Editorial - "How Do Others Do It?" - Industrial & Engineering Chemistry

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I/EC May 1960, Volume 52,

No. 5

APPLIED JOURNALS, ACS 1 155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington 6, D. C. Direcfor of Publications, C. B. Larrabee Ediforial Director, Richard 1. Kenyon Execufive Edifor, James M. Crowe Assistant to the Direcfor of Publicotions, Joseph H. Kuney Assisfanf to the Editorial Direcfor, Robert F. Gould

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INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERINGCHEMISTRY Editor, Will H. Shearon, Jr. EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON 6, D. C. 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Teletype W A 23 Phone REpublic 7-3337 Associate Edifor: William H. Gay Assistanf Editors: Joe H. Olin, Joe 8. Pullen, Elspeth W. Mainland Manuscript Department Associate Editors: Stella Anderson, Head Katherine 1. Biggs, Reviewing Ruth Reynard, Editing Ruth M. Howorlh, Eugenia Keller Editorial Assistant: S. S. Rogers Loyoof and Producfion Joseph Jacobs, Art Director Melvin D. Buckner (Art) Leroy Corcoran (Layout) BRANCH EDITORIAL OFFICES WASHINGTON Associote Editor: Robert J. Riley CHICAGO 1, ILL. Room 926,36 South Wabash Ave. Phone STate 2-5148 Teletype CG 725 Associate Editors: Arthur Poulos, Chester Placek, James H. Krieger HOUSTON 2, TEX., 718 Melrose Bldg. Phone FAirfax 3-7107 Teletype HO 72 Associate Editors: Bruce F. Greek, Earl V. Anderson NEW YORK 16, N. Y., 2 Park Ave. Phone ORegon 9-1646 Teletype NY 1-4726 Associate Editors: William Q. Hull, Harry Stenerson, D. Gray Weaver, Walter S. Fedor, Laurence J. White, Louis A. Agnello SAN FRANCISCO 4, CALIF. 703 Mechanics’ Institute Bldg., 57 Post St. Teletype SF 549 Phone EXbrook 2-2895 Associate Editor: Richard G. Newhall Assisfont Editor: Joseph Sturchio EASTON, PA. 20th and Northampton Sts. Phone Blackburn 8-91 11 Teletype ESTN Pa 7048 Associate Editor: Charlotte C. Sayre Editorial Assistants: Elizabeth R. Rufe, Barbara A. Conover EUROPEAN OFFICE Bush House, Aldwych, London Cable JIECHEM Phone Temple Bar 3605 Associafe Edifor: Albert S. Hester Assisfant Edifor: Brendan F. Somerville Confributing Edifors: H. Carl Bauman, James B. Weaver, W. S. Connor, P. H. Stirling Advisory Board. R. 1. Bateman, A. S. Brunies, David M. Clark, James M. Church, Lauchlin M. Currie, Joseph C. Elgin, Sam S. Emison, E. J. Fox, George Harrington, Gustave Heinemann, Rafael Katzen, Joseph H. Koffolt, F. Drew Mayfield, George Thodos, Richard C. Waugh

How Do Others Do It? SCIENTISTS often challenge generalizations. But here is one we consider difficult to challenge: nearly everybody profits from seeing or finding out how someone else does something. The profit may come from being able to use or adapt their techniques. I t could be in helping establish the validity of an approach. At the worst, it could come from just being able to congratulate yourself that you aren’t doing it that way. Scientific journals originated because people wanted to tell what they did and how they did it. We don’t imply that this makes these journals “cookbooks.” We do mean to say that they are “how-to-do-it” books in the deep sense, and on a high level. And we mean that journals designed to serve chemists and chemical engineers in industry and in academic fields can and should perform a highly useful service beyond the publication of what is termed “original research.” We were much interested recently in the reasons an author gave for presenting a paper (which we are considering for publication) before a small-scale meeting : I t is mostly a discussion of philosophy. I t probably applies only to situations where there is not adequate direction by professional statisticians. A good statistician would feel my approach was unnecessary. There are cases, I am sure, where we amateurs bite off more than we can chew and find out too late we could have done a better job in the planning stage. This is an approach to this problem , , , I am primarily interested in getting some comments from the audience as an evaluation to my approach. It might be just a very localized solution to a limited problem or it could have a broader application . . I believe that it could fit into pilot plant studies where the engineer does the planning without help from a statistician.

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We think this type of material of value. I/EC’s review system will be the first part of our audience evaluation. The readers will be the second. This is the thirteenth year that I/EC has published its regular feature, the “Staff-Industry Collaborative Report.” Reinhold has collected these biennially into “Modern Chemical Processes,” now in five volumes, some reprinted several times. These are gold-mines of general process information, and considerable specific information not considered proprietary. Much of I/EC’s annual technical menu is process description, equipment and cost data, reaction mechanisms, and kinetic rate data. Some of the latter, except for ill-defined systems unless the author is able to draw relatively broad conclusions about the effect of various factors on rates, are also published in the Journal of Chemical and Engzneering Data. Industry has been outstandingly generous over the years in making available data for our Staff-Industry Reports and in encouraging authors who wish to publish plant and process design data. Our policy has always been that, unless hopelessly outmoded, old information is good information so long as it hasn’t been published. Industry has allowed employees to use company information and in many cases company time to meet regular deadlines as contributing editors in such important areas as instrumentation, costs, corrosion, equipment and design, statistical design, and industrial wastes. I t is no surprise, then, that we applaud Dr. George W. Preckshot of the University of Minnesota for his recent plea in a letter to the editor of Chemical Engineering Progress that the chemical industry as a whole find a way to make available process design and construction data. Dr. Preckshot’s basic interest is information for his students, but such information, useful to advanced students in chemical engineering, will be useful to many in industry. Undoubtedly, the information Dr. Preckshot desires would be too much in sheer quantity for conventional publication, and perhaps the chemical industry or its individual members can find a way to make it available when the conventional publications can no longer handle it. In the meantime, the ACS with its “Advances in Chemistry Series,” the AIChE with its Symposium Monographs and its computer program service, and I/EC’s “Dollars for Details” program, which is proving very popular and which we will discuss in more detail in a later issue, are a definite answer to some aspects of this problem.

WCnett Advertising Management REINHOLD PUBLISHING CORP. (For Branch Offices see page 107 A) VOL. 52, NO. 5

M A Y 1960

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