satisfactory article in a cold glue, made from potato and tapioca dextrines. (Arabol Co. glue No. 4604c.)

The paper caps for the circular boxes are drawn from circular stamped blanks, the cutting and drawing operation being accomplished on the same punch press. In order to draw these caps successfully it is necessary first to soften the rolls of strawboard by moistening with a mixture of equal parts of tallow and soft soap. This mixture is made in a small tank overhead and applied by passing the strawboard ribbon over a roller which dips in a small vat of the solution, before being fed to the presses.

The rectangular paper boxes are produced on both automatic and hand-fed machines. The smaller sizes are carried to their respective wire mesh bins by air suction, or by belt conveyors to the packing depart

COLLODION PLANT

junction with these shops. A sheet metal department manufactures the necessary fixture parts.

The electroplating department is capable of producing any desired finish on the fixtures and protecting with suitable lacquer. One of the most recent developments in this work consists of a tumbling barrel, equipped with electrodes for plating while the polishing operation is in progress. The wooden barrel revolves with the axis supported at an angle of about 45 deg. One electrode is attached to the revolving mechanism while the other is suspended vertically in the solution through the open end of the barrel. This is shown in the background of the picture.

The fixture assembling rooms occupy a large floor space and it is here that minor machine operations are carried on and the manufactured parts are assembled to produce the completed fixture.

The machine shop employs Brown & Sharpe hand and automatic screw machines, Warner & Swazey hand screw machines, and Avery drill presses. The power punch presses are of three makes, namely, Ferracute, Bliss, and Henderson. Foot presses are made by Waterbury and Farrel companies.

The section of the works which is perhaps of greatest interest to CHEMICAL & METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING readers is that in which collodion is made and where

the rare earths in the form of monazite sands are reduced to secure thorium, cerium. mesothorium and radium compounds.

Collodion, as used to hold the physical structure of the thoria-ceria mantle intact during commercial handling, must have special characteristics to serve this purpose. It must be non-shrinkable when drying, otherwise the oxide structure would be destroyed and the mantle would crumble when collodion is burned off by the ultimate consumer. It is further necessary that collodion be pure and a reliable source of supply be at hand.

The plant produces from 10,000 to 15,000 kilos per month, the entire amount being used in the mantle factory. The cotton is nitrated under cleanest possible conditions, dried in a centrifugal wringer and the process carried to final conclusion in an apparatus of collodion plant, as shown.

The feature most worthy of note is the method employed in conducting the collodion to the dipping machines. The piping system is made up of double pipe. and fittings throughout. The inner pipe carries the collodion, while the annular space between the inner and

outer metal is filled with inert gas (CO) under higher pressure than that required to force the liquid through the inner pipe. In case of leak in the inner wall the gas will enter the central conductor and force the collodion back to the tanks. While this system is expensive to install, it is considered invaluable as an insurance against accident where explosive or inflammable

MONAZITE SAND DIGESTORS

concentration over jig tables, where the monazite, being the heavier, is separated out from the gangue or silicas. The concentrate, however, still contains the

garnet, and after being dried a further separation is made by electromagnetic means in a manner similar to that employed in the zinc industry.

The final product shipped contains about 90 per cent of the monazite crystals which were present in the crude ore, and is in the form of a rather uniformly

law in Berlin where gasoline is stored in excess of 5 gallons.

An alcohol still is operated in connection with this plant, while ammonia is also distilled in an adjoining The product of the latter is used in the fabric washing process.

room.

RARE EARTH REDUCTION

The monazite sands consumed at the present time are purchased in Brazil, where they can be obtained more cheaply than the Welsbach Co. can mine them from its Carolina properties. This is due to the fact that the latter deposits are in widely scattered pockets and economical mining operations therefore do not obtain. The ore, or beach sands, occurring in placer deposits near the coast of Brazil is subjected to wet

PRECIPITATING TANKS

Per Cent

Per Cent

The sand is received at the Welsbach works in 100-lb. bags containing 5 to 6 per cent of thoria, the substance most desired in the separation. Definite quantities are mixed with the proper amount of sulphuric acid, with sp.gr. above 66 deg. Baumé, in the digestors, where the mass is agitated under heat for a period of 6 to 8 hours.

The heat is applied below and retained close to the kettle by a sheet steel jacket as shown. The kettle is cast from a special grade of acid-resisting iron. During the heating period, heavy SO, fumes are driven off through the cast pipe as shown on the left of the kettle and are conducted to a 16-tube, 85,000-volt Cottrell precipitator. This latter may be seen outside the chemical plant buildings. Its use is necessary to the protection of the surrounding community from the fumes, and a considerable quantity of acid is also recovered.

