The over-worked words, co-operation and service, best describe the
spirit of the recent gathering held in New York, under the auspices of
the American Chemical Society. The affiliated organizations such as
the technical section of the Pulp and Paper Association met at the
same time, and their deliberations were permeated with the same spirit
as characterized the chemical organization.
Hundreds of the best chemical men on the continent, technical
experts from pulp and paper mills, college men from all the great
universities, and others interested in the spread of technical and
chemical knowledge, gathered in New York and gave their best. Men who
had experimented for years in the quiet of their own laboratories,
made public the results of their patient research work. Technical
experts and college men vied with practical mill men in revealing the
things which they had found to be of benefit in the working out of the
manufacturing problems of the day. There were no secrets, the cards
were laid on the table, and men who found a certain line of work, or
policy, or experiments beneficial, frankly and freely made public the
result of their findings.
The chemists felt that it was “up to them” to make this continent
independent of Germany in chemical research. The result of their two
years of effort were simply beyond belief; even the chemists themselves
were surprised at the wonderful progress that had been made in
supplying dye-stuffs and other chemicals that were formerly obtained
from Germany. If the war should continue another year, this continent
will be practically independent of the foreign dye-maker.
In much the same way, satisfactory progress was made in connection with
the technical work of the Pulp and Paper Association. The papers read,
the discussions carried on, and the conclusions reached, marked further
progress in the work of the Association, and made it more than ever
apparent that the technical man is an increasingly important factor in
the modern paper mill. A number of the papers read at the gathering
appear in this issue of the Pulp and Paper Magazine.