AMERICAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES -..

Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company

Entrance fo Natrons, Pa., Ptanf

S September 25, 1850, a group of ~ ~ v e n t e ~ n men secured a charter for ten years, to engage in a chemical mam- facturing enterpricr, to which they gave the name Penn-

sylvania Salt Manufacturing Company. The capital stock con- sisted of twenty shams of $5000 each. The board consisted of 6ve directors, aiid iialiona, Pa., was chosen for thelocation of the phnt . Before the expiration of the first charter, a renewal for twmty years had been secured, and in 1879 the charter was again renewed, this time for 999 years. The growth of business has necessitated niimexoiis increases in the capital stock, which now amounts to %7,5Oo,WO, in addition to the stock of subsidiary companies CrVAtCd to serve the parent company. These include the Natrona Water Compaiiy, two light and power companies, a railroad and a coal company, the stoms company a t Natrona, the hlichigan Electrochemical Company. and the most recent, the Tacoma Electrochemical Company with capital stock of a million dollars, incorporated it, November, 1927, and with a plant under construction a t Tacoma, Wash.

The gcncial oilices of the company were in Pittsburgh from 1859 to 1843, when they removed to Philadelphia, in which city tliey hayc since heen located. Charles Lennig was the first president, and he has been Jollowcd hy ten others, the present incumbent bcing Miers Busch, elected to that ofice in 192G.

Plant of Michiean Eiectrofhemical Co., Menomineo. Mich.

Greenwich Point Plant, Philsddphia, Pa.

The company has been well managed along conservative lines, as indicated by dividends paid, which from 1863 to 1914, in- clusive, were a t the rate of 12 per cent; from January 15, 1915, to April 15, 1917, 8 per cent; and from July 15, 1917, to date, 10 per cent

The Penrisylvania Salt Manufacturing Company now operates four plants. The one a t Natrona, Pa., established in 1850, is the largest of the group. In 1870 the plant a t Greenwich Point, in southern Philadelphia, was established; the one a t Wyandotte, Xlich., in 1898; while the Michigan Electrochemical Company, at Menominee. Mich., was purchased in 1924. As stated above, a plant a t Tacoma. Wash., is now under construction.

The products of the company are chiefly those eoming under the heading of heavy chemicals, and include acids, caustic alka- lies, alums, chlorine products, and acid phosphate. The follow- ing are worthy of special mention:

The company is the pioneer matiufacturer of liquid clilorine in this country.

A specially pure grade of caustic soda is manufactured for the artificial silk trade.

A pure grade of salt (sodium chloride), free from CAkium

Plant a t Wyandotte, Mich

776 INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY Vol. 20, No. 7

A very pure grade of hydrochloric (muriatic) acid is made a t the Wyandotte plant.

“Quaker” lime is a brand prepared for the laundry trade. The company also manufactures, and sells through a special

agent in Chicago, the line of package products nationally adver-

tised, which includes “Lewis” lye, “Eagle” lye, and several other brands, as well as “Expello” drain and pipe cleaner, and a new water softener and soap saver placed on the market about two years ago under the name of “Pensal.”

BOOK REVIEWS

The Disposal of Sewage. BY T. H. P. VEAL. 173 pages. D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., New York, 1928. This book gives a very interesting picture of sewage disposal

as practiced in England. It was written primarily for students wishing to acquire the main principles of sewage disposal without going into unnecessary detail. The book is divided into eleven chapters entitled: Introductory and Historical; Quantity of Sewage; Analyses of Sewage and Their Meaning; Preliminary Process; Settlement Processes; Bacteria Beds; Bio-aeration Tanks; Land Treatment; Disposal of Sludge; Lay-out and Cost of Sewage Disposal Works; and Sewage Disposal in Rural Districts.

The author is a lecturer in civil engineering a t the University of Birmingham, which is located near one of England’s largest and most modern sewage-disposal plants. He gives evidence of having first-hand information about this and other plants in England. Having visited a number of the British plants de- scribed in the book, the reviewer can appreciate the clearness and conciseness of the descriptions given. So far as British practice is concerned, the author seems to have accomplished his purpose very well, and the book can be recommended to all who desire to know something about sewage disposal as carried out a t present in England.

From the American viewpoint the weakness of the book lies in its failure to indicate the high state of development attained in the activated-sludge process of sewage disposal, which is probably the most satisfactory and most efficient method known today. One large American plant is separating the sewage of a great city into practically pure water and an inoffensive dry powder of very high fertilizer value, the sale of which pays for about two-thirds of the total cost of operation of the plant. The value of the book for students might also have been increased by pointing out the logical lines of research for the future. However, any student of sewage disposal will find the book well worth having, if only for its fine presentation of British methods.-Jo“ ARTHUR WILSON

A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chem- istry. VIII-Nitrogen, Phosphorus. BY J. W. MELLOR. 1110 pages, 156 diagrams. Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd., London, 1928. Price, $20.00. The excellence of this volume was to be anticipated from the

progressively increasing value of the series, of which it is the eighth. This book gives the impression of being a faithful pres- entation particularly of the more recent work that has been done in the chemistry and physics of nitrogen and phosphorus and their compounds. The presentation is from the literature, to which reference is constantly made by the free use of authors’ names-reflecting perhaps the dedication : “To the privates in the great army of workers in chemistry-their names have been forgotten-their work remains.”

