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similar to those found with this mixture would also be experienced with the technical mixtures in the factory. If Mr. Tuttle will refer to my publications he will note that I have carried out many experiments with litharge and other ingredients and have emphasized the importance of a wider basis for raw rubber testing.
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sarily are not comparable). I feel, and from what he has written I believe that Dr. Stevens agrees with me, that the amount of this variability is very much less than has been popularly supposed to exist. We have been sticking to an antiquated and wholly insufficient test because of the seeming impossibility HENRYP. STEVENS of getting a new and better one adopted. Perhaps I did not go far enough in my suggestion regarding the improvement in the 15 B O R O U G H HIGH ST. LONDON BRIDGS,s. E. 1 testing formula; it might have been better to have included LONDON, ENGLAND the suggestion that to the rubber, sulfur, and zinc oxide, we add August 4, 1921 sufficient organic accelerator to cure properly the standard high grades of plantation rubber. There can be no logical objection Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: to organic accelerators; we know that some crude rubbers contain them, and they materially aid in the vulcanization, and to Dr. Stevens states that he has tried zinc oxide and did not find it to have any appreciable effect on the results. It will add such an accelerator would merely tend to a greater uniformity. be quite apparent that zinc oxide will eliminate any retarding Just which one should be used is a matter which could be decided effect caused by small amounts of acid and hence cannot fail by the leading plantation chemists. The consumers are in the to have some effect in reducing that part of the variability unfortunate position that by reason of their ignorance as to the which is due to impurities in the rubber, and not to variations manner of preparation, they are unable to make these tests effectively-they must be made at the place where the rubber is in the rubber itself. He is quite mistaken in assuming that it is only a few accel- prepared. It will be a great step forward if the planters and conerators, such as the dimethyldithiocarbamates, which are in- sumers could get together on this subject and find out the true fluenced by the presence of basic oxides; some of the weaker amount of variability, its causes, and the meansfor its elimination. JOHN B. TUTTLE accelerators, such as thiocarbanilide, are absolutely ineffective 68 BANKS?. in the absence of basic fillers. In this country, it is an almost NEWYORK, N. 1‘. universal custom to have some basic oxides present in any comAugust 20, 1921 pound containing organic accelerators, although there are some with which this is not necessary. The Nitrogen Supply of the World There can be no question regarding the impossibility of using a large number of formulas for testing rubber; one should suffice, Editor of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry: and the simpler the formula, the better. However, we must The nitrogen demand and supply has of late been the subject not lose sight of the fact that we are testing the quality of the among us of much thought and discussion. It is indeed one of . crude rubber, and not whether or not there are minute amounts the most important and far-reaching problems with which the of organic accelerators which have been retained during the chemist has to deal. For this reason, it has seemed to me worth process of coagulation, etc. Hence, we should use the simplest while to prepare for the benefit of the readers of THISJOURNAL formula which will develop the facts regarding the crude rubber a brief digest of a recently published German book’ dealing with only. If the simple formuIa of rubber and sulfur would do this, this subject. there could be no objection to its use, but the facts are against The title of the book is “The Nitrogen Supply of the World;” it. Dr. Stevens’ experiments with zinc oxide and with litharge the author, Walter Eucken. It discusses the subject solely show that he, like many others, has felt the urgent need for some from the point of view of economics, mentioning only incidentally better way of testing crude rubber than by the simple formula the chemical, biological, and technical aspects of the subject. of rubber and sulfur. He admits that the almost exclusive The periods before, during, and after the world war are treated in use of this formula by the chemists in the East has given rise separate sections. to a false impression as to the variability of plantation rubber. In the section devoted to the pre-war period an account is Well, if the use of this formula by the plantation laboratories given of the development, both of the demand for and supply produces false impressions, what else can we expect in the labora- of.nitrogen throughout the world. There is also a careful detories of the consumers? Is it not logical to suppose that they scription of the world’s nitrogen market as it then existed, inwill have as large variations in their crude rubber tests as have cluding its organization, its method of fixing prices, and the been shown by the chemists of the Far