I N D U S T R Y & BUSINESS

Lab Sales Boom Along Instrument makers expect record sales this year; steel strike seems to have h a d little effect

1 HE WIDE grins which exhibitors had for visitors to the Eastern Analytical Symposium in New York last week beamed forth more than hopes for on-the-spot sales opportunities. Sales of laboratory equipment and apparatus are booming again. It looks like a record year is on tap as many firms at t he EAS report expectations of record sales to O&EN.

Significant here is the minor effect the steel strike seems t o h we had on the lab supply business—particularly firms which sell high cost i tems such as x-ray equipment and emission spectrographs. Applied Research Labs says 1959 will be a record sales year even though the strike pinched sales to the steel and metals industries. But, the company says, these aren't lost sales; they're merely postponed ones. Baird-Atomic adds that the steel strike slowed down the firm's ra te of recovery from the re­cession, but it expects a surge in sales as the steel workers go back to work. And

in the Pittsburgh area, Burrell reports that sales there have dropped off gener­ally but not elsewhere.

Meanwhile, several other firms say their sales are going great guns. Among them are Pcrkin-Elmer, F&M, Milton Roy, Bendix, American instru­ment, Mettler, and National Spectro­graphic Labs.

Harshaw figures the purse strings will stay loose with more sales of capital equipment. Bcckman sees no signs of a slowdown and adds that August to October is normally the slow sales period, but not this year. Philips Elec­tronics points out that its plant is on a double shift to meet demand. De­liveries are running 60 to 90 days.

• St&&\ Str ike Posers. Although the steel strike has not dented sales of lab supplies too seriously, one firm figures the Taft-Hartley action came just in time. Had it not halted the strike, problems woidd have developed shortly. For example, shortages of

specialty and basic steels to make equipment loomed. Many firms forsaw a long strike and built up 90- to 120-day inventories which are about exhausted.

Another facet of the steel strike is the possibility of higher steel prices once the strike is settled. This may mean higher prices for instruments, which could spur development and imports of foreign equipment. Imported instru­ments at times can be sold in the U.S. for less than American counterparts.

• ins t rument Previews. A flock of new equipment items popped u p at the EAS exhibit:

A single channel direct reading emis­sion spectrometer to measure beryllium in the atmosphere was unveiled by Na­tional Spectrographic Labs. A proto­type exists now, with production due by early next year. I t will b e called the Air Monitor. The company figures the instrument will be important in indus­trial hygiene and health physics.

Perkin-Elmer exposed its Sorptometer to public view for the first time. This device was developed by P-E and Shell and is used to measure the surface area of materials such as catalysts by direct measure of the amount of gas absorbed.

E . Leitz & Co. displayed an automatic titrator which measures color changes via two photocells. These control a solenoid valve that instantly adds or cuts off the supply of titrant.

A single range recorder was exhibited by E. R. Sargent & Co. Millivoltages can be changed readily to give any po-tentiometric reading desired.

Milton Roy Co. brought out a new colorimctric analyzer for process con­trol. It is designed to measure in p.p.m. rather than p.p.b.—so it can b e used in areas where rigid control is not as im­portant.

Applied Research Labs has a new projection compara tor-microph otometer which it calls the Spectroline Scanner. It is used to compare unknown spectra to master spectra; films or plates can be taken on any conventional spectro­graph.

Mettler introduced a new continuous weight change balance which features mechanical or electrical connections and records by tracing a beam of light. It can be used to record weight vs. time in problems such as drying rates, evap­oration losses, and crystal growth. The firm also has a new automatic weight control device for automatic sampling of powdered and granular materials.

F&M has a new linear temperature SHOWPIECE. Many new instruments debuted at Eastern Analytical Symposium. F&M's display featured a linear temperature programmer with 13 heating rates

2 4 C & E N N O V . 16, 1959

INDUSTRY & BUSINESS

programmer for controlled heating. The device has 13 heating rates and can either control or adjust temperatures over an increasing range. F&M figures it will be used in differential thermal analysis and gas chromatography.

Philips Electronics has a new vac­uum x-ray spectrograph, described as particularly valuable in light element determination (atomic numbers 12 through 30) . It is used with a standard x-ray generator and circuit panel.

Burrell showed its new ionization de­tector which it will market soon; Bur­rell will sell it as an accessory for chromatographic instruments. It is an ultrasensitive device useful for both trace and normal sample analysis.

The exhibit was part of the first East­ern Analytical Symposium, which also included several papers on analytical chemistry and instruments. It was sponsored jointly by the analytical groups of the North Jersey and New York Sections of the American Chemi­cal Society, four sections of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (Xew York, Delaware Valley, Xew England, and Baltimore-Washington), and the Metro­politan Microchemical Society. About 1150 scientists attended the three-day meeting at New York City's Hotel New Yorker.

