network systems increased 281⁄2 times from 1925 to 1931. Thirty-nine of the fifty-two systems representing 86 percent of the transformer capacity used 120/208 volts, 3-phase for secondary service.

The old Edison three-wire, direct-current network gave about as satisfactory and dependable service as can be expected, particularly because with the directcurrent network it was possible to use stand-by storage batteries, so that even when all sources of supply failed, energy could be had from these batteries. But it was necessary to convey all the current at low voltage from the substations to the consumers, because transformers cannot be used with direct current. On one hand, this was a very expensive method of distribution, and on the other, as the load grew the streets became so congested with cables that it was difficult to find space for new cables to take care of the load.

Radial distribution from alternating-current substations also proved to be inadequate both from the viewpoint of economy and that of service reliability. The alternating-current network offers a system almost as reliable as the old three-wire direct-current systems. The batteries are missing, but there is such a multiplicity of supplies that the interruption of service to a customer is very unlikely. No matter where a short circuit may occur in the network, the service supply to customers remains intact.

Even though there are some overhead networks, the majority are underground. What made the network system so popular and dependable is the invention of the so-called network protection. It is an automatic switch installed on the low-tension side of each transformer, principally to prevent current from flowing backward from the network into the primaries. It is a device too intricate to be explained to a layman, which is even now being continually improved. Suffice it to say that without the network protector, the alternating-current network would not have been possible.

The network system is still in its early stages of development and offers a number of engineering problems that cannot yet be considered as finally solved. The matter of transformer explosions, mentioned above, is probably the most important of these problems. But operating men and manufacturers are pushing ahead toward solution, and it may be predicted that networks will continue to grow as long as there are dense population centers.

A very important advantage of the network is the elimination of the hundreds of small transformers ranging in size from 11⁄2 kilovolt-amperes up, with their fuses, lightning arresters, and numerous other accessories, and hence the elimination of the need of inspection, repair, and maintenance at hundreds of places all over the distribution system.

8778°-37-20

Servicing Customers from Distribution Systems.Reports are now emerging from various parts of the country, indicating that the depression period was utilized for improving and rehabilitating that portion of the distribution system which lies between the distribution system proper and the customers' premises. Unsightly and hazardous connections which in the majority of cases were the result of a lack of planning, are being eliminated everywhere. In many cases the house entrance switches and meters are now located outside the house instead of in the cellar, so that in case of fire or flood all the electric circuits in a house can be disconnected by opening the switch outside, and the meter reader can read the meter without entering the house.

But the meter itself still needs considerable improvement. Its principal fault lies in the fact that the scales are as unintelligible to the customer as Egyptian hieroglyphics. If customers had a better understanding of the meter readings and could check their own bills, they would no doubt use more electric energy. A search through the patent files discloses at least one patent recently issued on a meter which can be set up for any rate schedule that may be in force, and sealed. It then registers the amount of the bill rather than the kilowatt-hours or the kilowatts of demand, on the order of the scales used in grocery stores. The hope may be expressed that such meters will soon be in general use.

30

Rationalization of Distribution as an Aid to the Greater Use of Household Appliances.-From a social viewpoint, it is desirable to introduce all possible domestic appliances into the home and on the farm. For this purpose it is desirable to introduce rates low enough to promote the greatest use of electric energy without encouraging economic waste. It should be possible, in many cases, to furnish more energy with existing facilities without adding to the fixed charges. For the purpose of establishing how much energy could thus be furnished at incremental "variable charges without adding to the fixed charges," it would be necessary to secure a great amount of statistical data on the demand diversity of electrical appliances, the demand diversity of transformers, etc. In fact, it would be necessary to know to what extent a distribution system has already been used and how much more energy it could handle without adding new facilities. Such a study is yet to be undertaken on a large scale.

31

In the case of the network, both transformers and cables are generally larger than they need be for

20 See Glossary of Important Power and Rate Terms, published by the Federal Power Commission, 1936.

Valid Cost Comparisons in Distribution, M. M. Samuels, Electrical World, Aug. 25, 1934.

carrying the load. Here a short circuit is not intended to open a switch or blow a fuse. It is intended to burn itself out. Transformers and cables are designed to carry the short circuit for a considerable time. If they had to carry more load they would not have to be larger. Generally, 300-kilovolt-ampere and 500-kilovolt-ampere transformers are used on network systems, and frequently even larger transformers, and generally they are not loaded to more than half of their capacity. Here is a good case for promotional electric rates to encourage the greater use of major electrical appliances.3

32

Future Distribution.-Here the future seems easier to predict than in the field of transmission:

1. The unsightly and hazardous overhead construction will eventually disappear and will be replaced by underground construction, mostly of the network type.

