WITH whatever feelings we may have contem

W plated the procedure of the Peace Conference at

Paris, there could be but one universal sentiment at the announcement of the Germans that they were ready to sign the treaty unconditionally. Men everywhere experienced a sense of relief, a feeling that the world had at last finished a nasty job and could go about its business, could afford to take at least one eye off the enemy and apply it to works of construction. True, events immediately subsequent to the declaration showed that not more than one eye could be detached for the present, and that watchfulness would be in order for some time to come. It is true also that the world still awaits retributive justice in the trial of those responsible for the war and the payment of indemnities to ravished Belgium and France. But on the whole there is a feeling that the pursuits of peace can occupy our attention. There will still be much political debate and argument, despite Lincoln's historic and classic recognition of the fact that "the world will little care or long remember what we say here," but that need not deter industry from putting its hand to the throttle and forging ahead. The future will be determined more by work than talk.

Co-operation Between

Industry and University

E PUBLISH in another column a letter from a

W student of chemical engineering in which the

prospectus of an intercollegiate chemical society is outlined. It has for its purpose the establishment of a course of lectures on the technology of various industries and the details of large-scale chemical apparatus. The idea seems to us worth while. There is a considerable hazard of loss in breaking in nearly every student to factory practice, and this should be decreased by the course proposed. A trouble that has not been provided for in these lectures by manufacturers, works chemists and sales engineers of apparatus is that men who are not accustomed to lecturing are fully likely not to consider their time and get to the point without needless preambles and peroration. Usually it is like pulling teeth to draw information out of an unregenerate manufacturer-and by unregenerate we mean one that fears his neighbor as the devil, and who holds that all information relating to his industry should be privy to his establishment.

What we would like to see in chemical engineering courses is better training in industrial physics. After all it is more important to know why things are done and why results ensue then to learn how to do them. It takes very little explaining to teach a man how, who knows why.

Is Molybdenum a

Metallurgical Mystery?

ONE

WALLACE SAVAGE ALAN G. WIKOFF Assistant Editors L. W. CHAPMAN Western Editor J. S. NEGRU Managing Editor

Number 1

NE of the minor metals which has witnessed some puzzling vicissitudes in fortune during war-time is molybdenum. Ten-fold increase in price caused quadrupling of output, whereupon the market became more or less nominal, and has remained stagnant for several months. Under these circumstances, miners of this material are naturally much concerned about the chances of future business, especially since molybdenum minerals are much more widespread and accessible than others, tungsten or vanadium as instances, and any probable demand could be readily satisfied.

Contradictory statements as to its uses have been so current as to dub molybdenum "the metallurgical mystery." KRUPP did absorb a great proportion of the available supplies, and captured German gun tubes have been variously reported as containing from zero to 6 per cent. No information as to similar use by an Allied government has come to notice. While the metal has a high melting point, it is said to change very readily into a volatile oxide, so that silver plating is necessary to get the alloy into the metal rather than the slag. Some gun tubes may have been de-molybdenized by heat, other analyses may have unfortunately confounded this element with carbon, while again, still others may have always been innocent of its presence, possibly due to the high price of silver!

Seriously, though, molybdenum steel is a demonstrated success. Quantities of it have been used in aëroplane engines, while many liberty motor crank shafts were made of a manganese-chromium-molybdenum alloy. Following extensive experimentation, one prominent automobile maker in the Detroit region ordered 10,000 tons of a special alloy containing a fractional per cent molybdenum, which is being used in forged or case-hardened parts demanding high strength and low weight. As such it should replace the vanadium steels already well established, owing to the comparative rarity of vanadium and to the fact that the new alloy does not require such close control in heat treatment; perhaps molybdenum acts as a brake in spreading transformations over a wider temperature range. The addition of molybdenum to nickel steels in small quantities increases the ductility remarkably..

Such are the uses of the future. At present considerable quantities of molybdenum are absorbed by toolsteel makers-the element is almost always present in modern metal-cutting tools.

Even granting the fact that molybdenum steel is a demonstrated high-strength material, it certainly will not be a panacea for all heat-treating troubles, and it is difficult to see any great boom in molybdenite in the

near future. Mines and mills are already developed to such an extent that should their present excess capacity be put into molybdenum steel (averaging perhaps 1 per cent), 250,000 tons of this material would be produced per year. Picture the metallurgical knowledge which must be accumulated before iron-masters will be able to deliver uniform steel of this comparatively new analysis, the many obscure troubles which arise in the manufacture of the completed parts-some wholly new and baffling defect may vie with the notorious "flakes" of nickel steel in keeping metallurgists awake nights picture the campaign of education necessary to make the purchasing agent recognize its value and the purchasing public demand minimum weight with maximum strength, and the conclusion is inevitable that widespread demand for molybdenum as a constituent for steel will not be a matter of months.

