r RESEARCH

| M o r e For Research? I Atlas Powder Co. Research arid ̂ Development ;s-f Expenditures for BothExplosive^and/ChemiCjais7

| Thousands of.Dollars Λ'. ί -1. ^ - ·-\ 2000

Η

fW

^ Λ ? ' ν ^ - **£*' ι I960

Atlas Revamps Chemical Research Organizational changes will enable company to place greater emphasis on basic research

C^HAJ>iGES HAVE BEEN MADE i n t h e chemical research and development setup of Atlas Powder that could have far-reaching effect on the company's future growth. On the surface, these changes may appear relatively minor. The company, which previously had both a chemical research and a chemi­cal engineering department, has re­cently added to these a product de­velopment department . Actually, the latest changes have been much more fundamental than this and involve an important shift in the emphasis of Atlas' over-all chemical research and development activities.

T h e new look in Atlas research will mean a significant expansion in the company's chemical research facilities and personnel over t he next few years, vvith an increased emphasis on basic research. As part of the new pro­gram, Atlas' product development work on activated carbons will be transferred from its Darco Experimental Labora­tory in Marshall, Tex. , to Wilmington. Explosives research, which is separate from its chemical research, will con­t inue at the company's experimental laboratory in Reynolds, Pa.

In years past, Atlas ' fundamental re­search group was relatively small. Of­ten, it was concerned primarily with -current piant problems. uays one company spokesman: "We were too wrapped up with today's problems to

think about tomorrow's. There just wasn't enough opportunity for long-range thinking and essential creative work."

Formerly, the chemical research de­partment handled much of Atlas' proc­ess design work, in addition to its ap­plications research. The company's pilot plant activities were also the con­cern of the research department.

In the revised setup, the chemical research department will b e concerned exclusively with basic-long-range proj­ects. Functions relating to the com­mercialization of chemicals have been shifted to other departments.

In the future, the chemical engineer­ing department will not only carry out the activities it previously handled but will also be responsible for the pilot plant and high pressure program, as well as other process development work. At the same time, the newly formed product development depart­ment will be directly concerned with customer service and with introduc­tion of n e w uses for the company's products.

• Lineup. The new research or­ganization reports to Edward J. Goett, vice president in charge of the chemi­cal division. Goett joined Atlas in July 1954, after 12 years at Pfizer, where h e was head of sales develop­ment and a member of the board of directors.

W. Rueggeberg

Of the three department heads, two are newcomers to Atlas. Walter H. C. Rueggeberg, who will be direc­tor of the chemical research depart­ment, will join the company in No­v e m b e r . S i n c e 1950, he iias been director of organic research and devel­opment at Tennes­see Corp. Another newcomer is F. Faxon Ogden, who joined the company in September to become director of the product devel­opment department, after having been with Monsanto for 20 years. Heading the chemical engineering department is Marshall T. Sanders, who has been with Atlas since 1917 and director of chemical engineering activities since 1945.

These latest changes in the Atlas research set up are but one phase of the company's over-all chemical reor­ganization planned in collaboration

of Cresap, McCormick, and Paget. Already under way, for example, is the reorganization of the company's chemi­cal sales department. All this is part of Atlas' concerted program of expan­sion and diversification in the chemical industry. Sparking this program is Ralph K. Gottshajl, who became presi­dent of Atlas in May 1953.

• Future Impact. Reorganization of the research and development pro­gram has been designed to permit greater coordination of activities, greater teamwork. Effective team­work, the company believes, is pro­moted by a clear, precise definition of functions. As one company spokes­man put it: "You get a much better brand of baseball when the outfielders don't try to cover first base or the catcher doesn't try to play shortstop. In our old setup, we had some star performers trying to play all the posi­tions—and this doesn't work in today's era of team research."

Obviously, Atlas doesn't expect its latest changes to bring dramatic re­sults overnight. Instead, it is placing its confidence in long-term planning, long-term results. However, it does expect that the new organization will shorten significantly the time it takes to transform a laboratory bench discovery into a profitable commercial reality.