2. Meters will register the amount of the bill and rates will be so simplified that each consumer will be able to check his own bill.

3. An elaborate study of the distribution system and of the incremental cost of furnishing additional energy with existing facilities will result in rates which will promote the greatest use of electric energy in the home and on the farm without encouraging economic waste.

4. There will be greater coordination with other underground utility services, such as water supply, gas, sewers, and communication. In congested cities there will be tunnels to carry all these services, making it un

See Glossary of Important Power and Rate Terms, published by the Federal Power Commission, 1936.

necessary to break up the streets at all for repairs and additions.

5. There will be a greater application of series and multiple capacitors for voltage regulation and powerfactor correction.

6. Means will be found to eliminate transformer explosions altogether. New types of cheap, rugged, and safe distribution transformers will be developed. 7. There will be greater coverage of the distribution system to include widespread rural electrification and highway lighting which will eliminate the need for headlights.

8. In congested areas, direct current will be used on primary circuits.

9. There will be emergency sources of electric service in all important public places, such as theaters, hospitals, schools, etc., so that when the main source of supply fails there will always be sufficient lighting for essential emergency service and for exits.

Acknowledgment

The author desires to express his appreciation of the generous advice and assistance he received from Basil Manly, Roger B. McWhorter, Thomas R. Tate, Eric A. Mees, Allison R. Williams, Percy H. Thomas, J. V. O'Connor, A. G. Carpenter, Jr., J. F. Briner, Jr., Dr. A. A. Potter, Dr. J. B. Whitehead, Dr. W. B. Kouwenhoven, Dr. H. S. Person, Dr. C. A. Duval, Philip Sporn, I. W. Gross, General Electric Co., Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., Allis Chalmers Manufacturing Co., Okonite Co., Anaconda Wire & Cable Co., Jeffery Dewitt Insulator Co., and Corning Glass Works.

Introduction

A definite list of industries which can be classed as chemical cannot be made with the expectation of unanimous agreement. The oldest classification is that of the Bureau of the Census, which in the biennial census of manufacturers, 1933, listed 4,672 establishments with products valued at $2,060,433,682. The items there included are as follows; Ammunition and related products; baking powder, yeast, and other leavening compounds; blacking, stains, and dressings; bluing; bone black, carbon black, and lampblack; candles; chemicals not elsewhere classified; cleaning and polishing preparations; compressed and liquefied gases; druggists' preparations; drug grinding; explosives; fertilizers; fireworks; glue and gelatin; grease and tallow; ink, printing; ink, writing; mucilage, paste, and other adhesives; paints and varnishes; patent or proprietary medicines and compounds; perfumes, cosmetics, and other toilet preparations; rayon and allied products; salt; soap; tanning materials, natural dyestuffs, mordants and assistants, and sizes; and wood distillation and charcoal manufacture.

To this list the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce would add: Alcohol, ethyl, and distilled liquors; linseed oil, cake, and meal; oils, essential; turpentine and rosin; and matches.

There are other important industries which quite properly could be added to such a list, such as the cellulose industries, rubber, and petroleum. Strictly speaking, where the process involves a change in composition, chemistry is involved and the step becomes a chemical process.

Chemistry and Its Relation to Other Sciences

A clearer understanding of the scope of this discussion may be had if we begin with a definition of chemistry for the purpose of the report. Textbooks and dictionaries provide a variety of such definitions, but chemistry may be regarded as one of the fundamental or basic sciences which has to do with the composition of matter and with certain of its characteristics under a variety of physical conditions such as pressure, temperature, and degree of concentration. Mathematics and physics are also fundamental sciences. The three are so closely associated, not only in scientific research but in the application of results to industry and to everyday life, as certainly to make physics and chemistry well-night indistinguishable in

1 Editor, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.

much of the work of the scientist. Mathematics in addition to being a science in its own right is one of man's most useful tools.

The other sciences rely to a considerable degree upon the theories and data of chemistry and use them freely in the pursuit of many specialties. This has given rise to a number of hyphenates in science, such as biochemistry, physiological chemistry, and physical chemistry. These names describe areas originally borderlands but now almost separate sciences, and in these much of our most important recent advance has been made. The thought in the inscription on the Baker Chemical Laboratory at Cornell University, which says "To the science of chemistry in the quest of truth, to the art of chemistry for the welfare of man, to the training of youth in a science ministrant of sciences this building, the gift of George Fisher Baker, is dedicated", is fully justified.

