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CHEMISTRY
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j H E chemicalexporttrade of the United Kingdom was slightly lower last year than in the preceding year, but the value of chemical products shipped abroad continued to increase, from £23,750,000 in 1942 and £27,500,000 in 1943 to £28,100,000. Shipments to British overseas countries and Russia were higher, but less was sent to South America. The detailed returns show the following exports (1943 figures in parentheses) : citric acid 17,833 (8,445) cwt., other acids £365,514 (306,588), aluminum compounds 19,925 (16,749) long tons, ammonium sulfate 133.078 (6,149) tons, other ammonium compounds 25,859 (14,796) tons, bleaching powder 441,642 (224,557) cwt., other bleaching materials 74,315 (62,798) cwt., benzol 32,861,015 (28,016,343) Imp. gallons, cresylic acid 1,834,013 (2,725,983) gallons, heavy coal-tar oils 406,037 (522,168) gallons, other coal-tar products £269,010 (282,996), copper sulfate 20,333 (35,542) tons, disinfectants and insecticides 308,521 (431,863) cwt., manufactured compound fertilizers 154 (213) tons, glycerol 8,452 (2,112) cwt., lead compounds 53,019 (43,452) cwt., magnesium compounds 2,896 (2,759) tons, potassium compounds 21,423 (19,781) cwt., salt 130,983 (128,919) tons, sodium carbonate and bicarbonate 3,002,432 (3,817,120) cwt., caustic soda 2,837,890 (3,311,543) cwt., sodium silicate 71,557 (94,547) owt., sodium sulfate 513,684 (345,079) cwt., other sodium compounds 479,499 (703,650) cwt., zinc oxide 1,250 (1,044) tons, quinine and quinine salts 284,201 (1,387,217) ounces, other drugs and medicinal preparations £4,717,087 (3,832,929), alizarin, alizarin red, and synthetic indigo 6,289 (6,297) cwt., other finished coal-tar dyestuffe 86,725 (130,755) cwt., tanning extracts 39,428 (54,013) cwt., other dyestuffe 12,716 (17,404) cwt., ochres and earth colors 39,321 (35,355) cwt., carbon blacks 4,490 (3,692) cwt., other dry pigments and extenders 70,796 (78,494) owt., white lead 23,928 (21,198) cwt., ships* bottom compositions 28,550 (32,987) cwt.. lithopone and other zinc sulfide pigments 128,114 (154,394) cwt., prepared and readymixed paints and painters' enamels 180,699 (160,689) cwt., varnish and lacquer 163,636 (174,230) gallons, printers' ink 16,799 (16,187) cwt., other paints 144,666 (154,289) cwt.
Argentine bought considerable amounts of British dyestuffe, while Argentina and New Zealand were the best customers for insecticides and cattle dressings. The United States are mentioned as large-scale buyers of cresylic acid. The trade in pharmaceutical products is almost entirely with British overseas countries, especially India, South Africa, Australia, and West Africa. As for the future, it is expected that changes will occur in the volume rather than in the direction of chemical exports. The British overseas countries in particular, and among them India, especially, have accumulated large sterling balances in London as a result of war supplies, and it is hoped that they will accept payment in the form of manufactured products, among which chemicals are certain to occupy an important place. All these overseas customers of British chemical manufacturers have had to be content with a minimum of their requirements, so that restocking should provide a large demand. The industrialization in some of these markets has made great headway with the result of a decline in import demands in certain directions, but since industrialization had developed at least equally quickly in manufacturing industries requiring chemicals for their operations, it is thought that on balance the postwar import needs will be larger rather than smaller in overseas countries which provided a big market for British chemical products before the war. As far as organic chemicals are concerned, much will depend on the future development of the coal and oil processing industries in Great Britain, on the one hand, and the absorbing capacity of the United States, Britain's biggest customers for surplus coal-tar and coal-oil products, on the other. In this field British chemical exports to the United States are expected to remain important after the war. Construction Begun on Nylon Plant in South Wales
Indian Market as Export Outlet
A big nylon plant designed to employ 1,700 operatives is now under construction at Pontypool in South Wales. The factory site covers 1,000,000 sq. ft. The company responsible is British Nylon Spinners, Ltd., formed jointly by Courtaulds and Imperial Chemical Industries with a capital of £300,000 in 1940. Both spinning and processing operations will be carried out, and the original plans provide for the possibility of a considerable expansion later on. Employment will be given chiefly to men, but some hundreds of women will also be working in the new plant.