Chemicals Quotas Lifted British and French governments

moved to lift quota restrictions on im­ports of some American goods. The only chemical due to be freed from British quotas is calcium carbide. The French list includes such chemicals and drugs as organic acids and esters, anti­biotics, serums, and general medicinals, as well as earthenware for chemical use.

The U.S. has been asking western nations to lower their trade barriers and to do more toward helping under­developed countries. The hope is that such actions will help stem the flow of gold from the U.S.

Optical and scientific instruments are among the items freed from British quota restrictions, so makers of such items stand to gain from larger sales in Britain.

British officials say there will be no change in existing licensing arrange­ments for imports from Japan and countries in the "eastern area" (U.S.S.R. and Soviet-bloc countries). Britain now includes China in the cate­gory Soviet-bloc nations.

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I N D U S T R Y & BUSINESS

A Dow Chemical Forms New Saginaw Bay Division The 265-foot Thermofor catalytic cracking unit dominates the skyline in the area of Dow Chemical's Bay Refining Co. division at Bay City, Mich. This divi­sion has been absorbed by Dow's new Saginaw Bay division, which also includes two other Bay City operations: a petrochemicals plant which makes ethylene, butadiene, and other petrochemicals; and the polychemicals area, which will produce polyethylene and poKpropylene plastics materials. Bay Refining Co. supplies the new division with raw materials and processes crude oil into gasoline, domestic burning and industrial fuel oils, diesel fuel, and naphtha.

Ciupak Goes International Paper makers the world over will

soon have a chance to make t and share research on) Clup t .^ paper—the stretch-able paper invented by Sanford L·. Clu-ett, originator of the Sanforizing proc­ess. Ciupak, Inc., formed jointly by West Virginia Pulp & Paper and Cluett, Peabody & Co. last year (C&EN, Feb. 10, 1958, page 56), is setting up a worldwide licensing program tor the purpose.

Under the program, any paper com­pany in the world will be allowed to make Ciupak. subject to quality stand­ards set by Ciupak. Inc.. and under its trade mark unci patents, at a fixed roy­alty (payable in dollars). The fee is the same for every company and every country.

Ciupak will send technical men to the licensees to train their personnel, will also help them market and promote the paper. Each licensee will be able to sell Ciupak paper anywhere in the

world in competition with other licen­sees.

On the research side. Ciupak will make available the fruits of its own re­search on the extensible paper and will pass on t o every licensee informa­tion on all advances made by any other company in the field. Any licensee whose own research on the paper yielded new patents dominated by ex­isting Ciupak patents would add these new patents to those previously avail­able to other licensees.

The licensing program already in­cludes Swedish and Canadian paper companies, as well as nine U.S. firms.

Developed by West Virginia Pulp & Paper from U.S. patent 2,624,245 held by Cluett. Peabody & Co., Ciupak paper is said to withstand impact and shock extremely well, conform to irreg­ular shapes in wrapping, and be highly resistant to tears. Some suggested uses: multiwall hags, wrappers for mail order catalogs, cable and auto tire wrapping, disposable wearing apparel, masking tape , and shotgun shells.

Barge Bases Boom New plant projects along the U.S.'s

29,000 miles of navigable inland water­ways dropped to 404 during the first three quarters of 1959—44'i- below the figure for the same period in 1958.

This drop in new plant projects didn't seem to affect tbe companies al­ready on the waterways. According to a new survey by the American Waterways Operators, these firms got reach for future traffic by building 117 barge docks and other terminal fa­cilities in the first nine months of this Near—25 more than the number put up in the like period of 195S.

In 1959\s first quarter. 3 8 out of the total oi 77 new waterside projects were barge terminal facilities. The second quarter saw 44 new barge bases out of 91 projects, and 35 of the 58 waterside plant developments were barge facili­ties in the third quarter. So far this

if tlu >6 new waterside plants are barge docks and other termi­nal facilities.

Chemical waterside plants started in 1959\s third quarter included:

• Air Products ' liquid nitrogen plant on the Atlantic Intracoastal WTaterway, near West Palm Beach, Fla.

• Amoco Chemicals' polystyrene plant on the Des Plaines River, at Joliet, 111.

• Du Pout's polyethylene resin plant on the Guadalupe River, at Victoria, Tex.

• Du Pout's polyethylene film plant on the James River, at Richmond. Va.

• Gulf Oil's benzene producing unit on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, at Port Arthur. Te \ .

