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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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Oct., 1911
T H E J O U R N A L OF I*YDb-.YTRIA4LA N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
b y manufacturers. I t is true that the immense amount of study- accorded this class of materials b y chemists throughout the world is responsible for a very large portion of our knowledge of organic chemistry, but most of the work so f a r accomplished has been devoted to the isolation of certain organic compounds present in the crude material or t o the preparation of new compounds, and this work is of little value in the field mentioned, which is obliged to deal with an endless variety of the most complex mixtures, solutions and emulsions of hydrocarbons and their derivatives, many of which are unstable and are undergoing constant changes, which affect their value as road materials. Comparatively few chemists have as yet entered this field and those who have so far obtained recognition for their work might almost be counted ,on the fingers of both hands. Methods of examination and annlysis a t present employed are more or less crude, and a vast amount of work will be necessary t o establish this branch of chemistry upon a satisfactory basis. The field is a most important one, however, and should prove attractive to many chemists and chemical engineers for whom it will most surely 'offer employment in the near future. Already its importance has been recognized by highway engineers of this and all of the progressive European countries as evidenced by the proceedings of the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses. The American Society for Testing Materials has established a Committee on the Testing of Road Materials, and the American Society of Civil Engineers has devoted much time and consideration to the subject. This branch of work will be recognized a t the Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry under the section on Fuels and Bituminous Materials. Xumerous chemical road material industries have recently sprung into existence, and many of those devoted to the manufacture of paving materials have widened the scope of their production to include various classes of dust preventives and road binders. Chemists are needed to control and perfect these processes, to inspect, analyze and specify products which are to be used and to carry on investigations relative to the utilization of by-products for road treatment and construction, t o improve old and devise new methods of examination, and to determine the effect of certain constituents upon the value of materials for this work. Innumerable problems might be mentioned for the consideration of the chemist engaged in this line of work, for instance the effect of light, heat, and atmospheric exposure upon various types of bitumens, accurate quantitative methods for the determination of paraffin scale in native bitumens and of naphthalene in tars and t a r products ; an accurate quantitative method for separating tars from petroleums and asphalts in bituminous mixtures ; a quantitative method for determining the presence of water gas t a r in coal t a r .products, an absolute method for recovering bitumens unaltered from bituminous aggregates, and so on ad infinitum. In order that the work of the chemist should be of
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greatest value in highway construction, it is, of course, essential that he have a thorough knowledge of how the materials which he examines are actually used and what effect peculiar local conditions and conditions controlled by the highway engineer will have upon the results obtained in practice, In like manner it is necessary for the modem highway engineer t o be informed in regard to the chemical and physical properties of the materials which he uses. During the coming winter a post-graduate course in highway engineering mill be offered, by Columbia University, which will include instruction in the chemistry of road materials, I t is therefore evident that the demand has already arisen for a new product of chemical and engineering sciences-'' The Chemical Highway Engineer"-to whom the country must look for information and assistance in the intelligent expenditure of a vast amount of public monev. This can best be realized from the fact that a t the close of 1 9 1 1 it is estimated that approximately one hundred and forty million dollars will have been spent b y this country in the construction and maintenance of highways during the year and subsequent annual expenditures will probably far exceed this amount. PR E vo ST H U B13 A R D .
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INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY.
Tentative rules governing the presentation and publication of papers before this body a t its meetings in September, 1912, have been issued, and in order that there may be no misunderstandings, all prospective authors should carefully read the rules that follow, submitting in writing any criticisms they may have to offer, together with suggested remedies for such criticisms. I . All papers must be in duplicate and legibly written, preferably typewritten. 2 . Each sheet must be written on one side only and ?tot on both sides. 3. Each paper must be accompanied by an abstract thereof, also legibly written, preferably typewritten, and which must be in duplicate. 4. Papers and their abstracts, both in duplicate, must be in the hands of the American Committee not later than June 30, 1 9 1 2 . All papers received prior to that time and accepted will be printed in their respective Sectional Volumes and distributed to such of the attending members of the Congress as may desire them a t or before the opening of the Congress. Papers received after that time, if accepted, will be printed, but may appear in an appendix which may or may not be ready by the opening of the Congress; the Congress cannot then undertake t o print them along with the papers of those sections to which they may be assigned. 5 . 411 papers or like contributions must be as concise as possible and must contain the full name and postoffice address of their respective authors ; further, what number, if any, of reprints of the paper or like contribution is desired. 6. Papers or other like contributions must be original and not elsewhere read or published, nor contributed