For those bulk chemicals for which destinations are specified the Indian market provided the biggest export outlet for British manufacturers, and nearly half the British dyestuffe exports were also absorbed by India. Australia and Argentina took large Quantities of sodium carbonate, while Iran and South Africa were large markets for caustic soda. Australia, Brazil, and the
Site Selected (or Titanium Products Factory British Titan Products Co., Ltd., has bought a 53-acre site from Grimsby Corp. and proposes to build a new factory for the manufacture of titanium paints, etc., on this site. A labor force of about 1,000 men will be employed when the plans drawn up with
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the consent of the Board of Trade have been executed. Aircraft Works Leased for Peacetime Occupation The Ministry of Aircraft Production factory at Speke near Liverpool has been allocated on lease t o the Dunlop Rubber Co., Ltd. It is expected that for some time the factory will be used jointly by the lessee and Rootes Securities, Ltd., the present occupants. Later, however, it will be used exclusively by Dunlop for purposes connected with its ordinary peacetime production program. Introduction of the rubber industry into the Merseyside area is regarded as a promising addition to industrial facilities there. New Penicillin Factory under Construction at Durham A factory for the manufacture of penicillin is being built on behalf of the Ministry of Supply at Durham, one of Britain's areas of depression before the war. To be handed over to a private company when completed, the factory covers approximately 100,000 sq. ft. and is expected to make a considerable contribution to the penicillin production of the country. Another factory is proposed for Southeast London. Farnsworth to Make Plastics at Nottingham Farnsworth, Ltd., proposes to make plastic substances for use in the manufacture of sectional buildings, etc., at a factory in Nottingham for which premises have just been obtained. Interest in plastics as a suitable construction material for quick production of standardized fittings and interior equipment for new houses has been greatly increased by knowledge of the difficulty in the way of providing the necessary amounts required for the postwar housing program by any of the orthodox methods, and more new ventures in this field are expected in the near future. Turner & Newell Envisage High Capital Expenditure Turner and Newall, Ltd., the international asbestos combine, has under detailed consideration expansion schemes entailing capital expenditure of over £1,500,000 within the first two years after the end of hostilities, i t was officially announced. These schemes will be financed from existing resources. The company states that it owns 13 factories in Great Britain and 3 in the United States in addition to its asbestos mines i n Africa and Canada. The total number o f persons on the company's payroll is 30,000 Polythene Production Shows 1 3 7 8 % Increase Polythene, new synthetic material recommended as a gutta percha substitute with nearly all the advantages of the natural com-
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modity and many extra points, was produced in larger quantities last year and is expected to be supplied in even bigger amounts this year. No precise production figures have been published, but taking 1940 as the basic year, a tenfold expansion had taken place by 1943. In 1944 the British production was 1,378% of 1940, and for the current year the available capacity will permit an output of 1,903% of 1940.
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Harris Felspar Deposits May Continue Operation Felspar quarries on the Isle of Harris in the Hebrides have been worked during the war for the Ministry of Supply and may be kept in operation after the war to provide employment for the islanders if the Scottish Council on Industry, in consultation with the Ministry of Supply, the Geological Survey, and other authorities, reports favorably. Irish Bauxite Used for Alumina Production Mining of bauxite took place in Northern Ireland some time before the war, but was suspended owing to the unsatisfactory quality of the bauxite found at the time. It is now reported that Irish bauxite has been used for the past few years by the British Aluminum Co. for the manufacture of alumina, and minor amounts of the closely associated iron ore have been produced as a byproduct. The deposits in question are somewhat superior to those formerly mined at Antrim, and owe their discovery to prospecting work carried out by the Geological Survey of Scotland. Steel Works to Produce More Foamed Slag Three plants are now making foamed slag for use in building in the British Isles, with combined output of about 125,000 tons a year. Provision of capacity for a further 500,000 tons a year is under consideration by various steel works, and is hoped to bring down the price considerably. Big Gas Plant Erected at Liverpool A new 2,250,000 cu. ft. per day vertical retort carbonization plant equipped with modern ancillary plant for the utilization of by-products has been erected by the Liverpool Gas Co. to meet the increased demand. Paper and Board Research Organization Formed Latest addition to the expanding circle of research associations sponsored and supported by specific industries is the British Paper and Board Industry Research Association, formed as a company limited by guarantee without share capital, to f-zeetlgate technical problems in connection with the paper and paper board industry. Gammexane Said to Be More Powerful than DDT In the Hurter Memorial Lecture to the Society of Chemical Industry in Liverpool Roland Slade, research controller of Imperial Chemical Industries, revealed the discovery of a new insecticide called Gammexane or 666. The new substance has been found highly poisonous to many insects, including locusts, wireworms, caterpillars, and larvae
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1945
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WORLD WIDE CHEMISTRY of the yellow fever mosquito, the grain weevil, and the apple blossom weevil. It is said to be five times more powerful in insecticidal effect than D D T . The research work was carried out at the I.C.I.'s biological laboratory at Hawthorndale, Berks.