When the operation is completed, the heat is shut off, but the agitator is kept running, and the tee in the SO, line is disconnected from the kettle. The top cover is also removed for the pouring. The removal of the tee permits the apparatus to be turned on its trunnions, in a manner similar to the operation of a bessemer converter, and the pasty mass, consisting of phosphates and the sulphates which have formed, is dumped into a lead-lined receiving vat. This vat, located on the side opposite that shown in the picture, with its top about 1 in. from the floor level, is filled with water at the time of pouring.

The solution is pumped from these vats, one for

each digestor, to the second floor tanks, where it is further diluted. This dilution precipitates the rare earths (about 70 per cent of the sulphates and 3 per cent of the phosphates), which are separated from the liquor in Sperry filter presses on the floor below. The sludge then enters a long series of operations, requiring several weeks, carried on in circular tanks with mechanical agitators. Part of this work involves boiling with caustic to produce hydrates, the object of the whole performance being to remove the residual phosphates. These hydrates are eventually dissolved in hydrochloric acid to form chlorides.

It is about this point that the separation of the thorium and cerium compounds is made, and the large part of the work from here on consists of refining the thorium and such quantity of the cerium as is required. The equipment embraces several batteries of glazed earthenware bowls, made by General Ceramics Co., placed under mechanical stirrers as shown in the picture. Practically all the moving parts of this apparatus were made in the company's shops. A new caustic recovery evaporator made by the F. D. Stokes Machine Co. has just been installed.

When the thorium group is split off from the cerium, about 95 per cent separation of thorium present is recovered. The radium and mesothorium comes down with the thorium. The cerium residue is about 50 per cent pure and is known to the trade as commercial cerium. It is sold to the carbon manufacturers for use in flaming arc lamp carbons. Its presence in minute quantities greatly adds to the incandescent light in both mantles and carbons. It is also purified and used in medicines such as cerium oxalate. The Welsbach Co. prepares these compounds for the market. The cerium nitrate used in the mantle fluid is necessarily refined to a purity equaling that of the thorium nitrate.

The complete process from the time the sand is placed in the digestors until the pure Th (NO), is extracted consumes a period of from 2 to 3 months. The plant produces 10,000 to 15,000 kilos per month. Quantities are shipped to Great Britain at the market price of about $10 per kilo. This trade was built up when the supply from Germany was cut off at the beginning of the war.

The supply of radium from Colorado ores is limited and practically the entire output is required for medical purposes. The manufacturers of articles like radiolite

watches are therefore forced to search elsewhere for the raw luminous material. The Welsbach Co. has successfully undertaken the manufacture of a mixture of radium and mesothorium to supply this need.

An examination of the chemistry of these two substances reveals parallel characteristics and compounds. The principal difference in the two lies in the fact that the activity of mesothorium continues about seven years, while radio-activity is constant over several hundred years.

The extraction from the rare earths begins in the thorium plant and a residue of approximately 20 lb. per day is obtained from the thorium purification process. This residue is taken to the radium laboratory, where it is dissolved as a chloride in the so-called zero kettle. From this it is taken through a series of 5 pairs of steam-jacketed kettles, Elyria Enamel Products Co. make, then through a similar set of evaporating dishes. The work consists of a series of precipitations and crystallizations.

The final residue from the chloride solutions is then redissolved as a bromide and the process continues as through about 30 operations in all. before, but on the laboratory bench. The solutions pass For each ton of monazite sand originally treated there is produced one

milligram of the rare element mixture.

OTHER DEPARTMENTS

The company generates power from coal delivered to the bunkers by barge on the Delaware River. Bucket elevators and belts carry to the overhead bins, from which it is automatically weighed to the bank of three Babcock & Wilcox boilers, fired by Riley-Sanford plunger type stokers. Boiler draft is supplied by two Sturtevant fans, direct-driven by steam turbines. The plant is so equipped with measuring and recording devices as to furnish complete data on daily performance. This apparatus includes Hays CO, recorders, Venturi boiler feed water meters, and General Electric steam flow meters.

The engine room contains one 400-k.v.a. 2300-volt 3-phase 60-cycle Crocker-Wheeler Co. generator directconnected to tandem Corliss engines and with beltdriven exciter; one 150-k.v.a. 2300-volt 3-phase 60-cycle General Electric Co. generator direct-connected to vertical type American Ball engine; one 7-panel switchboard equipped with General Electric instruments, ITE

circuit breaker and switches, including control for operating the two generators in synchronism during peak load periods.

