The Journal of Industrial a n d Engineering,Chemistry Published by THE AMERIGAN GHEMIGAL SOCIETY
Volume 111
OCTOBER, 1911
No. 10
B O A R D OP EDITORS.
Edidor: M. C. Whitaker.. Associate Editors : Geo. P. Adamson, E. G, Bailey, H. E. Barnard, C. A. Browne, G. E. Barton, Wm. Brady, Wm. Campbell, F. B. Carpenter, Virgil Coblentz, Francis I. Dupont, W. C. Ebaugh, Wm. C. Geer, W. F. Hillebrand, W. D. Home, Karl Langenbeck, A. D. Little, C. E. Lucke, P. C. McIlhiney, E. B. McCready, Wm. McMurtrie, J. Merritt Matthews, T. J. Parker, J. D. Pennock, W. D. Richardson, Geo. C. Stone, Ernst Twitchell, Robt. Wahl, Wm. H. Walker, W. R. Whitney, A, N. Wright. Published monthll. Subsalption price to non-members of the American Chemical Society, $6.00 yearly. oreinn postage. seventy-five cents, Canada. Cuba and Mexico excepted. Entered at the Post-Office, Easton, Pa., as Second-class Matter.
EDITORIAL^ THE CONSERVATION OF RESEARCH.
The presidental address of Sir William Ramsay before the British Association for the Advancement of Science a t its eighty-first annual meeting is rich in suggestions of great and important problems for scientific research and development, and also points directly a t some of the issues of so-called conservation. Sir William declared t h a t if the stored-up energy in a ton of radium could be utilized in a space of thirty years instead of the inevitable period of 1,700 years, it would propel a I ~ , O O Oton ship with a force of I ~ , O O O horse-power‘ a t the rate of fifteen knots during the entire thirty years. This prospect, however, is dimmed b y the fact that the production of radium does not exceed half a n ounce a year. The study of radium and its compounds has finally led Madame Curie to establish beyond a doubt its identity as a chemical element which conforms t o a position in the periodic system under barium. The establishment of radium as a n element and the determination of its atomic weight and periodic relations are important matters from a chemical standpoint. These discoveries are also important from the standpoint of establishing a foundation upon which further researches into the peculiar properties of this element may be undertaken. The potential possibilities of radioactive substances with stored-up energy and the transmutation inclinations displayed b y them and their associates will always be a n inviting field for research. Some of this research will be inspired b y purely scientific motives; some b y commercial needs. We may rest assured .that all these research results will be exploited by the promoters and amateur conservationists. .Turning t o the more directly practical subject of
energy from coal, Sir William declared that if the rapid increase in the output of coal mined in the British Isles continued, the supply would be exhausted in a hundred and seventy-five years-. a very brief space in a nation’s life. He urged that the present reckless waste should be discontinued and t h a t every possible means of economizing should be adopted. Specific suggestions for its conservation were the use of turbines, gas engines, creation of power a t the pit mouth and its distribution electrically, the abandonment of wasteful domestic fires in open hearths and the substitution of central heating plants. He even went so far as t o recommend legislation t o control the expenditure of the nation’s fuel supply. The conservation of the coal pile is as important t o America as it is to Great Britain. I t is important to the factory manager from the standpoint of economy in production, important t o the mine owner from the standpoint of permanence of investment, and important t o humanity a t large if they have a regard for the future. These and many other reasons make improvement in coal economy a n important field for research. The resources of chemistry and physics alone will not produce the highest attainable efficiency in the conservation of coal. Many worthy inventions fail through faulty business administration, so it appears that humanity is not doing its best with the administration of knowledge placed a t its disposal for the conservation of the world’s fuel supply. I t is an easy matter to show the loss in energy in converting coal into power or light, but how about the loss due t o failure to utilize the natural power facilities of .the country which eliminate the use of coal altogether? The conservationist who “protects” a great waterfall from being utilized for producing power does not
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T H E J O U R N 4 - i OF I N D U S T R I A L AND ENGINEERIhTG C H E M I S T R Y .