A Rose By

Any Other Name

ELSE

LSEWHERE in this issue the reader will find a communication from the house of Kuhlmann, Paris, protesting against the assumption of the German origin of its founder. Exception is taken primarily to a statement of Landis in his article on the oxidation of ammonia, to the effect that "eighty years ago Kuhlmann, a German technical chemist, etc.;" and proof is now offered that Kuhlmann was "a savant doubly French." We are glad to give space to the correction as further evidence of the myth of German preëminence in chemistry, which is growing less persistent as the facts in the history of chemistry come to light.

If we may boldly claim in this instance to represent average American intelligence among chemists, we can readily understand how Mr. Landis and probably the great majority of our readers, would accept innocently enough and quite as a matter of fact, a statement that Kuhlmann was a German chemist. For have we not been nurtured in the belief that chemistry and Germany were synonymous, and that the abode of chemical knowledge was beyond the Rhine? Couple this with the typical spelling of Kuhlmann, and we have all the elements necessary to an erroneous conclusion. But it appears that Kuhlmann was born in Colmar, Alsace, in 1803; was subsequently professor of chemistry in the University of Lille, and later founder of the 40,000,000franc Etablissements Kuhlmann in Paris and elsewhere in France. He was a Frenchman by birth, education and all that characterizes one's nationality and mentality.

The last five years have developed awkward situations regarding the merits of the scientific and technical contributions of the several nations. It has been easy to foster extreme views and share partisan feelings. A large number of American technical men were of foreign birth or education. German literature had been widely read in this country, and it was perhaps logical that we should have assumed that Germany had led the way in all chemical progress. We have learned, however, that names are not safe tags of identification as to the nationality and mentality of the world's scientists; and in the present instance we are delighted to know that it was a French savant who early recorded the importance of the oxidation of ammonia to nitric acid. We render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and acclaim a French scientist even though he bears a German name.

Need of a Firm Policy in Mexico

W

ITH European affairs less engrossing than they have been for several years the United States has an opportunity to turn much needed attention to its Mexican relations. They need attention! For almost 10 years the interests in American mining and metallurgical companies operating in Mexico have suffered from the lack of protection of life and property. Murder, robbery, pillage and banditry have been committed and practised without effective interference or suppression and almost without protest. If the Government has had reasons for pursuing a weak policy with our Southern neighbor those reasons have not been disclosed to the country's satisfaction, and the people are beginning to feel that it is about time to abandon patience and yield to the impulses of righteous wrath. The policy of watchful waiting finds us still watching and waiting after nearly a decade, but almost hopeless of a firm governmental policy that will insure protection to Americans and their property. Conditions have been unsettled for so long that we have almost come to regard them as inevitable and something to be endured without remedy.

But there are hopeful signs. Congress has recently pressed the Administration for a statement of its policy, and Under-Secretary of State Polk is reported to have spoken "with complete frankness" to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, laying the Administration's cards on the table. Firing across the border into El Paso has been stopped by an excursion of American soldiers into Mexican territory, apparently with Mexico's acquiescence. Of more than ordinary importance is the action of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America in proposing resclutions of protest

"against further disregard by the American Government of conditions in Mexico that make it unsafe for American engineers to go there in the practice of their profession and for the care of business interests intrusted to them";

and further urging

"the American Government to take prompt and effective steps toward the establishment of such law and order in Mexico as will safeguard the persons and property of our citizens and extend its protection to all Americans in any part of the world to which they may be called in the pursuit of their legitimate affairs." The Society is to be commended for this evidence of interest in Mexican affairs, and we see no reason why the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers should not go on record with similar resolutions reflecting the attitude of the great mining industry. The Institute has recently amended its charter to permit participation in public affairs and expression of opinion on public questions affecting its members. At the moment we can think of no more opportune theme for the exercise of the Institute's newly acquired powers than advocacy of a firm governmental policy in Mexico. Dignified representation to the Government by influential bodies of citizens will hasten the dawn of a new era in Mexican relations that will be mutually beneficial. The people of the United States have been more than long-suffering in this matter, not only in toleration of Mexican lapses, but in refraining from unkind criticism of the Government's policy, whatever it may be. The elements of the situation seem to be comparatively simple and the remedy effective. It is futile to talk of Mexico's national honor when our own country is humiliated and insulted.

