COMMERCIAL CHEMICAL DEV

Putting New Chemicals to Work LAUREN B. HITCHCOCK, The Quaker Oats Co., Chicago, I11.

The old adage about the world m a k i n g a beaten path to your door i f you can bui ld a better mouse trap must: b e replaced, in reference to better chemical products, by ' T h e successful enterpriser m u s t beat a pa th to the m a r k e t "

A. NEW chemical becomes commercially available in the United States every day— and it could be yours.

As members and guests of the Commer­cial Chemical Development Association, you are vitally interested in maintaining and increasing your contributions to chemical progress, for the welfare of the country and mankind generally, and there­fore for your own greater satisfaction. Principles which will assist you in the dis­covery and development of useful new chemicals are becoming recognized. Never has there been a higher premium on efficiency in the evaluation of new prod­ucts, for their number is becoming legion.

The Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter has been for years the principal bulletin board of market prices for industrial chemicals actively bought and sold generally. I» the early 20's it listed a little over 1,000 products. Today the number is around 5,500 (/), a growth of about 4,500 in the chemicals actively sold and quoted on the established commercial scale. In addi­tion, every manufacturer has products commercially available and regularly shipped in quantity, but to a somewhat more limited market, that are not yet listed by OPD. Conservatively esti­mating the latter group at 50% of the listed products, it would number about 2,250, or a total increase in commercially available chemicals in the past 25 years of about 6,750. This corresponds to an average growth of 270 new products per year, but since the curve is sweeping up­ward exponentially, the current rate is well above the average, and must surely be now at least one per day reaching the commercial stage.

Paralleling this growth in numbers, the value of chemical and allied products turned out annually in the U. S. has in­creased fourfold in the past 25 years (IS), while the entire organic chemical output of th* nation increased 20-fold (7). The U. S. Tariff Commission reported last December more than 6,000 synthetic organic chemicals from over 500 producing companies (IS). Would you care to esti­mate the number of chemicals offered to­day in se mi commercial, pilot plant, or

experimental quantities? While the ratio of these so-called "research" products to commercial products varies greatly be­tween companies, it is probably conserv­ative to guess 50% as an over-all average. This means 3,400 embryonic chemicals in this country, nol to mention the un­counted curiosities standing on all our laboratory shelves not yet offered even ex­perimentally.

With over 10,000 products in sight and the number growing each year, how are we going to select out of this horde those most needed in our economy today and tomorrow? Dwiglit Eisenhower said re­cently in an open letter to America's stu­dents (0) "We -Americans know how to produce things faster and better—on the whole—than any other people. But what will it profit us to produce things un­less we know what we are producing them for, unless we know what purpose animates America?"

Obviously a chemical divining rod is needed badly; one which the director of research might hold in front of a small sample, deflecting in proportion to the potential gold. Or a machine like the Bush Integrator, t ha t electronic brain which will solve automatically in minutes complex mathematical equations requiring years of human labor. If we could "set up" on such a machine several of the measurable properties of a chemical com­pound, together with some economic data and come back after lunch to find the market identified and the annual sales forecast for 10 years, chemical industry would gladly contribute a $100 million for the construction and operation of the first machine.

William B. Ml , with characteristic aptness and penetration said (£): "I have sometimes thought that the most useful and beautiful piece of research that any chemical organisation could possibly undertake would be to work out some formula by which, having put into a test tube a bright idea, together with so many units of labor, so many units of raw ma­terial, so many units of selling cost, so many of market price, of popular favor, of taxation acid, of government interference,

so many units of this, that, and the other, one might boil the contents for 5 minutes. Then, if the solution turned green, the project should proceed forthwith; if red, abandoned; and, if white, deferred for further study."

Since neither divining rod nor electronic machine appears to be in immediate pros­pect for the selection of the "chemicals most likely to succeed/1 we are seeking to develop methods, which while much more laborious, premise substantially improved yields at no greater cost, as compared with the rather haphazard procedures characteristic of the period preceding World War I I .

Why Development Methods? But American chemical industry has

thrived so greatly since 1920 you may ask why we need to be concerned with our development methods for the future. The answer is first, that our chemical in­dustry was very small prior to World War I, and so for the past 34 years has flour­ished in relatively virgin territory; we had so few chemical materials and needed so many. Second, the number of products available for evaluation has become very large and is growing rapidly. Third, we have gone far toward satisfying the minimum chemical requirements of our economy, and progress from here on will trend more toward improvements in our current industrial arts, toward competition between different products rather than be­tween producers of the same product, even to competition between whole industries, as plastics vs. metals, synthetic vs. natural fibers, and synthetic vs. natural rubber. Fourth, in other fields as well as our own, new technical developments will call forth new chemicals, and will also come about as the result of new chemicals. I t is increasingly difficult to define "chemi­cal industry," now that we must include the petroleum, the food, the packing, the fertilizer, the metallurgical, and other industries, as both consumers and pro­ducers of chemicals.

Moreover, the emphasis is shifting now to the utilization of the results of research, as distinguished from the first three dec­ades when the cry was for research and yet more research. Few indeed are the research departments in chemical industry over 18 years of age. Operating on an average of 3 % of the gross sales, research departments are overloaded with projects

1268 C H E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S

to the point where they must establish priorities and postpone some desirable work indefinitely. Yet warning notes are already being sounded not to carry re­search forward on a scale which will turn up possibilities faster than the company is financially or physically able to assimi­late them.