East? And when they syndicates and cartels which dominated it. do obtain these differences, will they not feel a certain prejudice The section devoted to the war period is divided into two against plantation rubber which may be, and in my opinion is, parts, one dealing with the situation in Germany, the other absolutely unwarranted? with that in allied and neutral countries. The first part is Dr. Stevens has surely compared the rate of vulcanization especially interesting to us. The author states that the total by means of the rubber-sulfur mixture, of an exceptionally clean, German nitrogen supply on hand in April 1914 plus that captured thoroughly washed rubber. with the so-called “slab rubber.” later in Antwerp, Ostende, and northern France amounted to The former, containing practically no impurities, will hardly 50,000 tons. In 1913 to 1914 the coke ovens and gas works vulcanize a t all; the latter, with all sorts of fermentation prod- in Germany produced 110,000 tons, but with the initial slump ucts, vulcanizes rapidly. A vulcanization test of this type in the iron industry at the beginning of the war this dropped to would condemn the former; in other words, we’are placing a 65,000 tons of nitrogen per year. There was a small arc instalpremium on fermented rubber; on delay in coagulation: on lation (Pauling) at Muldenstein, near Bitterfeld, in the brown poorly washed rubber; on general carelessness and poor manage- coal region designed to operate op off-peak power in peace time, ment. In the face of the excellent results obtained in the in- and another similar plant was started a t Zschornewitz in the dustry with the use of plantation rubber, we dare not accept same region in 1915. There was also an arc plant a t Rhina the logical conclusion. Obviously there is an error in our argu- in Baden operated by electricity supplied by Swiss water power. ment and equally obviously, the error lies in the means by In 1917 the plant a t Muldenstein had to shut down onaccount which we measure quality. 1 “Die Stickstoffversorgung der Welt, Eine volkswirtschaftliche Practically every one interested in the subject believes that Untersuchung,” by Walter Eucken. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart, there is some variability in plantation rubber (confining our 1921. 1 8 5 p p . 2 3 . 5 X 1 5 . 5 cm. Price M. 28. Bound in half linen, argument to standard high grades only, the poorer grades neces- M. 35. ..e...........
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THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
of the coal shortage, that a t Rhina because of technical diBculties and that at Zschornewitz blew up-so that these installations never made any significant contribution to the nitrogen supply. There were cyanamide plants a t Knapsack and Trostberg with a combined output of 12,000 tons of nitrogen per year, while the Haber-Bosch plant at Oppau had a n output of 7000 tons with a new plant under construccion which assured a supply of 30,000 tons per year. Altogether, these several sources would furnish something like 110,000 tons of nitrogen per year. This supply, together with the 50,000 tons on hand, appeared adequate for all the German military requirements. But i t was immediately evident that the residue available for agriculture would be wholly inadequate, for in 1913 Germany had used 215,000 tons of nitrogen in fertilizers. Vigorous measures were therefore taken a t once to increase the supply of nitrogen Walter Oswald discovered that the addition of chlorides prevented the decomposition of ammonia a t high temperatures in the retorts, and facilitated its condensation; but this advantage was minimized and attempts to increase the supply of nitrogen from this source checkmated by the stagnation in the iron industry and the resultant lessened coke production. The cyanamide plants a t Knapsack and Trsstberg were enlarged to furnish 22,000 tons, new plants were erected at Waldhut in Baden to produce 8000 tons, a t Pisteritz in central Germany to produce 30,000, and at Chorzow in upper Silesia to produce 15,000 tons, making a total of 75,000 tons of nitrogen per year from cyanamide. The Haber-Bosch plant a t Oppau was further enlarged to yield about 70,000 tons and another similar plant was started a t Merseburg to yield 30,000 tons of nitrogen per tyear. These sources, with the 65,000 tons from coal. would give in the early part of 1916 an output of 240,000 tons of_ nitrogen per year. Estimating the military requirements at 60,000 tons, the residue of 180,000 tons, if not ample, still appeared to be adequate as an emergency supply of nitrogen for agriculture. But the calculations proved to be utterly illusory. I n the fu-st place, the rated outputs because of unavoidable technical difficulties were almost never fully attained. In the second place, the military requirements increased far beyond any expectation. The so-called “Hindenburg program” proposed on August 31, ,1916, and soon adopted, required for military purposes alone: 240,000 tons of nitrogen per year-or an amount equal to the total rated output! The Germans redoubled their efforts. The by-product output, thanks to the tremendous metal requirements of the Hindenburg program, would be 100,000 tons per year. The cyanamide plants could be but slightly