WASHINGTON NOTES

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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

Vol. 15, No. 12

WASHINGTON NOTES INTERNAL REVENUE REGULATIONS Work is progressing satisfactorily on the revision of Internal Revenue Regulations 60, “Relative to Intoxicating Liquor,” and it is hoped that they can be put into effect within a few weeks. These regulations have received the attention of the Alcohol Trades Advisory Committee, upon which the AMERICAN CHEMI~CALSOCIETY has a representative, and were first submitted to this committee in July. TARIFF COMMISSION ACTIVITIES

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The work of the Tariff Commission, so far as we are interested, centered during the past month in the various hearings that were held. On November 5 , applications were heard for an increase and also for a decrease in the present duty on oxalic acid. The Victor Chemical Company, of Chicago, applied for an increase of 50 per cent in the 4 cents per pound duty on this chemical, whereas representatives of R. W. Greff & Company, of New York, asked for a decrease. Both sides waived rights to submit briefs and final arguments and the case was closed so far as evidence was concerned. The next step is for the Commission to report its findings to the President. On November 7 , 1923, the barbital hearing was held. A. S. Burdick, president, and E. H. Ravenscroft, vice president of the Abbott Laboratories. Chicago, Ill., appeared in defense of the application for an increase of 50 per cent in the present rate of duty of 25 per cent. No one appeared in opposition and the case was closed. Statistics were given showing that before the war this product was imported a t $7 and sold for $21 per pound and that now the domestic product sells to the drug trade for $8. The hearing on barium peroxide was held on November 9. The J. H. R. Products Company, of Willoughby, Ohio, the sole manufacturer of this product in the United States for sale in the cpen market, applied for an increase of a t least 2 cents per pound in the present duty of 4 cents per pound. John Bene & Sons, Inc., of Brooklyn, applied for a decrease of at least 1 cent per pound, their chief contention being that if the duty was increased they could not afford to import barium peroxide in future and would be forced to buy from this one domestic manufacturer who, they were afraid, would raise his price. Witnesses were given until Kovember 20 to file final briefs. The Tariff Commission published the actual costs of production in connection with the logwood extract case which was held and closed on November 12. The American Dyewood Company asked that the duty on this product be increased by applying the American valuation principle to the rate of duty in the new tariff act. The Logwood Manufacturing Corporation appeared in opposition. The chief argument advanced by the American Dyewood Company was that the case should be settled on costs in Haiti rather than average cost for the West Indies since Haiti was the principal competing country. Those arguing for a reduction in duty showed that they sold over 80 per cent of the logwood brought in from Haiti to their principal, the National Silk Dyeing Company, of Paterson, and to a domestic manufacturer. They opposed any increase in duty on the ground that the duty, which the Treasury Department has been assessing on the United States value instead of on the foreign market value, was sufficient. On November 14 the National Electrolytic Company, of Niagara Falls, N. Y., and the North American Chemical Company, of Bay City, Mich., appeared for an increase in the present duty of 1.5 cents a pound on potassium chlorate. They stated that both domestic plants have been entirely closed since 1922, one closing in May and one in December, and that imported potassium chlorate is being sold in New York a t less than the American cost of production. The Diamond Match Company were applicants for a decrease in duty to 1 cent a pound. Mr. Fear, representing the Federal Match Corporation, also appeared for a decrease in duty. November 24 was set as the final date for filing brief by the advbcates for a decrease. Applicants for an increase were given until December 1 to file a reply. Those opposing an increase testified that they had an old contract with the German manufacturers a t an unusually low price which has some time to run but that they did not expect to be able to renew a t the same favorable prices. The field investigations which the Chemical Division has under way including linseed oil, phenol, cresylic acid, and phenolic resins will be pretty well completed by the end of the month.