Very definitely, Atlas is planning to branch out into new fields. It is be­coming increasingly interested in the development of chemicals from sugar (one of Atlas' major products is sorbi­tol, derived from corn sugar) . Fur­thermore, it is seeking added outlets for its existing products, such as the

4 6 4 2 C & E N O C T . 3 1. 1 9 5 5

Effective teamwork is a keynote in the revised setup in Atlas Powder's chemical research. Figuring prominently in the new development are: Edward J. Goett (left), vice president in charge of the chemical division; F. Faxon Ogden, direc­tor of the product development departments and Marshall T. Sand*»r?; director c-f the chemical engineering department. The revamping is one phase of an over-all chemical reorganization

use of its surface active agents in oil well drilling muds and in textile finishing.

Says vice president E d Goett: "In the future, we expect to have a more productive, harder hitting research and

WASHINGTON, D . C . -Use of anti­biotics in agriculture is here to stay. To date such use has been considered mostly as an exciting, highly specula­tive possibility. Much of the specu­lation became official reality this week, however, as major, positive results were disclosed here at the first International Conference on the Use of Antibiotics in Agriculture.

Kick-off speaker of the conference's special problems session, C. A. Bau-mann, University of Wisconsin bio­chemistry department, says animal growth-promoting effects of antibiotics may work in as many as four different ways. An antibiotic can:

* Suppress germs causing diseases, usually too mild to be recognized as diseases, but nevertheless severe enough

development program. We plan to take a more important, more dynamic role in the development of new chemi­cals and, a t t h e same time, expand Atlas' relative position in the chemical industry."

to depress an animal's growth rate. • Encourage organisms which make

vitamins in the intestinal tract. • Suppress intestinal germs which

compete with a n animal for the vita­mins in the food it eats.

• Thin the intestinal walls, permit­ting better absorption of vitamins and other nutrients i n the body.

Baumann believes that factors two and three, encouragement of vitamin synthesis and elimination of competi­tion for vitamins, are generally the most important factors from the stand­point of promoting growth. He adds, however, that factors one and four are more important in chick growth.

• Disease Corafroi. In. the area of plant disease control, W. j . Zaumeyer, USDA, says rapid advances have been

made and antibiotics already have been used under commercial conditions to control formerly incurable diseases o£ some plants. There is also correspond­ing evidence of increased yield.

Antibiotic use marks a major break­through that plant physiologists have long desired—namely, an internal method for treating a diseased plant. Until the advent of antibiotics, mos t prevention and cure came from chemi­cal treatment of a plant's surface. An­tibiotics, however, a r e now shown as; usually absorbed througli the leaf o r stem directly into t h e plant's vascular system where it remains actively effec­tive for some time. Judicious use o£ antibiotics in some plants could have* a desired, direct, accelerating effect on certain steps of metabolism. Thus, says Pfizer's L. G. Nickell, man some­day may be able to "redress the bal­ance of nature in our own. favor."

• Modes of Action. I n describing antibiotics' apparent effect upon the endocrine system in animals, E. Freerk-sen, director of the Research Institute for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Borstel. Germany, pantiri-ns that ft j? still uncertain whether there exists a true causal relation. f i e notes tha t antibiotics are more likely t o affect parts of the endocrine apparatus which are not responsible for growth effects.

For instance, certain antibiotics have a well demonstrated antimicrobial ef­fect which is an essential, but not the total component of t h e growth effect. Thus, the antimicrobial effect is of chief importance with respect to flora abnormally present in the stomach and upper intestine. These germs, says Freerksen, may he inhibited by low antibiotic concentrations and so restore the normal function of the stomach a n d upper intestine. As a result, the prob­lem of how antibiotics stimulate animal growth is "highly complex and not mastered by too simple conceptions/ '

Studies on the growth rate of poultry fed antibiotics by G. F. Combs, Uni­versity of Maryland, ramify many of Freerksen's conclusions. Most plau­sible explanation for bet ter growth ra te is the effect of antibiotics on intestinal bacteria in poultry. But since antibi­otics differ widely in their chemical and physical properties, yet stimulate poul­try growth, it is not likely tha t their ef­fect can be a direct one on metabolism. Actually, the only known property which these various substances have in common is their antibacterial potency.

Combs notes that antibiotics exert relatively little growth-promoting ef­fects in chicks raised i n new or "clean" quarters. He also observes that in addition to their effect on bacteria, an­tibiotics act to reduce the dietary r e ­quirements for various nutrients—in­cluding minerals, protein, vitamins—

Antibiotics down on the Farm Four major effects of antibiotics in plants and animals seen; modes of action uncertain

OCT. 3 1. 1955 C&EN 4 6 4 3