SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
The extensive use of metal automobile bodies introduced a problem in 
lacquering and enamelling, for in order to get the required hardness and dura- 
bility in the finish, it must be baked. Eventually electric ovens of great size 
were installed, and all went well until, in an effort to economize in the use of 
current, the ventilators would be closed, or partly closed, with the result that 
highly inflammable vapours from the lacquer and enamel volatile solvents 
collected in dangerous quantities in the ovens. ‘There were fires and wild explo- 
sions, loss‘of work, and disturbed schedules. 
This condition affected the oven manufacturers more than the enamel makers, 
and one of those making electric heating and controlling devices for ovens 
instituted research, not on the apparatus, but upon an enamel minus the expen- 
sive and troublesome yolatile solvents. The problem has been solved, and the 
same covering materials—gums, pigments, &¢—may now be had in colloidal 
form in water. They cover well, bake without any material variation from the 
usual methods of treatment, and when once on the metal the result is the same. 
The ovens may be operated to suit, for there is no danger. The element of safety 
and freedom from property loss have heen secured without increased cost, if, 
indeed, not without an actual saving in the expense of enamels. 
And then, because the gums are in suspension and not in solution, there is 
nothing to make small pieces stick together. They may be put into a wire 
basket, dipped into the colloidal lacquer, and baked without being removed and 
given the individual attention necessary with other lacquers. If the metal can 
be heated slightly before dipping, a still better job can he obtained. There 
are no “fat edges,” and no marks of adhering to other pieces. . Such lacquers 
or enamels may also be brushed on or sprayed as desired. 
These developments are real steps forward, and further achievements along 
these lines may be expected. Colloidal chemistry and physical chemistry, 
theoretical though they may seem, are accomplishing great things for industry, 
and when we begin to graduate chemical engineers well grounded in these new 
divisions of chemistry, still greater things may be expected. 
“Scientists tell us that from Pleistocene ages onwards-—a period of 
at least half a million years—there has been little or no change in the 
form and size of man’s brain. Certainly during the period covered by 
human history—perhaps 8,000 years--there has been no apparent change 
in the gross anatomical structure of that organ. Yet for 7,850 of these 
years, taken all together, man’s brain discovered and applied fewer of 
Nature’s secrets than during the last 150 years. Discoveries and 
inventions are now increasing in geometrical ratio. We venture to say 
that nothing in any department of industrial life is being done in 1916 
as effectively as it will be done in 1926. The nation which is the 
speediest to assimilate this truth will outstrip all others, not only in 
industrial, but in every other department of human activity.” 
—Eclipse or Empire. 
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