Robert E. Wilson also calls attention to this problem in his recent address before the Industrial Research Institute (15).

Where this is true, and there are many indications that it is becoming more gen­eral, the remedy may well be to divert a portion of research effort to the utilization of research results, supplementing this force with development and technical oales specialists to the extent necessary and within the means of the company. Other­wise we face the danger of half-used or un­used research contributions, with corre­sponding waste of research funds, demoral­izing reaction on the research staff, and a loss of profitable opportunities which can not be evaluated.

James Russell Lowell said that "It is not the finding of a thing, but making some­thing out of it after it is found that is of consequence." When research invariably finds many more things than it set out to, or many different things from what it in­tended, Lowell's philosophy charges us with a much greater responsibility in connection with each research project than we antici­pate. We must evaluate the unexpected findings as well, for they may be just as important as the thing we set out for.

There is an ancient and obscure fable that illustrates this idea rather aptly (5): Once upon a time in the ancient province of Serendip there was an old king who had three sons. As he saw the end of his days approaching, he called the three princes of Serendip together and told them that he wanted to divide the country among them. One was to start out to the east, the second to the west, and the third to the south, each on a mission of discovery. In the re­mote fastnesses of the western section were rumored riches of precious stones, in the east reports of ivory and silk resources, and in the south great potentialities in the form of forest and agricultural wealth. They were to*return two years hence, and the one who had added the most to the wealth and economy of Serendip would receive the north area and the crown as his reward. And with great foresight and wisdom, the old king, realizing that there were surely many other values in his far-flung kingdom of which he had not re­ceived even rumors, specified that any discoveries made by a prince enroute to his goal, either on the highway, or in straying into bypaths, would be included in figuring the total assets added by his expedition.

This fable has given rise to the principle of serendipity (14) in the field of patent law, but I think it has even broader appli­cation to all chemical exploration and de­velopment. Almost invariably when we set out to make a new product for which we think there is, or may be, an important market, we turn up a number of other compounds on the way, perhaps in making several so-called "false starts," perhaps as intermediates in what finally proves to be the preferred synthesis, or as by-products of either type of excursion. Let us call these more or less adventitious materials "serendiproducts." Someone, perhaps the prince in charge of the expedition, will ex­amine each one and weigh its possible value to the people of the kingdom and to its future wealth as he builds up the report which he hopes will gladden the heart of the old king.

But is this profitable? Does he not run the risk of getting diverted into side-roads leading to nobody knows what, perhaps dead ends, perhaps strewn with pitfalls, and failing completely to reach his main objective? One rather stern research director compares such tendencies to the foxhound which leaves the pack and runs off in hot pursuit of a rabbit.

Perkin failed to reach his main objec­tive, which was to synthesize quinine, and so instead we look back today upon the "classic synthesis of mauve, the first artificial dye."

Serendiproduc ts

Of the 6,000 or 7,000 chemicals which have become commercially available in the past 25 years, the majority are "serendi­products." Consider part of the great family tree of the American Cyanamid Co., sprung from a campaign which got under way between 1929 and 1935 to diversify calcium cyanamide, and now down to fourth and fifth generation de­scendants. Even calcium cyanamide itself was an unexpected result. In 1898, when Sir William Crookes compared the dwin­dling supplies of Chilean nitrate and guano with that required to produce the food­stuffs for a rapidly growing world popula­tion and warned of resulting famine by 1931 unless new sources of nitrogen fer­tilizer could be found, his frightening pre­diction succeeded in arousing economists throughout the world. The following year, Frank and Caro combined calcium carbide with atmospheric nitrogen, hoping to produce calcium cyanide. To their disappointment, they found their product was invariably calcium cyanamide, but they were luckier than they thought, be­cause it turned out to be a good fertilizer, furnishing both calcium and nitrogen. In addition, calcium cyanamide could be con­verted into cheap cyanides and a host of nitrogen derivatives, such as dicyandi-amide, the intermediate to melamine. "Di Cy" itself has since found unsus­pected markets in the form of guanidines and guanarnine*.

Much later in tiie vigorous growth of the American Cyanaonid -Co., they manufac­tured and sold dithiophosphoric acids to the mining trade for use as flotation re­agents. When i t became apparent that phosphorus and sulfur were two of the more important elements that could be incorporated in Imbricating oil additives to protect the oil against deterioration under extreme service conditions, the dithio-phosphate mining; reagents were tried for this purpose. They lacked sufficient "oil solubility, but i t was only necessary to turn to longer cliain alcohols and longer chain substituted phenols out of which to make the dithLophosphate esters that would be oil soluble. These proved, after thorough testing, to be quite effective as lubricant additives.

In 1922, the year ia which William Bell became president, of American Cyanamid, gross sales were under $5 million. In 1939, the company manufactured about 1,000 products CIO), and in 1947 gross sales exceeded $200 million, a growth of over 40-fold in 25· years.

To those sterling people of single pur­pose who disdaLn bypaths and all their rabbits, who renounce serendiproducts and all their pomp, let us call nt.frftnt.ion to the Union Carbide Co., wlio for years has been mothering that unpredictable offspring, the Carbide & Carbon Chemicals Corp. Consider its improbable beginnings.

