July 9, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



73 



ist shall receive a fair share of the profits. A cer- 

 tain per cent, of the profits shall revert to the cor- 

 poration and the experimenter shall return all 

 moneys advanced, with interest. 



The researches can be conducted at universities 

 or at some of the industrial research laboratories 

 available. Shareholders should receive a fair re- 

 turn on their investment and the balance of profits 

 should be placed in a surplus fund or used to 

 further subsidize research. 



The chemist has made many valuable contribu- 

 tions to the industries and has, only too often, been 

 left both without recognition and proper financial 

 return. Industrial research laboratories have bet- 

 tered his lot considerably, but this plan, with their 

 eooperetion and the cooperation of chemists who 

 have already succeeded financially should go a step 

 farther in giving him the recognition he deserves. 



William M. Booth: The Chemist ana Industrial 



Water Furification. 

 W. C. Hanna: What the Chemist Bus Done for the 

 Portland Cement Industry in the United States. 

 Frederic Dannerth: The Industrial Chemist im 

 Sis Belation to Fire Prevention. 

 The total fire loss in the United States and 

 Canada, including forest fires, has averaged 231 

 million dollars per year for the past five years. 

 Since the beginning of this century we have lost 

 over three billion dollars' worth of property. The 

 per capita fire loss in the United States is $2.55 

 as compared with 84 cents in France and 20 cents 

 in Germany. In 19-14 the eleven largest fires in 

 chemical industries showed a property loss of 7J 

 million dollars. As a result of this the industrial 

 chemist has now begun to study the causes of 

 fires in order that he may remove the source, if 

 possible, and he is studying such materials as 

 rubber-lined fire hose so that, after a fire has once 

 started, the fight against it may be conducted 

 more efficiently. 



A. Low^ENSTEiN and J. J. Vollertsex: The In- 

 fluence of Free Fatty Acids on the Flash and 

 Fire Points of Fats and Oils. 

 A. LowENSTEiN and J. J. Volleetsen: The In- 

 fluence of Pyridine on the Ammonia Determina- 

 tion of Concentrated Ammoniacal Liquor. 

 Edward Hart: The Potash Supply. 



Methods unfitted to meet ultimate German com- 

 petition are those which turn out only potash. 

 This is true because the first cost of the German 

 material is extremely low. 



Among processes which are more likely to suc- 

 ceed are : 



First, the condensed potash from cement kilns, 

 the obtainable supply of sulphate from this source 

 being placed at not more than 60,000 tons; second, 

 from feldspar refuse, as in the Hart process, 

 where the products are a white pigment contain- 

 ing barium sulfate and gelatinized silica alum and 

 aluminum sulfate. If the alum be unsalable as 

 such it may cheaply be converted into potassium 

 and aluminum sulfates. 



G. A. Eankin: The Constituents of Portland Ce- 

 ment Clinlcer. 



From the results obtained during a systematic 

 study of the system CaO-ALO^-SiO,, we have found 

 that these three oxides alone in the proportions in 

 which they occur in commercial portland cement 

 when perfectly burned will produce a clinker made 

 up only of the constituents (compounds) 2 

 CaO.SiO,, 3 CaO-SiO, and 3 CaO-ALOs- This 

 clinker possesses all the properties of a desirable 

 Portland cement, when it is ground and treated 

 with water. 



White commercial portland cement has a CaO, 

 ALO3, SiO, content of over 95 per cent., while the 

 more common gray variety of cement contains over 

 90 per cent, of these three oxides. Examinations 

 of the clinker of these two types of cement have 

 shown that the main constituents (over 90 per 

 cent.) are 2 CaO.SiO,, 3 CaO-SiO, and 3 

 CaO-ALO;, and that the minor constituents (less 

 than 10 per cent.) are 5 CaO-SALO^, CaO, and 

 ferrites. 



It may, therefore, be definitely stated that port- 

 land cement clinker is made up largely of the 

 three CaO, AlA, SiO, compounds, 2 CaO-SiO., 

 3 CaO-SiO, and 3 CaO-ALOa and it seems probable 

 that the desirable properties of portland cement 

 are due to presence of these three major constitu- 

 ents and that the minor constituents have little, if 

 any, influence. 

 George K. Burgess and P. D. Sale: A Study of 



the Quality of Platinum Ware with Special Bef- 



erence to Losses on Seating. 



A thermoelectric survey of the purity of 164 

 platinum utensils has been made and 14 crucibles 

 were subjected to a systematic heating and acid 

 washing treatment to determine losses in weight. 

 Heating losses, which are least for platinum 

 crucibles containing rhodium and increases with 

 iridium content, range from 0.71 to 2.69 mg. per 

 hour per 100 cm.- at 1,200° C. Suggestions are 

 offered as to specifications for platinum ware, and 

 it is shown that losses on heating may be pre- 

 dicted from thermoelectric and microscopic exami- 

 nations for iron-free crucibles. 



