and they have forwarded the names of Mr. W. T. Burgess, Dr. J. T. Dunn, Dr. Bernard Dyer, Mr. E. W. Voelcker (Hon. Treasurer), together with that of Mr. H. W. Cremer, who is responsible for supplies in the chemical department of King's College, London.

The Council have also appointed a Committee to consider the proposal from the National Physical Laboratory that the work of the Joint Committee for the Standardisation of Scientific Glass-ware should be brought under the ægis of the Institute of Chemistry. The Council hold that the proposal is desir

able on general grounds, but in order to obtain more detailed information with regard to the probable and possible activities expected of the Institute in this connection, they have appointed a Sub-Committee consisting of the President, with Dr. Brady, Dr. Bernard Dyer, Dr. J. J. Fox, Sir Herbert Jackson, and Mr. E. W. Voelcker (Hon. Treasurer), to confer with representatives of the National Physical Laboratory, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and of such other bodies as the Sub-Committee may deem desirable, and to report to the Council on the proposition.

The Special Purposes Committee have appointed a Sub-Committee, consisting of Messrs. E. R. Bolton, O. L. Brady, F. H. Carr, P. H. Kirkaldy, and R. H. Pickard, to consider and investigate the present British production of filter paper.

SMOKE PRODUCTION AND THE
POTTERY INDUSTRY.

BY CUTHBERT BAILEY, OF THE POTTERY
MANUFACTURERS' FEDERATION.

The man has yet to rise who will teach industry the means to extract full value from the coal it burns; invention after invention has been recorded at the Patent Office, but still our industrial centres lie under their black mantles.

That the past has been wholly blameless few manufacturers would contend, but bitter and costly experience has taught the wisdom of caution.

But, oblivious of past and present endeavours, there is arising a type of legislator who hesitates not to impeach every industry of reckless waste, and manufacturers generally of wallowing in content and

inaction, and who roundly accuses local governing authorities (in the words of a recent public speaker) of being "influenced too much by the selfish considerations of their manufacturing friends." These men, with their perambulating minds, with their power of generalisation and reducing masses of evidence to mere paradoxical phrases, are active to-day with an interrogative eyeglass, and, as a consequence, legislation is now proposed that threatens the very life of some of the nation's industries.

As a few years' dissipation will break the continuity of will and the sequence of intellect of any man, so would premature legislation react on industry.

Industry invites investigation - though investigation by duly qualified expertsunder the sure conviction that any unprejudiced enquiry would dispel the insinuating delusions now, being broadcasted.

Every industry has its essential processes and its own inherent limitations; all carry their own signals and the expert alone knows the cyphers. Of all industries the manufacture of pottery may be claimed to be the most complicated and intricate, and it is probably realised by few outside the pottery areas that the great bulk of the smoke emitted is not made in raising the necessary power to drive the machinery for its production, but is made in the various. "baking" stages to which all pottery must of necessity be subjected in the process of its manufacture.

The first "baking" stage is that which reduces the formed clay to a durable and stable state such as will permit general handling, and the subsequent glazing and decorating. But the mixture of the various clay ingredients that form the final composition of the ware, after being brought to a dry state, possesses a water of combination that varies from 6 per cent, to 12 per cent. of the total weight of the articles themselves, and, as a "kiln" may contain each time it is fired from ten to thirty tons of pottery, according to the type of articles being manufactured (placed in the fireclay "saggars" that are piled up in bungs), it follows that from approximately 10-30 cwts. of water is to be dispersed during the initial stages of the baking." This dispersal, if cracking, warping, staining, and even general collapse of the articles, is to be avoided is essentially a gradual process, and occupies the first 2030 hours of the "baking" and woe betide the manufacturer whose fireman unduly

expedites what is technically called this smoking period.'

Suppose an oven holds 20 tons of clayware carrying 10 per cent. of combined water, two tons of water is to be dispersed, which at 500° will occupy roughly onequarter of a million cubic feet. As this rushes into the cold air outside it is naturally condensed, and, stained by the products of combustion from the burning coal, forms a cloud of what the man in the street would call "smoke." Similar remarks apply to the water in the moist goods in the earliest stages of the firing (below 200° C.) during the so-called watersmoking period-and all this steam is further supplemented by that produced by the combustion of the hydrogen compounds of the fuel itself.

During these "smoking" periods what is called smoke is, therefore, in the main, only discoloured steam; after their completion little smoke is emitted from a modern oven.

But smoke itself is an essential concomitant in the manufacture of the famous Staffordshire blue bricks, blue roofing tiles, and many grades of pottery. So far as our present knowledge goes it is not a mere reducing atmosphere that is in question; decomposing hydrocarbons are required to produce the required effect. There are further what might be called "qualities of smoke," for the results obtained with some types of smoke produce better results with than others. The old potters knew this, and in the production of lustre effects, red "sang-de-boeuf," and other types of decorative effects, one will find in the old literature that they attached a special virtue

to smoke derived from particular shrubs, etc. Thus Piccolpassi favoured "the branches, etc., of green broom "; another recommended rice husks," and so on. English Potters, under the lead of Mr. Bernard Moore, have during the last twenty years rediscovered the secrets of the old lustre glazes, and Chinese red glazes, and are to-day producing decorative. effects that are universally acclaimed as surpassing in genral beauty any of the works of the old potters-but let it be realised that the one essential condition for their production is a reducing atmosphere.

