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S P E C I A L R E P O RT Citizen's committee on atomic energy predicts heavy industrial impact by 1980 if next 10 years bring foreseeable developments. It feels that letting up of secrecy bars is necessary to proper progress in the field. Page 664.

F E A T U R E Basic research is not an "either-or" matter; rather, both industry and universities must do that type of basic re­search for which each is best suited> says industrialist Rass-weiler. Page 680.

I N D U S T R Y Sulfuric acid plant follows uranium mills to the Colorado Plateau. Design of contact plant is noticeably changed because of its 8835-foot altitude. Page 672.

Getting and holding good employers is a community project. U. S. Chamber of Commerce proposes a five-point: program toward building an economic climate attractive to industrial development. Page 673.

Dow Corning completes α $16 million expansion program with chlorosilane intermediates unit. New facilities more than double its methyl siloxane production capacity. Pag& 614.

R E S E A R C Η While foundations have spent few dollars to sup­port, scientific research, their ability to channel fmnds on a timely basis to critical areas is significant, NSF says i n study of 77 larger endowed foundations. Page 686.

%P.L£JL£LbJ3 N T F'v e U· S. companies have been forced out of ^-aminosalicylic acid field in two years after 50 % slash in tariff rate. One of two remaining U. S. producers asks for restoration of former duties. Page 695. Loophole in present food and drug laws that says that action cannot be taken against unsafe food additives until after mate­rial has been used will be plugged if any of several bills before Congress is passed. Page 696.

M A N A G E M E N T Reduction of turnover among technical em­ployees is being attacked at Procter & Gamble wi th "parallel progression levels." This assures that men of equal ability and performance advance equally, whether they specialize in engi­neering or administration. Page 698. Most important element in manpower development— humanness is too often missing. Where it is missing, manage­ment personnel are difficult to develop and hold. Page 699.

ι N T E R N A T I O N A L France's chemicaB industry gets back on track with the aid of American know-how. Page T10.

ACS Ν E W S Contributions t o ACS publications by Corpora­tion Associates program have totaled $768,599 during its four years of operation, or $192,150 per year. Page 718. James B. Conant has been chosen to receive Parsons Award for outstanding public service by a member of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. Page 719.

BUSINESS Drug industry should show sales gain of about 11 % when the final 1955 figures are in. Steroid sales lead the industry's comeback. Page 726.

CH-CH3

ANOTHER OXYALKYLATION TOOL FOR YOUR RESEARCH! You may find this new V i s c o oxyalkylation product as full of surprises as the magician's high hat. In addit ion to six highly-react ive centers, the primary monohydroxyethy l group has cons iderab ly greater react ive properties than the three second­ary hydroxypropyl groups—cre­ating, for at least one thing, greater water so lubi l i ty than uniform hydroxypropyl groupings. Honestly, we have only sketchy ideas about what can be done with O H ! OH! (not a trade name) . It is clear, viscous liquid. You could use it as a plasticizer . . . or with some dibasic acids to make resins. Boils at 192°C. at 0.5mm., and has good heat stability. Call it an intriguing, surface-active monohydroxyethy l tr ihydroxy-p r o p y l e t h y l e n e d i a m i ne—or O H ! OH! if you prefer —and send for your teclinical grade sample today. P.S. Prices, when you get serious about O H ! OH!, will run lower than similar oxyalkylation prod­ucts now commercially available.

V I S C O PRODUCTS C O M P A N Y INCORPORATED

2600 Nottingham at Kirby, Houston 5,Texas MAdison 3-0433

FEB. 13. 1956 C & E N 6 5 1

No. 1 OF A SERIES

P u b l i s h e d by A M E R I C A N C Y A N A M I D C O M P A N Y , P e t r o c h e m i c a Is D e p a r t m e n t 3 0 R o c k e f e l l e r P l a z a , N e w Y o r k 2 0 , N.Y.

Officia! United States Navy Photographs

These two lined concrete tanks were exposed under the same conditions to similar fuel-water mix­tures. The linirtg in the tank on the left, a vinyl top coat on a polysulfide rubber base coat, failed aft^r 1Λ0 rjoys ç.xr>o«itre. The !ϊπ«η« or* the Γ!*1 ht, a. viri^uderie chloride-Cîcr^lonitrUe ίο·"4 ccct en G polysulfide rubber base coat, was still fully intact after 1510 days.

