higher fee, $250, which IFI also turns over to the owner. (Identity of the owner is known only to IFI.)

The pool is essentially a means of anonymously advertising compounds and processes internationally and mak­ing them easily and inexpensively available to organizations that might like to screen, test, buy, or license them. Any company wishing to buy or license a compound or process ne­gotiates with the owner through IFI.

A member may renew his member­ship after two years for another $10,-000. He may add new compounds or processes (up to a total of 100), sub­stitute, or withdraw compounds (down to 50) at any time.

Death Toll Rises to 12 In Du Pont Disaster; Plant Repairs Begin Repair work was under way last week at Du Pont's Louisville, Ky., neoprene plant after a series of explosions and

1 fires there took 11 lives and injured 30 to 40 (C&EN, Aug. 30. page 25).

| Among the dead were two chemical engineers—George A. Cracraft, 36,

1 mechanical engineer, Thomas H. I Clore, 36, also died in the disaster, | which was described by Du Pont

safety director J. Sharp Queener as the worst to befall a Du Pont plant

1 since the company's safety operation 1 was set up in 1919.

At press time, Du Pont was still in· 1 Copyright photos by Louisville Courier-Journal 1

vestigating the cause of the accident. 1 Initial engineering evaluation showed 1 that plant damage was much less 1 extensive than first feared. Most of 1 the $5 to $10 million damage was 1 confined to two units in the monovinyl- 1 acetylene section. Monovinylacety- 1 lene is an intermediate in neoprene 1 manufacture. A barricade surrounding 1 the monovinylacetylene units pro· 1 tected the polymerization and finish· 1 ing areas from extensive damage. 1 The company said it expects the plant 1 to be operating at partial capacity in 1 another week. 1

The company hopes to meet eus· 1 tomers' neoprene needs with a mini· 1 mum of disruption. However, it an· 1 nounced plans to fill orders for dry 1 types of neoprene on the basis of 1 70% of customers' average monthly 1 purchases. The company makes neo- 1 prene at Montague, Mich., as well as 1 Louisville. If necessary, the com· 1 pany said, it would draw on output 1 from its foreign neoprene units. The 1 company makes neoprene in Northern 1 Ireland and a 50%-owned affiliate 1 makes it in Japan. |

26 C&EN SEPT. 6, 1965

Consultant Firm Forms "Compound Pool" Lynn J. Bartlett is selling a "pool." Not a swimming pool, but one for chemical compounds and processes. Mr. Bartlett, acting temporary director of a "compound pool" set up by Infor­mation For Industry, Inc., a Washing­ton, D.C.-based firm of consultants, hopes to get at least 100 companies to pour about 10,000 compounds and processes into it. (Mr. Bartlett is president of IFI.)

So far, the pool has but one mem­ber. IFI plans to hire a chemist as permanent director of the pool by Oct. 15 to get down to filling it.

The pool works this way: A com­pany pays $10,000 for a two-year membership. The company supplies the pool with at least 50, but not more than 100, compounds or processes. In return, the member is informed of all other compounds and processes in the pool, and may pull any of them out of the pool for $50 each. This fee goes to the owner of the compound. If a compound has not been pulled out of the pool for investigation after 30 days, IFI publicizes its availability to 1300 nonmember organizations throughout the Free World.

A nonmember wishing to test a pool compound or process may likewise do so exclusively for 90 days, but for a

Japan, U.S.S.R. Sign Acrylonitrile Deal Japan's Asahi Chemical Industry Co. has signed a $25 million contract with Techmashimport (the Soviet trading agency) for equipment and know-how for an acrylonitrile plant. Capacity of the plant will be 150 metric tons a day. The only remaining hurdle is approval by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). It's dif­ficult to imagine any major snag there.

Asahi Chemical, a producer of syn­thetic fibers and chemicals, holds a Standard Oil (Ohio) license through Prospect International, Sohio's Puerto Rico-based subsidiary, for making ac­rylonitrile from propylene and am-» monia. The U.S. State and Com­merce departments have approved Asahi's agreement with the U.S.S.R. under the terms of the U.S. Export Control Act. The deal is the first Soviet contract with a Japanese firm for a fiber raw material plant.

The contract climaxes some two years of talks between Asahi negotia­tors and Soviet officials. It marks a major move in Japan's efforts to ex­pand trade with the Communist bloc and particularly with the U.S.S.R. and Red China (C&EN, July 19, page 60).

