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excludes druggists, wholesalers and dealers handling only secondary products. It also excludes persons using the prime products solely as ingredients in the manufacture of products not subject to license. I
If it should become necessary, as seems quite probable, to restrict the use of ammonia, the Food Administration is making it very clear that plants with a low degree of efficiency will be the first to suffer. A great deal of waste has taken place, especially in the artificial ice industry, it is said, and many plants are reporting increased efficiency in the use of ammonia which is making possible the same output as in previous years with savings of ammonia running as high as 60 per cent. Paint manufacturers and dealers at a meeting with officials of the Council of National Defense entered into a voluntary agreement to reduce house paints to 32 shades, after July I . At present, more than IOO shades of house paint are being manufactured. To conserve tin, several sizes of containers are to be eliminated. The reduction in the number of shades has been carried even further. Enamels, for instance, will be restricted to eight shades; floor paint to eight; roof and barn paint to two; shingle stains to twelve; carriage paint to eight; marine varnishes to four. Certain manufacturers of fertilizers have been charged by the Federal Trade Commission with using unfair methods of competition. Two large companies are said to have purchased raw materials a t prices higher than were justified by conditions. This had the effect it is alleged of pushing prices to a point where they were prohibitive to small competitors. This and other charges will be the subject of a hearing in Washington on April IO.
To expedite traffic and to keep close account of the car supply, the Committee on Fertilizers of the Chemical Alliance has named transportation sub-committees in the railroad centers of the
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fertilizer-producing territory. The Committee on Fertilizers is one of the most active organizations doing war work in Washington and is rendering a very efficient service to the industry, all fertilizer manufacturers who come to Washington agree.
To meet very general objection to the sulfuric acid questionnaire prepared by the War Industries Board, new blanks are being sent out to the industry. The War Industries Board questionnaire called for so much clerical work each week that it is being replaced by the simpler questionnaire. The new inquiry asks only for production for the previous month, stocks on hand a t the beginning and the end of each month, shipments, and total delivery on all contracts for the United States and the allied governments. In addition, manufacturers who are receiving raw materials from the government are asked to state their requirements for the ensuing three months. Horace Bowker, Henry Howard, E. R. Grasselli, Charles H. McDowell, A. G. Rosengarten, D. W. Jayne, Charles G. Wilson, W. D. Huntington, F. A. Lidbury, J. D. Cameron Bradley and E. T. Connolly attended the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Chemical Alliance which was held in Washington on February 20. C. H. Conner, of New York, is in charge of the wood chemical division of the Raw Materials Committee of the War Industries Board. Weekly reports showing the production of by-product coke and the factors which prevent this industry from operating a t maximum capacity have just been started by the Geological Survey. During the limited time covered by the new reports the industry has been operated a t about 75 per cent of capacity. The chief limiting factor is inability to secure coal, which is chargeable almost entirely to car shortage.
UNVEILING OF THE PORTRAIT OF HERMAN FRASCH
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As a member of the club Mr. Frasch was especially interested On Sunday, the 3rd of March, it was the pleasure of the trustees of the Chemists’ Club of New York to entertain Mrs. in the efforts to make things run smoothly. In the council of Herman Frasch and a party of her friends a t luncheon. The good fellowship he would offer very sane and human views of occasion was the presentation by the guest of honor of a re- such situations as arose, with which others were certain t m agree and, as likely as not, re-propose his own ideas to him. markably life-like and well-painted portrait of the late Herman Frasch. His daughter, Mrs. Whiton, and Mr. Hubert Vos, who He didn’t mind; his main interest was to get things done. I n the course of time he grew rich, and this is a burden which painted the portrait, were among the company. In the absence of President Whitaker in Washington, Vice President Gustave few of us can bear without deterioration. It did not injure W. Thompson presided. When coffee was served the following him. To members of the club, most of whom are in modest address was made by Mr. Ellwood Hendrick, of the committee