The Chemical Bonners Walter Daniel Bonner was born in Osceola, Nebr., on October 27, 1878 In 1906 he received his B.S. degree from Nebraska Wesleyan and two years later his M.A. degree. The next two years were spent at Princeton University as a Harvard Fellow. Here, under G. A. Hulett, it was first pointed out that constant boiling hydrochloric acid could be an ideal standard in analytical work. In 1911 the Ph.D. degree was awarded at the University of Toronto where Dr. Bonner had been a student of the late W. Lash Miller. Dr. Bonne- had chus acquired considerable experience as a laboratory assistant and was ready to take over more important teaching duties. He was ap|appointed lecturer and later assistant professor at Queen's University. In 1915 he accepted the position of professor of chemistry and head of the Chemistry Department at the University of Utah. For over 25 years he has been improving the standards of that department and most actively building up the research work. Although the Ph.D. degree is not awarded at the University of Utah, the M.A. or M.S. degrees are given for studies and research generally requiring two years of residence since most of the candidates are also teaching fellows. Dr. Bonner and his own students have published about 25 papers and under his active sponsorship the Chemistry Department is responsible for many more scientific contributions in national magazines. From Utah each year have goneseveral students with newly awarded assistantships in larger universities and later from these universities a liberal
sprinkling of Ph.D.'s has emerged. These now number approximately 50. His earlier work in organic chemistry was supplanted by research in physical chemistry. Complex ions of copper with cyanide have received attention, as has the oxidation of the sulfite ion, and lately much time has been devoted to the chemical composition of the alts in Great Salt Lake Dr. Bonner is an authority on azeotropic, or constant boiling, solutions. His early work with hydrochloric acid was followed by papers prepared under his direction at the University of Utah in which not only hydrochloric but also formic and hydrohromic acids in particular were studied. With the competent aid of Mrs. Bonner, a chemical German class has been conducted for many years at their home. Both Dr. and Mrs. Bonner attended Nebraska Wesleyan University and both studied chemistry there. They were married on September 9, 1909, and since that time the former Grace Gaylord has constantly been of the greatest help in the home and as an adviser in the professional field. Together they have surrounded themselves and their daughter and six sons with a pleasantly intellectual atmosphere which has been a stimulus not only to the family but also to their numerous fortunate friends. Many scientists of national repute have been guests of the Bonners and their visits have furnished delightful memories. Music has contributed in a large part to the happiness of the family group as well as of their guests. Dr. Bonner has been a member of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY since
1135
1969
and is a member of Sigma Xi and of Phi Beta Kappa. James Bonner was born on September 1, 1910, in Ansley, Nebr., and received his B.A. in chemistry at the University of Utah in 1931. The Ph.D. was granted from the California Institute of Technology three year later. The following year he spent in Europe as a National Research Fellow studying colloid chemistry under Professor Kruyt at Utrecht and Professor de Jong at Leiden, and plant physiology in Zurich. The latter, the subject in which his doctorate was awarded, was also the department in which Dr. Bonner was next awarded a research assistants hip in the fall of 1935. The following year he stayed on at the California Institute of Technology as an instructor and two years later became an assistant professor. He is the author of over 40 papers mainly concerning the chemistry and physiology of the hormones which regulate the growth of plants. In this border region between biology and chemistry Dr. Bonner is making an enviable reputation. On January 1, 1939, he married Miss Harriet Rees, a graduate of Rockford College who obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in mathematics and who had been an instructor in that subject at the University of Utah. Lyman G. Bonner was born in Kingston, Ontario, on September 16, 1912. His B.A. in chemistry was granted in 1932 from the University of Utah and in 1935 the Ph.D. in physics was received at the California
NEWS
1136 Institute of Technology. From 1935 to 1937 Dr. Bonner was a National Research Fellow at Princeton University. Since that time he has been an instructor in physics at Duke University. In August, 1937, he married Miss Bernice Johnson of Princeton, N. J. They have a son, Allen Gaylord Bonner, born m Durham, N. C , July 22, 1939. Lyman Bonner's principal interests have to do with infrared absorption spectra and Raman spectra studies of the structures of organic molecules. His hobby is photography. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi. Priscilla Bonner Horton was born August 5, 1914, in Kingston, Ontario, and graduated with honors from the University of Utah in 1934. In 1939 she obtained an M.S. degree from the University of Illinois after having served as a graduate assistant. From 1935 to 1937 she was a research assistant at the Children's Fund of Michigan, and since 1939 she has been a chemist in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan On December 30, 1939, she married Walter James Horton who is a candidate for the Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Michigan and who has l>cen an instructor at Wayne University. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and of Sigma Xi. David Bonner was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 15, 1916. His B.A was obtained at Utah in 1936 and in 1940 he was granted the Ph.D. degree from the California Institute of Technology. After studying chemistry at Utah he followed in the footsteps of his brother James and is now a research assistant at the institute. He has published six papers comprising studies on the relation of chemical structure to physiological activity in the auxins and concerning leaf growth factors. Robert Bonner was born on December 30, 1918, in Salt Lakc City and graduated from the University of Utah in 1939. He was elected to Phi Kappa Phi and to Phi Beta Kappa. He is in his second year of graduate work at Brown University, where he holds a teaching assistantship in the Department of Chemistry. His research problem is an investigation of the photochemical reactivity of benzonitrile vapor. Walter D. Bonner, Jr., was born in Salt Lake on October 22, 1919, and received his B.S. from Utah in 1940 with a major in chemistry. This year he is a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology in the same field to which both James and David transferred. Francis T. Bonner wa., born December 18, 1921. in Salt Lake City. He is a junior in chemistry at the University of Utah, and is assisting in the quantitative analysis laboratory. His principal hobby
EDITION
is violin playing, for like each of the other members of the family, some musical instrument has been a source of satisfaction and an aid in leading a balanced life.
