0
STUDENT ACTIVITIES SPONSORED BY THE DETROIT SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY GEORGE E. F. BREWER Detroit Section of the A. C. S., Detroit, Michigan
ONE of the generally recognized functions of a professional society is the interest in the training of future members. This is usually done by setting up standard requirements for schools and maintaining contacts with students in various ways. The Detroit Section of- the American Chemical Society encourages students of chemistry to participate in the activities of the American Chemical Society. This is done through sponsoring a "student group" on an intercollegiate basis. In the Detroit area are six colleges which confer Bachelors degrees in Chemistry: Detroit Institute of Technology, Lawrence Institute of Technology, Marygrove College, Mercy College, University of Detroit, and Wayne University. Students from these colleges qualify for student associate membership in the Detroit Section, A. C. S. This student group has at this time about 150 members who meet once a month and elect their own officers.' The activities of the group are supervised by the schools' faculty advisors and the Educational Committee of the Detroit Section, A. C. S. The meetings of the student group are, as a mle, held in conjunction with the monthly meeting of the Detroit Section, A. C. S., in the Rackham Educational Memorial Buildmg. These meetings of the Detroit Section start with the monthly dinner. Recently we found some industrial firms willing to invite a limited number of student members as their guests 'at these dinners. After the dinner the main meeting of SeGion is held, followed by a meeting of the Student Associate Group. The group has been addressed by some excellent speakers, of whom the following should be mentioned: Dr. L. L. Quill, Chairman of the Department of Chemistry of Michigan State College, who spoke on "Constructive Student Activities"; Dr. Ralph Lee, Department of Public Relations, General Motors Corporations, on "Employer-Employee Relationships"; Dr. James B. Parsons, Dean of Students, University of Chicago, on "The Selection of a Graduate School." Some of the meetings of the student group are devoted to tours of factories and laboratories. Still other meetings are held in the different schools, and at these meetings students report on the fields of their special interest. The student speeches contain much information on the approach of students toward the profession of their choice, also excellent compilations, or Detmit Chemist, 21, 11 (1949).
new and interesting details which these students themselves found while working on research projects of their own. Summaries of some of these speeches are given below. 0
POLAROGRAPHIC ANALYSIS' RALPH SEIXEL and P . I. WILLSON
Warn* Udvenity, Detroit. Michigan
Summary. The theory and practice of polarographic analysis were presented in the form of a slide lecture; analytical data were given from analyses cakied out on a recording polarograph. This instrument has been built by P. J. Willson from war surplus material at a cost of about $50. 0
STUDY BEYOND THE REQUIRED COURSE WORK' SHEILA M. O'TOOLE Marggrove College, Detroit. Miohigln
The regular ma$riculated student' majoring in any one of the practical sciences spends a prescribed number of hours per week in the laboratory. During these periods he is expected to carry out a certain numher of experiments according to a given method, as his predecessors did before him. The very, reason he has chosen that particular field, nine times out of ten, is the result of his interest in the possibility of uncovering new facts or methods. If a student has never had a chance to do research, how can he know that he likes something which he has never tried in its hard practical form? Of equal importance with the student's wish to do research is the need which exists for the corre!ation of a research project with his curriculum. As soon as the pupil receives his B.S. degree he steps-or rather is quite hurriedly pushed-from the amateur to the professional field. Suddenly, if he is working in an industrial or clinical laboratory, he must be acquainted with the many routine techniques and the machines used; if he goes on for another degree he should know something of the skill of handling a research problem. The man who eraduated from colleee with an A or 1 Presented before the meeting of the Student Associate Group of the Detroit Section, A. C. S., at the Auditorium of the Detroit Institute of Technology, February 24, 1948.
457
SEPTEMBER. 1949
B average is expected to be not only intelligent but individualistic and firm in his intelligence. He must have the opportunity to show this, and he should not be awarded such superior grades unless he does show it. For this reason, the system of undergraduate research should be adopted as a requirement for these "better" students and a t least made available to the others. (By "requirement" here is meant a requirement to maintain the superior grade standmg.) There are some schools (e. g., Union College, Schenectady, New Yorks) in which "senior research" is a required course for all students. This is not advocated here. Undergraduate research and the work it involves can be selected so that it does not lie beyond the capability of the student. The point is that the student should work on some project, not appallingly difficult, but outside of the class i n d the classroom, and he should write up his findings in a form suitable for publication. Most of the time the problem will entail the use of a technical instrument. At any rate, the student must first learn the theory of the field and its tools and then acquire the skill of manipulating a procedure and carry it out over and over with a uniform degree of precision. Several systems have been proposed for narrowing the research topics. Some professors advocate that the students all work under one instructor on one coordinated p r ~ g r a m . ~Far . ~ more appealing is the plan that the student choose from several topics, each of different types. Occasionally, a student wil! suggest his own topic. The actual nature of the topics has been discussed in some papers. In very large schools the student needs only to select a field and he is bound to 6nd someone on the campus doing research on it. In such a case he may easily fit himself into the existing framework. A novel suggestion to set up a correlating committee in the American Chemical Society came out a few years ago and is being taken up The committee is to act as a clearing house on problems of scientific data. The idea arose from the many noticeable blanks and contradicting sets of data given in chemical handbooks. If the same problem were to two Or three unknown to each other were obtained, the chemical data would be supplemented and the students submitting the most satisfactory work would be awarded a certificate giving them national The time involved undertaking a research problem constitutes a big factor for both instructor and student. The student must be willing t o devote many hours to his project. Actually, once he is really interested in the problem, he is willing to spend the necessary time on it. Finally, the experiment should be written up for ~ublication. Here the remonsibilitv for h a v i n- ~the Article published usually lie; with the instructor. a Hwn, C . B., J .
