The Opelousas courier., 1904-03-05
CHEMICAL ENGINEERS.
A NEW PROFESSION THAT HAS
COME INTO EXISTENCE.

He is Part Physicist, Part Chemist and
Part Mechanical EngIneer-He Must
Solve the Countless Problems Which
Arise in the Great Industrial Plants.
With the ~far-spreading of great in
dustrial plants in the last two decades
q new profession has come info exist
ence-chemical engineering, for which
the Massachusetts, Institute OF Tech
nclogy In Boston has apparently been
the first technical school, either in this
country or abroad, to make adequate
provision.
The chemical engineer is part me
chanical engineer, part physicist, part
chemist. In this combined capacity
he is responsible for about all our mod
ern advance In industrial processes
from the making Of rubber boots to
the production of crystalized sugar,
from oil refining to the manufacture
OF armor plate. Wherever you see q
great plant for the manufacture of any
important chemical compound or the
utilization of any important chemical
process you nay be sur that q
chemical engineer laid down the plans
and solved many of the preliminary
problems necessary to meet on a large
scale the demands Of successful COM
mercial operation.
The necessity of this combination Of
chemist and mechanical engineer for
the development of any large industri-
al enterprise that depends for results
upon the action of chemicals becomes
evident when one realizes that a pow
erful chemical agent acts upon other
materials with which it comes in con-
tact as well as upon the particular
substances with which 1t originally en-
tiers into combination. The mechani-
cal engineer knows nothing Of chem
ical reactions. While he can tell to q
nicely. the amount Of wear and tear
to which an ordinary boiler or pipe
will be subjected when used to boil
water or conduct water, he faces an al
together different problem If his boil
er is to be filled with a corrosive acid.
Here the chemical knowledge Of the
chemical engineer comes into play.
He Is able not only to fortell the ac-
ton Of that acid on the material OF
that boiler. but to choose material up
on which the acid will have the least
hurtful effect. and thus ave time and
money as well as increase efficiency.
Moreover. his knowledge of physics
solves countless problems in Which
the physical properties of his chemi-
Gals play an important part in pro-
ducing the manufactured product.
The modern development of sugar
refining is a good concrete illustra-
ton Of the use of chemical engineering
in a long line OF industries. Not SO
long ago the processes of sugar refiios
ing were carried on by hand, although
the chemical reactions on which they
depended were practically identical
with those now utilized. In the mod
ern refinery the crude sugar is I'M
loaded direct from the vessel into the
lower story of the tall building which
the chemical engineer has designed
To receive it; here it Is mixed with
water to be pumped to an upper sto-
ry, where It begins mechanically and
on q large scale the same series OF
changes which it formerly underwent
by hand and on d small scale. In the
top story it Is first boiled and
skinned, skinned and boiled. with
chemicals added to coagulate
the impurities, until the whole ID re-
duced to a thick syrup. This syrup
flows downward into series of strain
ers that still further purify it. Leav-
these strainers. it works itself
through q purifying machine
some 30 feet high. From this machine
the sugar. onw a transparent mass,
drops into the vacuum pans" where
more boiling reduces it to a mush OF
crystals and molasses. Then the floor
opens beneath it and it falls OF its
own weight to the mixer" where con
stirring, ono done with show
bis in the hands of negro laborers, re-
iuces the crystals to more perfect con-
iition.
The vacuum pan in which the sugar
irst crystallizes Is one of the earliest
.riumphs of chemical engineering as
to this special industry. The
under which the operation
gees forward lessons the time neces-
sary for evaporation, and so lessons
he coal bill that runs the fires under
he boiler, and begins the process OF
the cost Of the product
when It comes to the market. With
he ordinary evaporator, open to the
one pound OF coal will usually
syaporate eight pounds OF water; with
he improved e~vaporatOr Of a big re-
inery this same pound of coal will
ayaporate some 30 pounds OF water.
The apparatus, invented by the me
shanical engineer who has also o
working knowledge of chemistry, has
economical the necessary heat By
Yearly so percent. and has at the same
Inc saved the sugar itself from d
considerable amount Of deterioration.
And in q smaller way the dropping of
he crystals into the mixer is another
riumph. Formerly this would have
,een done by shovels, while the
gh6le mass would have had to be
urned over many times more during
he succeeding steps Of the operation.
3ur In the refinery the sugar drops
rom door to ioor, each devoted to q
ingle process, until. by a final drop.
| falls into the barrels In which 1t
,oas ont t-cESl-narket. .
The chemical enginssr however,
Ices not stop with the construction,
maintenance. and operation o1 his