The Presto-Lite Co. originally pur­chased calcium carbide from the Union Carbide Co. froin which to make its acet­ylene. As a protectl-ve measure, Presto-Lite started a Fellowship at the Mellon Institute to discover et new source of acet­ylene. The fellowship developed a proc­ess for the crackdng of petroleum oil by means of électrodes submerged in the liquid. Products included acetylene, eth­ylene, propylene*, and lesser amounts of other hydrocarbon products. In 1917 the Presto-Lite Co. joined the Carbide family, leaving Curme with his petroleum cracking acetylene process on his hands. He saw in it the possibility of making ethylene if he could find uses for ethylene. Ethylene glycol looked like a good possibility, and a huge market wa-s found as an antifreeze and in dynamite manufacture. In making the glycol, ethylene oxide appeared as an intermediate, aod l>ecame the starting point for ethers of g lycol s u c n *& Carbitol and Cellosolve. The cracking process was developed into a- vapor phase process and eventually the a-cetyl ene, now a by-prod­uct of ethylene,, was separated and has been sold back t o the Presto-Lite division of Carbide for many years. In other words, an alternative process for acetylene led to ethylene and coproducts, and eventually by-product acetylene, which has gone back to the connpany that originally started the reseavrch.

Another by-puroduct of the acetylene-ethylene cracking process is butadiene, found in the low boiling condensate called "dripolene." Ι α attempting to find uses

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LOPMENT

for this dripoleiie, Carbide worker» were able to obtain a fraction containing 2 0 % butadiene. From this they made maleic anhydride by oxidation,but were sure that a higher concentration butadiene gas would give better yields. In attempting to obtain a higher concentration of buta­diene in the dripolene extract, they de­veloped extractive distillation, using di-chloroethyl ether (chlorcx) and got up to a maximum of 95% butadiene. That was in 1940 and synthetic rubber began to loom up. Accidently water got into the system and they were able to obtain 9 8 % plus butadiene, discovering the beneficial effect of water in this particular type of extractive distillation. Though Carbide had not even built a pilot plant to investi­gate the problem of producing butadiene from alcohol, at the Government's request they speeded u p their program and built and operated two large butadiene plants while assisting in a third. In the critical year of 1943, these plants produced 77% of the total butadiene made (7).

Again, in their production of butyl alco­hol the Carbide company had a small amount of high boiling residue and in attempting to find some u s e for this they uncovered 2-ethylhexanol. This brought them into ihe manufacture of Hioctyl-phthalate ("Flexol," EOP) and with the great demand for that product, they now make octyl alcohol by direct condensation of butyraldehyde.

Speaking of ethylene glycol, it was a serendiproduct not only o f acetylene, but also of ammonia. D u Pont went into the synthetic ammonia business at Belle, W. Va. and had by-product C O on its hands. This led into the methanol synthesis, then with formaldehyde and CO they developed a unique process for the production of eth­ylene glycol which is a major product with them today.

Saccharin Remsen of Johns Hopkins and his stu·*

dent assistant Fahlberg were working on coal-tar chemicals. Fahlberg, so the story goes, finding his lunch mysteriously sweet, discovered saccharin. Fahlberg returned to his native land,'Germany, and ultimately founded, the Fahlberg-Liszt Co. and did a world-wide business in saccharin. Later, John F. Queeny, a native Chicagoan who had started out as a drug salesman, combined his own modest savings with equally modest capital from friends and founded a small business for the production of saccharin. H e gave his infant company his wife's name—Mon­santo.

In synthesizing saccharin, the desired first step intermediate is o-toluene sulfon chloride; unavoidably there is ob­tained as a co-product y-toluene eulfon-chloride for which there w a s no known use. By making the sodium salt of this para compound and chlorinating, there was formed o-chlorotoluenc sodium sulfonate. When this compound was nitrated, re­

duced, coupled, and laked, there resulted lake for Red C. This was used in printing inks where permanence was not essential, such as in magazines for advertising which is not exposed to the light and for circus posters. It was not satisfactory, Ijr ex­ample, for labels.

Another product stemming from this para compound following its amidation was to react it with formaldehyde. This yielded one of the nearest absolutely water-white resinous materials developed to date. Some of its applications were delustering rayon—a use which disap­peared when the cuprammonium process was abandoned; as a resinous base in manicure lacquers; and as an ingredient for improving the resistance of lacquered cellophane to the transmission of water vapor.

An application bordering on the fantas­tic was the so-called breakaway glass which could be used on movie sets, re­producing the proper effects but without incurring hazard to the actors.

Another use for the p-toluene sulfon-chloride "as is11 has been the differential dyeing of mixed fibers when woven into cloth. It is sometimes desirable to protect one fiber, say in the warp or woof, so that one will take the dye, the other be pro­tected from dyeing. {Subsequently the protecting agent can be washed out.

Likewise, certain esters of the para com­pound have been useful as plasticizers of cellulosic compositions.

With these several uses for what was originally an unwanted but nevertheless concomitant product, there have been times when it appeared that the greater demand would be for the para as compared with the ortho isomer, an example, if you please, "of the tail tending to wag the dog."

