INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
976
Vol. 16, No. 9
WORLD-WIDE CHEMISTRY German Letter By Walter Roth C(ITRBN,
GBRMANY
GOLDFROM QUICKSILVER As a result of recent investigations of Professor Miethe and his assistants the dream of the alchemist of turning quicksilver into gold seems to have been fulfilled. According to preliminary information in Die Naturwissenschaften, Professor Miethe, duiing research on the coloring of transparent minerals and pastes under the action of the ultra-violet rays, obtained. this quicksilver transformation. Jaenicke’s new mercury lamp quickly formed a black coating on the inside. To great surprise, investigation showed a gold content, although the mercury of the lamp was entirely free from gold before the experiment. The presence of gold was quite readily proved. The metal that remained after dissolving the last trace of quicksilver in saltpeter was golden yellow and consisted of an agglomerate of beautifully shaped, mirror-faced, cubic and octagonal crystals. The Cassius test proceeded exactly as with natural gold. That the disintegration of the quicksilver atom, a t least in the near future, has no industrial significance, needs no comment. ;Professor Miethe is continuing his research. RUBBERIN LIGNITE There occurs occasionally in the lignite of the Cothen region a network of fibrous structure having a yellowish brown color and resembling the hair of animals. For this reason the miner calls it “ape hairs,” without knowing its true nature. E. Kinrlscher, in the Government Materialprufungsamt a t Berlin-Dahlen, has now proved that this structure is rubber. The rubber is present in the latex in the vessels which form a network of connecting tubes in the plant. The contents of these vessels dry when the plant dies, and the residue, the caoutchouc, remains as a true impression of connecting tubes in the form of thin, interwoven threads, and, unlike the cellulose content of the plant, has not shared in the formation of coal. The sulfur compounds appearing by the decay or in the formation of coal have then brought about a vulcanization of the rubber threads. On account of the complete exclusion of air in the coal bed the caoutchouc material has preserved its elastic properties in the interior of the earth. A similar occurrence of rubber was found in the lignite deposits of the Geiseltal a t Merseburg. Here also it is a case of vulcanized rubber, and the Cothen occurrence can be spoken of as 4, soft gum,” and that a t Merseburg as “hard gum.” A NEW SYNTHETIC COLLOID POLLOPAS,
The synthetic resin chemist and discoverer of “Juvelite,” Fritz Pollak, by the condensation of carbamide and thiocarbamide with formaldehyde und?: quite definite conditions, has obtained a product, “Pollopas, which in many cases will supplant glass and similar materials. Pollopas can be rolled, bored, fraised, polished, and cut. It can be used for optical apparatus instead of flint glass, and also of making ornaments, and smoking, traveling, and similar articles. For example, fountain pen reservoirs, which could not be made of glass, can be made from the less frangible, very light, and still transparent Pollopas. This substance can be colored and darkened as desired. Opalescent glass and imitation porcelain of all kinds have been made of Pollopas, by using luminous, fluorescent colors, which give a beautiful effect. Pollopas can be etched with hydrofluoric acid or concentrated sulfuric acid in a way similar to which glass is etched. Because of this, door signs and illuminated advertising signs can be made. It is also recommended combined with glass panes for automobiles, as Pollopas does not splinter. A LITTLE-KNOWN SOURCE OR LEADPOISONING Herr Beintker, industrial health adviser, has recently described lead poisonings that have occurred in the tempering rooms of a large wire mill. For the purpose of tempering, the steel wire is heated in a furnace to about 700” to 800° C. and then coaled by immersion in a lead bath a t about 500° C. I n this way changes take place
in the structure of the wire so that it can be drawn like other wire. Two processes are used, immersion and drawing. By the second process, in which alone lead poisoning was observed, the wire is first placed in the rotary stand, or “crown,” then drawn through the furnace and a lead bath and is wound up on the mechanically moving “disks.” When the wire comes out of the furnace it is covered with a layer of ferrous oxide. This layer is very porous and in going through the lead bath is saturated with lead. To get rid of the superfluous lead the wire is passed through a sand bath, which retains a part of it. Upon coming out the oxide layer loosens, and in the oxide falling t o the floor is a large amount of lead. Even when severe lead poisoning did not occur, lead colic was often observed. Owing to the nature of the industry, especially the continuous running of the wires, which must not be stopped, it was necessary for the workers to eat their meals a t the work room. This must under all circumstances be prevented, and the other directions for industries where danger of lead poisoning exists must be observed. Attempts to substitute baths of molten metal salts for the lead baths, as in the tempering of files and tools, met with no success in wire tempering. STANDARDIZATION OF MEDICINES Although foodstuffs are very stiictly controlled, so t h a t they are offered in full value, unspoiled, and in appetizing condition, the same importance has unfortunately not been placed on the control of drugs. On this account a standardization of medicines has recently been demanded from various quarters, which means the establishment of definite principles concerning the degree of purity of preparations, their physico-chemical properties, the influence of these on their therapeutic effect, the changes on storage, their durability, etc. It is rightly demanded that, if in the feeding of healthy persons the greatest care is taken, so much more is it necessary for care to be taken in providing medicine necessary for those who are ill. Inasmuch as medicines are often produced in large quantities by the factories, and then are stored for months in apothecaries, drug stores, etc., and also many times made and dispensed by quacks, there is often no assurance that any therapeutic value exists in the drug. The Pharmazeutische Zeitung challenges the apothecaries to set a standard for medicines, to collect their knowledge of the behavior of medicines on storage, and to provide a central place a t which the material delivered to pharmaceutical institutes shall be scientifically examined.
LIMEIN PEARL FORM After experimenting for a year the joint stock company of H. Scheidemandel, of Berlin, has succeeded in producing lime and gelatin in the form of beads or pearls, called for short “lime pearls” and “gelatin pearls.” These pearls are produced by passing lime or gelatin through fine openings into a fluid or gaseous medium. I n falling the drops form, as a result of the surface tension, as, pearl-like, spherical bodies. Through appropriate cooling of this medium the pearls gelatinize in less than a minute. An ingenious apparatus makes it possible, by absolute prevention of premature decomposition due to heat, for the pearls to possess the same qualities as the liquid lime or gelatin before being made into pearls, I n this way a great saving in time and space is accomplished-the pouring of the liquor on lime tables, the cutting of the dried jelly, the week-long drying, the tearing of the slabs, the difficult packing, are all avoided and instead of the troublesome lime slabs one obtains the lime pearls. According to the new process it will be possible in the future t o produce lime and gelatin in hot countries, which has heretofore been impossible. July 15, 1924
Decreased Use of Phosphoric Acid in Germany-The current agricultural year will show a 65 per cent decrease in the use of phosphoric acid fertilizers in Germany, as compared with the previous year, according to the Deutsche Bergwerkszeitung. From May 1 to December 31, 1923, only 82,000 tons were used, as compared with 336,000 tons in the same period of 1913. The amount of phosphoric acid fertilizer used in Germany has never quite reached 50 per cent of pre-war years. Prices are said to be one and a half times as high as during war times.
