Β. F. Hartman, secretary, W/ichita Section, ACS; W. P. Pierce, Phillips Petroleum Co.; and E. A. Todd, Skelly Oil Co. Right. Robert Puckett, Socony-Vacuum Oil

Co,; ΤΡ*. Β. Burnett, director, University of JFichita Foanda^tionfor Industrial Research; and L. C. Kreider, Bethel College, retiring chairman of Wichita Section

Wichita Holds Eleventh Petroleum Meeting

Es EXPANDING for the first t ime to fill two days, t h e annua l Wichita Section Pet ro­leum Meet ing was held at the Allis Hotel, Wichita, J u n e 6 and 7. This meeting, eleventh in a series which began as a special evening session, presented a full two-day program of speakers of interest t o the entire petroleum industry. Organ­ized under t h e chairmanship of H. L. Bedell, Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., Augusta, Kans . , and a committee consisting of Robe r t Pucket t , Socony-Vacuum, E . À. Todd, Skelly Oil Co., and B . F . Ha r tman ,

A S T A F F REPORT?

Socony-Vacuum, the function wras spon­sored b y the Wichi ta Section of *he ACS, under the chairmanship of L. C. Kreider, Bethel College, who opened t h e meeting. An a t tendance of 115 was recorded.

The featured speaker a t the d i n n e r meet­ing was Harold Vagtborg, director of the Midwest Research Institute, afe Kansas City. Mr. Vagtborg urged t h e m e n con­cerned with research and teclinolo»gy not t o lose t h e broad point of view. Pointing t o the increasing specialization in "technical fields, which he agreed was desirable, h e

Davis ReacL* Universal Oil Products Co.? Ε, Τ. Scafe, Socony - Vac­uum, tCPil Co» ; and H. D. JSolly Hou,dry Proc­ess Cor-jp.

F. A. Rohr-man,, Kansas Slate College ζ Η, Ζ . Bedell, Socony - Vac— ηιιητ. ®il Co.9 new chairman oj WicVrnxta Sec­tion.; awid liar" old Vagtborg* director, Mid-ivest: RLesearch Instituxte

warned against becoming blind in one's own bailiwick with loss of freshness of approach. The scientist, he said, should not become something completely apar t from the philosopher. Speaking to the petroleum men, he reminded them tha t they were citizens concerned with na tura l resources and tha t the problem deserved their general consideration. Conserva­tion, to which he referred in the sense of efficient and best use, ra ther than cessation of use, has been and can be greatly aided b y industrial developments. I l lustrating this, he pointed to materials now available through petroleum products which had previously been wasted to a large extent, and discussed the great range of chemicals potentially available from petroleum prod­ucts.

Trends in Technology

W. B . Burnett , director of the newly organized University of Wichita Founda­tion for Industrial Research, discussed some t rends in industrial technology. He said tha t a new philosophy of obsolescence has grown u p , that obsolescence of process has now become a greater factor in indus­t r y than obsolescence of equipment. Some examples mentioned were t h e rapid developments within t h e petroleum and synthetic rubber industries during the war. H e mentioned the increase in agricultural productive capacity which is now .one third above the prewar and which now uses one thi rd of the gasoline produced in this country. Mechanization is important in these changes, Dr . Burnet t said, and the call is p u t on petroleum. He pointed to t h e growth of research institutes, of which the Wichita organization is one of the newest. H e outlined plans a n d de-cribed one important project now in progress: organization of an air docu­ments index, to include abstracts of about 55,000 of the most interesting reports

V O L U M E 2 4, N O . 1 3 J U L Y 1 0 , 1 9 4 6 1801

related to aviation which were brought out of Germany.

Another discussion of technological de­velopments and possibilities of interest was presented by W. R. Pierce, Phillips Petroleum Co., who spoke on the uses of propane and other lighter gases. He pointed out the immense field which lies in chemicals from these raw materials, in­cluding synthetic polymers, alcohols, glycols, amines, and many other types. He concluded that while there was little possibility that noncoal tar products would be derived entirely from petroleum, un­saturates and the Fischer-Tropsch reaction were very important potentials and that by-products might be a greater source of useful chemicals if necessity demanded.

Corrosion

An excellent discussion of corrosion was presented by F. A. Rohrman, Kansas State College, who impressed upon the group the tremendous cost of this waste. Beginning with a clear discussion of funda­mentals, h* showed how scientific effort could aid greatly in prevention. He dis­cussed eight points relative to economic aspects of corrosion: cost of equipment, loss of time and product, cost of inspec­tions and maintenance, protective means, law suits and good will, power and heat cost increases, eye appeal, and cost of re­search.

Another discussion of corrosion, pre­pared by Β. Β. Morton of the International Nickel Co., was read by Mr. Bedell in the absence of Mr. Morton. This report showed that nickel and Monel were highly resistant to the corrosive West Texas crudes, with nickel-containing high chromium steels particularly useful above 500 ° F. K-Monel was cited as very good but slightly soft for some uses; a nevv material was reported in development with higher hardness and comparable corrosion resistance.

