338 CURRENT TOPICS. [J. F. I.

Battelle Memorial Institute Will Make Large Expansion. (Blast Furnace and Steel Plant, Vol. 29, No. 8.)--A fourth major building program in recent years is under way at Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio, where a I6O,Ooo-dollar addition to the process metallurgy laboratory building is under construction, Clyde E. Williams, Institute director, has announced. Additional space de- mands of enlarged research programs concerned with the study of chemical and metallurgical processes on a pilot-plant scale will be provided for when the new structure is completed. The expansion is the result of a continued increase in the Institute's research for industry, particularly in the fields of coal preparation, raw materials beneficiation, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, electrometallurgy, and foundry practice. Because of current world conditions and the resultant emphasis on the development and utilization of domestic raw materials and substitute materials, research by American industry has greatly increased, Mr. Williams stated. Current research investigations at Battelle are instituted partly by industries closely associated with the defense program and partly by those industries that are anticipating the adjustments of the post-emergency period with new and improved products and re- duced production costs. The new structure will be 7o feet by Io5 feet in plan, with five full floors, and will provide 35,ooo square feet of additional space. Its steel, brick, and concrete construction will conform with that of the other Institute buildings. Office- laboratory facilities are planned for fifty additional research engi- neers and technicians. The new laboratories will be equipped with the most modern facilities. To handle the equipment necessary for pilot-plant operations, provision has been made for high floor loads and the necessary crane service. This is the fourth time in recent years that space requirements have led to laboratory expansion. Just a few months ago, eighteen new laboratories and offices, totaling nearly IO,OOO square feet, were installed. The majority of these laboratories are in the new laboratory building which was completed only a year ago. The process metallurgy laboratory building, to which the present construction is an addition, was completed in I937. Battelle Memorial Institute is one of the country's larger industrial research organizations. It was estab- lished and endowed by the wills of Gordon Battelle and his mother, Annie Norton Battelle, to encourage and conduct scientific research for industry and to further research education. It carries on funda- mental and applied research in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, ceramics, physics, organic or inorganic chemistry, fuels, coal prepara- tion and utilization, ore-dressing, and materials concentration. Research is done both with its own funds and for industrial sponsors.

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