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2 6 C & E N NOV. 16, 1959

\ , PHYSICAL ;-;

: ..PROPERTIES.

CHEMISTRY "--' ̂ ÀHD USES

HANDLING OF BUIIC QUANTITIES

METHODS OF ANALYSIS

What you should know about Methylamines . . . f rom a basic producer with 2 5 years' experience

Rohm & Haas first began production of methyla­mines in 1934. Today, with a basic raw material posi­tion in methanol and ammonia, Rohm & Haas offers you aqueous and anhydrous mono-, di-, and tri-methylamines in drums, cylinders, or tankcars— available in dependable, large-volume quantities from two separately located plants.

Because of their low equivalent weight, Rohm & Haas methylamines offer more amino nitrogen per pound than comparable aliphatic amines. If you are interested in rubber accelerators, herbicides, photo­graphic developers, surfactants or pharmaceuticals,

you should have "The MethydamiTies'' an 86-page book which contains complete data on chemical reac­tions and uses, as well as transporta,tion and storage. Write for a copy on your company letterhead to Dept. SP-27.

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I N D U S T R Y & BUSINESS

gr iefs * * * • Corporations added $ 2 5 bil l ion to their physical and financial assets in the first six months of 1959—a record rate for this time of year—says the Office of Business Economies. U.S. Department of Commerce. To short-term accounts were added S12 billion for inventories, customer receivables, cash, and other assets. A year ago. the firms liquidated about $8 billion from these accounts. An inventory accumulation of $4 billion over the first half of 1959 contrasts with $3 billion l iquidated a year ago.

• Monsan to Chemical acquires options on 450 acres of potential industrial property near Oxnard, Calif., about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. The com­pany hasn't disclosed any plans for the

site, hopes that proper zoning and other local considerations can be worked out soon.

• Ten southwestern cities have been picked for further consideration as a site for one of the two brackish water conversion demonstration plants author­ized b y Public Law 85-883. The cities are Wichita Falls, Stamford, Ballinger, Monahans, and Pecos, Tex.; Carlsbad, Roswell., Alamagordo, and Santa Rosa, X.M.; and Safford, Ariz. A site selec­tion board appointed by Assistant Sec­retary of the Interior Fred G. Aandahl made the recommendations.

• Canadian Industr ies , Ltd. is setting up its first U.S. operation in Cincinnati, Ohio, to make its Dynakote paints for the appliance industry. CIL lias rented

space in the Arnold Hoffmann Co. plant and is installing its own equip­ment. The plant is expected to b e o p ­erating within three months.

• W y a n d o t t e Chemicals forms a corpo­rate development and planning division to coordinate the company's planning. The engineering depar tment of the en­gineering and development division will b e merged into the Michigan Al­kali division in a realignment of respon­sibilities.

• ΛΛ. W. Kellogg Co. offers a new re­search and development service for companies seeking to develop new com­mercial processes- The R&D service will b e available on a cooperative, con­tract basis. Its objective is to provide data needed to design full-scale com­mercial plants, and to obtain research results with speed and at low cost.

• Eli Lilly will complete its purchase of Hake Mfg. by Jan. 2. Hake will con­tinue to make plastic containers under the new setup.

• Hooker Chemical 's plans to move its corporate headquarters from Niagara Falls, N.Y., to New York City will af­fect only a handful of its 2500 Niagara Falls employees, largely top officials and their staffs. The transfer is slated for next February or March. In the Niagara region, Hooker says, it will spend about $50 million on new plant and equipment over the next five years; this is about half of the total capital out­lays it plans for the period.

• Hanford atomic p lan t , Richland, Wash., operated hy General Electric, will be ready to receive its first fuels from commercial power reactors in Jan. 1961 for reprocessing in GE's chemical processing department . Cost of start­ing this new processing program is esti­mated to be $6.3 million for construc­tion work and new facilities.

• Harbison-Walker Refractories/ Pitts­burgh , Pa., and Carborundum Co., Niagara Falls, N.Y., set up a jointly-owned subsidiary—Harbison-Carbor­undum Corp.—to engineer, make, and sell fused refractories.

• Car y Chemicals forms Regency Plas­tics, Inc., to acquire the business and assets of Regency Plastics Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cary's. The Woodside, N.Y., firm finishes vinyl film and sheeting and polyethylene film. Its integration provides a finishing fa-

C&EN INDEX of STOCK PRICES Τ " " " ^

RUBBER

fe^i^Ê^i; _.

^ F , ^

E£3O* - "-"M-; s'-·'*

400. X^r

200

300

100

2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr

2nd Utr, 4th Qtr.

