USTRIAL AND E N G I N E E R I N G CHEMISTRY PUBLISHED
BY
THE
AMERICAN
CHEMICAL
SOCIETY
0
HARRISON
E.
HOWE,
EDITOR
EDITORIALS Rubber Supply N THE World War we learned much about the proper
avoiding a series of experiments, with their trials and tests. Lacking a commercial market for tires developed from the more costly synthetics, with regular tires available in competition, it is not to be expected that either the tire makers or the manufacturers of the synthetics will undertake without inducement the experiments involved. Should some emergency deprive us of a supply of crude rubber we would all be much interested in the possibilities of tires and similar articles from the synthetics, but if we wait until that time to complete our information a period of inconvenience, not to say danger, might be met before the new articles were ready in satisfactory quality and quantity. Might we not, therefore, be wise to take a leaf from the experience of another nation and, through purchases by the Government for use on federal-operated vehicles, place experimental orders specifying the use of synthetic rubberlike materials? The price to be paid should enable necessary development work to be done on a basis which would not require great sacrifice on the part of commercial organizations. The principle is very much the same as that underlying so-called educational orders, now placed with industry by the War Department. Such tires in the beginning might not be very satisfactory; the cost would be comparatively high; but in the end we would have had the experience, and progress would have been made in design and construction which might well be invaluable if, as, and when it became necessary to rely solely on domestic raw materials in supplying rubber products. Since many of these points come back time and again to costs, it is interesting to recall the prices, say in January, for a series of years. The following statistics are taken from the India Rubber World:
I
use of reclaimed rubber and guayule. But of course we depended on imports. Since then there has been introduced to the world a number of synthetic plastics with rubberlike properties and the question has been raised whether chemical rubber could replace natural rubber if our supply should be restricted or stopped. Speaking before the Chamber of Commerce of the United Scates, E. R. Bridgwater stated that, while the production of Neoprene is less than 1 per cent of our national crude rubber consumption, over 200 men are employed in its production, 10 per cent of them being graduate chemists and engineers. In addition, about 25 others are engaged in research and development, and hundreds are busy constructing the additional production facilities required to meet increasing demands. Whether or not Neoprene could be relied upon in time of war to take the place of natural rubber cannot be answered completely with the information now in hand. As Mr. Bridgwater pointed out, two thirds of our rubber imports are consumed in the manufacture of tires, and the difference in present price between Neoprene and natural rubber is such as to make extensive experiments unattractive. The tires that have been made proved to be slightly inferior to those of natural rubber, but what could be done should necessity arise is another matter. There is reason to believe that the quality of the Neoprene tire could be substantially improved, and new designs with the new material might be expected to produce a tire fully equal to those now in use. We must remember that the excellent service given users by the automobile tire of today comes from years of research and development of tire design and manufacture, as well as structure and composition. All of this has been with respect to the crude, natural rubber. To employ a synthetic, rubberlike material involves far more than simply replacing crude rubber in the formula with the equivalent of the synthetic. It goes back to basic principles involving an entirely different raw material. Best results cannot be expected without another series of developments and new designs which take into consideration the characteristics of the synthetics. What has been learned in the production of today's tire will be useful, but there is no way of
RIBRBD SMOKED SHEE TB 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926
927
$1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
(Prices per pound) 09-1 13 1927 60-0 64 1928 65-0 66 1929 79-1 02 1930 75-0 80 1931 54-0 571/a 1932 51-0 56 1933 51-0 55 1934 18-0 201/2 1935 151/*-0 211/4 1936 281/z-O. 37'/s 1937 248/4-0 2@/i 1938 341/4-0 391/2 1939 70-0 91
928
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
The price of Neoprene has declined steadily with increasing production. In January, 1935, the first year of its introduction, it was $1.05; 1936, $1.00; 1937, $0.75; 1938, $0.75; 1939, $0.65. Should we be so unfortunate as to meet another war condition it is pretty certain that natural rubber prices would advance, whereas those of Neoprene and other synthetics would tend to decline rapidly with greatly increased production. Recently announced results of research on butane promise an abundant supply of very cheap butadiene in the United States for the production of still another synthetic of the Buna type. All in all, although rubber will long remain one of the items in the list of strategic raw materials, we can be far less apprehensive regarding a supply of something which will do its work than we were less than a generation ago. Research and production can be relied upon to change the present economic picture.
