T H E J O URiVAL OF IlVD U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y .
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i t should continue to bear the burden of a raw material of a higher cost than that used b y its competitors, and returned t o the use of nitrocellulose. Trusting t h a t the above somewhat lengthy statement will make the situation plain t o your readers, we remain, Yours very truly, EASTMAN KODAKCOMPANY. ROCHESTER. N Y , September 26, 191 1
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NOTE ON THE DETERMINATION OF THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF ETHYL ETHER, U. S. P.
The following method for the determination of the specific gravity of ethyl ether has given sathfactory, practical laboratory results, varying not more than two points in the fourth decimal place. A calibrated pyknometer of 2 5 cc. capacity, as shown in the sketch, is employed. To determine its volume the pyknometer is first weighed with water a t 2 5 O C., choosing a convenient mark on the stem, say 30 or 40, whichever may be more convenient, as indicated in the sketch by a line. The pyknometer is then filled with ether t o a little above the mark
Nov., I 9 I I
A METHOD FOR FILTRATION.
Analysts, and particularly those who are engaged in organic work, are frequently confronted with solutions containing precipitates which require a long time t o filter and some indeed quite impossible. The following will serve to illustrate: Subacetate precipitate in vanilla extract, jams, various crude drugs, wines, etc., gelatinous starchy solutions, macerated tissues in toxicological work, ferric and aluminum hydrates, and in fact any precipitate likely t o clog the pores of filter paper, pulp or asbestos. The writer, after having tried many schemes without success, has a t last obtained most satisfactory results by means of a n apparatus consisting of a suction pump, and a heavy side-necked Erlenmeyer flask, in the stopper of which is inserted a Buchner filter of convenient size. Over the holes is placed a double filter paper; this is wetted to fit tightly over the holes and the paper is then sprinkled evenly with coarse, acid-wkhed and ignited sea sand to a depth of from I - I I / ~ cm. The filtration may then be begun. The same idea may be used for the preparation of Gooch' crucibles in weighing precipitates dried in the air bath. HALSEYDURAND. DEPARTMENT OF H E A L T H ,
NEW Y O R K
CITY.
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GENERAL NOTES.
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Professor W. E. Adeney, F. I. C., curator and ex-Examiner in Chemistry of the Royal University of Dublin, arrived in New York City on October 7th, t o consult with the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission of New York on questions relating to the assimilation of sewage b y harbor waters. Dr. Adeney is distinguished for experimental researches in chemistry, the results of which have been published largely in the Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society and in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. With Professor Letts, of Belfast. he contributed a notable monograph on the pollution of estuaries and tidal waters with a description of experimental researches into the phenomena of the digestion of sewage by water, which was published as Appendix VI. of the Fifth Report of the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal.
A sulfuric acid plant with an annual capacity, of a t which the weight of water has been determined z j , o o o tons of acid is being erected in Cnrey, Ala., b y and placed in a I O Q O cc. beaker containing water which is carefully kept a t 2 5 O C. and constantly stirred R. A. Brown &Company. with a thermometer. When the volume of ether becomes constant in the pyknometer the excess of A committee dealing with the hygienic aspects of ether is drawn off b y means of a capillary pipette illumination has been appointed by the Minister of the until the desired mark is exactly reached. The Interior in France. The objects of the committee pyknometer is then quickly dried with soft flannel include the general effects of illumination on health, or filter paper and weighed. A capillary pipette for the framing of simple rules as to the best means of this purpose is easily made b y drawing out a n ordi- applying customary systems of lighting to various nary eye-dropper. GEO. D. ROSENGARTEN. industrial operations, the nature and causes of short LABORATORY O F T H E POWERS-%'EIGHTMANsight and impairment of vision, and their connection ROSENGARTEN Co , September. 1911 with defective living conditions, the study of methods --_--of measuring illumination, etc.
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Nov., 1911
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U , S T R I A L A.VD ESGIATEEKIATG CHEIMISTRI'.
Wm. P. Buchanan, a prominent chemist of Philadelphia, died on September 23rd as the result of burns sustained during an explosion of flash-light powder with which he was experimenting.
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professor of chemistry at the Alabama State University.
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Mr. Earle 0. Whittier has been appointed instructor in chemistry a t the University of Maine.
Dr. Davenport Fisher, formerly professor of chemistry a t the Annapolis Naval Academy, lately consulting chemist in Milwaukee, was killed by a street car on October 11th at the age of 80 years.