Automatic Control Devices

In the Chemical Industries

the capitalist who furnishes the facilities. If the volume of business decreases and the one party stands of the loss

the

failed to design automatic mechanism endowed with about as much cerebellum matter as is required in ordinary routine work. The cobbler had his destiny foretold by the experiences of the nailsmith and the weaver. Is it only a matter of time before the chemical control operator will follow suit and pass his skill to the tools of which he will be merely a tender?

Tank gaging is far better done by the hydrostatic pressure recorders now coming into vogue than was ever accomplished by the most exact calculations obtained from volume and temperature measurements. Temperature control is almost an undisputed job for the thermostat. Solution gravities, concentrations, viscosities all are coming within the scope of the automatic control devices operated by buoyancy floats, electrolytic conductivity or resistance balances, propelling resistance recorders, and similar apparatus.

The fairest solution of the question appears to be found upon examining the experience of the artist since the era of the camera. In the early days when sensitive plates were made with asphalt-lard coatings, and turpentine was the solvent used to dissolve the parts not polymerized by light, photography appeared unlikely ever to become a member of the fine arts. However, developments came about which demonstrated that the camera shutter was not to be a portal for the exit of the artist but an arch of triumph for conquests in science as well as art. The same must be true of such devices in the hands of the engineer. He must not be satisfied with rough initial developments and, above all, must not have the feeling that he will work himself out of a job by doing what he can toward developing automatic control devices. Relief from routine work will give the chemist opportunity for larger development.

Stability of

Prices and Employment

N time of prosperity one should prepare for adversity and vice versa. Business is prosperous, and is certain to be more so, for a period of years. Panics and industrial depressions can, perhaps, be prevented but the method has not yet been invented, much less put into execution. To err is human, and these occurrences result from the errors of men.

There are important new conditions, and if panics and depressions occur they will exhibit different phenomena than formerly. The Federal Reserve system, according to the judgment of experts, removes the possibility of a "money panic." The organization of labor, and the new ideals of labor, make it improbable that men will compete for work to the extent they have done in past industrial depressions. The depression of 1873-8 saw "dollar-a-day" labor, and in the depression of 20 years later there was the same development. Men are almost certain to insist, when there is not enough work for full employment, that the work be divided and hourly rates be maintained.

This change, by itself, would make an industrial depression more severe. When commodities are sold, or service rendered, whether the furnishing of electric current or the removal of dirt from one's clothes, part of the payment goes to the workmen involved and part to

a return there is no creation of fresh capital such as in times of prosperity would be reinvested and make more work for the people. Moreover, if the cost of labor does not decline the inducement of cheapness to the making of investments is removed. A census of the skyscraper office buildings in the country would probably show that the majority of them were placed under contract in times of relative depression. Recurring to the Federal Reserve system, it provides means whereby funds can be secured by those who have credit. In the past such facilities have been largely lacking. To provide absolutely necessary funds capitalists have had to operate plants at a loss, not getting a new dollar for an old one. Such performances probably will be unnecessary.

Thus in the new order of things it seems probable that when there is a tendency to industrial depression both labor and capital will refuse to work for less money reward than formerly and thus the traditional readjustment will not be encouraged. It is not intended to deny that the probable occurrence of panics, other than money panics, and of industrial depression has been reduced. It certainly has not been shown, however, that the reduction is to zero, and it does seem clear that if such things do occur the means for recovery are reduced. It is like reducing the likelihood of the human system to yield to disease but at the same time reducing its power to throw off the disease, once the infection has occurred.

Every year brings its own joys and sorrows and so do changing conditions. The outlook for the investor is not gloomy, but bright, for there is another new condition that makes capital more valuable than ever. Common labor in the United States, over periods of years, will never be as plentiful as it has been. That comes from sociological and racial conditions, not from business or financial conditions, and represents a permanent change. As less work is to be done by common labor more work must be done by capital, by the creation of plant facilities pursued to the nth refinement of labor-saving efficiency. Instead of there being no room for new investments there is vastly more room than ever before, since the new labor conditions make the existing facilities much less efficient, relative to the supply of labor, than formerly.

What is necessary is that the investor be able to earn enough in the first few years of operation to safeguard him in case industrial depression comes. The investor must look upon this matter from a new viewpoint. In the past his philosophy has been that he must amass sufficient extra profit to enable him to write off a large sum from the investment to cover reduction in cost of duplication. In the new order of things such declines in the cost of duplication are likely to be much less severe than formerly but on the other hand the chances of unemployment may be greater. The investor should save, therefore, against the temporary period when his investment may yield no profit. It is clear, also, that the sooner one makes his investment and begins securing returns upon it the safer he will be for the future. Delay undoubtedly means loss. The world is going to move, and move rapidly, and one should move with it.

Oxidation of Ammonia

To the Editor of Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering

SIR: In your issue for May 1, 1919, we note an article by W. S. Landis on the Oxidation of Ammonia, in the first paragraph of which occurs the following statement:

"Eighty years ago Kuhlmann, a German technical chemist, after describing at length some very interesting experiments of his own, concluded with the significant remark, etc.

For reasons which are readily understood it is impossible for us to overlook the error in this statement regarding the nationality of Kuhlmann, who was a savant doubly French, because he was born in Colmar (Alsace) in 1803. Frederick Kuhlmann was professor of chemistry at the University of Lille, the great industrial city of Northern France, and it was there that he made a great number of researches in the domain of pure and applied chemistry.

Most of his works were first published in the Bulletin de la Société des Sciences de Lille; others in the Annales de Physique et de Chimie (de Paris).

His discovery of the oxidation of ammonia by catalysis with spongy platinum was described for the first time in a memoir entitled "Mémoire sur la Nitrification" published in Vol. 15 of the Bull. de la Soc. des Sc. de Lille which contains the reference cited by Mr. Landis. Ingenious manufacturer as well as a great savant, Kuhlmann installed in 1825 in Lille a sulphuric acid plant, which was the cradle of the Kuhlmann plants now numbering 15 scattered all over France.

He died in 1881, correspondent member of the Academie des Sciences de Paris and Commander of the Legion of Honor.

At a time when the masterful discovery of Kuhlmann, exploited by a German, Ostwald, is justifying the prophecy of the French savant, we consider it our duty to attract the attention of our American friends to the evident involuntary error made by Mr. Landis, and we would be greatly obliged if you would make due correction in an early issue of CHEMICAL and METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING, for which we present you our thanks in anticipation.

Paris, France.

ADMINISTRATEUR DELEGUE ETABLISSEMENTS KUHLMANN

Chemical Technology for College Students To the Editor of Chemical & Metallurgical Engineering

SIR: An authority on education once said that a fault of modern technical institutes was the failure of the instructors to establish proper relationship between book knowledge and practical, everyday technology. This is also true of chemistry, which brings me to the purpose of this letter.

There is in process of formation an organization called the Intercollegiate Chemical Society, the main purpose of which is to correct this condition. The following is an excerpt from the preamble to its constitution:

"It is highly desirable, especially in the undergraduate courses, to connect chemistry with the world of commerce as it has not been connected. This can easily be

done by the co-operation of students and manufacturers. Many potential chemists have been lost because the ap

plications of science have not been made apparent in

lectures or laboratory work."

The Intercollegiate Chemical Society proposes to accomplish its purpose by inducing prominent manufacturers or members of their technical staffs to lecture to its members, if possible every fortnight, showing the technology of various processes and apparatus, and indicating the applications of laboratory practice to factory control. These would be supplemented by demonstrations on trips with the students through plants, whenever practicable.

The officers of the society are prepared to send to any manufacturer who is willing to contribute aid in this connection, a calendar of subjects studied, so that demonstrations of apparatus and lectures in industry may be co-ordinated with the course. The academic calendar includes thirty weeks of actual work. This provides for fifteen such discussions or demonstrations during the year. If we can secure the co-operation of that number of manufacturers, each will be asked for but one discussion or demonstration per year.

We are organizing branches of the society in a number of universities throughout the States and the purpose of this is to ask manufacturers in the chemical and allied industries to co-operate. I have spoken to a number of men well known in industrial circles and they believe the advantage that can be derived from such a plan will prove profitable to both students and manufacturers. With such training a student will be made more efficient and can take up his duties when entering an industrial plant with less likelihood of loss and delay by the exigencies of "breaking him in."