The influence of the science chemistry upon world trends becomes far greater when considered in its relation to a number of problems in biology, medicine, and even the social sciences than might otherwise be the case. It is not unlikely that in future a better understanding of biochemical processes with resulting control of some of them may very distinctly alter the characteristics of human beings and bring about changes within a short period of time which otherwise might occur, if at all, only over a period that is not likely to be measured.

Chemistry and Industry

The products of the chemical industry are rarely recognized by the ultimate consumer as such, because they do not reach him as individual products. They constitute one of the best examples of how the finished products of one industry may be the semifinished or even raw materials for some other industry. In a certain sense that is a weakness, because any industry needs a sympathetic understanding on the part of the public and particularly the official public. One may see a modern structure in the course of erection and be very conscious of the importance of the steel industry. He may go anywhere in these United States and have reason to marvel at progress in automotive engineering. These and many other industrial products are self-evident and are easily identified with a special industry. But those who see such evidences cannot be expected to have any appreciation of the chemical control which lies back of the production of satisfactory steel, nor of the unnumbered contributions

from the various special fields of chemistry to the perfection of the modern motorcar.

The public has not been particularly interested in the contributions, let us say, to the electric lamp of today. It merely knows that the lamps are more efficient, they cost less, and they give better light than those of a few years ago. The average man is quite amazed and frequently intrigued by the account of the contribution of a single scientist, Irving Langmuir, whose work in the field of pure science developed the fact that burning in an atmosphere of an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen, an incandescent-lamp filament gave a better light with a lower consumption of energy than was possible in such a vacuum as was attainable commercially in these lamp bulbs. Of course, when he is told that but for such work the country would pay a million dollars a day more for its light bill, he is impressed; but before he grasps the value of the contribution we must resort to such statistics or perhaps explain that to obtain the same amount of light for a hundred hours by the use of candles as is possible with a modern 100-watt lamp would cost on the order of 200 times as much as the electricity.

Just as the science, chemistry, is one ministrant to sciences, so the chemical industry is one which serves all other industries. Fully to grasp the truth of this statement one needs only remember that few of the raw materials provided naturally are ready for use and that in most cases a chemical change takes place before they are suitable. Even where a change in physical state is involved-as for example, sawing a tree into useful lumber-the operations are likely to be carried on with tools which would be inefficient and unsatisfactory except for the contributions of chemistry. Thus the chemistry of metals, otherwise known as metallurgy, is involved in the manufacture of a suitable circular or band saw, the chemistry of the lubrication necessary for the operating mechanism, and similar contributions.

Synthetic Resins and Plastics

Some thought should be given not only to the trends in chemistry and to those within the chemical industry, but possible effects in other industries. Not infrequently a chemical discovery so impresses industry in general as to effect far-reaching results. There has just been observed the twenty-fifth anniversary of the incorporation of the pioneer company in the field of synthetic plastics. Dr. Leo H. Baekeland recognized in an experiment discarded by an organic chemist because the product was not crystalline an opportunity to produce a new structural material. Following a considerable period of research and development, the synthetic resinoid bakelite, which is a condensa

tion product of formaldehyde and phenol, two wellknown common chemicals, was the first of what has become a long and ever-increasing line of synthetic resins, resinoids, plastics, and molding compounds. Struggling at first for a place in a market where shellac and hard rubber were well established these new materials have made their way with increasing rapidity, until today we find literally hundreds of tradenamed compounds, each with special characteristics and designated for special applications.

The day of keen competition with the older materials is largely past and we have entered an era which is of the new competition of our day, where different products with special characteristics are offered for the same service. The result has been great improvement in all sorts of molded articles and the production at reasonable costs of items which otherwise would not have been made. Now these plastics and resins seeking new fields of utilization give the ultimate consumer improved service and a far greater choice.

Let us examine this a little further. The ability to produce a structural material which would come from the mold bearing distinctly all its characteristic marks and requiring no further finishing cuts, polishing, or grinding operations; with metal parts molded in place; with intricate designs a possibility, as well as a wide range of color, opened up a new field for useful and decorative articles. These resins began to appear in automobiles; throughout radio, as special insulation; decorative material, from cigar holders to umbrella handles and jewelry. The development of the mechanical details involved in molding made such objects cheap enough to be used as toys, while the resistance to corrosion of the bonding resin and such fillers as asbestos made possible new tanks and similar equipment, linings to protect metals, pipe lines and fittings, and sheets for structural purposes. The more recently perfected injection molding in which the hot resin is forced into the cool mold has speeded up the operation, has widened the field of application. Thus new industries have been created, as was new competition for wood, metal, and ceramic products.

