than we have been in the past. DANCERS IN
STANDARDIZATION
Standardization is a very dangerous thing if it is not carefully carried out. In the first place, several parties are concerned in it-the man who makes, the man who uses, and the man who has actually set up the definitions. A definition or Specification amounts to nothing if we haven’t the proper test and if we haven’t proper methods. All of those things go into the question of standardization. Now, the laboratory has no more right to set u p and make these standards alone than has the manufacturer or the user. We have had a lot of experience in the government service; we have set up standards for govern1 Read a t the 3rd Annual Convention of the National Lime Association, Hotel Commodore, N e w York, N. Y . ,June 15, 1921.
C.
ment departments and bureaus, and we find that the gaverti-lment departments furnish excellent examples of users-you can find users of almost every article that is utilized-and what i s more, we can cooperate with those users. It is not a n infrequent thing for us t o ask an officer of the Army or the Navy or of some other department to follow up the use of the material and to keep as close to us as he can. That is a very important thing id standardization-the following up of materials in actual use. There is another danger in standardization, that i t may become too fixed. If it is a question of standards of measurement, we want them to be fixed. We try to fix standards that we can refer to from time to time and feel that they are constant. Now, as to quality, it is exactly the reverse: We want the standard to be improved as the art advances, and there again it is only by close cooperation of those concerned that we can bring about a proper standardization. The Bureau of Standards method, as you know, has always been to bring about a sort of voluntary standardization. That is also the Secretary’s idea. At a recent meeting of users of paper, together with a committee of paper manufacturers who had come down to cooperate with the Bureau in setting up the standardsof paper, we found ourselves face to face with standards which had been prepared without cooperation with the manufacturer. It was perfectly evident that the users in this particular case had made these specifications from their own practice. They had neglected important principles, as well as certain features of definitions of paper. At the request of these manufacturers the Bureau will undertake to set up standards; that is, with the aid of these people and with the aid of the users, we will set up standards of paper that the public can use and keep them up to date from year to year.
NEEDOF LABORATORY CONTROL IN STANDARDIZATION I n this question of standardization there is always one where the laboratory can be of important use. When we set about bringing together the manufacturer and the user, we find many traditions and many customs. Scarcely a case of this kind comes up where there is not a great difference of opinion as to some point. Now, the laboratory steps in and tries to settle it by actual experiment. The laboratory, with the manufacturer’s knowledge and use of the material, can decide these questions, but they cannot be decided by a mere sentiment or tradition. Controlled in this way, standardization will progress as it should. RESEARCH IN
STANDARDIZATION
Just a word in regard to research. It is almost unnecessary to speak to an audience of this kind of the value of research. There are certain kinds of research that can best be carried on by you a t your work, where the benefit that accrues to rescarch should apply to the plant itself. Then, again, there are researches in which you as an organization can join hands and work out once for all. That is the economical way to do it. Some of these things which are needed in standardization are fitted for government research; but there is another class in which
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THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
I am especially interested, and which the Government is peculiarly fitted to carry out, namely, those researches which call for the highest kind of scientific work for the benefit of an industry as a whole, ahd which partake very largely of the nature of fundamental scientific research. You can never tell when this fundamental scientific research, or its results, is going to be used. It is fortunate indeed that we can predict beforehand what these researches are going to be. There are certain things, for instance, that you want to know about lime. We will go at the fundamental question and try to find out just what lime is, how it behaves, what the laws governing it are. Then we are in a position to handle these problems and a great many more. We see many examples of this thing. Just a short time ago we were called upon to standardize color. We haven't many standards of color. The cottonseed oil people were the first to take it up. We have established these standards of color, but, of course, in applying i t to such a thing as cottonseed oil we must have a sample of the oil we can compare, that is, a working standard throughout the year and throughout the season. We found that the oil specimen which was to be used as a standard for the year would change rapidly, and therefore we began to experiment upon the nature of this oil. We found out that if we took the air from it-it absorbs air in rather large quantities-its color did not change. That is what we were striving for. But think of the by-product that came out here. We also found that when we took this air from the oil it did not become rancid. This was worth a great deal to that industry. To day factories have been built, utilizing this principle to pTevent the various sils from becoming rancid. It was a discovery which was worth as much to that industry as the whole cost of this Bureau to the Government. We need to know more of the nature of the materials. At the Bureau we have various sections--on lime, clay products, metals, lubricating oil, paper, rubber, and all such materials. We have a 30-inch rolling mill; we have a textile mill; we have all the facilities necessary for giving to these workers a variety of materials which they never could get before. As far as the paper mill is concerned, we now can have any kind of paper we wish, we can go to work and experiment with that paper. Paper manufacturers are bringing their problems there, and thus research is carried along those lines which the Government is better fitted to accomplish. I am sure that the Department of Commerce as a whole can be of great assistance outside of the Bureau of Standards, in the Bureau of the Census, which gathers statistics, and the thing for you to do is to ask for the. statistics you want. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce can do a great deal for the lime industry. We must get over this idea that the departments of the Government are policemen to tell you what to do. It is the reverse: you are going to tell us what you want us to do. It is for that reason that we are taking this new method of procedure in the Department of Commerce and trying to make it useful and a real help, as it should be. INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION OR CERTAINRESEARCH INVESTIGATIONS
Before closing there are one or two rather interesting illustrations about the value of research in standardization I would like t o mention. They have nothing to do with lime. However, I do know that just before I came here we sent letters to men, many of them who are members of this Association, asking them about the standardization of lime. Out of that will grow a definition and specification about which those who use the lime will know, and which you know you can make. Many important investigations are going on in this lime section of the Bureau and you will get returns worth many times what it cost. PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES-Before the war one of our spectroscopists was asked to photograph the spectrum to determine the
Vol. 13, No. 8
wave lengths of light needed by an astronomer for his use. The region assigned to us was the red end of the spectrum, the most difficult to photograph. I am taking this illustration because an astronomer is the type of man working on abstract science. In order to photograph this end of the spectrum our expert experimented wlth dyes, with the various plates, an$ with certain other work that had been done before, which gave the clue, and out of which grew a method of sensitizing the plate to make i t sensitive to red light. We could thus photograph much further down in the spectrum than we could before. Now, these red waves have the power of penetrating a fog much more readily than short waves. During the war it was necessary, as you know, to depend almost wholly upon the photographs made by airplanes in getting maps of the country, and b y the use of these same planes we got photographs of things that could not be seen without them. Now, what is next? This is just as important in all kinds of commercial photography and in moving pictures, and it will qnly be a short time before these plates will be the ordinary thing and the old plates will be a n exception. That is a case where, in starting its investigation, the Bureau had solely for its object abstract data for an astronomer, which has turned out to be very important commercially. MANUFACTURE OF BLOCK GAGES-one Of our experts iS working on methods of measuring by means of light waves. We use light waves to measure small quantities-light waves about onefifty-thousandth of an inch long-but for some purposes it is the only kind of yard stick that we can use. We can establish it anywhere we like with certain apparatus. It will be only a short time until all our standards of light are fixed by light waves. By this method of light waves we are making what is known among mechanics as block gages-ordinary blocks of metal of a definite length; that is, the two faces must be parallel to each other, they must be an exact distance apart, and the faces must be plane. By parallel, we mean within a very small amount, and by plane, we mean within a millionth of an inch, and the length must be correct within two- or three-millionths of an inch. This means the most accurate measurements that have ever been made. These gages were formerly imported. Whkn the war broke out we were absolutely cut off from them. Now by these light waves we make the gages and test them. LIGHTING EFFICIENCY-OUr program of economy is going to be based upon our improvements. We told the appropriation committee that it is wise to spend money in order to save money. It has been very difficult for them to see that, especially as everybody else looking for money there tells the same story. You know that in the old days,of the oil lamps we got a certain efficiency; then came the gas lamps and following that came the incandescent lamps, and now we have the tungsten lamps and the gas-filled lamps, and we have kept pushing the efficiency UP and up all the time until we have reached the limit. Now, the efficiency that you can get out of your lamps is a very small proportion of the energy that is put in; there is a tremendous waste. How are you going to improve it? We can't do it by going along the same lines. So the next step which we are trying to accomplish is to find out about the nature of radiation. We have a young man a t the Bureau who is working on the structure of the atom. To-day we speak of the atom just as you would of the universe. We speak of the inner range and the outer range, of the parts of an atom, and of atoms being knocked against one another. Here is a young man who is working on this question pertaining to the atom, how constituents of atoms can be knocked from one place to another just as a workman handles bricks and lays them up with mortar. Now, what is the object of all that? When we know the story of matter, when we know how it is built up, and how this radiation comes? It comes from the atom. We can probably take the next step in the improvement of the efficiency of lamps.