Meanwhile, a government-spon­sored economic mission of some of Japan's top financial and industrial figures is now touring the Soviet Union. Its aim is to beef up trade ties between the two nations. At the same time, a Soviet chemical trade mission, with similar ideas, has been visiting Japan. On other fronts, Japanese and Soviet officials are laying groundwork for a long-term trade agreement to re­place the one that expires at the end of this year. If all this mutual wooing pays off, Japanese-Soviet trade should become more important in the coming years, reinforcing a five-year trend.

Sales. Japanese exports to the U.S.S.R. have risen an average of about 52% a year since 1959, increas­ing from $23 million in 1959 to $182 million last year. Exports through July of this year total $87 million. As a share of total exports, Japanese sales to the Soviets increased from 0.67% in 1959 to 3% in 1962; they dropped to 2.7% last year. At the same time, Japanese imports from the U.S.S.R. have jumped from $39 million in 1959 (1.07% of total imports) to $227 mil­lion last year (2.9% of total imports). Imports from the U.S.S.R. through Tuly of this year hit $134 million.

Credit terms for the Asahi deal still were not clear at press time. The English-language Japan Times and other publications say that Asahi ex­pects at least 20% down and the bal­ance over eight years at 5.5% interest per year. But Asahi will not confirm these figures. An eight-year credit, if true, would signal a long-discussed shift by Japan from the current five-year terms.

With the acrylo monomer contract in his pocket, Asahi president Kaga-yaki Miyazaki is doubtless eyeing still another deal, this one for acrylic fiber technology and equipment. Asahi won't confirm this as yet, however.

Asahi isn't the only Japanese com­pany in the Soviet-Japanese trade pic­ture. Toyo Rayon has been talking with Moscow officials about an acrylic fiber plant, too. Says a Toyo Rayon representative: "[our firm] is keep­ing up relations with the Russians, but negotiations so far are not so definite as those of Asahi Chemical."

Goodyear Starts Output Of Radial-Ply Tires Goodyear Tire & Rubber has started small-scale production of radial-ply tires in the U.S. The Akron-based company says that it will make the tires available for final market tests be­fore possible large-scale adoption by U.S. auto makers. Firestone began marketing radial-ply tires earlier this year (C&EN, Feb. 1, page 11). B. F. Goodrich says it has been test-market­ing such tires in the U.S. since last fall.

Some 1966 model U.S.-made autos will probably carry radial-ply tires as optional equipment. Likely candi­dates are Oldsmobile's new front-wheel drive Toronado and Ford's Mus­tang.

According to Joseph F. Hutchinson, manager of Goodyear's auto tire engineering department, the use of such tires also allows important changes in tread design. The most important change is the use of radial grooves in the shoulder. On a wet road, these grooves literally wipe the water off the highway and thus im­prove traction. Radial-ply tires are ready to be marketed just as soon as American car owners can evaluate the tires for themselves, Mr. Hutchin­son says. Radial-ply tires could also have a strong effect on the types of elastomers used by U.S. tire compa­nies (C&EN, March 1, page 16).

LAMOLUME PURE FUSED QUARTZ

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Excellent for outdoor lighting, Ultra-violet irradiation, laboratory heat exchangers, laser pumping, photography and Xenon lamps to provide light intensities many times brighter than the sun.

Comes in lengths up to 30 inches and in diameters of greater than 1 inch, has high chemical purity, low thermal shock, and operates indefinitely up to 1050°C.

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SEPT. 6, 1965 C&EN 27

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COMMENT . . . Ζ suggest that we have no national water problem at all. Our current concern about water . . . is nothing more or less than confusion . . . over our watersheds. It is the hurly-burly of pressure groups and lobbyists and pet project promoters pulling and tug-ging until we scarcely recognize the problem. . . . How else could we have created an atmosphere in which it seems almost more urgent to remove salt from the sea than to eliminate do­mestic and industrial wastes from fresh water supplies which are adequate in quantity but grossly deficient in qual­ity? . . . Will our solutions move up from the watershed and state and re­gional levels or down from the level of the national Government? . . . J sug­gest that the better solutions will ema­nate from the cooperative efforts of industries and municipalities having common interests within particular watersheds. . . . To activate this type of program, formation of "watershed associations" to plan from the bottom up must get under way, not as quickly as possible, but right now. If there is continued vacillation on the water­sheds I foresee a trend which likely would be irreversible once it gained momentum. This trend ultimately would involve the installation of "elec­tronic chemists" testing every waste discharge from every industrial plant and municipality in the U.S. These "electronic chemists," faithfully record­ing their findings on charts, would be checked regularly by government in­spectors. Plant reports would be co­ordinated with the findings of auto­matic monitors located at intervals on a stream to determine the time and lo­cation and extent of pollution. Each municipality and industrial plant would then be taxed according to the quality and quantity of the effluent be­ing discharged. These tax dollars would be used to build and operate government-owned and -operated waste treatment phnts. . . . Incentive for this watershed approach could be stimulated by . . . fast tax write-off of industrial waste treatment facilities.