Pottery manufacturers are not indifferent to the progress of public opinion on this smoke question, but let not that opinion be formed on a mendicant truth. Essential conditions of manufacture must be conformed to; while the pressure of international competition is always sufficient

to ensure that all unnecessary waste of fuel will be constantly subjected to the closest investigation.

-Fuel Economy Review, June, 1923.

BRITISH v. GERMAN GOODS IN NORWAY.

CHEMICALS.

There is a good market for British heavy chemicals, such as bleaching powder, salt cake and soda. Good business may be done in alum for the paper trade, and there are also good prospects in aniline dyestuffs. Germany is showing signs of being unable to deliver the goods, and there is therefore every chance of a good opening for British dyestuffs. This also applies to finc chemicals.

-Bulletin of the Federation of British
Industries.

NEW RAPID-REGENERATING “PERMUTIT.'

One of the interesting features of the Textile Exhibition at Nottingham is the exhibit, for the first time, of the new "Permutit" Rapid-Regenerating material for water softening, which marks a great advance in the technique of water purification by zeolites.

The new material is named "Permutit B." Its principal difference from the ordinary Permutit lies in the time taken for regeneration. Previously a Permutit unit was designed to soften water for 10 to 12 hours continuously. It then required an equal time for regeneration. Where day and night working was the rule, this involved the use of two units.

A Permutit B." plant softens for a shorter period, ranging from 3 to 6 hours, and is then exhausted. It can, however, be completely renegerated and put to work in under one hour. The advantages of this are obvious. One unit only is required for day and night working, as the plant is continuously in operation except during the onehour periods in which it is regenerated. All that is necessary is sufficient soft water storage to provide for one hour's requirements, to enable one unit to be used throughout the 24 hours.

Formerly the standard and universal product employed in connection with the elimination of calcium and magnesium from water by the base-exchange principle was produced synthetically, either by furnacing or by precipitation. The "Permutit" produced in this way was always subject to certain limitations.

66

The latest class Permutit," which has now been in commercial service in water softening for close on three years, and which is a non-synthetic material specially treated to increase its activity, and to stabilise its qualities, has the following advantages as against all previously employed zeolites:

(1) Free carbonic acid, which exists to a greater or lesser degree in all water supplies, has no destructive effect upon it.

(2) It is to a much greater degree immune from depreciation in structure and activity by reason of iron in the water.

(3) A rate of exchange, and, therefore, a permissible rate of flow through any given plant, of upwards of ten times that of previous Permutit materials, can be effected.

(4) A similarly rapid regeneration of the material as and when the point of exhaustion has been reached at the end of a day's run, is feasible.

(5) With the new material a reduction of from 25 per cent. to 333 per cent. in the requisite weight of salt for regeneration is effected.

(6) Lastly, and this, perhaps, may be regarded as the most important advance in the art, the "commercial" phrase of "zerohardness" which has always been employed in regard to waters softened by the baseexchange method, is literally and actually borne out by the new material.

The new softening material is put on the market by United Water Softeners, Ltd., sole proprietors of the Permutit patents in the country.

PROCEEDINGS AND NOTICES OF SOCIETIES.

THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. A general meeting of the members of the Royal Institution was held on July 2, Sir

James Crichton-Browne, Treasurer ond Vice-President, in the chair. The death of Sir James Reid, Bart., was reported to the meeting, and a resolution of condolence with the family was passed. Mr. R. N. Lennox was elected a member.

THE INSTITUTE OF METALS.

AUTUMN MEETING.

The annual autumn meeting of the Inin stitute of Metals will be held this year Manchester, on September 10-13, and promises to be an exceptionally interesting gathering. The meeting will open with the second annual autumn lecture, to be delivered by LT.-COL. SIR HENRY FOWLER, K.B.E., on The Use of Non-Ferrous Metals The lecture will be in Engineering. popular one, and is open to the public, tickets being obtainable from Mr. G. Shaw Scott, M.Sc., 36, Victoria Street, London, S.W.1.

a

The mornings of September 11 and 12 will be devoted to the reading and discussion of papers. After an official luncheon on September 11, visits will be paid to several large works in the vicinity of Manchester, and in the evening there will be a reception at the University, when the new metallurgical laboratories will be officially opened. Following the conclusion of the business side of the programme on September 12, the afternoon of that day will be devoted to a trip along the Manchester Ship Canal, and in the evening there will be a smoking concert at the Midland Hotel. A trip to Chester has been arranged for September 13, this excursion also including a launch trip up the river Dee. For those persons intending to proceed to the British Association meting at Liverpool the same evening, the trip to Chester will be very convenient, Chester being within easy reach of Liverpool.

Reduced fare facilities have been arranged with the railway companies in connection with the Manchester meeting, and the necessary vouchers for obtaining these facilities can be obtained on application to the Secretary, Mr. G. Shaw Scott, who will be glad to send a detailed programme of the meeting to those interested.