Dr. Alex. Findlay, special lecturer a t the Gniversity of Birmingham, has been appointed professor of chemistry at the University of Wales.
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The Eastern Blau Gas Co. has commenced erecting its new works at Portland, Me.
Mr. Herbert T. Salmonde has been appointed chemist and bacteriologist at the Memdale filters, in Springfield, Ill. He is leaving the Chicago Board of Health to take up his new work.
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Dr. Harvey TT. S17iley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, has received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Vermont, on October 6th.
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Dr. Edward Renouf, Collegiate Professor of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University since 1890, has retired from active service..
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Dr. Leon I. Shaw has been appointed instructor in chemistry a t Northwestern University.
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The Second Annual Cement show will take place in New York City in Madison Square Garden, Jan. 29th to Feb. 3rd, 1912. The acid chamber building of the Etiwan Fertilizer Co., of Charleston, S. C . , was totally destroyed by fire recently, entailing a loss of $50,000. It will be rcbuilt immediately.
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ITr. A. Whitaker, Jr., of the chemistry department of the College of the City of New York, has been appointed associate professor of metallurgy a t the University of Kansas.
A fifty-acre piece of level land recently reclaimed on the Cambridge side of the Charles River basin, between the Harvard and West Boston Bridges, has been selected for the new site of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The selection is contingent on favorable action by the city of Cambridge in closing up certain streets.
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Dr. J. P. hIontgomery, of the Mississippi Agricultural and Mining College, has been appointed adjunct
CONSULAR AND TRADE, NOTES. PROPOSED TEXTILE BUREAU IN GERMANY.
BRITISH LABOR STATISTICS.
The Correspondenz der Aeltesten der Kaufmannschaft (Berlin) of July 3 1st contains the copy of a resolution introduced in the Reichstag last March on the subject of the establishment of a n Imperial Textile Bureau. It was proposed t h a t the bureau should be used not only as a conditioning house, but also as a central office for the encouragement of the German textile industry generally. It was intended t o encourage the use of genuine instead of imitation material as regards dyes, t o aim a t the universal adoption of the metric system in the counting of yarns, to combat the weighing of silks, and t o carry out investigations as to technical improvements. The Aeltesten der Kaufmannschaft has nom forwarded a note t o the Ministry of the Interior deprecating the establishing of the bureau in question, owing t o the impracticability of making one central office responsible for so many and such widely varying objects.
Since 1906 the British Board of Trade has been conducting an inquiry in reference to the earnings and hours of labor of workers in various industries, including agriculture, in thc United Kingdom. The result of the inquiry so far as i t con1 cerns the metal, engineering and shipbuilding trades has recently been published. The table that follows gives the number of employces in each of the seven principal trades dealt k i t h in the report, together with their average weekly earnings, the total wages bill for the year, the average number of hours worked per week, and the holidays per year:
AMERICAN TRADE IN CEMENT. Cement imports into the United States have fallen away rapidly in the last few years. The value of Roman, Portland, and other hydraulic cements improved in 1907 was $3,669,926; in 1908, %1,973,472;in 1909, $712,62S; and in 1910, $602,833. Of the total for 191b, Germany furnishes $291,635 worth and Belgium, $160,374. Exports of cement from the United States have increased in value from $1,180,415 in 1907 t o $2,292,376 n 1910. Of the latter amount, however, $1,228,893 worth went to Panama. The two consumers next in importance werepCuba with $458,063 worth and Mexico with $161,696.
Industrr. Engineering, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . Iron and s t e e l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Light iron castings, etc. ..... Pig i r o n . . .................. Railway-carriage building. , . . Shipbuilding, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . Tin p l a t e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hours Number Total of em- Weekly wages per ployees. earnings. for year. week. 368,552 $6.29 $126,576,828 53.1 53.981 8.75 20,589,397 54.4 12,333 5.97 3,395,926 53.8 13,995 8.10 5,321,527 55.2 45,829 6.62 14349,117 53.6 109.285 7.43 40,362,074 52.9 7.79 3,712,137 47.8 10,921
Holidays per year. 13.4 12.4 11.5 7.3 7.3 10.8 10.8
I n the other metal trades investigated the average earning of men working a full week mere highest in the manufacture of jewelry, the amount being $9 2 3 , and the lowest in farriery and general smith's work, \There the average was $6.74. It is estimated that the annual average earnings for those engaged in the manufacture of chains, anchors, etc., were $404, while $204 represented the annual earnings of those engaged in the manufacture of needles, fishhooks, and fishing tackle.
