Compounds & Concoctions

At the American Chemical Society's convention last week in Cincinnati scientists told one another news of what has gone on during the last twelve months in the world's laboratories:*

"P.E.T.N." is the short name for pentaerythritoltetranitrate, an explosive made from formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, nitric acid. It appeared as a laboratory curiosity during World War I, is no more destructive than standard military explosives, but has the great advantage that no glycerin is needed to make it. In Cincinnati it was reported that Germany, which is short of glycerin, is using P.E.T.N., if not for military purposes, at least for industrial uses, and so releases more of the glycerine explosives for use in shells, bombs, torpedoes, mines, depth charges.

Synthetic Lumber. In recent years many a U. S. researcher has experimented with artificial wood made cheaply from waste agricultural products such as cornstalks, corncobs, straw, hulls, burs. This stuff is ground up, made into "planks" and "boards" by compression plus a binder. Last week Chemical Engineer Orland Russell Sweeney of Iowa State College exhibited synthetic lumber harder than stone, stronger pound for pound than iron. Knotless, grainless, free of blemishes, some of his samples were heavier than teak, others lighter than balsa.

Black Lungs. In the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, anatomists making autopsies discovered that some people had black deposits on their lungs. Since many of the bodies were those of miners, the explanation seemed easy. The black stuff was simply carbon breathed in over a period of years as coal dust. When city folk were found with black lungs, the explanation was that the cause was city smoke. Physicians called it "anthracosis." But modern chemistry shows that the black stuff is not carbon. It is a complex "heterocyclic" compound which does many things that carbon does not -- e.g., it gives off an animal smell when burned, swells up in jellylike masses when placed in alkali, forms colloidal (finely subdivided) solutions, turns white and fluffy when acted on by alkali plus chlorine. Therefore, concluded Dr. Georgine A. Moerke of Detroit's Municipal Tuberculosis Sanatorium, though some sort of lung irritation may be involved, the black lung deposit is not pure carbon breathed in from outside; it must be a substance produced by the body itself.

Prizes. To Dr. Eric Glendenning Ball. 35, of Johns Hopkins: the Eli Lilly & Co. award of $1,000, given each year for distinguished research in biochemistry. Dr. Ball purified xanthine oxidase, an enzyme necessary for oxidation of food in the body; found it consisted of a protein fraction and a non-protein fraction containing phosphorus, nitrogen, Vitamin B2.

To Dr. Lawrence Olin Brockway, 32, of the University of Michigan: the A.C.S. prize of $1,000 given each year to a chemist under 35 who shows unusual promise in research; for charting, by means of electron diffraction, the structures of more than 100 organic and inorganic compounds.

To Dr. Mary Engle Pennington, 67, Manhattan consultant: the Francis P. Garvan Gold Medal, established by the late head of the Chemical Foundation to honor U. S. women chemists. Born in Nashville, Mary Pennington took her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, got fellowships there and at Yale, ran the chemistry lab in a women's college, went into public clinical and bacteriological service, headed American Balsa Co.'s research and development division, finally organized her own business. "Dr. Pennington," said her citation, "is ranked among the foremost authorities on the refrigeration and handling of milk, flesh foods, eggs and other perishable commodities. . " . To achieve this distinction she has combined a broad fundamental training in chemistry and bacteriology, a wide research experience . . . and talent as an executive.'' In sum: she has had "a unique career."

* For other A. C. S. news see p. 73.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.