June 20, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



597 



We also circulate among the o£Scials here about 

 twenty of the journals, which are carried out and 

 brought in daily after three days' use. 



Speciiil library service in The Barrett Company: 

 E. C. Buck. 



Library service in the chemical department and 

 chemical department laboratories of the E. I. <Ju 

 Pont de Nemours 4" Company: F. I. G.\llup. The 

 paper outlined the du Pont Chemical Department 

 Library organization, covering especially the fol- 

 lowing points: (1) Informing the librarians of 

 new work to be undertaken, (2) a monthly ex- 

 change of accession reports, (3) the monthly ab- 

 stract, (4) the patent files and patent catalogue, 

 (5) special research catalogue of references, (6) 

 classification and index of information in chem- 

 ical department reports, (7) bibliographical work, 

 (8) personal. 



Symposium on the Future of Certain Americ<in- 

 made Chemicals 

 Some present-day problems of chemical indus- 

 try: R. F. Bacon and W. A. H.\uor. 



A possible menace to American chemical inde- 

 pendence: W. D. Collins. This paper noted a few 

 instances of unsatisfactory deliveries of chemicals 

 and apparatus for regular analytical work. In 

 some lines American-made products are so superior 

 to the foreign supplies that very few analysts 

 would care to use the foreign articles at any 

 price. In other lines there is some doubt as to 

 the inferiority of American products available at 

 the present time. Many buyers of supplies for 

 analytical, industrial and educational laboratories 

 would pay higher prices for satisfactory American 

 products, but may not be willing to sacrifice time 

 and reliability of results by using inferior prod- 

 ucts if supplies formerly used again become avail- 

 able. It is suggested that the industrial section 

 or the society either appoint a new committee or 

 enlarge the field of some committee already in ex- 

 istence to canvass the situation in regard to the 

 quality of chemicals and apparatus for regular 

 laboratory work. Such a committee, working, 

 should be able to secure cooperation between buy- 

 ers, sellers and manufacturers which would remove 

 any lingering desire on the part of chemists for 

 foreign-made reagents and apparatus for every- 

 day use in the laboratories of schools, universities 

 and industries. 



Quality first to insure increased success of the 

 chemical industry of the United States: JOKICHI 

 Takamine, Jb. 



Phenol: Albert G. Petebkin. 

 Cellulose acetate: H. S. Mork. 

 Unusual orgc^ic chemicals: Hans T. Cl.\ske. 

 Also W. J. H.\le, L. M. Tolman-, H. A. Metz 

 and General Information Discussion. 



General Papers 



Tactical uses of smoke (lantern) : Btron C. 

 Goss. 



Chemical work in the canning industry: W. D. 

 Bigelow. 



Corrosion tests on commercial calcium chloride 

 used in automobile anti-freeze solutions (lantern) : 

 Paitl Rudnick. Three proprietary products were 

 tested for their effect on aluminum, copper and 

 cast iron. Polished plates of these metals were 

 immersed in solutions of the concentration di- 

 rected by the manufacturers. The plates were 

 suspended in pairs of copper and aluminum, cop- 

 per and cast iron, and aluminum and cast iron, 

 and also a set of all three, by means of copper 

 wire attached to the emergent ends of the respec- 

 tive plates. The tests were continued for thirty 

 days, the loss or gain in weight of the plates 

 being noted every other day. The curves plotted 

 from these results show not only that aluminum 

 is attacked most severely, iron next, and copper 

 least, as would be expected, but also that the rate 

 of corrosion increases sharply on the eighteenth to 

 twentieth day of immersion. 



Oxidation in the manufacture of TJf.T.: A. S. 

 Eastman. The final stage of the nitration of 

 toluene in the manufacture of T.N.T. is carried 

 out at such a high temperature that there is con- 

 siderable oxidation of the nitrotoluenes, by the 

 mixed acid. The extent of this oxidation is indi- 

 cated by the presence of 15 to 20 per cent., of 

 HNOSO, in the spent acids. This represents the 

 reduction product, and it was desired to identify 

 a corresponding quantity of oxidation products. 

 2-4-dinitrobenzoic acid was isolated. 1.24 per 

 cent, of the toluene is lost by oxidation to or- 

 ganic acids. The gas evolved during nitration 

 contained CO., CO, N: and Oj in quantities sufiS- 

 cient to lower the yield of T.N.T. by 4.9 per cent. 

 This gas varies in composition, but may contain 

 suflScient CO to be explosive, causing the top of a 

 nitrator to be blown off, without detonating 

 the T.N.T. 



A new bomb calorimeter for industrial labora- 

 tories: W. L. Badoeb. The only feature of this 

 bomb that is radically different from other well- 