Edgar G. Paulson, manager, process & waste water engineering, Hall Lab­oratories division, Calgon Corp., be­fore the International Water Quality Symposium, Washington, D.C., Aug. 26, 1965.

28 C&EN SEPT. 6, 196 5

BRIEF FINANCIAL

Kaiser Cement & Gypsum will acquire Longhorn Portland Cement if the stockholders of both companies ap­prove in October. Both boards have agreed to terms calling for Kaiser to issue a new convertible preference stock with a dividend rate of $1,375 a year. This will be exchanged on a share-for-share basis for Longhorn common stock. The new Kaiser pref­erence stock will be convertible into Kaiser common stock at an initial rate of 0.8 share of common for each of preference.

NEW FACILITIES

Goodyear Tire & Rubber has expanded its synthetic rubber plant in Beau­mont, Tex., to 45,000 long tons of polyisoprene a year. The $4 million expansion also increased isoprene ca­pacity there to 45,000 long tons a year.

Chemical Construction Corp. will de­sign and build Valley Nitrogen Pro­ducers' 600 ton-a-day ammonia plant at El Centro, Calif. The unit will be completed late next year.

Eastman Kodak has increased its 1965 capital budget to $125 million, about 45% more than Kodak spent last year on additions, replacements, and improvements to its U.S. facilities. Some of the projects provided for in this year's budget are increases in capacities for polyester and acrylic fibers, new plants for ethylene glycol, acetaldehyde, and olefins, and an in­crease in polyethylene output.

Grow Chemical's sales rose 36% to $13.3 million during fiscal 1965 (ended June 30). Earnings were $706,000, up 40% from last year's.

Nease Chemical Co., State College, Pa., showed a net income of almost $66,000 during the first half of this year. During the same period last year the company lost $22,000. Sales were $1.4 million this first half, $1.1 million in the first half of 1964.

Pan American Sulphur has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 15 cents a share payable Sept. 30 to share­

holders of record as of Sept. 3. This dividend is 25% less than the dividend paid in the first two quarters of this year. The company attributes the re­duction to recent Mexican export re­strictions lowering expected profits.

MARKETS

Allied Chemical is increasing its price of alum by $1.25 a ton in dry bulk, $3.25 a ton in bags of dry alum, and $1.25 a ton in liquid form, effective Oct. 1. Allied says the increase is necessary because of higher sulfur prices. Essex Chemical, another alum maker, says it will probably move in the same direction as Allied. Ameri­can Cyanamid is studying the situa­tion.

Quaker Oats is raising prices of fur­fural, furfuryl alcohol, and tetrahydro-furfuryl alcohol by 1 cent a pound, effective Sept. 1. New prices are 13.5 cents, 17 cents, and 22 cents, respectively, for tank car lots east of Denver. Furfural has been in short supply because of the revolution in Santo Domingo and raw material shortages in the U.S.

C&EN PROGRESS REPORT

EXPANSION IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Here are companies making news last month, adding to chemical industries by

PLANNING... Company and Site

Allied Chemical Corp. Painesville, Ohio

American Cyanamid Co. Texaco, Inc.

Jefferson Chemical Co., Inc. Conroe, Tex.

Crown Zellerbach Corp. St. Francisville, La.

Diamond Alkali Co. Painesville, Ohio

E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. Richmond, Va.

FMC Corp. Buffalo, N.Y.

International Minerals & Chemical Corp. Polk County, Fla.

Mallinckrodt Chemical Works Raleigh, N.C. St. Louis, Mo.

Plant or Unit Polyvinyl chloride

Urethane polyols

Tall oil

Chlorine and caustic soda

Nomex nylon

Ammonium, potassium, and sodium persulfates

Phosphate rock

Organic chemicals

Stéarate

Remarks Will be Allied's first commercial PVC

resin facility. Capacity will be 100 million pounds a year

Plant will expand company's urethane polyol capacity by 3 8 %

7600 ton-a-year plant will be company's second tall oil facility

Plant will be expanded by 2 8 % . Con­struction will begin next spring and be completed by year's end

New plant will make new nylon designed for use up to 500° F.

Plant is scheduled to begin production early next year

Facilities will increase IMC's mineral capacity by 2 million tons a year (33%). Wellman-Lord is contractor

$5 million plant will be first at site. Completion scheduled for late 1966

Capacity will be doubled by end of 1966

SEPT. 6, 1965 C&EN 29