Febeuabt 18, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



269 



W. R. Whitney^ gave an address on " Some Cliem- 

 istry of Artificial Light." 



Thursday and Friday the different divisions and 

 sections met in the Lowell Building of tlie Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology. Two special 

 features were a symposium on the Cliemistry of 

 Paint in the Division of Industrial Chemists and 

 Chemical Engineers and a meeting of a special 

 section to consider the Chemistry of India Rubber. 

 The regular subscription banquet was held Thurs- 

 day evening at the Hotel Somerset. 



On Friday excursions were made to Lawrence, 

 Mass., -where the Wood Worsted Mills, the Water 

 Supply and Sewage Experiment Station of the 

 State Board of Health, and the New Water Fil- 

 tration Plant were examined and the Fore River 

 Ship Building Co. and the Distillery of Felton & 

 Son, Inc. 



DIVISION OF INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTS AND CHEMICAL 

 ENGINEEES 



A. D. Little, Chairman 



B. T. B. Hyde, Secretary 



Losses in the Storage of Coal: Hokace C. Porter 



and F. K. Ovitz. 



The organic matter of coal readily takes up 

 oxygen from the air at ordinary temperatures 

 and the coal thus deteriorates during storage in 

 the air. The amount of this deterioration as de- 

 termined by a laboratory study was found to be 

 small (1.0 per cent, or less) when the coal was 

 confined in bottles and a current of air passed 

 through. It proved to be somewhat larger (over 

 2.0 per cent.) in the case of Illinois coal exposed 

 to the outdoor weather. Deterioration was shown 

 to be practically nothing during under-water stor- 

 age for one year in the laboratory. 



Immediately after mining coal absorbs oxygen 

 rapidly. In one case 10 kilos exhausted the oxy- 

 gen from 10 liters of air in four days. Only a 

 very slight amount of CO2 was formed during this 

 oxidation. Methane, however, is exuded from 

 freshly mined coal in considerable quantities and 

 continues to be produced in some cases during 

 long periods. The quantities of methane evolved 

 are not sufficient to lower appreciably the heat 

 value of the coal, but are of importance in pro- 

 ducing explosive mine gas. Tlie relative amount 

 evolved by each coal conforms to the known 

 gaseous character of the mine from which the coal 

 was taken. 



Outdoor tests are now being carried on by the 

 U. S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the 

 U. S. Navy and at the Isthmus of Panama to 



determine loss of heat value in coal stored in the 

 open air as compared to that in under-water stor- 

 age. Outdoor tests on Wyoming sub-bituminous 

 coal showed a loss of five per cent, of the heat 

 value in eight months open-air storage. 



The True Melting Point of Trinitrotoluene: A. M. 



Comet. 



The accepted melting point of a-2-4-6 trinitroto- 

 luene is 82°, but previous determinations vary 

 from that figure down to 78.8°. 



Careful melting point determinations were made 

 on samples of C.P. trinitrotoluol obtained from 

 various sources, and preparations of this substance 

 were made in the laboratory from purified C.P. 

 toluol, with the result that 80.5 to 80.6° was ob- 

 tained as the corrected melting point in every 

 case. 



Bacterial Activity as a Corrosive Influence in the 



Soil: Richard H. Gaines. 



Casting about for a theory to account for cor- 

 rosion of iron and steel structures which are em- 

 bedded in the soil, scientists are now giving con- 

 sideration to the role played by bacteria. Recent 

 work has shown that decompositions hitherto un- 

 suspected and chemical changes in the soil are 

 especially destructive to the iron. It has been 

 found that acid contributions of the soil which 

 have formed in abundance as a result of bacterial 

 activity contribute to a large degree to the cor- 

 rosive influences present. This corrosion is now 

 known as shell rust and is often seen on steel or 

 iron conveying pipes running through marshes or 

 under water. Microscopic inspection of this rust 

 shows that bacterial organisms have . done the 

 work. The following remedy for the evil was 

 proposed : ( 1 ) Free drainage carrying off the acid 

 solutions, (2) in localities where drainage is im- 

 possible slack lime should be packed about the 

 metal, to neutralize acids formed as a result of 

 bacterial activity. 

 Paint Films as Accelerators to Corrosion of Iron: 



W. H. Walker. 



Although the tendency to corrosion in iron or 

 steel varies greatly with the condition of its man- 

 ufacture, and although some samples are inferior 

 to others, the fact remains that all iron and all 

 steel will rust, hence the necessity of the study 

 of the available methods of protecting such struc- 

 tures and the most general way is by paint. Any 

 substance which will absorb, or combine with 

 hydrogen, will on this account accelerate corrosioii 

 if such substance be in contact with iron. Lin- 

 seed oil in its natural condition does this, and 