Acrylonitrile in Syr ia ce Coatings Acrylonitrile can polymerize or copoly-merize with, a wide variety of other vinyl monomers to produce film-form­ing resins -useful in surface coating compositions. Some of the improved properties imparted by acrylonitrile are as follows:

. . Freedom, from tack

. . Hardness and toughness

. . Higher tensile strength

. .Lowerelongation

. . Lower water absorption

. . Practically no saponifiability in polymers

. . . Increased solvent resistance Acry loni t r i l e po lymers a r e em­

ployed in p ro t ec t ive and decorative coatings for- industrial and household applications.

Copolymers of vinylidene chloride-acrylonitrile, when incorporated with polysulfide rubbers, provide excellent fuel-inert coatings for steel and con­crete storag-e tanks. (See illustration) These vinylidene chloride-acrylonitrile

latices impart to paints outstanding chemical resistance and superior wear. Such paints are also characterized by improved properties with respect to brushability, leveling, and foam.

As a part ia l replacement for styrene or methylstyrene in styrenated alkyds, acrylonitrile greatly improves resist­ance of films to al iphatic solvents, in­creases drying speed, and reduces bronzing and chalking in pigmented films during exterior exposure. Inter-polymers of styrene, acrylonitrile and a conjugated diolefin may be used in lacquers and enamels, and are par­ticularly valuable in protecting metal tanks from salt water corrosion. Coat­ing compositions prepared from a copolymer of acryloni t r i le-a-methyl-styrene, and ethyl acrylate have good adhesion to rubber articles, and are tack-free, flexible, and will not deteri­orate rapidly from exposure to sun­light, ozone, or weathering.

For complete information, write for Technical Bulletin PD 6, "Acryloni­trile in Surface Coatings."

AcrySonitrile and Halogens

Acrylonitrile reac ts with halogens and pseudohalogens under mild conditions to give a number of interesting and reactive compounds. Those products which retain a double bond have been polymerized by themselves and copoly-merized with other vinyl compounds. In most cases the products re ta in the nitrile group which may be converted to esters, amides, amidines, and acids. The halogen groups in many of these d e r i v a t i v e s m a y be r eac ted w i t h amines, metal alkoxides and other re­agents which will react with typical alkyl halides.

The uncatalyzed addition of a halo­gen to acrylonitrile is a slow reac­tion a t ordinary temperatures. Af ter a considerable induction period the reac t ion spontaneously accelera tes , possibly as a resu l t of catalysis by hy­drogen halide formed as a by-product.

Halogenation of acrylonitrile a t low temperatures proceeds with the addi­tion of a molecule of halogen to pro­duce a, β -d iha lop rop ion i t r i l e s - A t elevated temperatures, and in the ab­sence of sunlight or ultraviolet light, the addition reaction is accompanied by evolution of hydrogen halide. This is followed by addition of a second molecule of halogen to produce <*, a, β- t r iha loprop ion i t r i l e . In the p re s ­ence of sunlight or ultraviolet light both the α, α, β and α, β, β, isomers are obtained.

In addition to the aforementioned derivatives, var ious unsaturated de­r i v a t i v e s h a v e been obta ined by dehalogenation and dehydrohalogena-tion of the halopropionitriles.

Fo r complete information, wr i te for Technical Bulletin PD 5, "The Reac­tions of Acrylonitrile with Halogens." This bulletin contains reaction condi­tions, references and yields for over fifty halogenation reactions.

tote-: The foregoin«î shall not be construed to imply tho non-existence of meiiciatton to practice any invention covered by any patent owned t>> Amer

y relevant patents nor to constitute a permission, inducement or recom-i Cyaruimid or by otbers, without authority from the owner of the patent.

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Fl NANCE First financial reports for 1955 set the pa t te rn ; sales and earnings at all-time highs for firms in chemical proc­ess industries. Page 730.

PR o DU C T ι ο Ν Preventive maintenance program for instru­ments is particularly important, round table told at National Plant Maintenance and Engineering Show. Page 734.

