THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
cense subject to antitrust action. He opened his remarks by saying, "I am grateful for the opportunity to address you on a subject—any subject—other than conglomerate mergers." However, he hastened to point out that a patent provides one way in which small- and medium-size com panies may effectively compete with extremely large and diversified firms. "Thus/' he said, "in purpose and effect, the patent laws and the anti trust division's stand on conglomerate mergers are entirely compatible." In considering whether to attack a particular licensing provision or practice, Mr. McLaren says, Justice asks two questions: Is the provision justifiable as necessary to the pat entee's exploitation of his lawful mo nopoly? Are less restrictive alterna tives available which are more likely to foster competition? If the answer to the first question is no, and to the sec ond yes, the license is in trouble. Some licensing practices now being challenged, or which are likely to be, include those which require an as signment grant-back of all improve ment patents, some types of restric tion on field of use, restrictions on the form or manner of resale of patented products, and provisions which tend to inhibit the granting of future licenses. In the drug industry, for example, licenses which restrict the sale of the drug to certain dosage forms or under stipulated tradenames and forbid sales in bulk or under generic names are under fire. According to Mr. Mc Laren, the first sale of a patented product exhausts the monopoly; no restrictions can be placed on the price of resale or territory in which the purchaser may resell. Hence there seems to be no justification for re stricting the manner in which a li censee can resell the product.
TRADE:
Formal Import Quotas? The U.S. will next year move toward establishing formal import quotas on certain goods unless our trading part ners change their current hard line against voluntary restraints, according to Sen. Jack Miller. Speaking earlier this month at a New York City meeting of the Syn thetic Organic Chemical h^anufacturers Association, the Iowa Republican also predicted that next year the President will be given authority to participate in negotiations on nontariff trade barriers. However, the Senator says it is "doubtful" that Congress will include 18
C & E N J U N E 16, 1969
WASTE DISPOSAL:
What To Do With Bags
Sen. Jack Miller Reluctant green light
the American Selling Price (ASP) system, which covers imports of benzenoid chemicals, in such authority without any resulting agreement being subject to Congressional review and ratification. The import quotas, if they come, will mean the failure of the Nixon Administration's present policy of seeking voluntary agreements with our trading partners regarding both the volume of their exports to us and our access to their domestic markets. However, Sen. Miller points out that the recent trips by Secretary of Commerce Maurice S tans to the Common Market and to the Far East have "not given rise to any optimism whatsoever for voluntary restraints." Hence, the Senator, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Finance and the joint Senate-House Economics Committee, predicts that, ". . . re luctantly, the green light will be turned on in the White House for quota legislation. . . . " The Senator says he has viewed with alarm the decline in the favor able U.S. balance of trade. In 1964 it was $7.5 billion. Last year it was only about $1 billion, and for the first four months of this year it was down to $109 million compared with $413 million for the same period last year. In summing up this worsening trade picture, Sen. Miller told SOCMA that "The future of our economy, our in dustry, and the jobs of American labor and farmers is too precious to permit a continuation down a one-way street in the name of Tree trade.' It shouldn't have to be this way, and I don't believe it will be if the lead ership in the Administration and in the Congress is both idealistic and firmlv realistic."
A 30-second television commercial tells what to do with the refuse that piles up in garbage cans—put it in plastic bags. Mayor Lindsay tells New Yorkers to do the same. A C&EN estimate says that if there is wide spread use of disposable plastic bags in an eight-week test in New York this summer, then a consumer market might open up for $600 million or 750 million pounds per year of poly ethylene (C&EN, May 19, page 7 ) . Neither the TV commercial nor Mayor Lindsay, though, tells how to dispose of plastic bags full of refuse. But a just-released report on "The Role of Packaging in Solid Waste Management 1966 to 1976," published by the Department of Health, Edu cation, and Welfare's Environmental Control Administration, does make an attempt. The report, based on a contract study conducted by Midwest Research Institute for ECA's Bureau of Solid Waste Management, exhaus tively examines the role of packaging materials—paper, metal, glass, wood, plastics, and textiles—in refuse dis posal. Richard D. Vaughan, director of the Bureau of Solid Waste Management, says that three of the most significant conclusions [of the report] have to do with incentives, taxing, and regula tion. MRI's research workers suggest that the purchasing policies of the Federal Government might be used to provide one incentive for the pack aging industry to consider disposability
By 1976 per capita consumption of plastics in packaging will be 28.2 pounds Pounds per capita
Total 661.1
Total Total 525.0 Total 404.4
Textiles & miscellaneous
577,6
'•'·' W o o d KE1E1 Plastics ΠΕΒΙ
MWMM • I M
BfBH I
0-12
255.Ϊ
283J
332,1
Paper & paperboard
1958 1966 1970 1976 Year Source: Midwest Research Institute
as a criterion in packaging design, he says. The relative importance and consumption of the basic packaging materials will remain about the same throughout the 1966-76 period, the report says. Wood and textile consumption will decline slightly. Plastics packaging materials will be the exception. A dramatic upswing is expected—from 1.9% of total packaging materials consumed in 1965 to 4.3% of the market in 1976. Total consumption of packaging materials will reach 147 billion pounds in 1976. This compares with 97 billion pounds in 1965. By 1976, the report adds, per capita consumption of packaging materials will reach 661 pounds annually, 136 pounds above the 1966 level. Cost for the collection and disposal of packaging materials will also grow. By 1976 waste handling costs are expected to reach, at the very least, $595 million—$176 million higher than in 1966. The report says that 66.2 million tons of packaging will be handled as waste. The relative ranking of the ease by which each major material category is disposed will remain unchanged. The easiest material to dispose of is and will continue to be paper and paperboard, followed by textiles, wood, plastics, metals, and glass. The best process, "in the sense that materials offer least resistance when put through it," is open dumping. Handling of solid wastes by this method will decline by 13.5%, to account for 64% of total tons of solid wastes handled in 1976, according to the report. Sanitary landfill is the next best disposal method. Its share will grow by 8%, for 1 3 % of the total. Salvage and reclaim of packaging materials will grow by 1%, to account for 4 % of the solid waste handled in 1976. Up 4 % , incineration will account for 18% of total solid wastes handled in 1976. And composting, the method materials resist most, the report says, will handle the least, increasing by only 0.5% for 1.0% of the total.
