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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING
CHEMISTRY
What You Will See in Washington chairman of the Federal Specifications Board, and the specifications in use in the various Government departments are being standardized and improved. Manufacturers are invited to attend the conferences, and it is the aim of the board to Edition of T H I S JOURNAL we publishedspecify a good commercial article, not a description of the laboratories of the something made to a special order and unsalable elsewhere. Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Department
The next meeting of the American Chemical Society will be held in Washington, April 21 to 26, 1924. This will give many chemists an opportunity to get in active touch with various Government laboratories. In the J a n u a r y 20th News
News Edition
chanics, sound, engineering and aircraft instruments, optics, and metallurgy, and the old original function of weights and measures standardization. These are vaiously distributed among the group of buildings on the hill. The large building outside the fence is devoted entirely to research of direct interest t o various branches of industry. Behind it is the optical glass plant, and in the woods to the west is the equipment used in making fireproofing tests. I t is estimated that the work of this Bureau results in savings to American industry amounting to upwards of a hundred millions of dollars annually, whereas the annual appropriation is less than two million. One series of tests, for example, resulted in large improvements in automobile tires, another now under way is expected to add considerably t o the gasoline supply. Means have been found for preventing failure of enameled metals, and for making dental fillings more durable. Steel rails have been made less liable to breakage and car wheels to cracking, and substantial economies have been effected in the manufacture of paper, metals, pottery, sugar, and many other articles. Important contributions have been made to the new science of aerial navigation, and many of the scientific problems of the Army and Navy have been solved here.
Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory
LABORATORIES OP THE BUREAU OP STANDARDS
of Agriculture. This article is devoted to the Bureau of Standards, the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory and the Hygienic Laboratory.
T h e Bureau of Standards The largest single group of laboratory buildings in Washington, and one of the most comprehensive scientific and industrial laboratories in the country, is the Bureau of Standards. It is located at Connecticut Avenue and Pierce Mill Road in the northwest suburbs of the city, and occupies a tract of thirty-five acres on which are fourteen permanent buildings. This Bureau has for its functions the establishment and custody of the national standards of weights and measures, temperature, electrical units, electric light candle power, radium, etc. It develops precise methods for their application to industry; it makes accurate measurements of fundamental scientific data; and it tests materials purchased by the Government. The latter function is especially broad, covering as it does nearly the whole range of goods manufactured in this country. The Bureau of Standards is equipped for making every conceivable kind of test on such widely varied materials as textiles, steel girders, cement, paint, builders' hardware, paper, pottery, inks—and, in short, almost anything the Government is likely t o buy. These tests are used as a guide in the formulation of standard specifications for Government purchases. The director of t h e Bureau of Standards is ex-officio
In addition to tests upon the finished products t h e Bureau is able to make tests of the manufacturing processes. Its equipment includes experimental cotton and paper mills, a cement plant, an optical glass plant, equipment for the manufacture of enameled metal ware, a steel rolling mill, and an experimental foundry. Among the more striking features of the testing equipment might be mentioned the ten million pound testing machine in which big steel columns and brick walls can be crushed, the three wind tunnels, the altitude chambers, the precision balances, and the equipment for life and candle-power tests of electric lamps. One whole building is devoted exclusively to work in chemistry. Here work is now in progress on t h e technical problems connected with electroplating, balloon fabrics, illuminating gas, platinum metals, rubber, textiles, and many other industrial products. This division cooperates closely with the various other divisions of the Bureau, and attacks the chemical problems t h a t arise, while the other divisions take up the physical and industrial problems. An important function of this division is the preparation and sale of standard samples which are used for checking analyses. Another building is devoted to work in electricity, and a smaller one to radio, to which art t h e Bureau has made important contributions. Another small building is occupied by the liquid air plant and other low temperature work. Here solid hydrogen has been produced. The work of the Bureau also covers the fields of heat, me-
T h e Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory of the U. S. Department of Agriculture was established by the Secretary of War March 29, 1919, in order to coordinate the knowledge which had been obtained concerning nitrogen fixation b y the War Department during the war, to obtain further information necessary for the peace-time utilization of the Government nitrate plants at Sheffield and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and to study in general the fixation and utilization of nitrogen. The laboratory was transferred on July 1, 1921, to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, owing to the fact t h a t in peace times the nitrate plants are designed to produce nitrogen for fertilizers. One of the most important problems of the Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory has been t h e study of the direct synthetic ammonia process. Probably the greatest single contribution of this laboratory to date has been the development of a very reactive and stable catalyst. A method has also been developed for manufacturing this material which makes large-scale production possible. T h e laboratory has studied increased pressures in connection with the direct synthetic ammonia process. During the past year tests have been made at various pressures up to 1000 atmospheres. Since liquid ammonia commands a price which makes the operation of small units profitable, and these in turn will act as a nucleus from which to build up t h e industry, a great deal of research has been done during the past year looking t o the satisfactory design of such plants as well as to the design and development of plants suitable for fertilizer nitrogen. A project involving the examination of 25 alloy steels has reached completion. As a result of this examination an alloy steel suitable for use in the synthesis of ammonia can be recommended.
