October 17, 1912] 



NATURE 



193 



THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 

 OF APPLIED CHEMISTRY. 



THE Congress of Applied Chemistry, which met 

 this year in Washington and New York, is 

 the eighth of a series of triennial gatherings held 

 hitherto in centres of chemical activity in the 

 Old World, the last three meetings having taken 

 place in London, Rome and Berlin. 



The onerous task of preparing for the reception 

 of the eighth congress was commenced three years 

 ago by an influential committee of American 

 chemists. Prof. E. W. Morley and Dr. W. H. 

 Nichols being nominated honorary president and 

 president respectively, with Dr. Bernhard C. 

 Hesse as secretary. The interesting programme 

 drawn up by this committee attracted a large 

 number of European chemists, chiefly from 

 Germany, and about thirty nationalities were 

 represented by official delegates. Among the 

 eminent chemists attending the meeting were three 

 past-presidents of former congresses — Prof. L. 

 Lindet (Paris), Sir William Ramsay (London) 

 and Prof. F. Strohmer (Vienna). Prof. P. Walden, 

 president-elect of the next congress (St. Peters- 

 burg), was also present. 



The scientific work of the congress was divided 

 into twenty-four sections, and one very noteworthy 

 feature, which distinguished this meeting from 

 its predecessors, was the rapid printing' of the 

 proceedings in twenty-four volumes, containing 

 nearly 600 accepted papers, these being ready for 

 distribution to the members at the opening of the 

 meeting on September 3. The discussions taking 

 place in the various sections were recorded phono- 

 graphically by a special phonograph devised for 

 this purpose by Mr. Edison. 



The congress was opened formally at Washing- 

 ton, in the Memorial Continental Hall, on 

 September 4, and the delegates and members were 

 welcomed by His Excellency President Taft, at 

 the White House. Several Government institu- 

 tions established at \\'ashington were visited by 

 the members, special attention being devoted to 

 the laboratories of the Department of -Agriculture, 

 the Bureau of Standards, the Geophysical Labora- 

 tory and the U.S. Geological Survey. The scien- 

 tific work of the sections was carried on in New 

 York from September 6 till September 13, 

 the meetings being held in the lecture-rooms 

 placed at the disposal of the congress by the 

 authorities of Columbia University, to whose 

 generous hospitality the congress is indebted both 

 for this suitable and compact group of rooms and 

 also for the use of several residence-halls in which 

 many members were housed during the congress 

 meetings. 



In the analytical section were presented several 

 important papers and reports of committees on 

 the standardisation of methods of sampling and 

 analysis. The extraction of potash from felspars 

 and other minerals was discussed in the section of 

 inorganic chemistry, and joint meetings with the 

 sections of metallurgy and mining were held to 

 consider topics of interest in connection with new 

 alloys, among which may be mentioned the 

 NO. 2242, VOL. 90] 



combinations of boron with copper and other 

 metals, demonstrated by E. Weintraub. The elec- 

 tric furnace and its applications was the subject 

 of a joint session between the metallurgical and 

 electrochemical sections. The production and 

 properties of Portland cement were debated in the 

 section of silicate industries. In the explosives 

 section stability tests for these materials were 

 discussed by several investigators, and tetranitro- 

 aniline was recommended by its discoverer, B. 

 Flurscheim, as a safe explosive with a shattering 

 power only second to that of nitroglycerin. 



The section of organic chemistry received the 

 greatest number of papers and was the scene of 

 several animated discussions. The chemical struc- 

 ture of the azoimide nucleus present in organic 

 and metallic azides was dealt with by M. O. 

 Forster. The perennial topic of colour and con- 

 stitution was discussed in joint session with the 

 section of coal-tar colours, interesting papers on 

 aniline black and quinonoid addition in dyestuff 

 synthesis being contributed by A. G. Green. In 

 the sugar section, reports were presented on 

 uniform methods of sugar analysis by von Buchka, 

 Prinsen-Geerlings, Saillard, Strohmer and Weich- 

 mann. A paper on the valuable plastic material 

 "baekelite," the condensation product of phenol 

 and formaldehyde, was read by its discoverer, L. 

 H. Baekeland, before the section of indiarubber 

 and other plastics. A report on the standardisa- 

 tion of methods of determining water in coal and 

 in other fuels and in minerals, drawn up by G. 

 T. Holloway, was presented by R. Lessing to the 

 section on fuels. 



Among the large number of important papers 

 contributed to the section of agricultural chemistry 

 may be mentioned a series of communications by 

 G. Bertrand and his collaborators on the catalytic 

 action in fertilisers of small quantities of mangan- 

 ese, boron, zinc and aluminium. The standardisa- 

 tion of disinfectants by the Rideal-Walker test 

 was advocated by S. Rideal in the section of 

 hygiene. The sterilisation of potable water by 

 hypochlorites was the subject of several communi- 

 cations to the same section. An interesting paper 

 on the chemical reactions of micro-organisms was 

 read before the section of biochemistry by F. 

 Ehrlich, and several investigators presented com- 

 munications bearing on the relationship between 

 chemical constitution and germicidal or physio- 

 logical action. 



The utilisation of American natural gas has led 

 C. Baskerville to study the chlorination of this 

 cheap source of methane, and his results were com- 

 municated to a joint meeting of the sections of 

 inorganic chemistry, photochemistry and electro- 

 chemistry. To the last of these sections were 

 presented several papers on the electric smelting 

 of iron, zinc and other metals, and on the electro- 

 lytic processes of producing chlorine, alkali and 

 hypochlorite. 



In the section of political economy and conserva- 

 tion of natural resources reference was made to 

 the conservation of forests and water supplies, 

 and to the utilisation of peat and coal waste. 