Sugar from Sorgo Plant BY
DISCOVERING means of removing starch and aeonitic acid from the juice of the sorgo plant, used extensively for making sorghum sirup, scientists of the United States Department of Agriculture have developed a method for obtaining a satisfactory yield of sugar crystals which may be made into refined or granulated sugar. ()ne step of the new pi ocess closely parallels a chemical change that occurs in the human digestive process. Sorgo sugar has been produced only on a semi-industrial scale and studies now must be conducted by the Bureau of Plant Industry to find varieties best suited for sugar production and where sorgo can be most profitably grown. Research on the present project was begun two years ago at Meridian, Miss., by Emil K. Ventre and S. Byall undt r the direction of H. S. Paine of the Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering. Studies directed toward starch removal have resulted in simple methods that worked successfully on a pilot-plant scale. The cane is double-milled and the raw juice is centrifuged, removing from 3 to 10 pounds of starch per ton of cane. The centrifuged juice is then treated with lime, heated, and allowed to settle in a conical tank. The clear juice at the bottom is drawn off and the scum on the top is forced through a filter press to recover the juice it contains. This leaves a small amount of starch which must be removed; otherwise the sirup would jell instead of crystallize. By treating the juice at this stage with a cry small amount of an enzyme, pancreatic amylase, the remaining starch is converted to products which do not seriously interfere with crystallization of sugar. Satisfactory percentage recovery of sugar per ton of sorghum cane was obtained. After removal of starch and aconitic acid from the juice, it can be put through the process customarily used for production of cane sugar. Starch and aconitic acid both have important commercial uses and are expected to be valuable by-products which will assist in reducing the net cost of tbp sugar. Aconitic acid, produced synthetically, is now being used in the manufacture of plastics.
Vol. 18, No. 24 Production of Acridint "P^EVELOFMENT of a practical method for producing acridine in substantial quantity from coal tar is announced by the Reilly Tar & Chemical Corp., Indianapolis, Ind. Until now the commercial preparation of acridine, which is the essential molecule in the production of the quinine substitute, atebrin, has been confined to Germany. Fully 90 per cent of this country's supply of quinine comes from the Dutch East Indies; the remainder from South America. Atebrin was originally developed by German scientists. It ha* been subjected to extensive clinical tests with highly satisfactory results as a substitute for quinine in the treatment of malaria. It is estimated that malaria claims 9,000,000 sufferers in the United States every year. e+9
New Plant of Pennsylvania Salt Co. T ^ H E Pennsylvania Salt Co. has purchased approximately 50 acres of land on the Willamette River in Portland, Ore., on which it will soon start the erection of a chemical plant. The first unit will be for the production of sodium and potassium chlorates, and later it is planned to increase the plant to produce various chemicals by electrolytic and other processes. Power will be supplied from the Bonneville Dam. The Chipman Chemical Co., Bound Brook, X. J., will cooperate in the sale and distribution cf sodium chlorate, the demand for which has been considerably increased by the difficulty of obtaining shipments from foreign countries. e^®
Nickel Serves W«r Needs Y~EAR-ENn figures will show that more *** nickel was sold in 1940 than in any previous year in the life of the industry, according to the president of The International Nickel Co. of Canada. Increased war demands in 1940 have been met by the nickel industry as to quantity and quality and peacetime requirements have been fully supplied. All of the company's mines and refineries operated continuously. The increase in consumption over 1939 occurred principally in the United States. The price of nickel in Canada and the United States remained unchanged in the past year, at a figure which has held since 1926, and no change is anticipated at this time. The steel industry in 1940 accounted for over 50 per cent of nickel consumption. The second largest market was nickelcopper alloys, nickel silvers, Monel, malleable nickel, and Inconel; electroplating was the next greatest consumer. Nickel was also used in cast iron, heatresisting and electrical resistance alloys, and numerous other alloys.
December 25, 1940
NEWS
E. R. Erickson, professor of chenrstry at Carthage College, Carthage, 111., has resigned his professorship to accept a position with the research staff of the Mathicson Alkali Works, Niagara Falls, X. Y.