circumstances, he never showed a trace of rich man’s vanity. Now very successful men are often difficult and wayward and appointed by the trustees to arrange for the ceremony: There are two attitudes of mind in which to meet in memory even childish in their demands, and although we are happily of one who has gone ahead of us upon the long journey: we may free from them in the club, they abound in profusion throughout congregate in dolor and address ourselves to regret a t our loss the land. The best answer as to the cause of their offenses is that they are short a generation of habits of grace in living and in his passing, or we may, and I think with greater loyalty, rejoice in our good fortune and be glad that ours was the privilege thinking. No one ever suggested that Herman Frasch lacked to enjoy the benediction of his friendship. Let us to-day follow any needful generation of this sort. Wherever his forebears lived they must have been richly endowed with sympathy. the path of the Greater Loyalty. This is a large club and our members are of various rank and This will explain the quality of his friendship for the club and his relations to it. They were never ostentatious, but they circumstance; indeed we are of many sorts and conditions of men. Some of us live out our little lives and hardly cast a could always be counted on in time of need and when the clouds ripple upon the surface of our days. A few do big things. hung low. One of his most distinctive qualities offers no side for any “The moving finger writes, and having writ,. . . .” there stands emblazoned a message for all mankind to see. Of such was consideration save that of deep regret that he is not living today. That was his clean-cut, straightforward attitude toward Herman Frasch. The emblazoned messages soon become so familiar that we affairs. He believed in this country. He was one hundred take them as matters of course. The men who write them are per cent American, despite his foreign birth. He was one of us. When the scientific history of the great war is written, many usually modest. The feature of great men that is most often observed is that they are not peculiar a t all but are, rather, instances that are now but slightly considered will loom large remarkably like other men. They have the gift of vision, the in the records. Let us note one of them. After the Germans art to do and the energy to persevere; and these are not showy had been turned at the Marne they entrenched themselves and qualities. As they complete their tasks, the world mechanically proceeded with their repeated efforts to break through the allied takes a step forward. Very frequently this happens so quietly lines in the West. The British had hardly any high explosives and the French barely enough for their own use. The United that we need an historical perspective to find the origins of States undertook to supply them but a difficulty arose: Spanish progress.
Apr., 1918
T H E J O U R N A L O F IAVDUSTRIAL A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
pyrites could not be brought over in adequate quantity to provide sulfuric acid to make them. The greatest pyrites mine in the country had been flooded-as likely as not by one of von Bernstorff’s agents. Without high explosives the allied line would surely have weakened, and owing to the machinations of German agents the manufacture of munitions in this country almost came to a stop. At this point the results of the genius of the American, Herman Frasch, and the altruistic attitude of the great company which he founded came into play. By releasing their vast store of sulfur a t a nomiJal price for the making of munitions the march of Prussian madness was stopped and the awful fate of Belgium and Picardy and Champagne was averted for Brittany and Normandy and even England itself. When we think of the countless thousands of men and women and little children thus saved from the atrocities of the German hordes, we may well be proud that one of our number was of such potent influence as an instrument of mercy!
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Every one of us has his world within himself. What we touch and smell and see and hear will often make it or mar it for us. A kindly glance, the pressure of a hand, a word of encouragement: these things have their moments of fate. We shall now have, thanks to the abundant generosity of Mrs. Frasch, the likeness of our friend and lellow member for companionship. Thanks to the subtle art of Mr. Vos, it speaks. And thanks to his own good fellowship, his integrity of purpose and his resolution for the right, the voice is kindly, full of pleasant memories to those of us who knew him, and full of encouragement to those of us who are young.
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t
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The party then entered the Social Room where the portrait was unveiled by Mrs. Frasch and formally accepted for the club by Vice President Thompson.
