engineers wishing to reduce tb,e tedious labor of solving MAiv years ago the late Edward Washburn, editor of "International Critical Tahles," defined a physicist as complex equations have developed machines which mill one who made measurements with very precise instru- do the job if they are fed all of the essential data and a ments and very impure chemicals; a chemist, as one proper "program" is developed for them. No, t,hese who made the same measurements with very crude machines have no brains, they never think, hut they do instruments and very pure ehcmicals; and a physical have marvelous memories. Sometimes they remember chemist as one who used not only crude instruments data from a previous but irrelevant. problem and first hut also very impure chemicals. I t seemed obvious t,o must be "hrain washed." Once again the engineering scient,ist has demonstrated. Washburn, an internationally-famous physical chemist himself, that members of his profession were t,he most his value. He seems to be the only person who is able consistent and perhaps obtained the most reliable to select the proper machine for the particular problem and is in a posit,ion to develop a satisfactory "program." results. Today, as one mutation of the physical chemist we His is the real hrain. His success is already so marked that we now h a w have t,he "engineering scientist." He is the chap who years ago appreciated the quantitative principles of seen the birth of "informational engineering." The chemistry. He looked with a jaundiced eye a t those main ohjeet in t,his llelv field of engineering is to rorengineers who understood only simple physics and who relate vast quantities of data and reduce them to a relied upon empirical formulas which they found in few simple hut useful facts n~hichxere not evident outmoded handbooks. The physical chemist in the before. Now, where is "the dead mouse in the can of milk"? meantime dove into the atom to meet the new physicist on a new and bloody battlefield, leaving to the engineer- Why not educate only engineering scientists? Why ing scientist that important and interesting problem bother to educate the common garden variety of chemiof horn t o control molecular reactions for the good of cal engineers-those versatile fellows who seem to be so flexible that they can take on most any industrial probmankind. Also in the meantime, the mathematically-minded lem and do fairly well a t discovering t,he solution?
The view through the window this month is that seen by Donald R. Iceyes. It is a pleasure for the Editor, and a treat for his readers to share this page with one whose view of the chemical world has been through so many different windows. Currently his view is the New York skyline from the offices of Arthur D. Little, Inc. He watched the hustling rampus of the University of Illinois as chairman of its division of chemical engineering for 19 years. He has had the view from the industrial research bench (U. S. Industrial Chemical Co.), the corporation executive's office (Heyden Chemical Corp.), and a government agency (Office of Production Research and Development of the War Production Board). The accompanying reflection of what he sees contains the parable of "Semi-quantitative Joe." Dr. Keyes considers him to be an indispensable fellow, even in these days of automation and electronic brains.
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
First, it must be remembered the engineering scien- tion of a binary or ternary system into a product tist must have an unusually brilliant mind, far above the which has certain specifications. Let us further average. If he does not, he is right down with the assume that he has no previous knowledge of this sysrest of us who are still struggling along trying to make tem. First he would like to determine the correct a living. number of plates necessary for this column to function Second, he can only operate if he has a t his disposal properly. Does he grab his handbook or rush over to a vast qnantity of reliable data. He has no time to the library and start looking? Not at all. Does he collect these data; son~ebodyelse must do it for him. confer with his good friend, the engineering scientist? He is always amazed that previous investigators have No, he just calls "Joe." This is his orthodox procedure. shown so little interest in pertinent data. This often Who is Joe? He is just a good, young chemical means that considerable time and money must be spent engineer who is the pilot-plant foreman. He is educated, but his appearance suggests that it was not before he has the requisite food for thought. While waiting for data collections, his brain does not secured in an "Ivy Tower." remain idle. Sometimes he takes the facts available, Joe's boss says, "Find out for me the number of and if he is not too timid a soul, makes some assump- plates required for this feed stock to produce this prodtions to replace the missing data and blithely goes uct, and I want the answer yesterday. Get going!" ahead with the solution knowing that the results may Joe knows his stuff and is paid well to obtain results. be erroneous. He may find sufficient data to attack Does he study the problem? Yes, as he walks rapidly another problem solved before by a less competent to the pilot plant where he has several columns, each investigator. I n this case, he even may hope that he with a different number of plates. Once there, he and will come up with a differentresult. His pleasure may his gang locate material for the feed stock, acquire it come more from his proving someone to have been by fair means or foul, and start operating one column wrong than from the data's usefulness. after another, always varying the reflux until the It is evident that our engineering scientist has his desired product is obtained. limitations, so let us drop down out of the clouds and From these few simple examples and his past experiglance at the distillation expert working for industry. ence as to what his boss considers a "reasonable" Yes, he is well educated, hut he knows many things reflux, he can easily guess the correct answer. He besides classical chemical engineering. He knows how phones it in and calls it a day. to handle men, from engineering scientists to labor The moral of this story is, we can't do much with the leaders. He is called a "distillation expert" because results of the brilliant engineering scientist, unless we he has been forced t o design many columns which have have a t the same time a good snpply of "Semi-qnantiperformed satisfactorily. tative Joe's." Let us suppose that some morning he has the problem of designing a continuous column for the separa-
FIRST FILM FOR COLLEGE-CLASSROOM USE EDITED BY DIVISION'S COMMITTEE Title: The Chemistry of Aluminum Obtainable from: Reynolds Metals Company, Motion Pictures, 2500 S. Third Street, Louisville 1, Kentucky Description: 16 mm., color, 16 minute running time A BRIEF introduction to the uses of aluminum is followed by a. thorough description of the mining and purification of bauxite to give alumina, of the electrolysis of dumina in molten cryolite t o give metdlio aluminum, of-the casting, rolling, extrus&n, and deep drawing of aluminum metal, and of color anodizing and secondary processing of the metal into cable, pipelines, ete. The film closes with a review of the processing technics and general shots of the plants t o show the scale of the operation. This film is designed specifioally for college-classroom use and includes chemical formulas for the raw materials, and chemical equations for each step in the metallurgy. Animation of several steps is included. The film is recommended for use after a brief introduction to the suhieet bv the instructor. but is lareelv self-oxolanatorv if
A COMMITTEE ON EDITING FILMS w&8e~tslolishedby the Division of Chemical Education in 1954. It was instructed to cooperate with industry in an attempt t o produce films designed especially for college classrooms. The committee has accepted the following principles as part of its minimum standards: running time of not more than 20 minutes, elimination of "mood music" so that the instructor can make comments, use of correct chemical terminology with formulas and equations when needed. The principal purposes are two: (1) to illustrate the scale on which modern industry operates using the same chemical principles a student uses in the laboratory, and ( 2 ) to show the application of these principles in typical industrial practice. The committee solicits from the readers of THIS JOURNAL 8uggestions of films which meet these criteria or can be made to do 80 with a minimum of editing. J. A. Campbell, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, is chairman; other committee members are: F. Dutton, L. Fergusan, H. Gabriel, W. Miller, H. Sorum, and G. Thomas. The committee is most appreciative of the friendly coopemtion the Reynolds Metals Company has given in producing this film, the first industrial film so conceived, and is sure its reception h y college teachers will be enthusiastic.