In another instance the reverse hap­pened. This was in the case of p-nitro biphenyl from which a rubber accelerator was desired. This, bear in .mind, was a case in which the para compound was the desired material. Again, an isomer o-nitro biphenyl was the coproduct. In time, and following laboratory studies, it was found that o-nitro biphenyl as such had very desirable properties as a plasti-cizer for certain compositions.

B y reducing the nitro compound, o-amino biphenyl functioned as a primary amine which could replace aniline in cer­tain reactions and could be used in the synthesis of carbazole.

I t appears from experience that in get­ting a coproduct in substantial quantity and in constant supply, a worthwhile use for i t can be developed if one works in­telligently, hard enough, long enough!

Seventy new products are said to have emerged from Monsanto's laboratories in a recent single year—a substantial contribu­tion from one company to the swelling tide referred to earlier.

In Dow's synthesis of phenol, a con­comitant product is /J-hydroxydiphenyl

(/j-pheiiyl phenol). It has proved more valuable than the phenol, one use being in the manufacture of plastics having un­usual hot water resistance. The co-product o-hydroxy diphenyl has unique antiseptic properties, used for example in preserving glues in the adhesives industry. Lenin also is said to be preserved in it.

Diphenyl oxide was another unwanted by-product of phenol. They found that by putting it back into the process, they could suppress its formation, until di­phenyl oxide found a big market as "Dow-therm."

Synthetic Glycerol In the early 30's, Shell Development,

seeking uses for propylene as a chemical raw material, worked out an interesting synthesis for glycerol, but at that time the economics were not sufficiently clear to justify a commercial plant. B y the time cost and market data assumed proper values, the war interposed more pressing demands on Shell, and so only now has the plant been completed, and hence the original goal fulfilled. The key to the success and economy of this process lies in the substitutive chlorination of propyl­ene to yield allyl chloride, a reaction which has always been considered highly impractical, to say the least. But having learned how to carry out this step very neatly, Shell has opened the door to low cost allyl derivatives (S*). A number of these were prepared on the pilot scale and product development work actively under­taken, so that the moment the war was over, volume production was obtained of allyl chloride and allyl alcohol, followed by acrolein, diallyl ether, glycerol epichloro-hydrin, glycerol dichlorohydrin, allyl esters, and others. Serendiproducts of the synthetic glycerol project were listed in ΟΡΏ years before the original end product.

Continuing further into the petroleum industry, consider now the impending tide of by-product petrochemicals from the Fischer-Tropsch synthetic motor fuels and hydrocarbon oxidation processes for which markets will inevitably be found. Among the alcohols, aldehydes, acids, and ketones are many which are presently manufac­tured elsewhere as direct products. In making the necessary adjustments, chemi­cal industry is sending its princes off in several directions on routes which traverse promising fields of organic chemistry. Commercial chemical development efforts directed toward product development and market research will indeed be at a pre­mium in this new adventure.

That we must reckon with technical de­velopments in other'industries in addition to what we have traditionally called the chemical industry, consider now the food industry. Furfural was an unexpected by­product of an unsuccessful experiment de­signed to produce an improved cattlefeed by acid digestion of oat hulls. Realizing the chemical potentialities of this early

1270 C H E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S

eerendiproduct in chemical industry, uses were gradually developed and the field of furan chemistry explored to the point where today furfural is an established sol­vent or raw material in the manufacture of improved lubricating oils, refined wood rosin, synthetic resins, refined vegetable oils, synthetic rubber, and a growing list of chemical syntheses.

Consider the still-burgeoning domain of organic chemistry opened up by Wallace Cai-Tcthers' discovery that polymers of straight-chain diamines and dicarboxylic acids could form synthetic fibers with valu­able characteristics. Having found this thing, Du Pont proceeded to make some­thing of consequence out of it by develop­ing nylon. Their first requirement was an abundant source of six-carbon atom straight chain molecules. They chose as this source furfural, a five-carbon hetero­cyclic aldehyde. The steps by which Cass, Scott, and other co-workers derived adipo-nitrile and thence the desired six-carbon monomers constitute a brilliant piece of organic teamwork and an unusual achieve­ment in translation to the commercial scale (4).

The intermediate tetrahj'drofuran then assumed importance as a starting material for numerous other syntheses to produce four and six-carbon derivatives, as well as a series of new polymers which includes a long-chain polyether, or a copolymer with propylene oxide; the reaction product is of interest as synthetic lubricating oil with lower pour point. Many modifications of the polymer may be produced.

Out of this work on furfural Cass (5) became interested in dihydropyran, which he liâmes as the second major chemical intermediate derived from furfural. It is the starting point for another exciting branch of chemistry.

By hydrogénation in the presence of water, 1,5-pentanediol is obtained, which may be reacted with hydrogen chloride to yield 1,5-dichloropentane. By steps analogous to the preparation of adiponitrile leading to six-carbon derivatives, a five-carbon nitrile is obtained and thence seven-carbon derivatives. Again, the chloro-nitrile leads to a series of still longer-chain compounds.

Thus, for the first time the chemist has at his disposal an unlimited and economi­cal supply of pure chemical individuals in the four to seven-carbon atom range, and the opportunity to combine these into an almost infinite number of equally identi­fiable higber molecular weight derivatives. From even this meager synopsis, the rich potentialities for chemical development must be apparent, and one wonders whether the serendiproducts of this work which set out to win, and did win, a new route to nylon, may not prove more val­uable in the end.