NECROLOGY
Robert L. Swain, editor of Drug Topics and Drug Trade News, was presented with the Remington Medal of the Xew York branch of the American Pharmaceutical Association at a testimonial dinner on Xovembor 28, for constructive work in the interests of American pharmacy. Gaylord G. Thompson, formerly supervisor of the application and control of carbide tools at the Gisholt Machine Co., has been appointed tool engineer for the McKenna Metals Co., Latrobe, Penna. Rafael Valdez, formerly general superin tendent of the Valdes Sugar Co., Guayaquil, Ecuador, is now in Xew York, N. Y., studying new processes before returning to Ecuador to open a consulting office
Terms Proposed on Hand of Fabrics F> BCOGMZING the need for clarification •*•*• of terms used in describing the "hand" of fabrics, representatives of research associateships maintained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists and at the National Bureau of Standards by Committee EM 3 on Textile Materials of the American Society for Testing Materials devised the accompanying table of proposed terms for naming physical properties of fabrics related to hand and describing corresponding < >m ponents of hand.
PHYSICAL PROPERTY
Flexibility Compressibility Extensibility Resilience EK naity Surface contour 8urfacc friction Thermal character • Hicb to low.
1137 physiology of muscular contraction, osmotic properties of muscle, osmotic properties of calcium and magnesium phosphates, and the physiology of milk secretion.
March G. Bennett
Howard Smith has been appointed man ager of varnish-resin sales for the Bakelite Corp., with offices at New York, X. Y. Mr. Smith has been in charge of the Cleveland sales office since 1932. Robert A. Stewart, who obtained the Ph.D. degree in agricultural biochemistry at the Pennsylvania State College in August, has accepted a position as biochemist with the Quaker Oats Co., Chicago, 111.
EDITION
MARCH
G.
BENNETT,
treasurer and
director of Samuel Cab.4, Inc., Boston, Mas., died Xovember 4 after an operation. He was 71 years old. He had been in the company's employ since 1889, becoming general manager in 1907 when it was incorporated, and treasurer in 1917.
William W. Cobbs A FALL which occurred during a hunting trip Xovember 21 brought death to William W. Cobbs, research chemist tor the Monsanto Chemical Co. Born in Montgomery, Ala., Mr. Cobbs was employed at the Monsanto plant in Anniston, Ala., from 1925 to 1936. He was aligned to the company's research laboratories at Dayton, Ohio, in 1937, and at the time of his death was working on special duty at St. Louis. Mr. Cobbs contributed to many of Monsanto's developments in the field of phosphate products.
Edward B. Meigs EDWARD B. MEIGS, since 1937 chief of the Division of Nutrition and Physiology, Bureau of Dairy Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, died Xovember 5 in Washington after a long illness. Dr. Meigs was born in Philadelphia September 10, 1879, and received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1900 and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1904. In 1904 he was an assistant in physiology at the University of Pennsylvania, spent a year at the University of Jena, from 1907 to 1910 taught at the Harvard Medical School, and from 1910 to 1915 was a fellow in physiology at the Wistar Institute, leaving there to become physiologist of the Bureau of Dairy' Industry. He organized and took charge of the nutrition laboratory at Beltsville, Md. Dr. Meigs was a member of many scientific societies, including the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, which he
joined in 1926.
EXPLANATION
Ease of bending Ease of squeesing Ease of stretching Ease of recovery from deformation Weight per unit volume Divergence from planeneee Resistance to slipping Apparent temperature difference of fabric and human akin
His special interests were
RANGE OP CORRESPONDING COMPONENT*
Pliable to stiff Soft to hard Stretchy to »ion stretchy Springy to limp Compact to open Rough to smooth Harsh to slippery Cool to warm
John A . Vickers JOHN
A.
VICKKRS,
president
of
the
Vickeis Petroleum Co., died Xovember 11 in Wichita, Kans., at the age of 48. He was also president of the Jay hawk Oil Co., the Tr»-State Exploration Co., the Petroleum Processes Corp., and the Penn-Kansas Petroleum Co., and was a director of the American Petroleum Institute.
W E ANWOUNXE with regret the death of the following: Frank J. Andress, instructor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. Member since 1911. Edward T. fiischoff, president, Ernst BischofT Co., Inc., Ivory ton. Conn. Member since 1936. Ralph R. Jenlri as, research investigator, Division of Biochemistry and Microbiology, General Foods Corp., Geneva, X. Y. Member since 1937. Ludwig Saarbach, consultant, Xew York, X. Y. Member since 189T August Sattler, chief chemist, Southern California Kdison G>., I>ong Beach, Calif. Member since 1907. Frank O. Smolt, retired, West Los Angeles, Calif. Member since 1934. W. J. Stoddard, president, Stoddard, Inc., Atlanta, Ga. Member since 1931. CUrenct G. Sutton, proprietor, B. B. Culture Laboratory, Inc., Yonkers, N. Y. Member since 1926. Martin Szamatolski, director, Givaudan-Delawanna, Inc., Delawanna, X. J. Member since 1928. Everett W. Turley, automotive engineer, Olson Transportation Co., Green Bay, Wia. Member since 1935. P. Van Campen, research chemist, Billitou Tin Maatschappij, Am hem, Holland. Member since 1939. George J. Ziser, Standard Oil Co. Refinery, I>os Angeles, Calif. Member sinoe 1937.