GRADUATION EXERCISES OF CHEMICAL WARFARESCHOOL Graduation exercises of the recent class of officers undergoing instruction a t the Chemical Warfare School were held November 10, 1923, a t Edgewood Arsenal. The course completed was one of the Line and Staff Officers’ courses which are given from time to time throughout the year. These courses are intended primarily for officers of branches of the Army other than Chemical Warfare and of the Navy and Marine Corps, and are designed t o furnish these officerssuch technical instruttion in chemistry and physics as to give them a general knowledge of the characteristics and uses of chemical agents, with particular reference to protective and defensive measures against chemical warfare. Brigadier General Amos A. Fries, chief of Chemical Warfare Service, delivered an interesting address to the officers, and upon conclusion of the exercises presented diplomas to the following officers who successfully completed the course: Majors: John A. Baird, Oscar A. Eastwold, Charles E. T. Lull, and James W. Lyon; Captains: Thomas J. Johnston, Charles S . Moyer, Victor Parks, Jr., and George F. Unmacht; First Lieutenant William W. Wise, Chemical Warfare Service. First Lieutenant Giles F. Ewing, Signal Corps. Major Walton Goodwin, Jr., Cavalry; First Lieutenants Milton A. Hill and Emil Krause, and Second Lieutenant Henry J. Hunt, Jr., Infantry; Lieutenants Charles F. Fielding, Ralph G. Moody, Hubert E. Paddock, Charles M . Rockey, William D. Sample, Julian B. Timberlake, Jr., and Andrew M. Parks; Ensigns Edmund W. Egbert and James C. Reisinger, Navy; Lieutenants Franklin I?. Lane, and Edwards M . Riley, Naval Medical Corps: and First Lieutenants Herman R. Anderson and Blythe G. Jones, Marine Corps.

CONCANNON RETURNS FROM

EUROPE

C. C. Concannon, chief of the Chemical Division of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, returned to Washington on November 14 from a kaleidoscopic trip to Europe, where he went to study foreign conditions and their bearing upon the work of his division. Among other places he visited London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, the Hague, Amsterdam, Frankfurt-on-Main and Bernberg, conferring in each city with the commercial attaches and their assistants in an endeavor to give them a clearer understanding of the work of his division and what it is striving t o accomplish. He hopes that by carrying to them in this way a picture of just what the chemical industry in America is doing, they will be better able to meet their own problems and to secure for transmission to the Department in Washington chemical information which is analogous to that printed for the United States and which will meet the demands and needs of the American industry. He conferred with many prominent officials in Europe, among them Sir William Alexander, of London, and spent much time with Chemical Trade Commissioner Breithut. As a result of numerous conferences with Commissioner Breithut, arrangements have been made for the latter to begin a t once the preparation of a report on the French coal-tar chemical industry. As soon as this is completed he will proceed to Brussels and secure the necessary data to prepare a similar report on the Belgian industry. He will then go t o London, Rome, Warsaw, and Prague, spending sufficient time in each city to secure information for the preparation of reports on the coal-tar chemical industry of their respective countries. These reports will be published promptly and will doubtless take the form of Trade Information Bulletins. While in Germany, Mr. Concannon visited the potash mines just outside of Bernberg, and was to have visited the Hoechst works, but conditions at the time were not propitious for sightseeing. CENSUS O F LIME MANUFACTURERS The Bureau of the Census will take a census of lime manufacturers covering the calendar year of 1923. Schedules, prepared after conference with associations and others interested in the various industries, will be mailed during the first week in January, and the members of the National Lime Association and all others engaged in the industry are urged t o make their reports promptly. The Bureau of the Census, in turn, stands ready to tabulate the data as rapidly as the schedules are received and to publish the tables within a few days after the receipt of the last report.

December, 1923

INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

REPORTON TANNING MATERIALS The chestnut blight has been extending its ravages for years, and since the chestnut tree, which is grown only in the eastern part of the United States, affords the most considerable source of tanning materials in this country, the tanning industry has become aroused to the necessity of eradicating this pest. At the request of the Tanners’ Council, the Department of Commerce started an investigation to determine what steps should be taken to insure a reasonable domestic supply of tanning materials in the future. The Tanners’ Council appointed an advisory committee composed of the leading experts of the country t o cooperate with the department in this work. The report, prepared as a result of these investigations, will probably be ready for distribution about the time THISJOURNAL issues. This report describes the available domestic resources and gives domestic production statistics, as well as consumption statistics for domestic and foreign tanning materials during the year 1922. The figures were compiled from data secured in response to questionnaires sent out to the industry. Production and consumption statistics have been reduced to bark tonnage so that their relative significance to the tanner and the extract producer may be seen a t a glance. Definite recommendations are made as to the course to be pursued in order to assure an adequate supply of domestic raw materials for the future. The situation is regarded as so serious that codperation from every branch of the industry is deemed absolutelv essential. If the industries do not coocerate and present a- united front, it is feared that in the event-of another

