All Chemistry

To Columbus, Ohio, seat of Ohio State University, there swarmed last week a swarm of some 2,000 chemists -the 77th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. To the public, chemistry is chemistry. To initiates there are dozens of kinds of chemistry. All kinds were represented and talked about at Columbus: Organic chemistry and physical chemistry; photochemistry, electrochemistry; medicinal, biological, agricultural and food, cellulose, boiler-room, petroleum chemistry.

Some of the matters discussed and propounded at Columbus:

Dr. Treat Baldwin Johnson told of studies in the causes of cell growth being made at Yale. Two discoveries have so far come of this research: that in living matter the only substances sensitive to light are sugars -fats, oils and proteins are all unaffected by it; that one of the symptoms of tuberculosis is the appearance in the body of a certain fatty acid -a discovery which should enable the disease to be detected in its very early stages.*

Professor James Flack Norris (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) told of researches into the possible products from petroleum waste (crude oil after gasoline and other products have been extracted). Fresh attacks upon this problem have already yielded a new alcohol, called isopropyl. The peculiarity of this alcohol is that, unlike all others, it has no exhilarating effect when taken into the human system. If it can be used in industry there will be no temptation for bootleggers to "denature" it and sell it for drink. /-

At a symposium on the structure of molecules, Dr. Irving Langmuir, President of the Society and assistant director of research for General Electric Co., told of studies of oil films on water. Experiment showed that these films are only one molecule thick, all molecules arranged in one direction, with "their heads up and their tails down," as it were, showing that the molecules have different properties on different sides. What was more, a talking movie was exhibited showing some of his experiments. In the opening scene a toy boat sped across a pan of water propelled by a piece of camphor in its stern which gave off a thin film of camphor on the water. Periodically Dr. Langmuir appeared in the screen and said, "Now, if you will kindly look over my shoulder. . . ." Then followed a "closeup" of an experiment in progress. He pointed out that the talkie saved him the expense of carrying to Columbus and erecting elaborate apparatus; that after once filming an experiment a university could repeat it indefinitely for its students at nominal expense. He told also that talking movies have been made of Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Ernest Rutherford, Sir William Bragg, Prof. Michael Pupin, et al., to show to future generations of student-scientists.

Major T. P. Walker (Commercial Solvents Co.) told that already more than 50 chemical products are made from corn, including table oil, soap, glycerine, rubber substitutes, fertilizer, starch, corn syrup. tanners' sugar, vegetable glue. Cotton seeds now contribute to the manufacture of refined oils, stearin, soap, nitroglycerine, roofing paint, writing paper, nitrocellulose, smokeless powder, lacquers, artificial leather, celluloid, rayon, photographic films, sausage casings, toilet ware, furfural, etc., etc. Sugar cane after being squeezed of its juice makes wall board. From surplus milk is made casein used in the manufacture of glue, insecticides, airplane propellers, wall paper. From fruit pits charcoal is being made--all going to show what Chemistry, friend of Industry, is also doing for Husbandry.

Prof. F. M. Jaeger (Groningen University, Netherlands) told of X-ray experiments which proved that the brilliant blue of ultramarine is caused by a wandering sulphur atom. When the substance is heated the sulphur atom takes a different stance and the color changes to green and reddish violet.

Dr. Charles E. K. Mees (Eastman Kodak Co.) explained the aphorism: "If cows did not eat mustard we could have no movies." The explanation: the sensitivity of photograph films depends on an accidental impurity in the gelatine with which they are coated. This impurity which comes into the film from plants, such as wild mustard, eaten by the animals of which gelatine is made, contains sulphur which reacts with the silver compounds in the film.

Dr. Horace T. Herrick (U. S. Department of Agriculture) told of experiments aiming to produce tartaric acid from mold. They did not succeed in their aim, but a way was found of procuring gluconic acid. This acid formerly cost $100 per lb., can now be made for less than 35-c-. It can be used in dyestuff manufacture at the new price; also, to make calcium gluconate, valuable medicinally in the treatment of hemorrhages.

Dr. James R. Withrow (Ohio State University) told of a new process for improving the sugar yield from beets. Every two or three years there has been a bad beet crop, the juice of which contains quantities of gum, hard to remove. Dr. Withrow has developed a process using common alcohol and hydrochloric acid, which enables the quantity of gum to be rapidly gauged and then removed by the use of lime and sulphur dioxide.

Dr. Oliver Kamm (Parke, Davis & Co.) told of evolving a system of seven formulae to test the germicidal qualities of alcohols and phenols. Hitherto chemistry has discovered many drugs to kill bacteria in test tubes, but very few that kill them in the human body.

Before a group on chemical education. Prof. Neil E. Gordon (Johns Hopkins) explained a plan for developing super-chemists by training the ablest students from all over the country (see p. 55).

The Society awarded the Priestley medal, presented to "the greatest lay patron of chemistry in the United States," to Francis P. Garvan of New York, who as Alien Property Custodian under President Wilson established the Chemical Foundation and impounded German chemical patents for American use. The medal had only been awarded twice before -to the late Dr. Ira Remsen, President-Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University, and to the late Edgar Fahs Smith of the University of Pennsylvania. The presentation will be made in Minneapolis next fall.

Mr. Garvan and his wife last week were presented with another medal, for "noteworthy and outstanding service to the science of chemistry and the profession of chemist in America," by the American Institute of Chemists, meeting in Manhattan. Mr. Garvan, ill, was unable to read the response he had prepared. The Institute's President, Dr. Frederick E. Breithut, read it for him. Its main theme: carry on the war which Mr. Garvan himself started as Alien Property Custodian, against German dyes; produce more U. S. dyes and chemical products, avoid mergers like the looming combination of American I. G. Chemical Corp. and I. G. Farben-industrie Aktiengesellschaft of Frankfort. In 1918, Mr. & Mrs. Garvan's only daughter, Patricia, aged 7, died. The Garvans decided then to aid science in general, chemistry in particular, as a memorial.

* Dr. Florence Rena Sabin, only woman mem ber of the National Academy of Sciences, reported on these cell studies to the Academy at its meeting last fortnight in Washington (TIME, May 6).

/- The meeting adopted a report by a committee declaring that alcohol was indispensable to chemistry; that it was already hard enough for industries to obtain their legitimate alcohol requirements. The report protested against the projected transfer of the control of industrial alcohol from, the Treasury to the Department of Justice.