Synthesis of Lysine

For example, Scott and coworkers (11) in the Du Pont Co. reported at the St.

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Louis meeting of the ACS in September 1948 the synthesis of lysine from dihydro­pyran. Lysine is one of the 10 essential amino acids in animal nutrition, and in­creased availability of this important pro­tein may mean much to a hungry world. It's a long and difficult route from a corn cob, but to a goal that would seem, to be very worthwhile.

The foregoing examples selected from several companies illustrate the potentiali­ties for what were, initially, the by-prod­ucts of research. Not all by-products are or could be equally successful On the other hand, each of you can cite many examples of the valuable by-products of research in your own companies. This naturally leads us to wonder how many products we have had within our grasp at one time or another whose latent merits went undiscovered; how many we each have now awaiting evaluation in the in­creasing competition for opportunity within our own organizations.

The multiplicity of new chemicals that we are turning up as our chemical de­velopments continue to proliferate de­mands the adoption of systematic methods of screening and appraisal. We have seen the rewards reaped in the past through the intelligent development of "serendiprod­ucts." But there were relatively much fewer 10 or more years ago, and both, manu­facturer and consumer could afford to be more casual and muddle along with empir­ical methods of evaluation; at least the penalties for doing so were less severe then. Now when there are literally thousands of new chemicals in the laboratories and pilot plants of the country, the qualifications of a product for market research are more de­manding, the "entrance requirements" are necessarily stiffer. Like a certain card game, one must hold at least a pair of jacks in his hand in order to be allowed to play, and in that simple prerequisite there is no implied guarantee that he will win. How does one set about determining whether, in a certain new chemical, he has "jacks or better"?

Appraisal of Market Possibilities The appraisal of a new product's market

possibilities is a much more complicated and painstaking procedure than most people realized 10 years ago. Back in the '30's, when new chemicals began cropping up in fair numbers, many companies be­gan using what has since been called the "Why Not" technique: they announced the name, formula, melting and boiling points, and solubility, and said "Why not try it as a solvent in your process?", orβ 'Why not try it as a plasticizer?", or ""Why not try this interesting compound in your research laboratory as a starting point for new syntheses?11 Why not, indeed In effect, the manufacturer was offering to contrib­ute a free sample if the consumer would contribute from one day to one year of free research, preferably including a re­port on the results. One must acknowl-

» M A Y 2, 1 9 4 9

edge that this method represents what ia undoubtedly the lowest-cost type of mar­ket research, and also probably the least productive, certainly today. With the increasing host of new products, and the increasing specialization of chemical in­dustry, much more information about both product and use should be available be­fore inviting the consumer's scrutiny.

That systematic attack on the whole problem of new product development is of fairly recent origin is evidenced by the formation of the Chemical Market Re­search Association in 1940, of the Com­mercial Chemical Development Associa­tion in 1943, and of the Chemical Market­ing Section of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY in 1947. One result of the activi­ties of these groups is a growing body of literature dealing with various aspects and techniques of product evaluation and product development.

The work of these groups has stimulated constructive thinking and provoked dis­cussion among those most closely associ­ated with new products. No hard and fast rules have been adopted; no new laws discovered, but beyond any question the methods employed by each member in his own company has come in for careful scrutiny at home in the light of the experi­ence of others. A few principles have be­gun to emerge, and eventually the selec­tion and introduction of new chemicals to the market will proceed more effectively and with better organization.

Developing a Neuf Chemical There is a fairly well recognized se­

quence of events in developing a new chemical to the commercial stage, shown in skeleton outline in Table I.

Table I. Skeleton Outline of Event· in Developing New Chemical to the

Commercial Scale 1. Review of chemical possibilities 2. Survey of market possibilities 3. Development of process in laboratory 4. Laboratory production 5. Application ("use") research 6. Market research and distribution of

samples 7. Setting up specifications 8. Patent studies 9. Safety studies

10. Dissemination of technical informa­tion

11. Decision on price policy 12. Pilot and semicommercial production 13. Methods of storage and shipment 14. Field trials and technical service 15. Process improvement 16. Expansion of production facilities 17. Cost reduction

The order of these steps will vary, and some steps may be taken simultaneously. While there is no standardized terminol­ogy for these steps, the activities sug­gested by each heading will undoubtedly be understood by most industrial chemists today.

1271

In being subjected to a systematic evaluation of this sort, the new product is assured of an adequate "hearing/' while management is assured that the product will not progress to the more advanced and more expensive phases until it has quali­fied in the earlier stages.

