In Baltimore, last week, the American Chemical Society improved the Easter vacation with its 69th semi-annual convention.
Governor Ritchie of Maryland welcomed the chemists. So did Mayor Jackson of Baltimore. So did Dr. James F. Norris, the Society's President. Then there were meetings by divisions—Biological Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, etc. Papers were read, discoveries reported, theories expounded, prophecies made.
Two years ago, the outstanding subject of the Society's discussions was fundamental research in the chemical compositions of crude oils. Last spring, interest focused upon the structure of the atom. Last week, the following were among the leading items and individuals on the program:
Corrosion. Rust and corrosion annually destroy some $300,000,000 worth of metals. Only lately has their cause been agreed upon. Not direct oxidation by water or air nor colloidal reaction is now blamed, but electricity set up in metals by the chemical action of contiguous water, air or (especially) the two mixed. The currents disintegrate the metals, producing oxides and carbonates—iron rust, verdigris, tarnish, "bronze disease." Dr. Willis R. Whitney, Director of the Research Laboratory of the General Electric Co., is accredited the founder of the electro-chemical theory of corrosion.
Great plumbing economies were effected by passing water through scrap iron before letting it enter the pipes. The scrap iron exhausted the water's corrosive powers, latent in dissolved air. —Robert J. McKay, International Nickel Co.
Corrosion is an anode action, i.e., caused by a positive charge of elecricity. It was reversed by charging corroded metal negatively. A cathode or negative electric action set up in corroded objects liberated oxygen from the incrustations and brought them back to their original metallic condition. An ugly gray-green cup of Egyptian bronze rust returned to its shape of a bronze cat and kitten. Old coins revealed names and dates. A statue of Isis shed the rust of 30 centuries from necklace, hair, headdress, garments, finger-and toenails. — Dr. Colin G. Fink, Columbia University.
Wood Alcohol. German manufacturers of synthetic methanol (wood alcohol), from water gas, threaten the $100,000,000 hardwood distillation industry of the U. S. with extinction. Germans have also manufactured liquid motor fuels by a similar process, which consists in passing a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen over a catalytic agent at fairly high temperature and very high pressure.—Dr. Franz Fischer, Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Mulheim, Ruhr, Germany.
Drinking Alcohol. It takes only a little more perfectly pure whiskey than is necessary to induce deep intoxication to produce death. How you take it makes a difference, too. Many deaths result from drinking wagers, on time and quantity. In illicit U. S. liquors, the chief dangerous ingredient is acetaldehyde.—Dr. Reid Hunt, Harvard Medical School.
Mercurochrome, happy combination of powerful antiseptic and penetrating dye, was injected in the veins of typhoid-carrying rabbits. It freed them of the disease.—J. H. Hill and W. W. Scott, Johns Hopkins University.
Coal Tar Compounds reported: