The appointment of Barker coincided with a great advance in chemistry. The famous Sir Humphry Davy was brought to Dublin by the Royal Dublin Society, before which he delivered a series of six lectures on the application of chemistry to agriculture, receiving a sum of £750. He also obtained an honorary degree from the University.

His visit led to the appointment, in 1826, of his brother Edmund to succeed Higgins as chemist to the Royal Dublin Society. Here, in 1836, he made one of the greatest chemical discoveries ever made in Dublin, namely-acetylene gas. About the same time Sir Robert Kane, born in Dublin and educated in Trinity College, made an important discovery in connection with theoretical chemistry, obtaining a cyclic hydrocarbon from an open-chain compound.

Professor Apjohn retired in 1875, when James Emerson Reynolds wa called upon to take the Chair. Although intended for the medical profession, he taught himself chemistry with great success; perhaps no one has done more to further the reputation of Dublin chemistry than he. Reynold's best known contribution to chemistry was the discovery of thiourea, an exceedingly reactive compound, which led up to Dr. Werner's great work on the chemistry of urea itself.

THE CHEMICAL ENGINEER.
HIS STATUS AND IMPORTANCE.
By PROFESSOR E. C. WILLIAMS.
University College, London.

The rapid growth of chemical industry in all civilized countries has called into being a new type of industrial scientiest who is skilled in the translation of the results of the laboratory into technically and commercially efficient manufacturing operations.

The modern need for co-operation between the chemist and the industrialist has compelled the evolution of a man, trained in the sciences of chemistry, physics, and engineering, whose function is to plan the industrial operation of chemical and allied processes, which involves the building up, first of a rational process, and then of a plant for carrying it out, which shall be economically, chemically, and mechanically as perfect of its kind as possible.

It is possible to train a man to a sound knowledge of the methods of synthetic and physical chemistry and at the same time to an appreciation of what is possible to the mechanical engineer. Such a man working

in close co-operation with a mechanical engineer can design and erect the plant for the operation of any chemical process. This combination of chemical and engineering sense is the characteristic of the chemical engineer.

The chemical engineer need not be equally a brilliant research chemist and a sound mechanical engineer; he will have at his elbow representatives of both these professions. He is rather the tactician of chemical industry, who works out in detail the methods by which the technical forces are to achieve the end in view. If in addition he has that wide economic vision which appreciates the resouces and future needs of the world, he becomes the strategist of the industry, the directive force, not only in chemical, but in world affairs. The vision he needs exceeds that required in almost any other industry, since chemical industry is peculiar in that it must plan not for months but for years ahead. The industry needs far-sighted technical and no less far-sighted financial policy. Such vision is commonly believed to be the prerogative of the financial leaders, but with industry based on the combined power of chemistry and engineering, financial or commercial vision alone will not suffice.-Times, Trade and Engineering Supplement.

RESEARCHES ON SULPHONATED OILS. I. ON RICINOLEIC ACID SULPHURIC ESTER.

By KINZIRO WINOKUTI.

In undertaking the investigation of sulfonated oil, the author has established his object in view, in pure preparation of each constituent of the sulfonated oil and in examining their properties connecting with the characteristics of the practical goods, and then considering about the relation between the properties of these individuals and ones as a whole, further, in considering by what conditions should the quality of the product be influenced.

The author dealt first, with ricinoleic acid and its sulfuric ester which are closely connected with the sulfonated castor oil. To prepare the sulfuric ester the author traced first the Grün and Woldenberg's process (Inaug. Dissert., Zürich, 1908; J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 1909, 490), and was not satisfied with it. He attained, however, his object by the following process:

The crude ester obtained by the GrinWoldenberg's process was neutralised with

NaOH in alcoholic solution instead of ammonia, and cooling the resulting solution, a crystalline deposit was obtained. From this deposit, after repeated recrystallisation from ethyl alcohol, the colorless needle crystalline Na-salt of the ester was isolated in such a purity that can never be attained by Grün's Ba-salt which was precipitated from ammonium salt solution. The author examined its general properties, and found that its formula is [CH,.(CH2)5.CH.O. SO,Na.CH.CH. (CH),.CO.Na.H2O when crystallised from 95 per cent. alcohol, and that it has many superior and favourable properties not only as an important component in the sulfonated oil but also as a convenient material for the investigation of the sulfonated oil.-Society of Chemical Industry, Japan.