Space does not permit at this time of enlarging upon each of the 17 steps indi­cated in Table I. How best to conduct these events could hardly be prescribed for all chemical developments. Each has been the subject of one or more symposia in the course of several years of meetings held by groups, primarily the Chemical Market Research Association and the Commercial Chemical Development As­sociation. These groups, composed of the men in responsible charge of product de­velopment and market research in the principal companies of this country, pro­vide an excellent opportunity for exchange of views and comparison of practices. When one realizes that in the majorit\' of cases, by far the largest part of the expense in developing a new product to commercial proportions is encountered after the prod­uct leaves the research laboratory, the im­portance of developing the most efficient techniques becomes apparent With a large body of opinion and information in a state of evolution, it must clearly be a good many years before the distillate from these continuing studies can be condensed and reported in our literature. Meanwhile, therefore, active participation in these

Table II. Typical Critical Data Melting point (range) Boiling point (range) Vapor pressure-temp. Specific Gravity-

temp. Refractive Index Solubility in W, A,

E, etc. Flash point Viscosity-temp. Cubical expansion pH

Heats of combus­tion, solution, va­porization, fusion

Specific heat Thermal conduc­

tivity Dielectric constant Surface tension Light transmission Optical rotation Chemical analysis

Γ oups would seem the best way to supple­ment the thought all of us are giving within our own companies.

To those who might assume that the best way of carrying out these various steps is already quite well established, let me point out that many of the most active workers in this vineyard come from our largest chemical companies, where one would not expect to find so much interest if the techniques were cut and dried.

Further evidence of the growing interest in these techniques was indicated in the meeting of this association held in Chicago Jan. 19, at which a panel of eight leaders in chemical industry discussed 14 of these principal event» in the development of a. chemical product. It was an all day ses­sion, attended by representatives of most of the chemical companies in this country. A full transcript of the discussion is being furnished to each member.

Obviously before the first step on Table I can be started, something must be knowD about the material. Typical critical data which may be obtained are shown in Table II.

While not all these data would be ob­tained in every case, at least initially, the tendency to obtain more, rather than less is likely to be helpful in determining the chemical possibilities. Undoubtedly many new chemicals have been neglected because available information was too superficial.

In the event the product qualifies for continued commercial development, it will be noted in Table I that functions of several departments are involved. Let us look at a portion of a very simplified organ­ization chart in Fig. 1.

Realizing the many variations in com­pany organization charts, this rather typical arrangement is intended only to remind us that there are usually at least these three basic departments, and to point out that each of the three depart­ments under the traditional organization chart plays a part in the development of a new product. Perhaps some of you have thought that this was done entirely in the research and development department, the product eventually being "turned over" to lue atxicô department. The absolute neces­sity for correlation between at least these three basic departments was well brought out in the symposium held by the Com­mercial Chemical Development Associa­tion last March (6*).

Fig. 1^Skeleton Outline of Part of Traditional Organization Chart, with Some of the Principal Duties

President Executive Vice President

Vice President Production

Vice President Research and Development

Vice President Sales

Chief Engineer

Works Chemist

Research Manager

De velopmen t Manager

1 Facilities 2 Manpower 3 Standardizing methods 4 Scheduling deliveries:

a—raw materials b—finished goods

Controls^ •5 Costs •6 Quality:

a—raw materials b—intermediates c—products

•7 Process improvement «8 Product improvement «9 Safety and handling

° C o m m e r c i a l d e v e l o p m e n t i n t e r e s t . 6 C o m m e r c i a l d e v e l o p m e n t d u t y .

a18 P i l o t o p e r a t i o n s e 19 Process d e v e l o p m e n t 20 P r e l i m i n a r y d e s i g n

a 21 P r e l i m i n a r y c o s t i n g *22 A p p l i c a t i o n research 623 M a r k e t re search b24 P u b l i c a t i o n o f t e c h n i c a l

i n f o r m a t i o n 625 T e c h n i c a l service 626 Cos t e s t i m a t i n g 627 Sa fe ty a n d h a n d l i n g

( n e w p r o d u c t s ) 2 8 Ass i s t ing e n g i n e e r i n g

d e p a r t m e n t 629 A s s i s t i n g o n p i l o t p r o d ­

u c t s : p r o d u c t i o n , s a l e s , advert i s ing

3 0 Serv ic ing a n d m a i n t e ­n a n c e of a c c o u n t s :

a — h a n d l i n g orders b ^ w a r e h o u s i n g c — c a l l s a n d ' c o r r e s p o n d -

e n c e d—records , e t c .

631 A d v e r t i s i n g 632 S a l e s p r o m o t i o n 633 T e c h n i c a l serv ice 634 M a r k e t re search *35 A p p l i c a t i o n re search *36 E c o n o m i c s t u d i e s 637 T r a i n i n g t e c h n i c a l sa les­

m e n

127S C H E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S

°10 M e t h o d s for Qual i ty c o n ­trol (6)

'11 Evaluat ion o f r a w m a ­ter ia ls

•12 I m p r o v e m e n t of: a—products b—processes

e13 N e w : a—products b—processes

*14 Evaluat ion o f b y - p r o d ­u c t s

°15 P a t e n t p r o t e c t i o n *16 T e c h n i c a l a s s i s t a n c e t o

p r o d u c t i o n , s a l e s , a d ­vert i s ing

a17 T r a i n i n g t e c h n i c a l p e r ­s o n n e l for p r o d u c t i o n , s a l e s , d e v e l o p m e n t

President, Executive Vice President

Fig. 2—New Organization Chart, Providing far Commercial Development Department and Re-Grouping of Duties, Among indicated production depart­

ment duties, it will be obvious that some of these have a close bearing on the de­velopment of a new product to the com­mercial stage. You would hardly suppose that anyone would attempt to do this without consultation with the production department, but it has been known to happen. Some, not all, of the functions are noted where production and com­mercial development tie in.