Potash
N OT
long ago a brief announcement emanated from New York, stating that the Potash Export Association, Inc., had filed papers with the Federal Trade Commission under the Export Trade Act for exporting potash. Under this is included potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, sulfate of potash and magnesia, kainite, and manure salts-to use the terms familiar to the trade. The Export Trade Act grants exemption from the antitrust laws to an association entered into and solely engaged in export trade. So much for the news item. But does it not carry you back in memory to the time when potash was an imported article, when prices soared into hundreds of dollars per ton, and when American industries, in which we include agriculture, were a t the mercy of the importers? Then came the spectacular work a t Searles Lake-a beautiful example of the application of difficult physical chemistry-and for some time the company now known as the American Potash and Chemical Corporation was almost the sole domestic source of supply. Wartime prices made attractive enterprises to recover potash from cement dusts and from molasses residues. Then came the urge to engage in systematic geologic exploration, further development, further enterprise, and the taking of business risks. And now the American Potash and Chemical Corporation, U. S. Potash Company, and the Potash Company of America form an association to enable the export of potash produced in the United States! It is a romantic tale full of examples of brilliant work on the part of scientists and engineers, of marketing diaculties overcome, and of expenditure of capital. The result is a complete change in the picture which we saw but a few years ago, with domestic supplies now more than ample for our own use.
VOL. 31, NO. 8
S t rateg ic M a t eria Is
N IArmy Ordnance
MAY we discussed certain raw materials commonly called “strategic.” In a more recent article in for July-August, Captain G. K. Heiss gives the latest of these lists, together with a historical record, going back to the 42 items so classified by Harbord in 1921. Since that time certain products have been removed while others have been added to the list, which has totaled, first to last, 49 commodities. Thanks to the application of science-much of it chemistry-the number has decreased year by year until the present total is but 17. Strategic materials are those essential to national defense, for the supply of which in case of war dependence must be placed in whole or in part on sources outside the continental limits of the United States. Obviously, strict conservation, distribution, and control measures of the items included under this classification would be necessary in time of emergency. Strategic materials of 1939 are : aluminum, antimony, chromium, coconut shell char, manganese (ferrograde), Manila fiber, mercury, mica, nickel, optical glass, quartz crystal, quinine, rubber, silk, tin, tungsten, and wool. Critical materials are also essential, but their procurement, while difficult, is not so serious. They can either be produced domestically or obtained in adequate quantities, or have a lesser degree of essentiality. These are : asbestos, cadmium, coffee, cork, cryolite, flaxseed, fluorspar, graphite, hides, iodine, kapGk, nux vomica, opium, phenol and picric acid, platinum, scientific glass, tanning materials, titanium, toluene, and vanadium. Finally, there is a longer list, called “essential materials,” for which no procurement problems are anticipated in war, but whose status is such as to require constant surveillance because future developments may necessitate reclassification as strategic or critical. Essential materials are : abrasives, acetic acid, acetone, alcohol (ethyl), arsenic, camphor, castor oil, chlorine, copper, copra, cotton linters, helium, hemp, iron and steel,jute, lead, magnesium, methanol, molybdenum, nitrogen compounds (ammonia and nitric acid), palm oil, paper and pulp, petroleum, phosphates, potash, refractories, shellac, sisal, sugar, sulfuric acid (including sulfur and pyrites), uranium, webbing and duck, wheat, zinc, and zirconium. A material now classed as strategic or critical may be changed in grade because of the development of domestic resources, the discovery of satisfactory substitutes or inventions which render obsolete current practices and equipment. The recent advance in the use of molybdenum has already reduced our tungsten requirements for certain classes of machine tools by 50 per cent, and developments now in progress may soon demote one or more materials from the strategic class. It is a good example of the fundamental changes so often brought about by science and it is something of which the chemical industry may be proud.