To make a critical digest of present-day chemical literature would be too much to expect of any author, for which reason to find fault with so useful a book would infer lack of appreciation. In contrast with so much that is good, adverse comment must needs be trivial. At the same time it is felt that a compromise has been made between scope and critical analysis, somewhat to the detriment of both. On page 339, in describing the chemical properties of hydrazoic acid, the opening sentence of the second paragraph reads: “According to T. Curtius and A. Darapsky, a 7 per cent solution of the acid acts upon the metals, iron, zinc, cadmium, copper, aluminium, and magnesium, with a brisk evolution of hydrogen and ammonia,” and on page 341 one reads: “Metals below magnesium in the electrochemical series reduce hydrazoic acid to ammonia * * * and free nitrogen; no hydrogen is evolved.” The (natural) error of Curtius and Darapsky having been so thoroughly proved, there is little point in its perpetuation.

At the end of each chapter is a copious bibliography, unfortu- nately of inferior usefulness owing to the lack of direct reference thereto. The conventional numerical exponent to indicate

Price, $4.25. references is almost entirely lacking, which leaves the hurried reader-and what reader is not hurried?-completely bewildered to find the pertinent reference. This in the reviewer’s opinion is the outstanding defect impairing the usefulness of a book which will become the constant companion of all those workers trying to achieve order out of the vagariousness of nitrogen and phos- phorus.-J. W. TURRENTINE

The Indian Materia Medica. BY K. M. NADKARNI. 1460 pages. Published by the author, P. 0. Box 3558, Bombay 4, India. 1927. Price, Rs. 11-0-0 or Sh. 18 net. This work is difficult to evaluate properly, but as a compilation

of information on medicinal materials commonly available in India i t is very interesting.

A preface and introduction give briefly sources of information and some statements concerning Hindu principles of medicine, in which i t is made clear that the book was written in an endeavor to renew interest in medical circles in India in the indigenous drugs of the country. The division on The Vegetable Kingdom refers to 1053 drugs, the section on The Mineral Kingdom con- tains 54 items, and that on The Animal Kingdom, 51 items.

There follow various appendixes-one c1ass:fying drugs accord- ing to therapeutic and physiologic actions, another on certain specific medicinal uses of drugs, a third tabulating substitutes for imported foreign drugs, and others pertaining to approximate percentage composition of articles of food, vitamin content of same, and special reference to “principal forms of Ayurvedic preparations and methods of their preparation,” together with quite a full index.

The statement of uses of drugs is not confined to scientificaliy demonstrated facts, but includes many uses that are evidently the result of custom and ancient practice in Hindu medicine. These data, however, constitute a source of inteiesting informa- tion of more historic than scientific value. In many cases apparently every use that has ever been suggested for a drug is mentioned without comment as to whether or not the information is correct.

This is a work on Hindu materia medica, and as such cannot properly be judged by occidental standards. Whether it will fill the place for which it is intended is a question that can only be answered by those intimately familiar with the medical practices of India, but as a source of information this reviewer knows of no other similar book.-F. 0. TAYLOR

Annual Reports of the Society of Chemical Industry on the Progress of Applied Chemistry, Vol. XII-1927. 726 pages. Issued by the Society of Chemical Industry, London, 1928. Price, 7 s. 6 d., to members; 12 s. 6 d., to nonmembers. The volume for 1927 is modeled along the same lines which

have contributed to the popularity of previous reports. An adequate review is impossible in the space a t our disposal, but it should be pointed out that each chapter is a critical review of work done in the previous year, consisting in the main of sum- maries of articles carefully selected from the literature and with adequate references, In each instance care has been exer- cised to select authors distinguished in the particular subject, and like its predecessors this volume will be prized for the thor- oughness of the work. There is an adequate name index cover- ing those whose work is discussed and a satisfactory subject index.

The chapters are entitled as follows: General, Plant, and Machinery; Fuel; Gas, Carbonisation, Tar and Tar Products; Mineral Oils; Colouring Matters and Dyes; Fibres, Textiles, Cellulose, and Paper; Bleaching, Dyeing, Printing, and Finish- ing; Acids, Alkalis, Salts, etc. ; Glass; Refractories, Ceramics, and Cements; Iron and Steel; Non-Ferrous Metallurgy; Elec- tro-Chemical and Electro-Metallurgical Industries; Oils, Fats, and Waxes; Paints, Pigments, Varnishes, and Resins; India- Rubber; Leather and Glue; Soils and Fertilisers; Sugars,