Industrial
News
Edition
Engineering Chemistry and.
Published by TheAmericanChemical Society
JUNE 10, 1926
Vol. 4, N o . 11
The Mid-West Regional Meeting means of which one m a y give numerical expression to the amount of material adsorbed on the surface of a liquid. Papers were read before four equally interesting symposia Friday afternoon. Prof. S. M . McElvain announced t h a t h e had synthesized seventeen piperidine derivatives which possess a local anesthetic value superior to that of cocaine. Chemically the compounds, of which there are two series, are 1-alkyl, 3 carboxethoxy, 4-piperidyl benzoates, and the para-amino derivatives thereof. I t is thought that t h e iso-amyl derivative is superior t o the rest. On Friday evening about four hundred sat down to a banquet over which W. Lee Lewis presided in his usual brilliant and humorous style. The speakers, Professor McBain, Harrison E. Howe, and W. T. Pearce endorsed Dr. Frank's appeal for the establishment of closer relationship between the natural and the social sciences and a humanizing of science t o make its discoveries understandable and usable t o the general public. Mr. Howe warmly approved President Frank's address earlier in t h e d a y and characterized it as t h e best sales argument for chemistry which he has had the pleasure of listening t o . He maintained that t h e chemistry group is doing more than any other scientific body to place the results of its work before the public and showed how greatly the cash value of the Society's publications exceeds t h e annual dues of t h e members. W. T . Pearce called attention to t h e challenge of the paint and varnish industry and stated t h a t its complete Americanization was closer to realization through the research of t h e past few years than ever before. The social side of t h e banquet was equally as auspicious as the intellectual. The rendition of several musical numbers by the University of Wisconsin Glee Club, winners in 1923, 1925, and 1926 of t h e Mid-West Intercollegiate Glee Club
N a t u r e smiled for she was in a genial mood and Madison was fair indeed. We could not better epitomize the spirit of the mid-west regional meeting of the American Chemical Society at Madison, Wis., than by these cryptic references to a season which is with us in a "burst of glory," and to t h e close cooperation of the weatherman on M a y 27 to 29. T h e total registration for the entire meeting was 37G. The advance guard for the gathering was supplied by t h e Section of Paint a n d Varnish Chemistry which opened its meet ings on M a y 27 with a symposium on the testing of paints for durability. About 100 members registered for the three-day session during which time 30 papers were presented. From the Division of Cellulose Chemistry there came some fifty members to listen t o the reading of twelve papers. On Friday morning, M a y 28, Dr. Glenn Frank, president of the University of Wisconsin, formally welcomed the guests. In his address he urged t h a t such organizations as t h e American Chemical Society take t h e lead in bringing to t h e public in readily understandable terms the productive a n d creative results of research t o the end t h a t there be eliminated the gulf which exists between the spirit of t h e laboratory and t h e spirit of the market place. In short, he urged a translation of t h e fruits of scientific, discoveries from t h e technical jargon of scholarship into t h e vernacular of the people. Prof. R. A. Gortner in his address before the general session on "Bound W a t e r " made a plea for more extended studies in the field of colloid chemistry and explained the mechanism whereby plants are enabled to prevent loss of water from their tissues b y evaporation. Following him Prof. James W. McBain of the University of Bristol, Hngland, described his scholarly research whereby he was able to establish for t h e first time experimental proof of t h e correctness of Gibbs' theorem by
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