Research has been described by a banker as an activity which only serves to make banking hazardous. He referred, of course, to what may take place in an industry that is not alive to the constant changes which science, if successful, must bring about. Elaborating his point, this banker said that he might make a loan to an industry on a perfectly satisfactory balance sheet, only to find when the loan became due that someone had devised a better product, a more efficient method, or perhaps something entirely new to render the same service; thereby putting the debtor out of business. The chemical industry founded upon research and dedicated to change is more fully aware of

this possibility than perhaps any other. The wellinformed chemical manufacturer is not likely to say "it cannot be done," unless he pauses and adds "that is, not now." He can never be sure but that some new theory useful as a tool; some new material for equipment, without which a given reaction may be uneconomical; or some discovery of a way to accomplish a given end may come from the research laboratories.

Fixed Nitrogen

It may be recalled that although a laboratory experiment in the middle of the eighteenth century showed that when an electric spark occurred in a tube, some of the nitrogen in the atmosphere was oxidized, it was not until the first decade of the twentieth century that this phenomenon became the basis of the fixed nitrogen industry by the electric arc. These time lags between first observations of a natural phenomenon and the founding of a chemical industry based upon it are not infrequent, though they may seldom be so long in duration.

However, when early in the present century investigations were undertaken by Haber to find a way to cause the nitrogen of the atmosphere and hydrogen from steam to unite and cool, many of his colleagues and the savants of other countries were free to say that it could not be done. But that was before much was known about catalysis, before the days of highpressure equipment and the utilization of high temperatures as they are known today. Haber and his associates learned the conditions under which these gases not only would combine but how to accelerate the reaction so as to make it commercially attractive. Activity in a number of research laboratories attests. to the fact that we still know very little about catalysts except that they are a group of substances or compounds which by their mere presence do accelerate reactions in a predetermined direction without themselves being changed and without their being present in the final product.

One of the best understood examples is that of the hydrogenation of vegetable oils to prepare solid fats which compete with lard. This work can be accomplished by passing the oil at the right temperature countercurrent to a stream of the gas hydrogen in the presence of finely divided metallic nickel which serves as the catalyst. The conditions of the operation cause the molecules of the liquid fat or oil to take up atoms of hydrogen and upon cooling we have a solid fat. But there is no nickel in these fats, nor is the nickel substantially changed by the operation. A different catalyst, or sometimes a number of different catalysts, may be used for a particular manufacturing process. There are many such, and for the most part the syn

thetic products of today are the result of some type of catalytic reaction.

The fixation of atmospheric nitrogen is perhaps one of the best examples of how an accomplishment in the chemical industry may profoundly affect other industries, and indeed the balance of power in the world. Prior to fixation by one or another chemical process, the sources of nitrogen for industrial uses were the Chilean nitrate deposits and byproduct ammonia from the distinctive distillation of coal in making coke and gas.

The process for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by the cyanamide route had become commercial in 1906. This process involves the use of calcium carbide, was more suitable for wide use than the arc process which because of the high power requirements was confined to countries possessing natural advantages in extraordinarily cheap water power. The arc process began to be commercial in 1907, and these two, while affording some competition with Chilean nitrate, caused the latter no serious concern because of their higher costs. Other countries began the erection of cyanamide plants, and these have continued in production. With the advent of the Haber process about 1912 and particularly when the country of its origin, Germany, demonstrated its utility as a source of fixed nitrogen during the war, there began to be intensive interest in this particular process. The result has been that in nearly every other country of importance plants using some modification of the Haber process and many improvements upon it have sprung up, until today the total world production by the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by such methods is greater than by all other methods combined. According to recent statistics prepared by the United States Tariff Commission, the total by all processes, including Chilean nitrate, as of January 1, 1934, was 5,082,300 short tons, of which synthetic processes-that is, the Haber process and its modifications -accounted for 3,241,800 tons. Byproduct processes yielded 621,500 tons; the cyanamide, 539,000; and from Chile came 690,000 short tons.

Now the result of this chemical development has created an entirely new industry. It has complicated enormously the financial problems of Chile. It has had a bearing on the fleets that used to be maintained to carry nitrate from Chile to various parts of the world. It has made necessary training men with skill to operate the new processes and has created a world surplus of fixed nitrogen. At the same time it has relieved the world of the fear of a food shortage through the lack of nitrogen for fertilizer, which was predicted by Sir William Crookes in the late nineties-the price of nitrogen has been greatly reduced; and it has opened up still further complications with