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THE TOWN AND THE CHEMIST C. C. RIPLINGER, ALLIANCE, OHIO Frequently the chemist in the small city or town finds himself called upon to pass judgment on chemical problems arising out of the civic activities of his community. Approximately five years ago a knock on the front door aroused me from a reverie concerning the orbits and gyrations of electrons and protons dispersed throughout a sea of intangible and hypothetical ether. In a mood similar to that of KekulC, when formulating his benzene ring concept, I answered the summons and, on opening the door, perceived a pompous individual who introduced himself as the safety director of our little city. Possibly because he had no search warrant, he courteously declined my somewhat reluctant invitation to step into the parlor, moved his basket into the foreground, causing a musical tinkling of glass therein, and sweeping a newspaper covering from its top, revealed to my wondering vision nine small bottles, each containing a few cubic centimeters of a colored liquid. "These are mouth samples of liquor," he explained, "obtained by detectives who, having bought drmks in various 'soft drink' places, retained the liquid in their mouths and stepping out, emptied the liquor into these small bottles which they always carry with them. Can you analyze these?" I looked askance at these literal offerings from the mouths of men and marveled a t the fortitude displayed in refusing to permit a single swallow to destroy the evidence. These samples ranged from eight to twenty cubic centimeters, seeming to indicate a remarkable variation in mouth capacity, or an occasional leaky throat. Carrying as I was a t this time the burdens of the chemical department of a small and well founded, but not so well funded, college, the problem of handling the city's liquor work meant an addition to my labors of no mean magnitude. However, this extra responsibility was accepted cheerfully on the grounds of the civic duty which every chemist owes to his community. At this point I would raise a question. I have never been sure in my own mind that the teaching chemist is justified in taking on any large amount of outside chemical work. Where such has been done, I have observed that the teaching ultimately suffers. The youth of today need the help, cooperation, sympathy, and philosophy of the teacher, these essential elements bemg given best by frequent private conferences, the latter requiring all the spare time and strength that the average man or woman can command. However, this is a moot question and one that is worthy of further discussion in these columns. Owing to the lack of a dipping refractometer, the following method was used for determining the alcoholic content in these small samples.
It will be recognized as a small edition of the officialmethod and by noting the additional precautions, good checks can be had. Much less time is required for the new procedure and the equipment can be found in the average high-school laboratory. Two 25 cc. pycnometers of similar make--ordinary specific gravity b o t t l e w e r e selected from stock. A glass cap was blown for one so that the flange of the cap rested on the bottle proper, thus entirely covering the neck and stopper. This cap served to retard evaporation and t o increase the weight of the pycnometer. I t can be made by cutting a sufficient length from the bottom of a small test tube and flaring the mouth of the cap thus formed for the flange. I t need not fit the bottle accurately. This pycnometer and cap were counterbalanced with the second pyaometer, adding sand and bits of paper until almost balanced, then sealing the stopper and capillary with paraffin and adding or removing the wax until the correct weight was attained. The counterbalance should always be used in weighing the liquor pycnometer. The latter was calibrated in the usual way. The weights also were calibrated by Richard's method. These precautions are absolutely essential for good results. Approximately &lo cc. of the liquor were poured into the pycnometer and weighed with the greatest possible accuracy. This was then emptied into a 50 cc. distilling flask, rinsing the pycnometer with 15-20 cc. of distilled water into the same flask. A pinch of precipitated chalk was added and, in the case of wines and beers, also a small pinch of tannic acid. The delivery tube of the flask having previously been bent so that the delivery end pointed downward when the flask was vertical, the latter was attached to a small vertical Liebig coil condenser, a la mode for distillations of this type. From 15-20 cc. of distillate were collected in the same pycnometer, distilling slowly. Distilled water was then added, avoiding mixing as far as possible, until it was judged that the insertion of the stopper would fill the pycnometer with a minimum ovedow of liquid through the capillary. The stopper was put in place, but the overflow was not removed from its top. The pycnometer and contents were placed in a shallow water-bath and brought to the desired temperature, this taking about twenty minutes. Removing the bottle from its bath, it was placed on the table and a 100gram weight suspended by a stout thread slowly lowered until it rested on the stopper. The first insertion of the stopper having been made with a gentle force, this latter step insures the stopper penetrating the same distance into the bottle in each experiment. Owing to slight departures from the cylmdrical of both neck and stopper, it is wise to make vertical marks on these and to bring the marks into coincidence on succeeding trials. Only by observing precautions of this type can ordinary
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specific gravity bottles be made to give consistent volume readings. The excess liquid was rapidly removed from the stopper and sides of the pycnometer, the cap put in place, and the pycnometer and contents weighed rapidly and accurately. The weight of the alcohol, W, was determined from the specific gravity tables. W/W1 X 100 = % Alcohol (by weight), where WI is the weight of the liquor sample. Having completed the liquor analysis, it is only a step from the laboratory to the court-room where the chemist is called on to "tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth as you would answer unto God." Keeping this in mind, one of the first questions put to him by the State's Attorney is, "Do you consider this liquor fit for beverage purposes?" In spite of an experience covering hundreds of cases, I never entirely overcame some inner misgivings when answering this question. One legal light, seemingly a member of the "Bootlegger's Protective Union," asked a witness for the State, "What is alcohol?" The witness replied by giving the formula, which sufficed to satisfy the attorney's curiosity, he evidently having failed to include chemistry in his educational equipment. The social service rendered in this type of work has yielded experiences and contacts that will never be forgotten and there remains a certain and perhaps excusable pride in having been at the front in one of the greatest moral crusades of our day. Various other calls have come to us from time to time. Only recently, a white-haired farmer and his good wife drove a distance of several miles in an old-fashioned buggy, kept from sharing the fate of the "One Horse Shay" by snndry bits of wire and binder twine, bringing a quart of dirty looking water in an equally dirty frnit jar, for my inspection. My answer to his inquiry as to the cost of such an analysis elicited the following remark; "Good land! My neighbors have worn out my pump using this water and I can't afford to get a new one as it is. But I have been having so much 'stummick' trouble." In view of our mutual limitations, we finally agreed that the best solution of his problem was to boil the water and to warn the neighbors to do likewise. Although we have a city chemist who takes care of the municipal water and sewage problems, there are many requests for the examination of well and cistern water and these come chiefly from folks who have no knowledge of the work required for the solution of their problems; consequently they are unable to comprehend the financial expense entailed. Much tact and diplomacy are frequently demanded to avoid hurting the feelmgs of our good neighbors. Food analyses, poison cases, soils and fertilizers, stucco and cements, and medical work are items that have fallen within our experience. The
eternal rivalry between butter and "oleo" is a source of some work. All in all, the contacts of the chemist become very numerous and intimate in so far as the life of his community is concerned, and he can become a factoi of ever-increasing importance, if he so desires. However, certain pitfalls must be pointed out. The idea of service to the &-unity must be held paramount. If he be a teacher, in serving his community he is serving his institution, and herein lies the justification of such outside work. The idea of financial gain must be kept in the background as relatively unworthy. Also, the teaching chemist must not expend so much of his energy on this sort of thmg that he neglects his students, who look to him for guidance in all matters of the mind and spirit. If he does, he is forgetting the purpose for which his institution was established, neutralizing his physical and mental effectiveness, and, last but not least, failmg to gain the affection and respect of those committed to his care, thus losing the most precious reward that comes to the laborer in the field of education. Honest conscientious service to all will be the motivating force in the activities of all worthy followers of Liebig.
