January 1, 1946 is a significant date in the history of this Company. On that date, The Edward Valve &z Manufactur
ing Company, Inc., becomes, simply, Edward Valves, Inc. The old name has been recognized for the pioneering work the Company has done in steel valves, dating back to the turn o f the century when the first Edward valves were built.
1 he new name, we feel, is in keeping with the Edward product and policies, de
veloped through the years— functional, simple, direct, up-to-date.
January, 1946 I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y
New Review. Nineteen forty-six starts auspiciously for the chemical engineers. The special lead section of this issue is made up of several articles, all of which review recent progress in a unit operation. The special section runs some thirty-six pages, and is the forerunner of other reviews of the same type for every Janu
ary. There are thirteen articles, dealing with fifteen unit opera
tions, and they are written by sixteen experts.
Evaporation is treated by Walter L. Badger and It. A. Lind
say, of Dow Chemical Company. Badger, long the recognized authority in this field, has written the survey with a young expert from his company. Fluid Flow is reviewed by the chief design engineer of The Lummus Company, W. W. Kraft, who has had experience in designing many of the major petroleum installa
tions in the world. T. J. Walsh of the Standard Oil Company (Ohio) works with High Temperature Distillation every day and he is ideal to be the author of the paper on this subject. Heat Transfer is done by a design engineer of The M. W. Kellogg Com
pany, George Skaperdas, who states that there has been consider
able progress in this field recently. Mixing is the specialty of J.
Henry Rushton and he will be remembered by our readers as the author of several articles on this subject printed in I. & E. C.
in 1944. An expert from the Du Pont Company on Absorption and Humidification takes those subjects for careful scrutiny. He is H. C. Carlson and has been in the experimental station of Du Pont for ten years. Two engineers from the Dorr Company, R. P.
Kite and A. J. Fischer, collaborate on Sedimentation and Hy
draulic Classification. They find that war washelpful in evolv
ing new equipment. Engineers have long acknowledged the inter
est of Warren L. McCabe in Crystallization, and from Carnegie Tech, where he is head of the Department of Chemical Engineer
ing, comes the survey in this process. Fred D. DeVanev, long time expert in the field of Flotation, concisely reviews the field.
He is a research metallurgist working on the concentration of low grade ores for the Picands Mather Company. Drying has re
ceived a tremendous spurt during the recent years, and the analytical judgment of S. J. Friedman, of the Du Pont organiza
tion, brings all the progress to us quickly. James C. Maloney, head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and director of the Research Foundation at the University of Kansas, followed the developments in Centrifugation as an engineer for the Du Pont Company and helps to isolate the important developments for us. Joseph C. Elgin, chairman of the Department of Chemi
cal Engineering of Princeton University, is no stranger to the read
ers of I. & E. C., and again he writes on his favorite unit opera
tion, Solvent Extraction. For molecular distillation we go to the originator of the process used commercially, K. C. D. Hickman, who teams up with G. C. Mees to supply us with a terse resume of progress in this field.
Thinning Sulfur. If sulfur had a different viscosity curve, more industrial uses could be found for it. When this element is heated beyond 160° C., the viscosity increases sharply and the sulfur becomes unsuitable for heat exchange or other uses where its physical properties are valuable. Fanelli of the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company reports in his article, Modifying the Viscosity of Sulfur, means of altering the properties of this abundant material. Perhaps if his system of modifying the pure substance
with halogens and other sulfides is adopted, we will witness the extended application of sulfur to industry. Through chemi
cal treatment Fanelli states that a straight viscosity curve can be obtained at temperatures higher than the critical viscosity point.
Improving Exchange. W. C. Bauman of The Dow Chemical Company writes of an improved ion exchange resin, and prelimi
nary tests show that the capacity of this newcomer is better than any other cation exchanger. It is a condensation product of phenolsulfonic acid with formaldehyde. Its properties are said to be lasting, and deterioration under adverse conditions is slower than conventional exchangers. Examples of use are sprinkled through the article.
