INDUSTRY & BUSINESS
Turkish r!tïnî
I
AI//J
Loan \ m u
Monsanto* with minority in terest in new company, will provide technical know-how
BLAZE AFTERMATH. N e w York City firemen inspect charred laboratory after fire which caused more than $250,000 of damage. There were no fatalities.
Fordham Gets Help After Fire New York University and St. Peters College have offered their facilities to the teachers and students formerly housed in the annex of Fordham University's chemistry building, destroyed by fire Jan. 9. The offer means that 45 students of pharmacy, 15 graduate students, and 5 teachers of chemistry can resume their work with little loss in time. Damage caused by the fire, which started in an unused section of the basement, was in excess of $250,000. Its cause has not been established. Two persons were injured, and about 200 were evacuated from the adjoining main chemistry building, which suffered no damage. Frank Monahan, a third year chemistry student, was taken to Fordham Hospital where he was treated for smoke poisoning. Monahan, a volunteer fire26
C&EN
FEB.
2 3,
1959
man, attempted to p u t out the fire after he discovered it in the unused part of the building. T h e other person injured was a university nurse who was cut on the hand while helping ίυ evacuate stu dents. While some reports indicated that there w e r e 30-odd blasts, university spokesmen indicate that these were all very minor explosions from individual containers of chemicals. Automobiles parked immediately adjacent to the building escaped exploding. Cost of the annex could not be deter mined, since it was a one-story war sur plus structure of frame construction. Most of the damage resulted from loss of laboratory equipment and apparatus, which will be replaced by insurance carriers as soon as space is available. Books and research notes also were reported lost.
jt\ NEW chemical plant foi Turkey IS I n the works. United States Development Loan F u n d has authorized a $6.1 mil lion loan to help build a plant near Istanbul. I t will make polyvinyl chlo ride, caustic soda» calcium carbide, acetylene, a n d r e l a t e d chemicals. The plant will be jointly owned b y Vinylex Limited Sirketi ( a private*" Turkish manufacturing and trading c o m p a n y ) , the two Italian firms of Sieedison arid Oranzio de Nora, a n d Monsanto i n the U. S. The loan will b e guaranteed b y Vinylex and its Turk ish shareholders. This project h a s actually been in t h e talking and planning stage for the past two and a iialf years. And it may b e another t w o years before the plant is operating. T h e new company does not as yet have a n a m e and has n o t elected officers. Monsanto, which holds a minority interest in t h e project, says its main role will be to provide technical know-how, particularly in the plastics field. T h e raw materials a n d manpower needed to run the plant will come from Turkey. Monsanto already has connections with both of t h e Italian firms. It is the sole U . S . distributor of the chlorinecaustic cells m a d e by De Nora. In addition, Monsanto owns a 4 0 % in terest in Sicedison. A diversified manu facturer of inorganic and organic chemicals, Sicedison is a producer of polyvinyl chloride, which will b e m a d e by the n e w Turkish firm. Dempster M c i n t o s h , managing di rector of t h e Envelopment Loan F u n d , points out that Turkey already has the basic raw materials for developing a hea\'y chemicals industry. However, deficient i n know-how and capital, it has been importing the chemicals t h a t will b e made by the new company. With this new plant, Turkey is expected to save a b o u t $2 million a year in foreign exchange. Most of the calcium carbide will b e converted to acetylene for making poly vinyl chloride resins and for use in in dustrial welding. The polyvinyl chlo ride itself will go into making such items as commercial piping, cable in sulation, tarpaulins, and floor coverings.