GENERAL NOTES.

PULVERISED FUEL PROGRESS. The year 1927 may be regarded as the year in which pulverised fuel firing established its right to a leading position in combustion processes. Power-station

engineers, hitherto dubious as to the greater advantages offered by the use of pulverised fuel, have practically, throughout the whole country, recognised the accuracy of the assertions of American engineers as to the value of the system. In America the total heating surface in this form of firing amounts now to nearly 7,000,000 square feet. In the year 1924 the total heating surface amounted to 2,100,000 square feet. In Great Britain and Ireland the total heating surface under pulverised fuel now amounts to 862,626 square feet. a figures which has been attained within two years.

Other countries have also substantially recogniesed the superiority of this form of firing, where large demands for power are required to be met. The large new stations at Congella, South Africa, at Buenos Ayres, and at Shanghai are all being equipped with pulverised fuel plant, while Germany has long recognised the advantages associated with this description of firing for large boiler plants as well as for metallurgical furnaces.

It may be noted that the power stations and industrial plants in Great Britain operating on the "Lopulco "system include

the largest and most recent additions to our power-plants.

ADVANTAGES OF PULVERISED FUEL.

Among the principal reasons which account for the rapid increase in the use of pulverised fuel are improved thermal efficiency, greater operating convenience, reliability and a wider choice of fuels. What really interests the power-station engineer is the average efficiency taken over prolonged periods under ordinary station. operating conditions, and in this connection there is no doubt whatsoever that the pulverised coal-fired boiler scores. With this system of firing, also, almost any grade of fuel may be efficiently consumed. The fuels that have been successfully consumed in powdered form include the whole range of bituminous and semi-bituminous coals, anthracite coals, lignite, brown coal and even pitch. With this system the lowest grades of coal produced, and fuels which have hitherto been regarded as useless, are made available for power production. Such low-grade fuels cannot be employed in ordinary practice under the fluctuating load conditions encountered in an electric generating station, without considerable sacrifice of efficiency and reduction in the steaming capacity of the boilers.

The fuel may be purchased almost solely on a basis of cost per unit of heat without regard to its physical condition, and this constitutes a great economic advantage to the majority of plants.

PORTLAND CEMENT SELLING AND DISTRIBUTING COMPANY, LTD.,

DIARY.

We have received from the Portland Cement Selling and Distributing Co., Ltd., 27, Buckingham Gate, London, S.W.1., a copy of their Red Triangle Diary for 1928. From the data contained therein it has evidently been designed specially for Architects, Surveyors, Structural Engineers, Borough Engineers, Builders and Contracors, to whom it will be of inestimable value. It is published from 27, Buckingham Gate, London, S.W.1., and we are informed by the Editor that he will gladly send a copy to any Chemical News reader applying for one, who is engaged in any of the above trades.

DR. JAMES F. NORRIS BECOMES

CONSULTING EDITOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL CHEMICAL SERIES. Dr. James F. Norris, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who holds the title of Director of the Research Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, In Charge, Graduate Students in Chemistry, has assumed the Consulting Editorship of the International Chemical Series. This series, which now comprises upwards of thirty titles, was first undertaken in 1910, by the McGraw-Hill Book Company, under the Consulting Editorship of the late Dr. H. P. Talbot of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The first books published in this series were Dr. Norris' "Principles of Organic Chemistry," and Dr. H. P. Cady's "Inorganic Chemistry," which came out on October 17, 1912.

There is something peculiarly fitting in Dr. Norris' succession to Dr. Talbot. He has been associated with Dr. Talbot for considerable periods since 1895, when he joined the Department of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology immediately after receiving his degrees at Johns Hopkins University. From 1904 to 1915, he was Professor of Chemistry at Simmons College, Boston. He then spent a year as Professor of Chemistry at Vanderbilt University, returning to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1916.