PETROLEUM-A SHORT HISTORY.

BY J. NORMAN TAYLOR, M.S.

Petroleum and its products are in greater use to-day than at any other time in the world's history. When we consider that at present there are millions of motor cars, hundreds of thousands of motor boats, to say nothing of a steadily increasing number of other internal-combustion engines depending for their usefulness upon gasoline, kerosene and lubricating oils, the necessity of insuring an adequate supply of petroleum is obvious. Another petroleum product, fuel oil, is being consumed in increasing quantities both upon land and on the sea. Yet, while the demand for petroleum and its products is growing, the supply of crude oil is being rapidly depleted. No wonder that Our statesmen and scientists are searching for a solution of the oil problema situation that can only be relieved by finding new supplies, eliminating waste, and adopting improved methods in refining processes.

The increasing importance of this commodity in our national economy makes the story of petroleum a most interesting one indeed, not only to those who are pursuing the study of chemistry and the allied sciences, but to all who have contact with modern civilisation.

Petroleum is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons varying in physical state from solid to gaseous, and in colour from coalblack, through brown, greenish, red and yellow, to colourless. The chemical nature of its constituents varies with the locality in which it is found, the chain bodies predominating.

Although the petroleum industry of the United States is of comparatively recent origin, the crude oil has been known from the earliest historical period and in this

country had undoubtedly been long used by the Indians.

It occurs in rocks of all ages, from the lower Silurian to the most recent (Merrill), and as a rule in sandstone formations. Occasionally it is found in limestones and shales. Geologic relations indicate petroleum to be of organic origin-a product derived from the slow physical and chemical alteration of ancient deposits of vegetable and animal material under the influence of heat and pressure.

For convenience, the sources of petroleum in the United States may be classified as follows:

The Appalachian field (centreing in Pennsylvania), the Lima-Indiana field (in Indiana and Ohio), the Illinois field, the midcontinent field (centreing in Oklahoma), the Gulf coast field (in south Texas and Louisiana), the Colorado-Wyoming field, and the California field. In the midcontinent field lie various pools, groups of pools, or districts, the distinguished ones being called the Cushing pool (Oklahoma), the Healdton pool (Oklahoma), the Caddo district. (north-western Louisiana), and the north Texas district.

There are about as many varieties of crude petroleum as there are oil fields. However, the refiner recognises three distinct types, noted below, each of which must be handled by different methods. The paraffin base crude similar to that found in Pennsylvania and West Virginia is essentially a light-coloured crude containing paraffin; the asphalt base crude, similar to that found in Texas and California, contains no paraffin, and is generally dark coloured, almost black; mixed base crudes, similar to those found from Ohio to Oklahoma, are essentially mixtures of paraffin and asphalt base crudes. California oils contain nitrogen and ring compounds.

Professor Charles E. Munroe, in his wellknown monograph on Petroleum Refining," states that it is not surprising that petroleum obtained in Texas, California and Ohio should differ in appearance and properties from each other and from the better known Pennsylvania oil and from that obtained from other parts of the country. He attributes this difference in appearance not only to the fact that petroleum consists of a mixture of various hydrocarbons from different acyclic and cyclic series and of hydrocarbon derivatives containing sulphur or oxygen or nitrogen or other elements which themselves differ widely in

properties and appearance, but also to the varying conditions under which the petroleum is produced and to the effect due to migration.

Crude petroleum has a limited application and owes its great value to the products derived from it. It is, therefore, treated at the point of origin or is transported to industrial centre by tank car, tank ship, barge, or pipe line. This latter mode of carriage is remarkable for its ingenuity, and we have to-day the remarkable achievement whereby vast quantities of oil are made to flow under rivers and through mountains to great refineries on the seaboard such as are found at Philadelphia, Bayonne, and Baltimore. Upon arrival at its destination the crude oil is freed from water and other sediment by allowing it to settle in storage tanks, after which it is pumped into retorts where it is submitted to fractional distillation.

This operation depends upon the principle that different liquids, at the same pressure, have different boiling points. The mixture of various hydrocarbons when submitted to gradually increasing temperature might be supposed to assume the vapour condition at the temperature of their respective boiling points and upon condensation, the individual constituents of the petroleum would be in their pure state. But such simple conditions do not obtain, since the boiling points of mixtures vary inversely as the vapour pressures. Although the composition of the vapour given off from such mixtures bears no close relation to the composition of the mixture, the vapour contains a preponderating amount of the most volatile constituent. Hence it is to be expected that when the crude oil is subjected to gradually increasing heat, the constituents are successively converted into vapour substantially in the order of their volatilities, but that the separation thus effected would not be perfect, as the oils of the higher boiling points are to some extent carried over by the vapour of those of lower boiling points.

It is evident from this that difficulties arise in the distillation of petroleum attributable to one or other of three causes: (a) to the presence of two substances, the boiling points of which are very close together; (b) to the presence of one or more components relatively in very small quantity; (c) to the formation of mixtures of constant boiling point. These difficulties have to a great extent been obviated by the use of dephlegmators similar to the Hempel column,