The laboratory and testing department embraces complete research and control chemical laboratories, and physical laboratories equipped with mechanical devices for shock and tensile tests of mantle materials together with apparatus for candle power and life tests on finished mantles.

The plant buildings are of fireproof construction, with Grinnell sprinkler systems. Distilled drinking water is supplied throughout. A complete hospital is equipped for emergency treatment.

constant output of pig iron and an increased output of steel.

In the case of pig iron the production of these four countries in 1900 amounted to 34,000,000 tons, of which Great Britain produced 9,000,000 tons. In 1913 the total output had risen to 66,000,000 tons, of which Great Britain produced 10,000,000 tons, while in 1918 the total had fallen to 61,000,000 tons, of which Great Britain produced 9,000,000 tons.

The production of iron and steel in countries of the second rank in 1916 and 1917 is given as follows: Pig Iron 1917 1,046,000

Austria-Hungary.

Italy

Russia. Sweden. Belgium.

Link Belt Co.

The business of making incandescent gas mantles is said to be continually on the increase in this country. Ten per cent of the Welsbach Co.'s output is consumed abroad. The marked growth of the industry is attributed to the fact that an excellent light is secured at a reasonable rate, wherever gas is available. It is probable that the development of the by-product coke oven is giving an impetus to the business.

The writer desires to acknowledge the courtesy of the Welsbach Co. as extended by Dr. H. S. Miner and Mr. C. E. Bliss during preparation of this article.

Steel

1916 1917 1916 2,418,000 2,921,000 3,330,000

475,400

1,070,000 1,550,000 1,287,000 467,000 1,304,000 1,269,000

3,738,000

829,000

These countries contributed at the outbreak of war about 9,000,000 tons of pig iron and 12,000,000 tons of

steel to the world's production. The figures for Italy

are significant of the extent to which that country has relied on scrap steel and imported pig iron to obtain steel output.-Fortnightly Information Review, Aug. 1, 1919.

How to Relieve "Brass Itch"

The symptoms of brass poisoning and the treatment which should be given are described in the current issue of Modern Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, by Dr. R. P. Albaugh, formerly director of the Division of Industrial Hygiene, Ohio State Department of Health.

The symptoms are evident for several hours after exposure to the fumes which are contained in the whitish smoke and sublimation products from molten brass and zinc. The symptoms start with a dry, parched throat, an irritating and unproductive cough, a feeling of constriction in the chest, lassitude, and anorexia, often followed by nausea and vomiting; a headache sometimes develops and chilly sensations are noticeable within one to four hours.

The

1918 9,066,000 39,052,000

11,590,000 1,297,000 61,005,000

STEEL PRODUCTION

1918 9,591,000 45,073,000

1917 9,840,000 45,061,000

1916 9,196,000 42,774,000 16,183,000 1,952,000

United Kingdom, gross tons.

United States, gross tons.
Germany, metric tons.

France, metric tons..

Total.

71,450,000 73,684,000 70,105,000

The German production for 1918 does not include the output of Luxemberg, the Saar District, and the disannexed Lorraine Province during November and December of that year. The British steel figures inIclude steel castings.

The first and most significant feature of these tables, it is pointed out, is the fall during the war of the output of iron and steel in both France and Germany, the figures in both cases reaching the lowest level in 1918. The United States shows a great increase during the war, while in Great Britain the figures show a fairly

Brass poisoning does not occur from handling of the metal or the zinc alloys which go into its composition, but is limited to those exposed to the inhalation of the whitish smoke and sublimation products from the molten metal.

There is no specific treatment for brass poisoning, "brass itch" and "brass chills." Zinc is supposed to be responsible for the bad effects. The affection was formerly confused with malaria.

Some workmen find relief in drinking hot milk to which pepper is added. A good purge also seems beneficial. Dr. Albaugh advises the prevention of brass poisoning by better hygienic arrangements in foundries and smelters, elimination of careless habits of workmen, and large, roomy quarters.

Physical Measurements for Students of Chemistry Mr. Paul E. Klopsteg of the Leeds & Northrup Co., Philadelphia, presented an appeal in a late number of Science for courses in physical measurements for students of chemistry and allied sciences. It appeals to us as sound doctrine, and while the subjects may be included in the curricula of various institutions, we know from experience that an adequate familiarity with them is by far too often lacking among young chemists and Mr. Klopsteg's proposal would seem to cover an important gap.