expanded because of the great coal requirements, but the Haber-Bosch plant a t Merseburg was enlarged to yield 130,000 tons, making a total output of 390,000 tons of nitrogen per year. Actually these enormous outputs were not fully realized. The coke ovens and gas plants did indeed produce in 1917 to 1918, 100,000 tons, but the cyanamide plants produced only 66,000 and the HaberBosch plants 105,000 tons-or a total of 271,000 tons of nitrogen. German agriculture, which in 1914 took 215,000 tons of nitrogen in commercial fertilizers, actually received in 1915 to 1916, 79,000, in 1916 to 1917,109,000, and in 1917 to 1918 only 92,000 tons of nitrogen. I n other words, in spite of its tremendous expansion, the German fixed nitrogen industry was only able to keep pace with the military requirements, and German agriculture never got more than 40 per cent of its peace-time requirements of commercial nitrogen. Its supply of nitrogen in the form of,manures showed a corregponding deficit. The author points out that this deficiency of nitrogen was one of the most important reasons for the decrease in the productivity of German soil during the war, and was therefore one of the economic reasons for the collapse of Germany. He therefore questions whether the efforts to increase the nitrogen supply, in spite
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of their magnitude and their success in meeting the immediate military requirements, can be looked upon as successful. The final section, devoted to the post-war situation and the outlook for the future, both in Germany and outside of Germany, is also of much interest. I n Germany, while the population has decreased about 11 per cent during the war the total available human food supply has decreased nearly 40 per cent. This has resulted in a marked increase in mortality in urban population and a marked decrease in industrial efficiency. Importation of foodstuff offers no solution of the difficulty-for it requires an ificrease in the export of manufactured goods, and this is impossible until adequate nourishment is secured. The only way out is to increase the domestic production of foodstuff and the prime necessity here is an increase of nitrogenous fertilizer. If only the amount corresponding to the consumption in 1913 to 1914 were to be used, 445,000 tons of artificial nitrogen would be required because of the great diminution in the supply of manure. The actual yearly output of the partly completed war plants is put a t 310,000 tons of nitrogen-so that, instead of the overproduction which was predicted during the warthere is an acute domestic demand for all the nitrogen which these plants can produce. The production in Chile, too, in spite of the many technical and economic improvements introduced during and after the war, has shown a marked decline as compared with war and prewar figures. In the United States there has been a marked increase in the production of by-product ammonia, but this has been balanced by a corresponding decrease in the supply from similar sources in England, Belgium, and France, caused by difficulties in the coal mining industry, difficulties which are but slowly disappearing. On the other hand, the author emphasizes that there must be a marked increase in the demand for nitrogenous fertilizer all over the world as compared with pre-war times because of the greatly increased recognition of its importance. All told, therefore, he sees a world-wide demand for all the nitrogenous fertilizer which can reasonably be produced in the near future. So far as the relative advantage of nitrogen from cyanamide versus that from Haber-Bosch ammonia is concerned, the author states that in spite of the relative cheapness of Haber-Bosch ammoni?’; because of the high cost of sulfuric acid, cyanamide nitrogen-is cheaper in Germany than the nitrogen of ammonium sulfate. He also expresses his confidence that in spite of the disturbing effects of anomalous industrial conditions and depreciated exchange in Chile, German fixed nitrogen will be able to compete successfully with Chile saltpeter a t least in Germany after, just as it did before the war. HARVARDUNIVERSITY ARTHUR B. LAMB CAMBRIDGE, MASS. September 6, 1921
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Adoption by the Colleges of Standard Metric Units -Addendum This paper by Dr. Eugene C. Bingham was presented a t the “Special Order on World’s Standardization” before the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry a t the 62nd Meeting September of the American Chemical Society, New York, N. Y., 6 to 10, 1921. ~~
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The investigation of white clays east of the Mississippi River has been practically completed a t the Ceramic Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, a t Columbus, Ohio. The results indicate that none of the clay samples were similar to English china clay, which under the microscope is seen to be composed largely of plate-like particles, whereas the American clays, particularly secondary kaolins, contain more or less irregular or amorphous particles. The primary kaolins from North Carolina resemble English clay more closely in physical appearance than other clays, but have a much coarser grain and contain more free silica than English clay.