Oct., 1911
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the industrial development of the country. He does not understand industrial economics and its relation to human wealth, life and comfort, and may even be suspected of not understanding conserva-
tion. Conservationists may be divided into two classes : sentimental conservationists and scientific conservationists. The- loudest of these is the sentimental conservationist. The ruins of the Temple of Philae were “saved” a t the expense of an increased capacity of the Assuan dam which would have irrigated and rendered fertile and productive thousands of acres of the Nile Valley, t o the great relief of a n impoverished nation and race. Great waterfalls are “protected” a t the expense of our coal deposits and power-using industrial enterprises. The warnings of the scientific conservationists like Sir William Ramsay, are usually ignored and the scientific facts they adduc: are swept aside b y the impassioned eloquence of the sentimental conservationist or reformer. While the chemical and physical investigator is working with unselfish devotion t o solve problems which will conserve the world’s resources for the benefit of mankind, why should not the people entrusted with the administration of the results of these investigations conserve them on a basis of scientific facts unmixed with sentimentality? A workman with a bed, a bath, and a steady job is infinitely more important to humanity and t o industry, and more inspiring to look a t than a decayed temple. A factory using natural power and furnishing employment for hundreds of men and women under clean, light, sanitary conditions is certainly a better example of proper conservation of the researches of science than the dissipation of thousands of horse-power of energy b y the reservation of a waterfall to satisfy the gaping curiosity of a few tourists. THE RELATION OF CHEMISTRY TO HIGHWAY ENGINEERING.
Until very recently there has been but little need upon the part of highway engineers t o call upon the chemist for aid in the science of road building. Earth, gravel and broken stone had been for many years practically the only materials necessary t o successfully meet the requirements of country and suburban traffic, and previous experience had shown t h a t the chemical analysis of these materials was of but slight assistance in determining their value for practical work. With comparatively few exceptions, highway engineers in this country had received little or no scientific education in road construction, and the few highly trained men engaged in such work found that sufficient information regarding the properties of materials employed could be obtained from a few simple physical tests and the use of the microscope. A very small number of chemists were en-
gaged in investigating the reason why certain classes of rock proved to be better road materials than others, when physical properties alone would n& explain matters, but such work was in no sense of a commercial nature and was conducted almost exclusively ih government laboratories., These conditions maintained until a few years ago when the constantly increasing use of motor vehicles caused the subject t o be considered from a n entirely different point of view. The rapid destruction of many of our best and most carefully built macadam roads soon proved that broken stone as previously used was inadequate to meet the requirements of this new kind of traffic, and highway engineers found themselves confronted with a very serious problem. The rock dust necessary to bond together the coarser fragments of the macadam road, and preserve its integrity, was being removed by the passage of every automobile and this dust becoming a nuisance to those who used and lived near the road caused an insistent demand from the public not only for more lasting roads but for dustless roads as well. The highway engineer was thus forced t o search for new materials of construction. After much experimenting he has found that the conditions of modern traffic may be successfully met b y employing a variety of substances as binders for the road materials previously used. These new substances he has termed “ d u s t preventives” and “ road binders.” The great majority of these materials come under the classification of bitumens, but a number of cheap by-products from various industrial sources have also been utilized for this purpose. Most of these dust preventives ’ and road binders are extremely variable in composition and it has become practically impossible for the modern highway engineer t o intelligently conduct his work without the assistance of the chemist. The field thus opened is practically a new one in chemistry, although in its broadest sense it includes the chemistry of paving materials as practiced in connection with municipal work. For the purpose of illustrating the wide scope of this new field, some of the more important materials may be mentioned. These consist of petroleums and petroleum products, including residual petroleums, fluxes, oil-asphalts, and fluxed or cut-back oil asphalts; malthas; native asphalts and other solid native bitumens and asphaltic cements produced by fluxing them; coal tars and water gas tars, their distillates and residues ; mixtures of t a r with petroleum or asphalt products, bituminous emulsions, and fictitious asphalts ; bituminous aggregates, including rock asphalts or bituminous rocks, bituminous concrete and asphalt or other bituminous topping ; waste sulphite liquors ; sucrates of certain inorganic bases ; soluble silicates ; calcium and magnesium chlorides; and various organic byproducts from industrial processes. The most important class of materials a t present, the bitumens, alone offer a n inexhaustible field of research in connection with their utilization in road construction. These products must be considered and examined as they exist and as they are offered
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