Ε. Τ. Scafe, Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., discussed "Sulfur in Light Petroleum Products" and methods of desulfurization of high sulfur crudes. He said that there was much to be learned yet regarding the effect of sulfur compounds in gasoline on engine performance, with controversy still existing as to whether corrosion is caused by sulfur in general or by certain sulfur compounds. In Diesel fuels the interest in effect of sulfur compounds sevens to be particularly high and more sound technical information is needed. He also suggested the development and adoption of a more precise method for sulfur corrosion testing.

Catalytic Cracking

Two papers were presented on catalytic cracking. Davis Read, Universal Oil Products Co., discussed the improvement of octane rating by refining methods. These were (1) desulfurization of gasoline, (2) conversion of gasoline hydrocarbon- by reforming, and (3) conversion of hydro­

carbons heavier than gasoline by catalytic cracking. In discussing results of labora­tory and pilot plant work on a large num­ber of crude samples, he showed that the in­corporation of vacuum unit and catalytic cracking brought into use the conversion of heavier hydrocarbons to give higher yields of gasoline in octane range 80-83.

R. E. Bland and H. D . Noll, Houdry Process Corp., discussed the Thermoior Catalytic Cracking method. An econo­mic study showed that catalyst efficiency

improved as catalyst activity increased with the optimum, based on product value a s against cost of catalyst addition, being reached somewhat below the maxi­mum activity. The maintenance of a high level of catalyst activity was shown t o give high yields of high quality liquid product. Mr. Noll estimated that on the basis of Mid-Continent area crude and commodity prices, gasoline could be manufactured at a cost of 4.8 cents a gal­lon, on a 5,000 barrel per day crude basis.

New Units for Measurement of Radioactivity E. U. CONDON, Director, AND L. F . CURTISS

National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C.

A T HAS become the custom to express the strength of radioactive sources in terms of curies. This is an erroneous use of this unit, since by original definition the curie is that "amount of radon in equilib­rium with one grain of radium" (/ , 2) as defined by the Radiology Congress in Brus­sels in 1910. Therefore, the curie can be used only to represent a rate of disintegra­tion in the radium family. It then repre­sents the disintegration rate of radium or its products in equilibrium. Such a use has been endorsed by the International Radium Commission.

The quantity to be specified in designat­ing the strength of radioactive sources in general is the disintegration rate, deter­mined by the decay constant and the num­ber of atoms of the radioactive isotope in the source. This is simply a number and therefore to establish a suitable unit the only requirement is to select a convenient number of disintegrations per second and give it a name. In selecting this number consideration should be given to ensure that it can be readily expressed in sub-multiples, and multiples by the usual pre­fixes: kilo, milli, micro, etc. A number which fits this requirement is 10e. Since the curie was named in the honor of Al­and Mme. Curie, the codiscoverers of rad­ium, it is natural to select the name ' 'rutherford' ' for the new unit. The appro­priate abbreviation is "rd" which con­flicts with the abbreviation of no other well accepted physical unit. The micro-rutherford would become one disintegra­tion per second, a convenient number to remember. Furthermore, the rutherford itself is a small unit of the order of magni­tude of many sources used i n laboratory measurements. It is sufficiently different in size from the curie that no confusion can arise with the curie in connection with measurements of activities in the radium family. Large sources -would require the use of positive powers of 10, which would be preferable to the use of a large unit re­quiring negative powers of 10.

The continued use of the curie for all radioisotopes not only requires a redefini­

tion of the curie. In addition the value of the curie is uncertain to at least 4 % and values are in current use well outside this limit. The rutherford provides a definite unit. In addition to eliminating the unde­sirable use of the curie, the proposed unit also eliminates the basic necessity for measuring radioisotopes in terms of a standard. An}r measuring device which will determine the total number of disinte­grations per second will provide directly the strength of the source in rutherfords. A counting arrangement for which the solid angle factor is known is an example. Radioactive standards may be used to determine this factor for a given geometri­cal arrangement, but other methods are also available.

In the measurement of sources, of gamma-rays the roentgen has gained in­creasing use, largely because this unit is independent of the quality (electron vofts) of the gamma radiation. There is need- for a unit in which the intensity of gamma-sray sources can be expressed to eliminate the use of the curie for this purpose. An obvi­ous unit derived from the definition of the roentgen is a roentgen-per-hour at 1 meter. The roentgen-per-hour at 1 meter can be abbreviated r.h.m., which again is not readily confused with amy other common abbreviation. It has been suggested that this abbreviation can be pronounced "mm". I t should be noted that a gamma-ray source equal to 1 r.h.m. will have a gamma ray strength 1.18 times that of 1 curie of radium. Therefore, the roentgen-per-hour a t 1 meter has the same order of magnitude as the curie in the measure­ment of gamma-ray sources.

The National Bureau of Standards, at the suggestion of the Committee on Radio­activity of the National Research Council, recommends the general use of these units.

Literature Cited (1) Int. Rad. Com. Report, Rev. Mod.

Phys., 3 ,427 (1931). (2) Rutherford, "Radioactive Substances

and Their Radiation", p. 479, New York, MacMillan Co., 1913.

1802 C H E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G Ν Ε W S