Rubber Tree. Isoprene is an important copolymer of Butyl rubber. When the supply was short, most of it had to be obtained from naval store products. Now the Department of Agriculture at New Orleans reports on the production of this material from turpentine, especially the dimer of isoprene. Dipentene was found to give the best results, yielding about 60% with the method described by the authors.
Distex Process. A new process has been made available to the petroleum industry for making separations with extremely good definition from strai*ght-run fractions. In the article in this issue, Pure Hydrocarbons from Petroleum, John Griswold and co
workers from The University of Texas describe how the opera
tion, which up to nowr has been a war secret, is accomplished.
The Distex process, which is the name given to the operation by Griswold, consists of fractional distillation in the presence of a solvent at a temperature which guarantees the presence of both liquid and vapor phases. The narrow' boiling hydrocarbon is suc
cessfully separated into fractions of paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics. Many different solvents may be used, and on the whole, the petroleum industry seems to have been given a new and valuable tool with which to work. Flow charts are liberally interspersed to make the paper easy to understand.
Pork Luncheon Vitamins. The American Can Company and the American Meat Institute report again on the vitamins that are left in processed meat after storage for a year. Storage at three different temperatures makes hardly any difference in the retention of riboflavin, niacin, or pantothenic acid. Thiamine, however, was a vitamin of another sort at higher temperatures.
With the Departments. Complication has a new meaning when inventories of chemical companies are considered, and von Peehmann this month shows how' to bring order out of this peri
odic chaos. Murdock brings joy to the equipment manufacturers as he estimates that future business for disposal plants will amount to over two billion dollars. Munch describes a combustible recorder using electronic principles, and the Penetron, an instru
ment for measuring liquid level and wall thickness. Brown, sensing the desire of many young men to enter the chemical business, offers a critical analysis for prior consideration.
68 I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y Vol. 38, No. 1
Sy n t h e t i c
ORGANIC
C H E M I C A t s
G I V E S B E T T E R R E S U L T S
t e x t i l e s o f t e n e r
d y e i n g a n d p r i n t i n g a s s i s t a n t
Diethylene G lycol increases the flexibility and stretch o f cotton, rayon, w ool, and mohair.
Its coupling action in mineral oil soa p systems is w idely utilized in the “ soluble oil” ty p e o f textile lubricants.
Because o f its excellent solvent pow er. Diethy
lene Glycol is an important assistant in the pasting o f dyes. The resulting pastes retain non-drying properties upon storage.
m o i s t e n i n g a nd f l e x i b i l i z i n g a g e n t
g a s r e a c t i o n i n h i b i t o r
c h e m i c a l i n t e r m e d i a t e
d e h y d r a t i n g a g e n t
Because o f its marked hygroscopicity, Diethy
lene G lycol is effective as a humectant for to b a cco and as a softener or plasticizer for cellophane, p a p er, composition cork, phenolic resin binders, glues, gelatin, and casein.
W hen Diethylene G lycol is used in sand molds for casting magnesium alloy parts, it prevents the molten casting from reacting with either the steam gen era ted by moisture in the sand, or with the sand itself.
Diethylene G lycol is used in the manufacture o f rosin esters and allyl and maleic alkyd type resins. With the higher fatty acids, it forms esters which a re g o o d emulsifiers and plasti- cizers fo r synthetic resins.
By removing moisture from natural gas, Diethylene G lycol prevents high-pressure trans
mission lines from becom ing c lo g g e d due to the formation o f natural ga s hydrates.
D iethylene G ly co l is supplied in drums o r tank cars. Write fo r further infor
mation on the uses o f this v e rs a tile chemical.
C a r b id e a n d C a r b o n C h em icals C o r po r a t io n
Unit o f Union Carbidp arid Carbon Corporation
,
EQjS''
30 East 42nd Street, New York 17, N. Y.