Although engineering is commonly spoken of as applied physics, the bridge between the pure and applied science in this sense has stretched itself to such amazing lengths that many physicists and many engineers do not attempt to cross it.

Mr. Klopsteg proposes that, in addition to the regular course in general physics, a special course in physical measurements be provided in the senior college year for students who contemplate either graduate work or an immediate entry into industry. He suggests that it occupy at least the equivalent of three 2-hr. periods for one semester of 16 weeks and proposes the following general topics as representing the essential things from which a selection might be made.

(1) The accurate measurement of long and short time intervals.

(2) Measurement of temperatures by methods other than the mercury thermometer. Principles of pyrometry.

(3) Temperature regulation and temperature regulators and controllers.

(4) Principles of precision calorimetry.

(5) The microscope; its theory, and application to the measurement of small lengths.

(6) The reading telescope and its application to the measurement of small angles.

(7) Measurement of refractive index; spectrometer and refractometer.

(8) The spectroscope, and spectroscopic analysis. (9) Color and colorimetry; intensity of light and photometry.

(10) The polariscope and polarimeter.

(11) The galvanometer; its use as a deflection and as a null instrument.

(12) Ohm's law; measurement of current and potential differences.

(13) Electric power and heating.

(14) Resistance measurement; Wheatstone's bridge, with application to measurement of electrolytic conductivity. The alternating current galvanometer as applied to conductivity measurements.

(15) The potentiometer; application to measurement of thermo-electric forces, electrode potentials, ionic concentrations.

Personal

Dr. F. C. BROWN has resigned his position as associate

professor of physics, University of Iowa, to accept a position

as technical assistant to the director of the Bureau of Standards.

Mr. JAMES L. BRUCE has resigned as manager for the Butte & Superior Mining Co. to become general manager for the Davis-Daly Company.

Mr. ALFRED BURTON, who was engaged with the explosives committee of the Imperial Munition Board, Ottawa, Canada, has accepted a position with the Dominion Dyers, Ltd., London, Ontario.

Mr. REX HONEY, formerly connected with the Dominion Forest Products Laboratory, McGill University, Montreal, has been appointed head of the service department of the Abitibi Power & Paper Co., Ltd., Iroquois Falls, Ontario, in charge of efficiency research and raw materials.

Dr. F. M. G. JOHNSON, who has been research chemist for the Canadian Consolidated Rubber Co., Ltd., will again be associated with the chemical department at McGill University, Montreal.

Mr. CHARLES W. MCKAY has recently become associated with the industrial engineering firm of L. V. Estes, Inc., Chicago, Ill.

Dr. C. FERDINAND NELSON has been elected professor of biological chemistry and head of the department of physiological chemistry which has recently been established at the University of Kansas.

Mr. ARTHUR PHILLIPS has been appointed assistant professor of metallurgy in the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Mr. WARREN C. PROSSER has resigned as superintendent for the Red Mountain Mines Co., to return to professional work in mineral and oil land investigations, with headquarters at Denver.

Dr. J. W. SHIPLEY, professor of chemistry, Manitoba Agricultural College, has resigned to accept an appointment as assistant professor in chemistry, University of Manitoba. Mr. A. B. SHUTTS has become general manager for the American Ores and Asbestos Co., Globe, Arizona.

Obituary

Mr. FRANK COCHRANE, Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines in the Ontario Legislature, died on Sept. 22 at Ottawa. Mr. HERBERT G. THOMSON, a graduate of the University of California and general superintendent for the Nevada Packard Mines Co. at Lower Rochester, Nevada, died on Sept. 25 from injuries received in a fall into a shaft while sampling ore.

Mr. HENRY B. UNDERHILL, president of the Selby Smelting & Lead Co., died at his residence in San Francisco on Sept.

14.

Current Market Reports

The Non-Ferrous Metal Market

Tuesday, Oct. 14.-There has been no large transactions in the non-ferrous markets during the past week.

Aluminum:-Transactions are largely made on direct contract between producers and consumers. The open market does not show important activity; 98-99 per cent ingots are quoted at 32-33c. lb.; cast scrap, 242-25c.; sheet scrap, 2324c.; and clippings, 262-2734c.

Antimony:-On 25-ton lots the price is 81⁄2c. and on broken lots 85gc. Prices have remained steady in spite of the falling off of the demand by ordnance supply manufacturers. The

(17) Principles of X-ray measurements.

siderable quantities.

Copper:-The close of the war found great supplies of commercial copper alloys such as brass and bronze made up, and