4

- \\\

si

\

uc Compose Index

NOVEMBER 6

218.4 |

NOVEMBER 6

ne s ;

\JKîr „^*„Xu 'S-J&Jx^JS&Z

2 8 C & E N N O V . 16, 1959

I cility for Gary's other subsidiaries, in­cluding Great Bay Plcistics St Chemi­cal, East Brunswick, X.J., whose facili­ties have just gone on stream.

• Copper Range Co., Boston, Mass., acquires substantial interest in Alloyd Corp., a metals and materials research and development firm of \ \ atertown, Mass. Alloyd will continue to operate as an independent company. Copper Range mines copper and produces sheet, roll, and strip copper and mar­kets brass mill products.

• S. B. Penick & Co. acquires controlling interest in Dr. LeGear, Inc., St. Louis, Mo., a manufacturer of proprietary ani­mal health products.

• Chas. Pfizer & Co., gets permission to market a Salk-type polio vaccine from the National Institutes of Health.

• Great Lakes Carbon and Crescent Petroleum complete arrangements whereby GLC will get the plant and physical assets of Crescent Carbon, Rosamond, Calif, (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crescent Petroleum ), and Crescent Petroleum will acquire all GLC oil and natural gas holdings in In-

- diana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Kansas, as well as GLC's oil and gas holdings in the Garwood field in Texas.

• El Paso Natural Gas Products buys United Carbon's minority interests in Odessa Butadiene and Odessa Sty­rène, making El Paso 1007c owner of the styrene company and 75' '< owner of the butadiene company.

• Accurate Specialties forms a new subsidiary—High Purity Metals—to spe­cialize in making high purity materials such as indium, gallium, aluminum, tin, lead, and germanium for use in elec­tronic and other applications. Facilities of the Ilackensack, X.J., subsidiary will include a complete refining plant and analytical laboratory.

• Kulite Semiconductor Products,

Ridgefield, \T.J., forms a jointly-owned subsidiary with Bytrex Corp., Xewton, Mass. Called Kulite-Bytrex Corp., the new firm will make semiconductor strain gages and strain gage devices un­der license from Bell Telephone Labo­ratories.

• Basic Products, Milwaukee, Wis., buys Langmar Corp.. Chicago, in order to expand its Hevi-Duty Electric divi­sion. Langmar makes the Langdon vacuum pump used in organic chemical research.

INDUSTRY & BUSINESS

New Facilities . · . • Air Products builds a S3 million oxy­gen plant to supply Du Pont's pig­ments division plant at Joïinsonville, Tenn. Owned and operated by Air Products on Ou Pont's property, the plant now makes 60 million cubic feet of gaseous oxygen per month, plus ton­nage (mantitics of liquid oxygen and ni­trogen, and 99.95' * pure nitrogen and purge gas.

• Goodyear Tire & Rubber is making a 5 0 ' ' expansion of its Yitafilm produc­tion facilities at Akron, Ohio. Comple­tion of the project is set for early I960.

• Great Northern Oil, St. Paul, Minn., is building a sulfuric acid alkylation plant at its Pine bend refiner}·, south of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Costing more than a million dollars, the plant will have an initial capacity of 1500 to 2000 barrels per day, with an ultimate capacity of about 3000 barrels daily. When completed in mid-1960, the plant will enable the company to make its own alkylate, a component for produc­ing high-octane gasoline.

• Gulf Oil gives Badger Mfg. a contract to engineer and build a multimillion dollar iso-octyl alcohol plant at Gulf's Philadelphia refinery. The oxo process plant (C&EX, April 6, page 21) will be a 36 million pound-per-year unit.

• Phillips Petroleum will build a new heavy oil catalytic cracking unit at its Borger, Tex., refinery. The 25,000 barrel-per-day unit will increase the re­finery's output of high-octane motor fuel. To be built by M. W. Kellogg Co., the unit will be completed carlv in 1961.

• Reichhold Chemicals' specialty chemicals division is hack in production in new and enlarged facilities follow­ing the Austin, Tex., plant's destruction by a tornado earlier this year. Ac­quired by RCÏ in March, the division produces organic peroxides for use as catalysts in making glass fiber-rein­forced polyester plastic products.

• Texas-U.S. Chemical will expand its research and development facilities at Parsippany, \T.J. Main feature of the expansion will be a two-story building which will accommodate 150 persons and provide additional space and facili­ties for R&D work largely in the poly­mer and petrochemical fields. Con­struction is slated to start in May 1960.

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I N D U S T R Y & BUSINESS

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2. How wide a choice? When you order PVRUX brand flasks the choice is almost limitless. Sizes range from 5 ml thru 20 gallons. Necks: up to 5, Τ and/or spherical, plus thermometer well.