Similarly, among typical research duties it is not surprising to find that all are of interest to commercial development and two are definitely commercial development functions.

In most cases, the development division of the research and development depart­ment, or whatever may correspond to it in any given company, has duties of the general type indicated in the third column. Here, at least seven of the suggested func­tions really belong to commercial develop-tnent, and most of the other functions tie in.

Now in the sales department, the in­creasingly technical nature of phemical sales work has in recent years made tech­nically trained salesmen a necessity, and has at the same time led to the extension of technical sales functions, such as tech­nical service, market research, application research, and other duties.

It will be noted that some of these duties or functions are also listed under the suggested functions of the development department, that is, the division of the re­search and development department shown in our assumed organization chart. Whether under the same names or not, it is a fact that in many chemical companies today, these various technical sales func­tions, or call them product development, market research, or sales development as you will, are being performed in both de­partments and with more overlapping than some companies like to admit. Re­sponding to the march of events during the past decade, sales departments have become more and more technically minded, more "modern research" minded; at the same time research departments have been

pushing forward into marketing problems, trying to find out just what it is the cus­tomer wants and whether the new product they have just turned up in research would be of interest to so and so.

I think many of us are in a transition phase where we recognize these organiza­tion problems and are at least trying in our own way to solve them. Some of the larger chemical companies have recently set up quite elaborate organization charts and are operating in accordance with them, but meanwhile continuing to watch their workability very carefully, very much on the alert for improvements, especially those making for simplicity.

I can hardly over emphasize that the division of duties suggested in Fig. 1 is purely by way of illustration, and much interpretation, translation of terms, and adaptation must be made in considering your own setup. With this reservation, I would suggest the necessity of creating in your organization a new department, which might be called the commercial devebpment department. Its duties, shown in Table III, have been assembled from the three other departments where, in my assumed organization, they are now handled.

You will see a certain continuity or se­quence of functions, each leading into the

Table III· Commercial Development Duties

14—Evaluation of by-products 16—Technical assistance to production,

sales 22, 35^—Application research" 23, 34—Market research» 25,33—Technical service" 26, 36—Cost estimating» 27—Safety and handling (new products) 29—Assistance to production, sales (pilot

products) 31—Advertising 32—Sales promotion 37—Training technical salesmen 24—Publication of technical information

plus liaison with other departments on 14 "interest" items

β Note duties formerly duplicated.

next, and forming together a well inte­grated and logical assignment for this new department. Obviously, it would have to work closely with the three basic depart­ments already mentioned, but of course all departments must work closely together anyhow. This new department would re­lieve the research and development de­partments as well as the sales department of the commercial development functions already indicated. A commercial develop­ment committee consisting of the heads of all four departments would facilitate liai­son, with the chairman being perhaps the executive vice president of the company, or the head of one of the departments.

In Fig. 2 this new department is shown established on a level with the other basic departments, reporting to top management. In contrast, one finds in some companies today, for example, something approxi­mating what is called herein the "com­mercial development department" func­tioning as a subdivision of the sales de­partment and described as "sales develop­ment," "technical^ sales," "product de­velopment," "market development" or something else. In other companies, one finds this group of functions reporting to the man in charge of the research and de­velopment departments. But in the great majority of companies today, I think you will still find essential commercial develop­ment functions scattered among two or more departments. Even the smallest chemical manufacturer, whose flow sheet may be extremely simple, and whose com­mercial development department may con­sist of only one man, will find important benefits in centering in one individual, provided with necessary authority, the responsibility for guiding the destinies of his next new product through that tan­gled wilderness which usually seems to separate his laboratory and his markets.

The new organization arrangement will result in simplification and cutting of red tape by consolidating in one place func­tions that in many companies are still scattered through several departments. With the demonstrated growing urgency for increasing our efficiency in the com-

V O L U M E 2 7, N O . 1 8 . · . » » M A Y 2, 1 9 4 9 1273

Vice President Production

Vice President Research and Development

Vice President Commercial Development

Vice President

Sales

Chief Engineer

Works Chemist

Research Manager

Development Manager

See Table III For D u t i e s

mercial development of our new products, anything which will cut down the number of departments which have to be consulted before any move can be made is bound to help. The example chosen here as an illus­tration may be quite far from your organi­zation chart; the descriptive terms used may be different; you may even be a company where these matters have already been worked out to your complete satis­faction. If so, I hope you will let us know so the Commercial Chemical Development Association may present you with its first annual award. And meanwhile, we hope that you will be willing to sit-down with us and tell us how you do it.

These suggestions for what may be an improved organization must not be inter­preted as a move toward regimentation. The purpose of an organization chart is efficiency. In our efforts to systematize our commercial development work, the research department should find itself relieved of application and market prob­lems and be freer to do the job for which i t is indispensable—the one job which it alone can do. We must leave the research chemist unhampered, because he is the -vita! source of the new ideas without whi^h QO commercial development department

would be needed and eventually, no com­pany.