C H E M I C A L S Isotope reference bank f o r natural abundance studies is being prepared by National Bureau of Standards under AEC sponsorship. Page 738.

E Q U I P M E N T Method for assessing qualities of blending equipment through statistical analysis of tests run on four dif­ferent blender types has been developed at Imperial Chemical Industries. Page 744.

SAFETY Data en design ef vacuum o r high pressure equipment for safety of personnel are skimpy. Now engineers just say, "Make it big" and "Make it thick." Page 748.

L I T E R A T U R E Professional societies have an important role in dissemination of knowledge. Aleetings are one way of com­municating information; another way is through publications. What is needed is educational program to train librarians for literature research. Page 754.

t h e n e w s m a g a z i n e e f the chemical w o r l d

V O L U M E 3 4 , NUMBER 7 | FEBRUARY 1 3 , 1 9 5 6

Impact of -the Peaceful A t o m . Basic R e s e a r c h — A n Industrial or A C S N e w s Associations Business Canad ian Chemist ry Chemical W o r l d This W e e k . . Chemicals Concentrates Editorial Education Equipment Finance G o v e r n m e n t Industrial L i terature Industry

Universi ty Function? C . F. Rassweiler 7 1 8 Internat ional . . . . 723 Letters 7 2 6 Literature 7 1 6 M a n a g e m e n t . . . . 6 5 1 Markets 7 3 8 Necro logy 6 5 5 News Focus 663 News-Scripts . . . . 7 0 0 People 7 4 4 Production 7 3 0 Research 6 9 5 Safety 7 5 2 Secretary's Off ice . . 6 7 2 W e e k ' s Pr ice Changes

6 6 4 6 8 0 7 1 0 6 5 6 7 5 4 6 9 8 7 2 8 7 0 9 7 7 2 7 7 4 7 0 4 7 3 4 6 8 0 7 4 8 7 2 2 7 2 9

I C o p y r i g h t 1956 by t h e A M E R I C A N C H E M I C A L S O C I E T Y

Published weekly by the American Chemical Society, from 20th and Northampton Sts., Easton, Pa. Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at Easton, Pa., U.S.A., under the Act of March 3,1879.

Subscription rates 1956: domestic and Canada, 1 ,yr. $6.00; 2 yr. $10.00; 3 yr. $14.00; foreign, $15-00, $27.50, $40.00. Postage to countries not in the Pan-American Union, $3.00 yearly. Canadian postage $1.00 yearly. Single copies: current issues, $0.40. Claims for missing numbers will not be allowed if received more than 60 days from date of mailing plus time normally required for postal delivery of journal and claim. No claims allowed from subscribers ic Central Europe, Asia, or the Pacific Islands other than Hawaii, or because of failure to notify the Circulation Department of a change of address, or because copy is "missing from files."

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Notify Circulation Department, American Chemical Society, 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington 6, D. C. Such notification should include both old and new addresses and postal zone number, if any . Tttc American Chemical Society plso publishes: Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry* Chemical Abstracts Service, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, and the Journal of Organic Chemistry. Rates on request. -

THIOUREA N H , - C S - N H , M o l . wt. 76.12

— a relatively non-toxic basic inter­mediate widely used in the manu­facture or processing· of :

• pharmaceuticals • instant silver cleaners • black and white reproduction

papers • thioglycolic acid • f umaric acid • mirror silvering finishes • animal glues • nylon fabrics

Other fields in which t h e use of thiourea is being explored include:

• synthetic resins • rubber industry • graphic arts • agriculture • pest control • corrosion inhibitors • ore dressing

M A I L T H I S C O U P O N for complete technical data, prices and experimental sample of Τ Η Ι Ο ι κ κ Α -

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A M E R I C A N C Y A N A M I D C O M P A N Y

I n t e r m e d i a t e s D e p a r t m e n t

Bound Brook, N e w Jersey

Please send me the following material on THIOUREA:

Π Bulletin Π Prices Π Sample

Ν AM Ε

POSITION

COMPANY

STREET

CITY ZON Ε STATE

FEB. 13. 1956 C&EN 6 5 3