Atoms from the A.C.S.

Atoms from the A. C. S.

The annual meeting of the American Chemical Society at New Haven bristled with scientific " finds." Here are a few:

P: Brigadier General Amos A. Fries chief of the Chemical Warfare Service of the U. S. Army, announced the perfection of an " all-purpose canister," a mask which will give adequate protection against all gases, including carbon monoxide, the deadly constituent of coal gas and illuminating gas. Thus an emergency defense against forces let loose in warfare has become a peacetime service of incalculable value to firemen, miners, fumigators, chemical workers.

P: Gases have been developed for the destruction of the cotton boll-weevil, the wood-boring teredo, various species of disease-bearing mosquitoes, barnacles on ship bottoms and other insect and mollusk pests.

P: The introduction of a small quantity of a newly developed "sneeze gas " into illuminating gas will, to a great extent, prevent deaths by asphyxiation. It has not yet been manufactured commercially.

P: "Endocrine imbalance," or, in plain English, abnormal make-up of the secretions from the ductless glands, is susceptible to control by chemical methods, claims Dr. Josiah S. Hughes, professor of chemistry in the Kansas State Agricultural College. Compounds may be produced which will modify inherited dispositions, induce natural sleep, give the exhilaration of stimulants without their consequent depression, perform other miracles now undreamed of. It is only fair to say that psychiatrists and physiologists are still generally from Missouri" on such romantic possibilities.

P: The eternal fire of the ancient fireworshippers of the Caspian Sea was nothing but the burning gases of petroleum, according to Carl 0. Johns, research chemist of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, who revealed many milestones in the development of petroleum since prehistoric times. " Fundamental research in the chemical composition of crude oils is the crying need of the industry today," said he.

P: Tests made during the recent influenza epidemic on 300 students and faculty members of the University of Arkansas indicate that air containing minute quantities of chlorine breathed for five minutes a day tends to prevent the development of the flu. The case rate in the entire University population was 133 per 1,000, while in those taking the treatment it was 44 per 1,000. Eliminating those who were already ill or who did not complete the treatment, it was only 13 per 1,000, or one-tenth of the rate among those not " gassed." The experiments were conducted by Dr. Harrison Hale, professor of chemistry.

The only American among the names of the most eminent chemists of all time inscribed along the front of the new Sterling Laboratory at Yale, is Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903), distinguished for his work on vector analysis, thermodynamics and the phase rule, and generally accounted the greatest exact scientist America has yet produced.

Radio broadcasting from the Brazilian Centennial Exposition at Rio de Janeiro was heard at Honolulu, 8,000 miles away, establishing a new distance record. The phonofilm," an apparatus which produces sound and pictures simultaneously, invented by Dr. Lee de Forest, was successfully demonstrated before the New York Electrical Society.

The first successful contour map of a portion of the ocean bottom has been completed by the hydrographic office of the U. S. Navy Department, and covers an area of 34,000 square miles on the west coast of North America from San Francisco to a point in Mexico. It will aid the study of earthquakes on the west coast.