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Confirmation has been obtained that reducing the content of natural free alcohols in lanolin to below 3 % particularly in the absence of detergent residues, reduces the incidence of positive patch test reactions amongst selected lanolin-sensitive skin patients by 99.3 %. Only one reaction out of 149 subjects was recorded.

Several criteria for determining the sex of the southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimm., were investigated. The combination of the prominence of the frontal tubercles and depth of frontal groove was 100% accurate and was chosen as the best criterion. Data on sex ratios at different points in the beetle's life history are given.

Oxidation of Wool Alcohols B.P. in stored Oily Cream B.P. is insignificant and does not affect the stability of the cream, but the method of preparation, and the amount of autoxidation in the wool alcohols used in making the cream, do affect stability. Storage of wool alcohols before use, as a mixture with Liquid Paraffin B.P. or Liquid Lanolin “60” (a solvent segregation product of Anydrous Lanolin) greatly reduces autoxidation. Liquid Lanolin “60” also acts as an auxiliary emulsifier and imparts stability. Modifications to the official method of preparation are suggested.

Long-term storage tests under good and bad conditions, and accelerated active oxygen method tests, have shown that autoxidative degradation of anhydrous lanolin can be satisfactorily inhibited for at least 32 months under good conditions or 2 years under bad conditions by 100 p.p.m. of butylated hydroxytoluene or butylated hydroxyanisole. Good results from other antoxidants, and disadvantages of some, are reported. Different lanolins are affected to different degrees, possible reasons being suggested, but autoxidation when uninhibited does not penetrate deeper than 1 cm. even after 2 years of adverse conditions; there is a fall in melting point and formation of up to 4.7 per cent of water-soluble substances including low-molecular weight acids. Absence of change in iodine value and rapid increase of acidity in darkness are contrary to previous reports.

To make practical the extensive use of resistance thermometers for industrial temperature measurement and control, an instrument having high sensitivity, sturdy construction, and simplicity is needed. To fill this need the ratio instrument described in this paper was developed. Conventional ratio instrument mechanisms proved to be inherently unstable at the high sensitivities required. The mechanism of the new instrument employs a crossed-coil moving system and a novel permanent magnet pole-face geometry resulting in higher sensitivities than have been previously obtained with ratio mechanisms. A resistance thermometer using the new instrument, while sturdy enough to withstand the shocks and vibration encountered in industrial applications, has a sensitivity high enough to make practical scale spans as small as 50 degrees centigrade.

The effects on Wool Alcohols B.P. of gradual autoxidation during storage at room temperature have been compared with the known effects of accelerated oxidation. There is a decrease in emulsification value, a bleaching of the surface, and, contrary to previous reports, a rapid fall in melting point. Autoxidation, even under bad conditions, has been inhibited, apart from a slight fall in melting point, for at least 23 months by the addition of 500 p.p.m. of butylated hydroxyanisole, but certain other antoxidant systems had only a limited effect.

WITH the electrical industry's increase in size and importance throughout the United States, a corresponding increase occurs in applications for electric direct-acting recording instruments. As power levels become larger, it becomes increasingly important to improve their control and application. Recording instruments possess the valuable feature of showing in permanent form the history of a given circuit. From this history, the future performance of the circuit can be predicted.

Diapause pink boll worm ( Pectinophora gossypiella (Saund.)), larvae were activated prior to the Berlese funnel treatment by exposing moist, infested material to 80° to 100° F. for 70 to 140 hours. This activation did not necessarily break the diapause. Through the use of heat, larvae of nondiapause pink boll worm, boll weevil ( Anthonomus grandis Boh.), greater wax moth ( Galleria mellonella (L.)), a phorid fly ( Megaselia sp.), and saprophagous flies were forced out of infested material with little difficulty. A heater using a Nichrome wire grid which gave uniform heat was devised for large Berlese funnels, thus allowing large amounts of insect-infested material to be processed with high larval yield.

Oil production in South America and the Caribbean area during 1958 was 1,120,800,000 bbls. or 3,071,100 b/d, compared with 1,169,200,000 bbls. or 3,202,700 b/d during 1957. The reduction was due mainly to the decrease of 174,000 b/d in Venezuela. In Brazil production was nearly doubled, from 27,700 b/d to 51,800 b/d, while small gains were also noted in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Trinidad. The total number of wells drilled in the area in 1958 amounted to 2,418 compared with 3,074 in 1957. This decrease was again due mainly to the reduction in drilling in Venezuela from 1,828 wells to 1,111. Prominent among new developments in South America and the Caribbean were (1) re-opening of Argentina to foreign investment in the petroleum industry and (2) increase in income tax in Venezuela, resulting in a substantial increase in the Government's share of oil-company profits. The president of Venezuela has reportedly stated that there would be no more oil concessions granted in Venezuela, and exploration activity in Venezuela was being reduced at the end of the year. In Argentina, contracts calling for very substantial capital expenditures during the next few years have been signed with a number of foreign oil and financial organizations. In this way it is hoped to conserve foreign currency now being used for the importation of petroleum and its products. Several Central American countries saw continued leasing activity as a result of new petroleum laws, and considerable surface exploration and drilling were carried out.