3 . Who makes them? Corning makes multi-neck flasks from sturdy blanks blown expressly for this purpose. Necks are expertly fused onto the body to avoid thin spots. Rugged tooled joints are ground satin smooth and are uniform in every detail. We keep tight control over all critical dimensions. You always get proper shape and fit.

4 . How about availability? You'll get prompt delivery of PYREX brand flasks from your regular dealer. To be sure, specify the Corning Catalog number.

5. Need something very special? If what you are after isn't listed either in the Custom Section of PYREX brand laboratory ware Catalog LG-1 . or sup­plement No. 3, send us a sketch. Our master craftsmen will expertly fashion i t for you, whether it be a minor varia­tion o r something completely different.

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• Pacific Gas and Electric is airing its plans for an atomic p o w e r plant before the California Public Utilities Commis­sion. The $20 million facility, says PG&E, would b e erected next to its gas- and oil-fueled Humboldt Bay power plant at Buhne Point, three miles south of Eureka, Calif. PG&E says that, with the second loading of ura­nium fuel, t he atomic* plant is expected to generate electricity at a cost competi­tive with t h e cost of power from con­ventional sources delivered in the Eureka area.

• Union Carbide's Visking Co. division will expand its facilities for making cel­lulose sausage casings at Loudon, Tenu. The expansion will be completed by the spring of 1961.

• Witco Chemical is putting up a new lab and plant-office building in Los Angeles, Calif. Located on the site of two Witco plants—an organics chemical division operation for metallic stéarate production and an i ltra chemical sul-fonation u n i t - t h c building will provide both with expanded and modernized labs for control and customer services.

• Industrial Rayon will move into semicommercial production of polypro­pylene staple fiber, tow, and continuons filament yarns. The products will carry the trade name Prolene. They will be made in On ing ton , Va., where the company now has nylon and rayon fa­cilities; production also will be contin­ued at the pilot plant in Cleveland.

• Goliad Corp., Houston, Tex., in con­junction with Union Oil of California, gives Fluor Corp., Ltd., a S4 million-plus contract to d o the engineering, purchasing, and construction of a 450 million standard-eiibic-foot-per-clay nat­ural gasoline plant in Vermillion Parish, La. Construction is scheduled to start soon.

• Crane Packing completes a Teflon processing plant at its 22-acre tract a t Morton Crow, 111. T h e plant will proc­ess basic Teflon shapes (sheet, rod, tub­ing, and tape) and make standard and custom proprietary items.

• Ciba Pharmaceut ical Products moves its quality control division to new quarters a t Summit, X.J. In the new location there are 12 labs, providing three times more working space than the former location.

• Amber Laboratories, Milwaukee,

"\Vis-, expands facilities for making frac­tions of autolyzed brewers yeast (Amber BYF). The new equipment allows production to be doubled.

• Trane Co., La Crosse, Wis., will build a multiinillion dollar plant a t Salt Lake City, Utah, to make commercial air conditioners, heating units, fans and ventilating equipment, and heiit trans­fer coils. Deseret Architects a n d Engineers, Salt Lake City, are design­ing the factory; construction will start soon.

• Genera l Kinetics leases a building in Englcwood, N.J., where it will set up a new plant that will triple its capacity to produce P-K Paul valves, for which the firm recently acquired patent licenses.

• Kahn and Co. is building a new plant in Wethersfield (Hartford), Conn. Completion date is early I960. Kahn makes hydraulic, pneumatic, and elec­tronic test stands; compressed gas dryers; and electronic measuring in­struments.

Financial · · •

• Baxter Laborator ies proposes a two· for-one split of its common stock, sub­ject to stockholder approval. The company also plans to increase its an­nual dividend by 10 cents to Θ0 cents a share.

• Dow Chemical has increased its quarterly dividend by five cents to 35 cents a share with the payment due Jan. 15.

• Stctuffer Chemical 's quarterly divi­dend has been upped from 25 cents to 30 cents a share with its final payment tor 1959. Stockholders will also get a ïr '< stock dividend this year, same as 1958.

• St. Regis Paper plans to acquire Birmingham Paper in exchange for 86,000 shares or St. Regis stock.

• Vick Chemical boosted sales by 167r ( t o $35.8 million) and profits by 38rA ( t o S6.0 million) during t h e three months ended Sept. 30, compared with t he same period last year. Earnings equalled $1.35 a share, up from 98 cents a year ago. The gains reflect sales of new proprietary and ethical products, according to the company.

3 0 C & E N N O V . 16, 1959