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international war a serious degree of paralysis of the tanning industry would follow which would make its impress upon every American citizen. SALINITY O F S E A WATER The Bureau of Standards has developed an apparatus and procedure by means of which the salinity of sea water may be determined readily on board ship. This work was undertaken a t the request of the Committee on Instruments, Apparatus, and Measurements of the Interdepartmental Board on International Service of Ice Observation, Ice Patrol, and Ocean Derelict Destination, and the apparatus is for use on one of the coast guard cutters when on ice patrol duty. The proportion of salts in sea water varies with time and location as a result of evaporation from the surface and dilution with fresh water. Increase or decrease of the salt content makes a corresponding change in the electrical conductivity, but the indications are made to show directly the corresponding amount of salts present in the water. This procedure is much quicker and more convenient than the usual chemical titration method. I t is intended t o enable the scientific observer on the ice patrol work to determine the salinity of samples of sea water as taken or whenever he may desire, rather than only a t the end of the season. Thus the data can be made immediately available in case it should be found that a knowledge of the salinity may help in detecting changes in conditions such as shifts of currents, the approach of ice floes or berm. or other changes affecting navigation. I

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November 17, 1923

The Nobel Prize HE award of the Nobel Prize has come Chicago and for years has been identified to indicate marked scientific progress with the progress of physics in the United States. He has played a large part in the in the country so fortunate as to have formation and founding of the National among its workers those who qualify for Research Council, was most active during this signal honor. I n the yearly award of the war, and has received honorary degrees these famous prizes Americans have fared from a number of American and foreign better in science than in literature, and this universities. year two of the prizes have come to this continent. While he was a t the University of ChiTo Dr. Frederick G. Banting and Dr. J. cago in 1910, Dr. Millikan carried out his “oil drop” experiments, which enabled him J. R. PvIcLeod the Kobe1 Prize in medicine to isolate an individual ion and to obtain has been awarded for the discovery of inproof of the kinetic theory. As a result of sulin ol which we have read so much during the past year. Working quietly a t the these experiments, he said that he had Univer4ty of Toronto with the assistance of been able to give tangible demonstration that an electric charge was not a homogefellow workers with whom the prize has been neous something but that it had a definite generously shared, little was known of the work until experimental stages had been granular structure. practically passed and the hundreds of Subsequently Dr. Millikan advanced the Harris & Ewing thousands of diabetic sufferers could be told theory that radio-activity was not confined R. A. MILLIKAN to the radium series alone, but was the that a t last a m-omising - treatment for their relief had been devised through scientific research. general property oE all matter, although possessed to a less Dr. 13anting had already been signally honored by his Govern- degree by some substances. In September of this year he esment, which granted a substantial annuity for life, and had shown tablished a residence on Pike’s Peak to investigate the source of his earnest purpose by remarking that the greatest assistance he penetrating radiation which has puzzled scientists for years. could have now was t o be left alone to continue his scientific Previously he had experimented with kites which he sent up with research. A Banting Research Fund has been founded to which machines that measured rays said to be more powerful than X$10,000 of the prize has been contributed toward a $1,000,000 rays or the gamma rays of radium. These rays apparently came fund, the income of which will forward the work of medical from space, but not from the sun, as they could be measured a t research and scientific study. Dr. Banting has refused all com- night as well as by day. pensation for insulin, which is being made a t low cost under In May last, Dr. Millikan prepared a declaration, signed by license by a pharmaceutical house in Indianapolis. It is esti- United States Cabinet officials and leaders in the political, mated that nearly thirty thousand diabetic patients are now under business, scientific, and religious worlds, that there is no antagonism between science and religion. the insulin treatment and no failures have been reported. The Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to Robert In 1907, the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to A. A. Andrews Millikan, of Pasadena, Calif ., the first scientist to Michelson, of Chicago, the prize for medicine t o Dr. Carrel in isolate and measure the electron. Dr. Millikan is the director 1912, and in chemistry to T. W. Richards of Harvard, in 1914. of the Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics a t Pasadena and Such recognition honors not only the recipient, but the nation chairman of the Administrative Council of the California In- where he has found a congenial home for his laboratory. stitute of Technology. He was formerly a t the University of