. 554 ISDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERISG CHEMIiSTRY Vel. 15, No. 6

Nonmetallics HE Secretary of the Interior has announced the estab-

lishment of a new station of the Bureau of Mines a t Rutgers College to specialize in problems dealing with non- metallic minerals, many of which are raw materials in the chemical and allied industries. The importance of this work can be estimated roughly by the monetary value of their annual production. To mention a few with their annual value in millions of dollars:

30 Graphite.. . . . . . . . . . 4 . 5

Lime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Gypsum 11.3 Asbestos. . . . . . . . . . . 6 . 5

While these materials 'and others under the classification of nonmetallic minerals are of great importance to the chemical industry, it is regrettable that the industry has not shown the interest or cooperation in these investigations which would secure increased activity and appropriations. There is a marked contrast bet,ween the interest of the chem- ical manufacturers in this project and that of the producers of heavy clay products in supporting the investigations in ceramics. It is hoped that with the establishment of this new station at a point convenient to a large number of our chemical manufacturers, a change may be secured in their att,itude and this important work of the bureau properly supported. The station will have as it's superintendent Dr. Oliver Bowles, for some time stat,ioned a t Washingt,on, and under his guidance we may expect valuable results. The establishment of the nonmetallic station represents both a concentration of work and an expansion of the bureau which marks progressive development.

The Direction of the Wind I N its action against the Chemical Foundation, the

Government offered as a witness one Dr. Karl Holder- mann, who undertook to testify as an expert concerning the value of patents owned by the Badische Company, which were seized in 1919 by the United States Government and sold. If Dr. Holdermann can be taken as an average sample of the witnesses by which the Attorney General expects t o prove an immoral act on the part of the previous adminis- tration, and if his testimony is any indication of the wag the wind is blowing, then certainly the trial should be a short one and the outcome favorable to the Chemical Foundation. Here was a man who had never been in America previous to 1922, sent to testify at the expense of a deeply interested concern, who admitted that he was giving his entire time in an effort to recover possession of the patents, and yet who undertook to estimate the value of the patents to America under the conditions which obtained a t the time of their sale, on the basis of German values as they existed prior to that time. His estimates of values were based upon as- sumptions, and in the course of his testimony he swore to several opinions that are quite contrary to American expe- rience. For example, he stated that any competent chemist could take the Haber patents as they were issued in this country and proceed at once to the manufacture of synthetic ammonia, and that all the patents were full and complete disclosures so that there should be no difficulty in proceeding a t once to the commercial stage of production.

There was one statement that should interest private enterprise and government officials-namely, that the syn- thesis of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen has now reached the place where fixed nitJrogen can be sold cheaper

in this form than in Chilean nitrate. If this is true, there should no longer be any hesitancy in erecting fixed nitrogen plants on a large scale.

Clearly, Dr. Holdermann was not qualified to testify as an expert in this case, and his testimony must have been disappointing to the prosecution. If other witnesses to be heard this month can prove no more conclusively that, the sale to the Chemical Foundation should be nullified, then the friends of chemical industry in America have no cause to worry.

Regional Meetings HE recent joint meeting a t Urbana of the chemists

from thirteen midwestern sections, following lesser successes a t Milwaukee in 1921 and a t Chicago last year, marked a real development in these regional meetings, and in program and entertainment was pleasantly reminiscent of the national meeting a t Urbana in 1916. The stimulus and satisfaction to the more than two hundred attendants ensures the future of such meetings, a t least among the twelve Chemical Bulletin sections. Meanwhile they offer vital suggestions to the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY and especially to the Committee on Intersectional Meetings.

New Haven saw 30 Chicagoans, but only 9 were present a t both meetings. Ames sent 3 to New Haven and 5 to Urbana, a distance of over 500 miles. Purdue sent one to New Haven and 10 others to Urbana. Illinois cities outside of Chicago and Urbana were represented by 24. These attendance figures show that the isolated member who rarely gets to the national meetings will come to the regional meetings, which will detract in no way from the former. Thus to bring the SOCIETY home to its members is a purpose that deserves encouragement.

The scientific programs in the four groups met the standards of the national divisions, but offered an advantage in that more time was allowed for presentation, and active discussion was obtained. Here is an opportunity for the oral presenta- tion of many papers whose authors cannot attend the national meetings, as well as of many which, under this arrangement, will not require attention on the overcrowded national programs. It is the one available means of both increasing the opportunities for reporting and discussing research and also of relieving the almost impossible congestion of the di- visional programs. From this point of view alone the re- gional meetings deserve study.

The one apparent defect of the meeting was lack of organ- ization. The attendance was much larger than had been expected, Secretary Parsons' effective hand was notably absent, and much guidance was impromptu. Future meet- ings of this group of sections, as well as elsewhere, should be given a definite standing, with perhaps a director from the region concerned as presiding officer and center of an organ- ization, and in each of the scientific groups there should be some one to represent the corresponding national division, arrange the program, and preside. If possible, some of the papers should be recommended for further presentation and discussion a t the next national meeting, and this, together with a rigorous limitation of the divisional programs, which will then be possible, may well be the salvation of both the national and the regional meetings.

Plans are already under way for the next meeting of the middle-western group, to be held, perhaps, in connection with the opening of the great new laboratory now being erected by the Unhersity of Iowa a t Iowa City. They will be followed with interest. In the meantime there is Mil- waukee!

There were 80 present from Chicago.

GERALD L. WENDT