Industrial Research 



311 



States Department of Agriculture, under the Bureau of 

 Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering, definitely 

 provide for chemical-engineering divisions to have 

 charge of the semicommercial development and the 

 small-scale manufacture of products resulting from 

 research. The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, 

 in Pittsburgh, and the Battello Memorial Institute, at 

 Columbus, Ohio, are both large employers of chemical 

 engineers. Mr. Clyde E. WiUiams, director of Battelle, 

 states that approximately 15 percent of their entire 

 technical staff have had chemical-engineering training. 

 Although a number serve as operators of chemical 

 pilot-plant equipment, many are also serving as super- 

 visors, research engineers, and assistants in such fields 

 as electrochemistry, ceramics, fuels, nonfcrrous metal- 

 lurgy, powder metallurgy, and many other phases of 

 iron and steel research. Mr. Williams vsrrites: 



We choose and advance men largely on their qualifications 

 and abilities to do good research work. In other words, the 

 primary requirements are broad training in fundamentals, abil- 

 ity to apply results, and to think in a practical manner; imagina- 

 tion, inquisitiveness, and ability either to direct or to conduct 

 research investigations. Chemical engineers are chosen for 

 certain problems because of their specialized training or experi- 

 ence, but on the whole their ability to master and apply funda- 

 mentals is more important than the type of training. 



These research institutes work closely with the re- 

 search and development departments of the industrial 

 companies that sponsor their projects. Often a com- 

 parable function is served by a firm of consulting 

 chemical engineers. Several of the larger organizations 

 in this field maintain extensive laboratory facilities and 

 pilot plants, well staffed with competent personnel for 

 carrying on research and plant development work. 

 There are many more research consultants, however, 

 who merely serve as advisers to industry — contributing 

 the advantage of an outside viewpoint and the value of 

 diversified experience, both of which are helpful in the 

 solution of research problems and the direction of in- 

 dustrial development. 



Technological Research 



The earliest practitioners of chemical engineering 

 relied largely on the accumulated experience of those 

 who, by methods of trial and error, had slowly devel- 

 oped the first crude chemical manufacturing processes. 

 Empirical considerations stiU control many features of 

 equipment design, construction, and operation in chem- 

 ical industries. There is still some truth in the old 

 saw that the engineer is a man who must draw sufficient 

 conclusions from insufficient data. Nevertheless, fun- 

 damental research is gradually changing what was once 

 an art into something that today approaches a more or 

 less exact science. 



Dr. Charles M. A. Stine, of the du Pont Company, 



noted the significance of this trend a dozen years ago 

 when he remarked : '° 



Perhaps the characteristics which most clearly differentiate 

 the chemical engineerint; of today from the earlier activities of 

 those interested in this field is the quantilative treatment of the 

 various unit operations, and it is this exact and quantitative 

 treatment of these operations which constitutes the province of 

 modern chemical engineering. 



Further evidence from the same source may be noted 

 in the publications on chemical engineering which have 

 come from the experimental station of E. I. du Pont 

 de Nemours & Company, Inc., in the period 1930-40. 

 A comprehensive list compiled for the writer by Thomas 

 H. Chilton shows 42 papers dealmg (quantitatively in 

 most cases) with the following unit operations: Fluid 

 flow (11 papers), heat transfer (7 papers), distillation, 

 boiling and condensation (9 papers), absorption (4 

 papers), drying (2 papers), mechanical separation 

 (1 paper). Five other papers dealt with corrosion and 

 materials of construction while 2 were concerned with 

 broader reviews of research problems. 



In his Chandler Medal lecture at Columbia Univer- 

 sity on November 16, 1939," Chilton gave an account 

 of an extended series of chemical engineering researches 

 attempted to formulate quantitative expressions for 

 predicting the rate of transfer of materials to fluids 

 in motion. Ivnowledge of these rates is essential in 

 order to predict the size and performance of equipment 

 used for absorption, condensation, distillation, extrac- 

 tion, and humidification — important unit operations in 

 most of the process industries. Research of this sort 

 not only simplifies the problems of chemical engineering 

 design, but is of great practical value that can be meas- 

 ured in increased yield, improved quality, and worth- 

 while economies in fuel and power consumption. 



The petroleum industry has likewise been a produc- 

 tive source of fundamental chemical engineering 

 research on distillation, heat transfer, and the diffu- 

 sional processes. Publications from industrial labora- 

 tories of the Standard Oil Development Company, the 

 Standard Oil Company of Indiana, the Atlantic Refin- 

 ing Company, the Universal Oil Products Company, 

 the Cities Service Company, the Gulf Oil Company, 

 and the Shell Development Company, have been espe- 

 cially noteworthy. The public utilities, as represented 

 by the Utilities Research Commission at the University 

 of Illinois and the United Gas Improvement Company 

 of Philadelphia have sponsored invaluable research on 

 the important unit operations and processes involved in 

 fuel production and utilization. All this has been 

 reflected in more eflBcient equipment and processes for 

 these industries. 



10 stine, C. M. A. Chemical engineering in modern industry. American InstUutt 

 of Chemical Engineers, Transactions, SI, 46 (1928). 



" Chilton, Thomas H. Engineering In the service of chemistry. Industrial and 

 Engineering Chemistry, Si, 23-31 (January 1940). 