Students should have a more thorough understanding of the needs of chemical industries. This knowledge, combined with the fundamentals gained at the university, will help them recognize and eliminate wastes and increase yields as they advance in technical development. It will be an efficient way to connect theoretical chemistry with actual industrial conditions. It will also develop a tendency for young chemists to seek methods in which the achievements of pure science may be brought ever closer to industrial practice.

If manufacturers who are interested in providing for such demonstrations of industrial practice, or of apparatus which they make, will communicate with me I shall be glad to respond with whatever additional information they may desire. H. GROSSMAN, Acting Chairman.

Intercollegiate Chemical Society, Columbia University, N. Y.

Surplus Government Lead

By arrangement with the Lead Producers' Committee of the War Industries Board, sufficient orders will be allocated to the War Department to take up the surplus stock of pig lead, which does not exceed 5000 tons. In addition, about 10,000 tons of heavy sheet lead, 25 tons of lead pipe and 6 tons of lead slabs will be disposed of without the assistance of the industry. The Director of Sales is also seeking a market for 1180 tons of antimonial lead and approximately £30 tons of antimonial lead scrap.

T

HE eleventh semi-annual meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at Boston and Cambridge, June 18-21, does not lend itself readily to a brief description. The excursion on the steamer "Gurnet" was the unique feature. Mr. Henry Howard, Director of the Emergency Fleet Recruiting Service and sometime of the Merrimac Chemical Co. endeavored to demonstrate by the trip to sea in the "Gurnet" just why he had such great interest in maritime pursuits. The Boston Fish Piers were visited first in order to furnish fresh material for future fish stories as well as to entrance all angling desires. About a million pounds per day of cod, haddock, mackerel, etc., were said to be the average of the season. Inspection of the cold storage department demonstrated that ample provisions have been made for many Fridays, to come.

The second stop was made at the plant of the Revere Sugar Refinery. Thousands of tons of crude sugar, the Cuban in 200-lb. burlap bags and the Philippine in 50-lb. palm platted sacks, were stacked in the pier warehouses. In refining, the sugar is dissolved, limed and filtered in Sweetland presses. The syrup is then clarified by percolating it through animal charcoal and is then ready for crystallization in vacuum pans. After the grains have grown to the desired size, the sugar is discharged into open bins from which it passes into centrifugals, is freed from molasses and flushed with water sprays to remove both the finer crystals and syrup. Two or three percent of moisture remains in the centrifuged product and is removed in forty foot drum driers. The engineering involved in such a works is a model for the crystal type of chemical process. Every task is performed with a minimum expenditure of energy and labor. After the initial elevating of the crude syrup to the top floors, gravity does the rest. The packaging machinery was exceptionally good and since space does not permit more discription, only the names will be given. Machine: Richardson Scale Co., Passaic, N. J. Sewing Mach.: Union Special Machine Co. Chicago.

Bag Bag

Package Filler and Sealer: Pneumatic Scale Co. Norfolk Downs, Mass. Box Nailer: Morgan Machine Co. Rochester, N. Y.

While enroute to the Victory Shipbuilding plant at Squantum, the Edison Power Plant was passed. Also a brief inspection was made at the seamen training school. The visit to the Victory yard gave an excellent opportunity for a study of modern steel fabrication. Hundreds of riveting gangs put added vigor to their tasks and the red hot battered rivet heads in cooling drew the steel plates tightly together. In order that there should be no seams for water leaks at the joints, the calkers rammed the edges of the plates so that they were sprung flush. From the storage yard to the fitting out basin in a quarter of an hour was too brief a time to observe details. It is enough to say that torpedo boat destroyers will never be out of sight on our coast after a few years more of standardized fabrication.

Enthused after so many excellent plant visits along Boston harbor, the voyaging members did not seek to break away before the final event of the day-the trip out in the open water of Massachusetts Bay to Marblehead. The Gurnet being a small steamer of fifty odd feet length was soon effectively rocking and much to the satisfaction of the fishes. Of the one hundred and twenty six passengers, only half were found by the photographer the next day in happy enough condition to have their appearance registered in the annual June meeting panorama.

LABORATORIES IN CAMBRIDGE VISITED

On Wednesday night, a smoker was held in the assembly room of the A. D. Little, Inc. building. Every one was delighted with the arrangement of the labora tories and officies. The paper mill was in operation and demonstrated the facilities with which Dr. Little's staff is equipped to carry on research in most of the large industrial chemical enterprises. The museum gave

For description see Chem. & Met. Eng., Vol. XIX, P. 100.