He

Dr. Norris was President of the American Chemical Society in 1925 and 1926. made a notable record in the Chemical Warfare Service during the World War and since the war, in many important industrial researches. He brings to the International Chemical Series a rare combination of experience and ability.

BRITAIN BEHIND AMERICA.

Mr. George E. Learnard, one of America's leading engineers, who has rendered great service to all manufacturing countries by his practical work in cheap power production, recently paid a flying visit to this country.

In an interview given to the Bureau of Fuel Economy, Mr. Learnard indicated the great progress America was making in reducing the cost of production by employing higher boiler pressures in boiler plants. This movement, he said, had been commenced in Great Britain, and it was bound to continue. By the use of pulverised coal on the "Lopulco " system, Mr. J. Ander

son, of Milwaukee, had been enabled to produce one kilowatt of electrical energy from 1 lb. of coal. This achievement will be of interest to the Central Electricity Committee, who have in hand the reorganisation of electricity supplies. Mr. Learnard also pointed out that Germany was also making rapid progress in adopting the most economic methods of electricity production.

Mr. Learnard believed that the slow progress being made in this country in cheap steam production was due mainly to the fact that the manufacture of boiler plant in this country was limited to practically a speciality on the part of a few firms who saw no commercial reason to alter their plant to meet changing conditions. This situation was, however, now he believed, about to be overcome, due to numerous changes in design, particularly through the adoption of the solid-forged and waterwelded, rivetless drums used for the higher pressures now being specified, and also to the fact that the vertical tube type boiler was rapidly displacing the old horizontal tube-type boiler, on account of its many advantages in both design and operation.

LOW TEMPERATURE CARBONISATION. Referring to Low Temperature Carbonisation, Mr. Learnard asserted his complete conviction of the ultimate success of this application and stated that a Milwaukee, a very large plant had already been laid down at the power station, the gas from the process being delivered and used by the local gas undertaking whilst the whole of the residual fuel, or pulverised semi-coke was transported by pumps direct from the carbonising retorts to the furnaces in the boiler house and is being regularly and most successfully burnt without further treatment. In America, every wellinformed engineer, said Mr. Learnard, is closely following this further progressive development and during 1927 one of the most important contracts received by this International group covered the supply of a 750 ton plant for the production of gas by the low temperature system for he New Jersey Gas Undertaking.

THE REID PROCESS.

The process of the late Dr. T. A. Reid, Ph.D., F.C.S., of creating power-gas from the gases given off during lime burning is we understand suffering damage through confusion with certain lime fuel schemes that were recently before the public. Mrs.

We

Ethel Reid, widow and executrix of the late Dr. Reid, and now owner of the process, feels agrieved at this state of things. are informed that the Reid power-gas process bears no relation whatever to any chalk fuel or other processes. It is a simple patent for converting into a power-gas gases given off when lime and coal are burning together

as they must do in the ordinary process of lime-burning and no claims which cannot be substantiated by practical demonstration will be made for this power-gas. The plant for doing this will, we learn, soon be ready and, until that time, readers are asked to suspend judgment as to the value or otherwise of the patent.

BITUMINOUS COAL.

Dr. Thomas S. Baker, president of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., who organised the International Conference on Bituminous Coal held at his institution in 1926, sailed on the "Berengaria " for Europe on February 10, according to an announcement. He will spend about six weeks in several European countries for the purpose of organising the foreign part of the second International Conference on Bituminous Coal which will be held at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in the week of November 19, 1928.

While in Paris, Dr. Baker will give a series of four or five lectures in French between March 15 and 22 under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His general subject will be "What the United States is Thinking About."

SAFETY IN MINES RESEARCH

BOARD REPORTS.

Three Reports have already been issued by the Safety in Mines Research Board (Š.M.R.B. Papers Nos. 5, 21 and 35), describing research on devices which will afford release of pressure of a firedamp explosion within the casing of an electric apparatus, yet will not allow the passing of flame to the outside atmosphere.

Apart from the pressure produced by the explosion of any firedamp-air mixture that may exist within the casing, it appeared possible that high pressures might arise due to arcing during switching operations or through the blowing of fusible cut-outs.