Exploration and production activities in 1959 were stimulated in Argentina and Brazil, in a politically inspired effort to achieve self-sufficiency in petroleum, but were depressed in Venezuela, which sells the bulk of its production in competition with other major producing areas of the world. In South America as a whole, crude oil production in 1959 was 3,244,900 b/d, only fractionally higher than in 1957. There were appreciable increases, as compared with 1957, in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Trinidad, totalling 113,100 b/d, this was offset by a decrease of 69,000 b/d in Venezuelan production. Exploration activities were maintained at a high level in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia but decreased considerably in Venezuela, where large concession areas were voluntarily surrendered.

The oil production of South America and Trinidad again increased during 1957, and amounted to nearly 1,170,000,000 bbls. (3,204,357 b/d) of which nearly 87% came from Venezuela. However, Venezuela's production which was built up rapidly to a peak of 2,975,000 b/d in June was cut back to 2,500,000 b/d by the end of the year. Trinidad production increased by 18% over 1956 and, with an average of 93,324 b/d, became the third largest producer in South America and the Caribbean. Argentina increased production by nearly 10% to 93,018 b/d. Brazilian production increased from 11,100 b/d in 1956 to nearly 28,000 b/d and exploration and development continue actively. Elsewhere in the Caribbean Islands and Central America, oil production remained small (1,082 b/d from Cuba), but there was considerable exploratory activity. A total of 3,074 wells, 1,739 of them in Venezuela, were drilled in 1957, compared with 2,606 wells in 1956. Both exploration and development drilling contributed to the high level of activity, which had fallen off appreciably by the end of the year. Nearly 350 exploratory wells, 39% of which found new oil accumulations, were drilled during the year. New oil concessions were granted during 1957 in Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

Oil production increased in 1956 in practically all the producing South American countries. Trinidad also showed a marked increase in production. The total production during the year was approximately 1,036,588,000 bbls. (2,832,000 b/d), which is 13% above the 911,229,000 bbls. (2,497,000 b/d) produced in 1955. The most substantial increase was in Venezuela where 1956 production was nearly 112,000,000 bbls. (307,000 b/d) more than in 1955. Following closure of the Suez Canal, Venezuelan production increased rapidly and at the end of the year had reached more than 2,700,000 b/d. In Brazil, an active exploration and development program continued. Trinidad production increased for the fourth consecutive year and offshore drilling and production in the Gulf of Paria got under way. Exploration drilling in South America and the Carribbean area, as measured by the number of wells drilled, dropped off in 1956 when 306 wells were drilled, as compared with 635 in 1955. However, the number of development wells completed increased 17% in 1956 to a total of 2,300 wells. Wide foreign interest was evident in several Central American countries during the year, as new petroleum laws encouraging foreign investment came into effect in Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica. Nicaragua was also revamping its mining law to encourage exploration for petroleum.

Exploration activities continued at a high level in Argentina and Brazil, but declined practically to a standstill in Venezuela. South American production of crude averaged almost 3,500,000 b/d in 1960, and was 5% higher than in 1959; most of the increase came from Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil. The Government of Venezuela set up an agency to operate as a national oil company, thus increasing to eight the number of governments in the Western Hemisphere participating directly in petroleum exploration and production operations by this means.

Wool fat on the fleece has a high peroxide value because of autoxidation, this value falls greatly during washing of the wool and grease-recovery as a result of biological or chemical reduction. It increases again if anhydrous lanolin refined from this grease is bleached by oxidation. Peroxide values are useful as a measure of autoxidation only if values of the surface and lower layers are compared.

Vf. berichtet uber die Veranderung der Zerflies- und Streichfahigkeit, des Eindringens von Wasser und der Haftfestigkeit beim Nachschleifen von „Leimfarben”, wenn ihnen Wollfett beigemischt wird. Zweck der Untersuchungen war, Ol/Wasser-Emulsionsfarben herzustellen, die die grundsatzlichen Bestimmungen der Britischen Normenvorschriften 1053 : 1950 ubertreffen sollten.

IT has recently been reported1,2 that complete or almost complete fractionation of wool wax into oxidized and unoxidized fractions occurs during centrifugal recovery from the scouring liquor. We have already3 found evidence of a rapid fall in the high peroxide value of the wax emulsified in the hot scouring liquor, a slow fall continuing even in the cold, and unless centrifugal separation takes place during or immediately after scouring, all the wax in the liquor is almost peroxide-free and centrifuging does not give fractions of very different peroxide value. The peroxides presumably break down to the usual ultimate oxidation products such as ketones and fatty acids, and these fatty acids tend to remain in the alkaline liquor as soap, thus contributing to the fractionation of oxidized products during centrifuging. This is supported by the much higher acid value which Anderson and Wood1 found in their ‘unrecovered’ compared with their ‘recovered’ wax.

RESISTANCE thermometers have several advantages over other types of temperature-measuring equipment especially in the − 150-to + 150-degree centigrade range. They are inherently stable and accurate, and the end device may be located several hundred feet from the primary detector without affecting calibration. There are no cold-junction errors requiring compensation, such as are encountered in thermocouple thermometers. Although resistance thermometers have been used for many years in standardizing work in thermometry and for aircraft temperature measurements, they have not been used extensively in industrial applications. The primary reason for this is that instruments which combine high sensitivity and simplicity with sturdy construction have not been available to make practical an industrial resistance thermometer which consists essentially of a resistance temperature detector, a power supply, and a ratio instrument.