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Shell Endows School of Chemical Engineering The Shell group of oil companies has given a capital sum of £435,000 and £2,500 a year to Cambridge University for the establishment of a School of Chemical Engineering and the provision of scholarships on the subject. About 30 chemical engineering gradu ates will qualify from the school in the beginning, but a gradual expansion is anticipated. GEORGE ABRAHAMSON 160 HALFWAY S T . SIDCUP, K E N T , ENGLAND
Chemical Notes from Brazil Aluminum Sulfate Production of aluminum sulfate has made rapid progress in both quantity and quality since former sources of imports were isolated by the war and Brazil now provides the greater portion of her own requirements. Consumption of aluminum sulfate in Brazil varies from about 6,000 t o 10,000 tons annually. Water purification accounts for a large portion of the consumption· The paper industry is also a relatively large consumer of the product. Some trade sources are of the opinion that there is still a market in Brazil for imported aluminum sulfate, particularly the iron-free quality. The imported material is acknowledged superior to the domestio product and is preferred when prices are approximately equal. Chemical Fertilizers Imports of chemical fertilisers through the port of Santos amounted to 16,663 metric tons in 1943, whereas they totaled 28,037 in 1942, and 36,484 in 1938. CEP values are given as $814,000 in 1943, $1,009,000 in 1942, and $860,000 i n 1938. The serious shortage in the Sao Paulo area is shown by the reduction in volume of more than 60% in 1943, compared with 1938, the last prewar year.
Cobalt Oxidised nickel cobalt ore deposits at Sao José dos Tocantine i n Goias have been surveyed and prospected by Brazilian and American mining engineers and geologists. The deposits, however, are located in the jungle where both transportation and fuel problems prevail. Up to 1942 Minas Gérais produced 1,200 tons of cobalt ore and exported 700 tons of this. With technical assistance it is said that 20 tons of cobalt could be mined per day and shipped out b y plane. Molded Plastics Phenol-formaldehyde plastic material will be used by Perfumarias Phelo, Limitada, Belém, Para, manufacturers of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, for the production of
CHEMICAL
containers, primarily for their own use. This is believed to be the first manufacture of molded plastic articles in the northern region of Brazil. The initial output will b e small and annual consumption of phenol molding compositions for this purpose i s estimated at about 3,000 kg. Molding equipment is of Brasil manufacture.
Tuns Oil Tung oil, important for use in many types of brake linings and insulating compounds as well as in oilcloth and waterproofing fabrics, was supplied almost exclusively by China before the war. Since curtailment of shipments, commercial plantings in the Sao Paulo region have been developed, though the industry is still in the stage of trial. Brasil, one of the few Latin American countries able to produce tung oil in sufficient quantity t o be of any commercial value, produced about 500,000 kg. i n 1944, from which 75 tons of good quality oil may be obtained.
German Rubber Plants Studied A group of rubber, oil, chemical, and other technicians borrowed from industry is studying German synthetic rubber plants, trying to discover whether Germany has developed secret processes for making synthetic rubber that are superior to those used in this country.
Britain to Retain German Patents The Lord Chancellor,, speaking for the government before the House of Lords in London April 16, stated that under no circumstances will patents or the right to patent royalties owned b y Germans and used in Great Britain revert t o their former owners after the end of the war. Before 1939 royalty payments by the British to Germans constituted an important item in the British trade balance.
Research Progress in Leningrad Research projects are in full progress at the Leningrad Institute of Applied Chemistry while the institute i s undergoing repairs of damage occasioned b y the war. A number of important studies i n connection with development of the chemical industry are in progress. The mineral salts laboratory is reported to have developed a method for obtaining Freon, which previously had to be imported. Solvents for lacquer and paint are being produced at the institute through use of acetic acid i n a process worked out i n the organic synthesis laboratory. New dyes have also been developed for the textile industry.
Organic Chemistry in Soviet The U.S.S.R. Institute for Organic Chemistry is working on the synthesis of organic-chemicals from petroleum, natural gases, and acetylene. Attention i s being given t o alcohols, adds, plastics, synthetic fibers, and cellulose.
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