An account of research regarding the

probabl magnitude of such pressure, and the conditions of its production, forms the subject of two papers by G. Allsop and R. V. Wheeler, entitled "The Pressures produced on Blowing Electric Arcs in Closed Vessels " (safety in Mines Research Board Papers Nos. 38 and 39, H.M. Stationery Office, Adastral House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2., price, respectively, 1s. 6d. and 9d. net. These papers give in detail an account of the two investigations, the methods of research, the apparatus employed, and the results of the experiments.

SLAG, COKE BREEZE AND CLINKER.

Breeze and clinker are used extensively as concrete aggregates, but at present there is very little information available regarding the fundamental causes of the failures which are of too frequent occurrence. Such information as is contained in the literature on the properties of these aggregates and the methods of determining their suitability for building purposes is summarised, however, in a Report recently issued by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Preliminary investigations at the Building Research Station, indicate that, in general, the important factor determining the soundness of these materials is the completeness of the combustion of the coal in the furnace. It is hoped that the further experimental work will provide definite information on the properties of clinker and make it possible to evolve reliable tests for its suitability as a concrete aggregate.

giving a review of hydro-electric and water-power development in Canada during 1927, which shows that the activity in hydro-electric and water-power development which has been manifest during the past few years throughout the Dominion continued without abatement during 1927, and sufficient undertakings are either under construction or in early prospect to ensure substantial progress being maintained in 1928 and the years immediately following.

In 1927 hydro-electric power equipment was installed ready for operation to the extent of 221,655 horse-power, while other undertakings were advanced to such a stage that a further total of 378,000 horse-power will be in place during the first six or seven months of 1928. With the additions during the year the total installation in Canada has grown to a figure of 4,777,921 horse-power at the end of 1927 which will shortly be raised to more than 5,100,000 by the installations now in process of completion.

BOARD OF TRADE ANNOUNCEMENT. SAFEGUARDING OF KEY INDUSTRIES.

The Board of Trade give notice that representations have been made to them under Section 10(5) of the Finance Act, 1926, regarding methyl chloride and radium compounds.

Section 10(5) of the Finance Act, 1926, is as follows:

"The Treasury may by order exempt from the duty imposed by section one of the Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921, as amended by this Act, for such period as may be specified in the order, and article in respect of which the Board of Trade are satisfied on a representation made by a consumer of that article that the article is not made in any par of His Majesty's Dominions in quantities which are substantial having regard to the consumption of that article for the time being in the United Kingdom, and that there is no reasonable probability that the article will within a reasonable period be made in His Majesty's Dominions in such substantial quantities.

Any person desiring to communicate with the Board of Trade with respect to these representations should do so by letter addressed to the Principal Assistant Secretary, Industries and Manufactures Department, Board of Trade, Great George Street, S.W.1., within one month from the date of this notice.

FEDERATION OF BRITISH
INDUSTRIES.

The following resolution has been passed: "That the Council appoints a committee to consider what amendments to the Railway Companies' Transport Bills are necessary to safeguard the public interests and users of transport, and empowers this committee to negotiate with the Railway Companies wih a view to the inclusion of such amendments in the Bills and failing success in such negotiation, to approach the Government with a request for a full enquiry before the Bills receive a second reading. Meanwhile, in order to retain the Federation's freedom of action, any necessary formal steps should be taken to maintain the Federation's status to deal with the matter in Parliament, should this prove necessary."

Proceedings and Notices of Societies.

INSTITUTE OF METALS.

PAPERS TO BE READ IN MARCH, 1928.

A. I. Norbury: "The Effect of Quenching and Tempering on the Mechanical Properties of Standard Silver."

R. Chadwick, B.A., A.I.C.: "The Constitution of the Alloys of Magnesium and Zinc."

Hugh O'Neill, M.Met., M.Sc.: "Historical Note on Density Changes caused by Coldworking of Metals.'

William A. Cowan, B.A.: "Minute Shrinkage Cavities in Some Cast Alloys of Heterogeneous Structure."

William A. Cowan, B.A. 66 : Note on the Composition of Old Roman Lead."

J. Newton Friend, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.I.C., and W. E. Thorneycroft, B.Sc.: "An Example of Roman Copper Soldering and Welding from Uriconium."

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