PERSONALS Lieut. A. W. Davison has been transferred from Washington to Niagara Falls, New York, where he is supervising chemical plant construction and experimental operation a t the Oldbury Electrochemical Company. Mr. W. S. Allen, for many years chief chemist of the Laurel Hill plant of the General Chemical Company, has been transferred to ATew York. Mr. J. B. Barnett is the new chemist in charge a t the Laboratory. Dr. Paul H. M.-P. Brinton, professor of analytical chemistry in the University of Arizona, has been commissioned Captain in the Ordnance Reserve. Mr. Pope Yeatman, consulting engineer of New York, has been placed in charge of the non-ferrous metals department of the War Industries Board, succeeding Eugene Meyer, Jr. Mr. Nicholas Kozeloff has been appointed bacteriologist of the Louisiana Sugar Station to succeed Mr. W. I,. Owen. The U. S. Bureau of Mines has broadened the scope of its station at Urbana, Ill., to include work in coal and metal mining and the metallurgical industries of the Middle West. The present safety work will be continued and all work will be conducted under a cooperative agreement with the mining department of the University of Illinois. The bureau staff is under the superintendence of E. A. Holbrook, supervising mining engineer and metallurgist. Other members are W. B. Plank, in charge of safety, and I?. K. Ovitz, chemist. M. Henri Jequier, metallurgist of the SociCte Meniere et Metallurgique de Penarroya, and Dr . Auguste Hollard, consulting engineer, are on a visit to this country. The Penarroya Company, which has its headquarters in Paris, and mines and works in Spain, is the largest smelter and refiner of lead in Europe. Dr. Yogoro Kato, professor a t the Tokyo College of Technology and Director of the Nakamura Chemical Research Institute in Tokyo, who is on a professional visit to this country, attended the recent annual meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers in New York. The Patent Office Society announces that a composite committee has been created by the National Research Council to make a preliminary study of the problems of the U. S. Patent Office. This committee is understood to comprise the following members: Leo H. Baekeland, Wm. F. Durand, Thos. Ewing, Frederick P. Fish, Robert A. Millikan, E. J. Prindle, Michael I. Pupin and S. W. Stratton. The action of the National Research Council in forming such a committee is rnderstood to be in conformity with the wishes of the Commissioner of Patents J. T. Newton and Secretary of the Interior F. K. Lane. The special committee of the Patent Office Society urges all interested t o forward any patent reform suggestions to Dr. Wm. F. Durand, National Research Council, Washington, D. C. It is not expected that patent reform can claim primary consideration during the continuance of the war, but i t is felt that the time is ripe for at least a study of conditions. Dr. B. Johnsen. formerly of the Forest Laboratories, Montreal, Canada, as chemical engineer in pulp and paper, is now research chemist for the Hammermill Paper Company, Erie, Pa.
Colonel W. R. Lang, professor of chemistry and director of chemical laboratories, University of Toronto, has left for Halifax to take up staff duties in his new appointment in the Halifax Military District, under General F. L. Lessard. The March meeting of the Delaware Section was held on March 8 in Wilmington. Following an informal dinner, Prof. Edward Hart spoke on “The Manufacture of Nitric Acid.” The following officers have been elected: Chairmen, Lammot du Pont; Vice Chairman, J. G. Melendy; Secretary, R. P. Calvert; Treasurer, D. S. Ashbrook; Councillors, C. M. Stine and Firman Thompson. Mr. Henry C. Howard, Jr., treasurer and chief chemist of the Charles A. Newhall Company, Seattle, Washington, has joined the 30th Engineers and is now stationed at Ft. Myer, Va. Mr. Howard has specialized in electrochemistry and has recently developed a process for the manufacturing of potassium perchlorate, the potassium salts being derived from kelp. The process is now being operated on a commercial scale in Seattle. Dr. E. H. Leslie has resigned from his position as chief chemist of the Petroleum Corporation of Los Angeles and has assumed new duties as technical adviser to the Sales Department of the U. S. Industrial Alcohol Company and the U. S. Industrial Chemical Company. He will be located in their main offices at 27 William Street, New York City. Mr. John Clifford English, well known in Philadelphia and New York as a chemist, physicist and expert in acoustics, died suddenly a t San Antonio, Texas, where he had gone to regain his health. Dr. S. A. Mahood, formerly instructor in organic chemistry a t Cornell University, is now research chemist in the U. S. Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin. Mr. W. H. Whitcomb, formerly professor of chemistry at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, is now with the United States Rubber Company engaged in laboratory development work. Mr. T. I?. Chin, of Pekin, China, principal technical expert of the Chinese Ministry of War, is in this country with the Chinese mission to make purchases for the outfitting of an extensive chemical laboratory a t Pekin for his government. Mr. V. T.Stewart has been given charge of the new laboratory a t Silver Lake, N. J., which will serve all the plants of Thos. A. Edison located a t that point. He was previously engaged in research work on primary batteries for one of these plants. Mr. Frank L. McCartney, formerly with Sharp and Dohme, but during the past two years manager of the Albodon Company, has been appointed Captain, Sanitary Corps, National Army, and will be stationed a t the Medical Supply Depot, New York City. He is ex-chairman of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, Drug Trade Section, and is president of the New York Branch of the American Pharmaceutical Association. He has been granted leave of absence by the Albodon Company for the duration of the war. Dr. W. F. Faragher has resigned his position as research chemist for the Alden Speare’s Sons Co. to become senior fellow a t the Mellon Institute of Pittsburgh.