CEEM.EDUC., 21, 81 (1944). SMITH,G. B. L., J. CHEM.EDUC., 9,285 (1932). YOE,J. H.,ibid., 18,410 (1941). 6 CORTELYOU, W. P., AND E. H. CORTELYOU, ibid., 16, 296 (1939): ibid.. 13. 565 (1936). See also Chem. Ena. News, 26, 4
It is highly desirable, therefore, that undergraduates carry out some research project. What they do will be determined by the locality and interests of the school, the faculty, and the students themselves. What they gain will depend on their own personalities and ambitions. One thing is sure: in working on their research project they will unfold the hardships and beauties of the professional work of their choice. -0
ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE DUTIES OF A CHEMIST IN ASMALL CHEMICAL PLANT?' EDWARD HOPIWEINS Detroit Iaatitvte of Technology, Detroi,, Michigan
The chemist and his assistants follow the manufacture of materials through every step in the process; testing, spot-checking, and inspecting. It is easy to see how a thorough knowledge of the processes will help the chemist when a sample is submitted which does not meet specifications and he hopes to find the reason for the variance. Plant problems involving chemistry are also a very important part of his job. Very often speed is essential. A large batch of material may be ruined if delayed in process for extended periods of time and immediate and accurate decisions must be made. In the course of events the chemist will run across many of the following duties to either supervise or do himself, as often is the case in a small laboratory. No attempt is made to arrange these in order of importance: Train laboratory personnel far routine inspection and technical testing. Correlate information conoerninb processes, compounds, rtnd raw materials bhich is received from the development laboratory 0' 0 t h sources. Assign product designations and permanent specificstions. Devise new test procedures. compile and maintain such technical infomation as laboratorymanufacturinginstructians, rrtw,materiaI code, raw material specification book, tables of physical ~roperties,and test proced U ~ ~ b c t aand r > ~flex formulrts, Much discretion is needed here, For instance if 2% of a 106 a poundmaterialisleftoutof the formulation and 2% of a $1 a pound material added, the chemist is in for trouble. Keep time for laboratory employees. DOspecial chemical analyses, chlorinations, and reactions. Prepare sample shipments, perhaps after producing same in laboratory in semipilot equipment. Supervise actual operation of pilot plant equipment. Checklaboratoryinstrumentsagainststandards.
~;;~~$~~~","n~~~~,materialsused. Writereports.
~e,vicecus~omercomp~~iu~. P r e ~ a r estandard solutions. ~ a k overtlow e work from development group. (You may be the development group.) Do enough research to see if ideas you have are worth being suhmitted to the research department.
'
Presented before the meeting of the Student Associate Gronp of the Detroit Section, A. C. S., a t the Mercy College Auditorium, February 22, 1949.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
These and many other duties are typical of those which will eventually confront the chemist in a small plant. Last but not least, the chemist has to learn to get along harmoniously with his fellow workers, other employees, and management, if his relationships in the plant are to be pleasant and long-lived. A chemist interested in straight and serious research should probably not start in a small laboratory, although I think the diversification of duties encountered there would be good experience for any chemist, as it has been for me. WATER PURIFICATION WITH IONEXCHANGE RESINS' FRED OSEMLAK ~awren~ Instihlte e of Technology. Detmit,
Michigan
Summary. The theory of water purification was presented. Mr. Osemlak has compiled a considerable amount of material on ion exchange, partly from the literature and partly through correspondence with manufacturers. Mr. Osemlak has built a working glass model of an ion exchanger, which was used for the determination of ion exchange capacity, etc. 0
DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW QUANTITATIVE TEST FOR ZINCS ROBERT E. KOHN university of Detroit
After some preliminary work Dr. Wolrad Schottenn published a description of a zinc ammonia complex resulting from the reaction between zinc ions and ammonium thiocyanate. The reaction equation has 8 Presented before the meeting of the Student Associate Group of theDetroit Section, A. C. S., s t the Auditoriumof the Lawrence Institute of Technology, Detroit, Michigan, April 26, 1949. Pharmazie. 3,43 (1948).
not been definitely established to this date. Nevertheless this reaction is definitely quantitative in its nature, though the conditions necessary for it to go to comple tiou are indicative that the mechanics of the reaction are molecular rather than ionic. The zinc complex, called "Karzinomgelb" (cancer yellow) due to its connection with some work done on cancer tissues, was separated as a yellow colored precipitate from solutions containing zinc nitrate by the addition of ammonium thiocyanate. The filtrate contained less than 6 X 10-%g. of zinc per liter, as shown by the experimental work of the writer of this paper. The formula proposed by Dr. Schotten for this compound would justify the name zinc hexammonium dithiocyanate if a coordination bet~veenthe sulfur and ammonium groups is assumed. This demands the coordination number of zinc to be six. A gravimetric analysis based on this formula's stoichiometric factor for zinc, yields results that are consistently too high but consistent with respect to each other. An empirical factor thus is used. Possibly an indirect colorimetric method can be based on the detection of excess thiocyanate ions with a standard ferric ion solution. A quantitative determination utilizing the reaction between zinc ions and ammonium thiocyanate seems possible. It remains to be seen whether such a determination is advantageous. 0
THE OXYGEN CONTENT AND OXYGEN CAPACITY OF THE BLOOD OF "BLUE BABIES" BEFORE AND AFTER OPERATION8 BEATRICE T. REGALIA Mercy College, Dst~oit.Mioh.
:.
Summary. The use of thi'van Slyke manometric technique was presented. The interest of the audience was stimulated by the data on "blue babies" which were given as introduction.