Back in 1915, about 30 years ago when our American chemical industry was i n its infancy, there was a sage a t East Aurora, Ν. Υ., by the name of Elbert Hubbard who propounded the philosophy that "If a man builds a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to his door." Actually this thought was originally expressed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1855. I call attention to these dates, because the oft-quoted philosophy has long since been out­moded. The tremendous technological progress in America in the last 25 years has produced so many "better mousetraps" that an}r market development program to­day based upon the idea that the market is going to come and seek you out i s doomed to failure. The successful enterpriser to­day must beat a path to the market and present incontrovertible proof that he has indeed a "better mousetrap."

Literature Cited (1) Auchincloss, Win. S., Oil, Paint Drug

Reptr.: private communication. (2) Bell, William E., CHEM. ΕΝΌ. NEWS,

18, 185 (1940). (3) Bcnfey. ThAoHor. Folklore Fellowship

Communication No. 98, pp. 1—178,

Snomalainen Tiedeakat, Acad. Sri. Fennical, Helsinki, 1932.

(4) Cass, O. W., National Farm Chemurgic Council, Report No. 587 (Series No

0 4, 1947) Columbus, Ohio. (5) Cass, O. W., Ind. Eng. Chem., 40, 216

(1948). (6) CHEM. ENG. NEWS, 26, 832-858 (1948). (7) Ibid., 26, 3406 (1948). (8) Chem. Eng., 55, 100, October (1948). (9) Eisenhower, Dwight, Reader'* Digest r

53, 5, October (1948). (10) Fortune, 22, 66, September (1940). (11) Rogers, A. O., Emmick, R. D., Tyranr

L. W., Levine, Α. Α., and Scott, N. D., Abstracts 114th ACS Meeting, p. 57L, St. Louis, Mo.

(12) Tyler, Chaplin, "Chemical Engineering Economics/* 3ided., p. 8, New York. McGraw-Hill Book Co., (1948).

(13) U. S. Tariff Commission, Dec. 10, 1948. (14) Webster, New International Dictionary.

Serendipity: The gift of finding valu­able or agreeable things not sought for. A word coined by Walpole, in allusion to a tale "The Three Princes of Serendip" who in their travels were always discovering by chance or by sagacity, things they did not seek.

(15) Wilson, R. E., CHEM. ENG. NEWS, 27. 275 (1949).

Tine is the first of a scries of papers on commer­cial chemical development presented before the annual meeting of the Commercial Chemical Development Association in New York on March 16. The remaining papers will be published in subsetiuvut ;ε.βΜ*»Λ of C&EN.

First ACS News Service Advisory Boari Appointed J. HE director of the ACS News Service

has appointed an advisory committee of 12, composed of individuals engaged in public relations work in the chemical in­dustry, and a cross-section of ACS mem­bers who have in one way and another evinced interest in publicity and public relations activities in local sections and divisions. Following the practice of the advisory boards of I&EC and C&EN and Analytical Chemistry, membership on this board will be on a rotating basis. (See Editorial, page 1265).

Chester M. Alter, professor of chemistry and dean of the graduate school at Boston

University, began teaching in his home state, Indi­ana, in 1923, before graduating from Ball State Teachers College in 1927. He did graduate study at Indiana University and at the University of

Pittsburgh, then took a Ph.D. at Harvard in 1936. During graduate work he taught at each school. In 1934 he became in structor a t Boston University. H e has been an ACS member since 1930, and was chairman of the Northeastern Section 1947-48. He is an expert in patent trials, and is a research consultant to several'in­dustrial firms. As secretary of the research committee of the New England Council,

he has responsibility for development of general research activities throughout all of New England. He has initiated and planned many community research activi­ties.

George H. Freyermuth, manager o f the public relations department of Standard

Oil Co. ( N . J . ) for about 2 0 years, comes from Cali­fornia, where h e re­ceived his B.S. in mechanical engi­neering i n 1926 at the University of California. His master's degree is from MIT, 1928,

where he specialized in fuels technology. He began his career with Jersey Standard as a chemical engineer a t Baton Rouge refinery. In 1932 he went to Standard Oil Development Co. in Linden, N. J . , as a research engineer, and after three years moved to the sales engineering department of Standard Oil Co. (N. J . ) in New York to head the section handling development and application of fuels and lubricants. In 1937 he became assistant manager of the department, and in 1943 was trans­ferred to the newly organized public rela­tions department. He has held ACS membership since 1939.

F. Leslie Hart» chief chemist of the Los Angeles branch of Food a n d Drug Admin­istration, and an ACS member since

1945, entered gov­ernment service after graduating from Dickinson· College in 1916. He spent three years with the National Bureau of Standards, working on analytical meth­ods for ferrous al­

loys. He then transferred to the Bureau of Chemistry in Washington as an analyst on the enforcement of the Federal Insecticide Act. In 1927 the Food and Drug Admin­istration was created, and Hart was sent first to Chicago, then to the St. Louis-laboratory of that bureau. He returned to Washington in 1931 to develop analyti­cal methods for various food constituents, and in 1934 became chief chemist for the· administration's Buffalo station. H e was transferred to Los Angeles in 1937.

James K. Hunt, technical adviser in the public relations department of E . I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., graduated from Alabama Poly­technic Institute with a B.S. degree in chemical engi­neering. He did postgraduate work at the University of Wisconsin, taking an M.S. in 1925 and a Ph.D. in 1926, majoring in physical

1274 C H E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S