February
10, 1924
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING
An important opportunity for reducing the cost of ammonia production lies in t h e manufacture of the pure hydrogen consumed in the process. It is in the purification processes t h a t there appears to be the greatest chance for improvement and for reducing the cost of the ultimate product, fertilizers. T h e laboratory will devote a large portion of its future efforts to such problems. During the past year a catalyst for converting carbon monoxide and steam into hydrogen was studied which shows considerable promise. The possibility of converting carbon monoxide into methane has also been investigated and catalysts suitable for this reaction studied. The laboratory has made an extensive study of the Cyanamide Process and the preparation of organic derivatives of cyanamide. It is now completing t h a t phase of the problem dealing with the thermo-chemistry of the formation of calcium carbide and its subsequent nitrification to calcium cyanamide. The possibilities of t h e fixation of nitrogen as cyanides are being thoroughly investigated. Although the work has not disclosed thus far any method for the economical production of ammonia through cyanides, studies on the chemistry of cyanide-forming reactions are being continued, not only because of the recognized importance of this method for t h e production of cyanides and hydrocyanic acid, b u t because the ultimate possibility of economically producing ammonia through this type of reaction is not considered as having been excluded. The fixation of nitrogen through the formation of nitrides of such elements as aluminium, boron and phosphorus has frequently been proposed. The laboratory is studying reactions of this type, chiefly from t h e standpoint of the fundamental reactions involved. The laboratory is devoting considerable attention to problems connected with t h e recovery of oxides of nitrogen as produced b y the oxidation of ammonia and b y the arc process. An ammonia oxidizer supplies the oxides of nitrogen for these studies and for research on the production of concentrated nitric acid directly from t h e oxides of nitrogen. An interesting feature of the work of t h e laboratory is the study of the bacterial fixation of nitrogen b y soil organisms, since a study of this nature m a y eventually shed considerable light on the mechanism of the reactions through which nitrogen is made to combine with other substances a t atmospheric temperature. Along with its investigations of problems of immediate industrial use, the laboratory is doing certain work of a more or less strictly scientific nature. Some of the experiments on the activation of gases may b e inspected. Certain properties of active nitrogen and of concentrated ozone can be demonstrated.
Hygienic Laboratory The Hygienic Laboratory is a branch of the laboratory research section of the U. S. Public Health Service. In its four divisions, Pathology and Bacteriology, Zoology, Pharmacology, and Chemistry, a n d in the special programs are many investigations of interest to chemists. The student of nutrition will there learn what t h e Federal Government is doing toward t h e solution of pellagra. The sanitary engineer will find interesting data on the
CHEMISTRY
transmission of bacteria by ground waters. The clinical chemist will find important material on the diagnosis of disease. The main chemical work is done in the Divisions of Pharmacology and Chemistry. The main problems in t h e Division of Pharmacology are, first, the chemotherapy of arsenicals, and, second, t h e standardization of materials such as pituitary extract, insulin, etc. In the Division of Chemistry are to be found investigations on the theory of oxidation-reduction and the
U.
S. H Y G I E N I C
construction of a series of dyes which can be used as oxidation-reduction indicators, on the isolation of t h e antineuritic vitamins, and on t h e alum process of water clarification. I n addition t o these more strictly chemical interests the visitor will find an extensive array of fascinating problems having to do with the protection of t h e public health.
Unique S y m p t o m s of Gas Poisoning ILLUMINATING G A S
Miss E. K. took a position as filing clerk in a suburban office. T h e office was heated by a small gas heater. After a few weeks she developed an unusual swelling of the left arm and hand. The hand became paralyzed and peeled, and remained almost useless for more than a year. There were contributing conditions of a rundown condition and nervousness, but the physician diagnosed the case as one of gas poisoning and shortly afterwards discovered a similar case in New York City.
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irritation; lower limbs full of red spots where t h e capillaries had broken down. Case was diagnosed by physician as a n aggravated one of chlorine poisoning, aided somewhat by a run-down condition. One is reminded by the bleeding in this case to t h e bleeding induced by nitrogen dioxide poisoning. At the present writing, November 26th, Mr. Lapp is still in very bad shape. We hope for his speedy recovery.—The Catalyst.
LABORATORY
Symposium on Insecticides Fungicides
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At the New Haven meeting of t h e American Chemical Society a committee was appointed from t h e Division of Agriculture and Food Chemistry consisting of C. C. McDonnell, Bureau of Chemistry, O. Butler, New Hampshire Experiment Station, and A. Kelsall, Canada Department of Agriculture, Annapolis Royal, N . S., t o arrange a program for a symposium on insecticides and fungicides for t h e Washington meeting of t h e Society in April. I t is hoped by t h e committee t h a t there will be a large attendance of those connected with these lines of work and that such of those who are engaged on chemical problems relating t o insecticides and fungicides will present papers. Members of t h e Society wishing to present papers should communicate with C. C. McDonnell, Chairman of the committee, Bureau of Chemistry, Washington, D. C, and submit titles not later t h a n March loth, in order that arrangements may be made for their inclusion in t h e printed program of the meeting.
CHLORINE G A S
Professor W. S. Lapp, of the Northeast High School, Philadelphia, Pa., was demonstrating with chlorine, observing the usual precautions and working under a hood. After somewhat over a week's time he became critically ill, with nose bleeding lasting from Tuesday until Saturday; lips cracking and bleeding freely; face scabby a n d bleeding upon the least
E. H. McClelland, the technology librarian of the Carnegie Library, of Pittsburgh, h a s published a valuable review of the iron and steel literature for 1923 in t h e January number of Blast Furnace and Steel Plant. Those interested in the bibliography of t h e subject will find this a very valuable contribution.