EDUCATION:
In-Company College He describes it as an "in-company college" of continuing educationunique in industry—built to enable the company to keep up with advances in communications science. The objective, he adds, is to challenge and stimulate while informing. The "he" is Paul A. Gorman, president of Western Electric, New York City. The college is Western Electric's new $5 million corporate educa-
tion center in Hopewell, N.J.—a rural-like community steeped in a tradition of academic excellence from neighboring Princeton University and Rutgers University. The center, officially dedicated last week, represents a major consolidation of the company's engineering and management training programs, previously held in other company sites such as New York City, Chicago, and Winston-Salem, N.C. Boasting complete residential facilities, the center can accommodate up to 300 students at one time. More than 300 courses are being offered. They will be administered by a permanent staff of about 120 professional educators, Mr. Gorman says. Augmenting the staff, he adds, will be guest lecturers with expertise in business, urban affairs, law, industrial psychology, and government. In the business management curriculum, training at the lower supervisory level stresses planning, supervision, and relationships among company departments and divisions. At higher levels, the focus shifts to external factors that influence industry operations, including ethical and sociological aspects of business responsibilities and decisions. In engineering and technology curriculums, eight phases of instruction are offered—each containing a number of separate graduate-level courses. The phases are: introduction to Western Electric engineering; general development; advanced development, which includes correspondence study preparatory courses; engineering department chief program; assistant manager program; computer development program; middle management computer program; and the Western Electric-Lehigh University master's degree program. In its relationship with Western Electric, Lehigh has awarded "onthe-job" M.S. degrees to company engineering research personnel for the past six years. The four-semester program leads to an M.S. in either industrial engineering or metallurgy and materials science. Last Monday, nine Western Electric employees received degrees in metallurgy and materials science and 13 in industrial engineering from Lehigh. Mr. Gorman describes his company's innovative deterrent to "personnel obsolescence": "In planning for the future we have come to realize that business competence alone is not enough in midcentury America. We know that the managers of our business today must understand the environment in which they live as well as that in which they work—that they must be prepared to contribute meaningfully to both."
POWER TRANSMISSION:
Cryogenic Cables Last week scientists from Union Carbide's Linde division outlined for the first time the feasibility of transmitting a.c. power underground with superconducting cables at cryogenic temperatures. They have completed initial studies for Edison Electric Institute that show that pure niobium (columbium) cables ensheathed in liquid helium at - 4 5 2 ° F. offer more economical power transmission in urban areas than do conventional copper cables. With urban electric power requirements doubling every 10 years, utilities are faced with distribution problems of linking the more efficient overhead transmission lines to underground networks in metropolitan areas. Already, cryogenic cooling of existing cables has been proposed to decrease ohmic resistance and thereby increase powercarrying capacities by as much as 10 times. But Linde's development of superconducting cables promises power-carrying capacities that are higher by as much as 25 times. For example, Linde's Dr. Hugh M. Long, cryophysics consultant, points out that one 20-inch-diameter cryogenic pipe system could handle up to 10,000 M w ( e ) . at 345 kv., which is more power than New York City currently consumes. Projecting the city's 1990 power requirements, Dr. Long estimates that two such superconducting pipes could theoretically handle all its power needs compared to 40 conventional cables that would otherwise be needed. The projected capitalized costs over 40 operating years of about $400 per Mw.-mile are less than the present costs for conventional high-voltage cables. When superconducting cables were first evaluated for power transmission, scientists believed that a.c. power in overhead transmission lines would have to be transformed into d.c. power for underground transmission, and then back into a.c. power for consumptionconversions that are prohibitively uneconomical. What Linde is showing is that cables constructed of highpurity niobium, electrodeposited in a high-temperature salt bath by a patented process, generate negligible power losses. Most recent tests, for example, show that electrodeposited niobium, carrying a superconducting current of 1700 amp. at a current density of 685,000 amp. per sq. in., loses only 1.5 mw. per foot. A large conventional cable, carrying a current of 1000 amp. at a current density of 650 amp. per sq. in., loses 10 watts per foot, or 6000 times more power than the superconductor. JUNE 16, 1969 C&EN
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