Chemists at Washington

One out of every eight U. S. chemists went to Washington last week for the meeting of the American Chemical Society.* Five hundred men & women spoke ten to 45 minutes each on professional topics. But they and their auditors were less interested in science than in jobs. Particularly did they fear that the Roosevelt economy program might cost able scientists their posts. With this in mind, the chemists respectfully petitioned "the President and Senate of the U. S. to continue the long established policy of choosing chiefs of scientific bureaus solely on the basis of professional and administrative qualifications."

Some of the more newsmaking papers dealt with:

Synthetic Stone from compressed and steamed pulverized shale, slate, granite, marble, limestone--reported by Purdue's Randolph Norris Shreve, Harry Creighton Peffer, Richard L. Harrison.

Denver Gas Stoves, which must have bigger flues than Savannah gas stoves because on mountains, gas burns less readily than at sea level--reported by Bureau of Standard's John Hartshorn Eiseman, Francis Albert Smith, American Gas Association's C. J. Merritt.

Two servings of Oysters a week will combat goiter (by supplying deficiencies of iodine in the diet) and provide significant amounts of vitamins A, B, C, D and G--reported by Bureau of Fisheries' E. J. Coulson, South Carolina Food Research Commission's Roe Eugene Remington.

University of Michigan's Cornelia Burwell synthesized Germicidal Fatty Acid Salts from petroleum.

Sugar Uses. Financed by the Sugar Institute, Gerald Judy Cox and Maryl L. Dodds of the Mellon Institute found new uses for cane sugar. With sugar, hydrochloric acid and a variety of alcohols they have produced sweet-smelling liquids which might be used in perfumes and which can dissolve materials used in lacquers.

Artificial Camphor. The U. S. annually imports ten million pounds of camphor for manufacture of laminated safety glass, explosives, celluloid, lacquers, motion picture films and medicines. Half of the imported camphor is synthesized from U. S. turpentine that has been shipped abroad. New York University's Professor John Joseph Ritter offered a cheap, comparatively simple artificial camphor right in the U. S. from home-produced materials. He uses turpentine, sulfuric acid, common salt, soda ash, aniline, sulfur.

Artificial Musk. The male musk deer ranges Central Asia with an alluring odor. Perfumers cannot get enough of the natural musk for their trade, have got chemists to produce trinitro-t-butyl toluene which smells exactly like the real stuff. At Washington, Julian Werner Hill and Wallace Hume Carothers of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co. described new ways of imitating musk.

Patriarch and honorary chairman of the convention was Dr. Charles Edward Munroe. To him the chemists with fond reverence gave a diamond pin and a newly minted gold coin because: He is the last surviving founder of the American Chemical Society. He started the first U. S. college course in industrial chemistry and the first summer school for chemists (both at Harvard). He invented "indurite," first smokeless powder adopted by the U. S. Navy. He stimulated U. S. chemical industries by getting the U. S. Census Bureau to publish (1900) the first statistics of U. S. chemical production. For nearly 50 years he has been compiling a stupendous, definitive bibliography of explosives. Washington's Cosmos Club has a fire screen of armor plate on which Dr. Munroe blasted the impressions of leaves, laces and other delicate traceries. He is an imposing individual. At the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (1876) he was mistaken for a visiting nobleman, in Europe for royalty. At Forest Glen, Md. is his estate, self-contained with library, workshop, poultry and wood yards, orchard, kitchen and flower gardens. He has worked in Washington for 41 years, remains active at 83 as chief explosives chemist at the Bureau of Mines.

* Membership 18,000; attendance 2,300.

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