MIT ESTABLISHES WARREN K. LEWIS PROFESSORSHIP

Warren K.. Lewis, 86 (left), listens to the chair's first occupant, Dr. Edwin R. Gilliland, head of MIT's department of chemical engineering and a former student of Dr. Lewis'. Regarded by many as the foundier of modern chemical engineering, Dr. Lewis was the first head of the department of chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An eminent chemical engineer, Dr. Lewis' research contributions include the Lewis system of solvent recovery, vacuum distillation of lubricating oils, fundamental work in liquid structure, mathematical treatment of rectifica­tion, pyrolysis, oxidation of hydrocarbons, and gasification of coal. Dr. Lewis has received the National Medal of Science and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK

LAUNDRY PRODUCTS:

Du Pont Enters Right Du Pont is venturing into a consumer market that other basic chemical com­panies have failed to penetrate over the years—the $1.5 billion a year home laundry products market. The company is test marketing its first home laundry product—a fabric soft­ener tradenamed Right. It is now distributing and advertising the new home laundry product throughout parts of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Right is chemically similar to the fabric softeners that other companies have been marketing throughout the past 10 to 15 years. The active in­gredient is a modified polyalkylamine which, when deposited from rinse water onto washed fabric, adds a lu-bricative finish that imparts a "soft and fluffy" hand. Du Pont's formu­lation, which is pending patent issue, differs from that of other products in containing a special ingredient which, the company claims, prevents waxy

Shoes and its 300 retail shoe outlets, buy Pearson Candy Co. of Culver City, Calif., and assimilate John Meyer of Norwich, a manufacturer of women's apparel.

President J. Peter Grace has also moved his firm into less consumer-oriented businesses. Since the first of the year, Grace has acquired Welland Chemical of Canada, Ltd., and DEV-COA, Inc., a developer of commercial sites, and formed a joint venture to produce and market electromagnetic adhesives. In contrast with such moves, the firm will sell Grace Line,

Grace's Grace 1969 earnings difficult to predict

Inc., for $44.5 million, the remainder of its Dawborn Chemical division, and its remaining 66% interest in Nuclear Fuel Services. It also called off a merger with Fischbach and Moore, an electrical contractor.

If it all seems a ragtag circus, the earnings statement for 1968 says some­thing else. Stockholders receiving their copy of the annual report this week will find Grace's earnings up 11% on a sales gain of 7.4% com­pared with 1967 figures.

In posting sales of $1.74 billion and after-tax earnings of $57.8 million, Grace upped its profit margin—after­tax earnings as a per cent of sales-last year for the first time since 1965.

These Grace earnings for 1968 do not reflect extraordinary items pro­viding for loss in the proposed sale of Grace Line, Inc., totaling $32 million and a profit of $7.4 million from other items. Mr. Grace notes that the loss on the Grace Line reflects the low market value placed on all shipping operations.

When these extraordinary items are considered, net income was about $33.2 million, or $1.62 a share.

Turning to 1969, Mr. Grace says that earnings are difficult to predict. A major unknown is the continuing effect of overcapacity in the agricul­tural chemical industry. However, he says, "As last year's results show, most of the company's businesses are healthy and vigorous, and further im­provement in their profits is antici­pated."

Test market Making the Right decision

buildup after repeated applications to fabric.

Du Pont's Kenneth Browning, as­sistant director, consumer products division, estimates this year's total re­tail market for fabric softeners at more than $80 million. The former Colgate-Palmolive marketing manager says that Du Pont has strong distribu­tion capabilities through its independ­ent broker organization.

The established competitors, though, already have good economics of distribution through highly struc­tured channels that carry numerous

12 C&EN MARCH 17, 1969