The American Standards Association, the American Society for Testing Materials and the American Engineering Council are some of the organizations whose effectiveness depends in many cases on the collaboration that they receive from trade associations as well as individual concerns that carry on research.
The fundamental factors underlying industrial research are: the need for making goods at less cost, of better quality, and in larger quantity. As incidental to the better utilization of avail able raw materials, industrial research has been responsible for the creation of new materials, new applications of old materials, and the creation of new industries. It is not possible to draw up a classification of industrial research which will satisfy all purposes, but in this survey the products have been grouped about the qualifications of the research worker and not upon the ultimate use to which the product may be put.
The conservation of natural resources has been one of the prin cipal impulses for research in the chemical industry. By the proc ess known as "cracking" almost twice as much gasoline may be obtained from crude oil as by the straight process of distillation. A process has been developed for making motor fuel from certain refinery gases which formerly were wasted. Refinement of gaso
line has produced a motor fuel that eliminates engine "knock" attributable to the uneven burning of the mixture.
Great strides have been made in the creation of an entirely new industry in plastics through the perseverance of research workers. The development of a phenolic resinoid base for plastic mate rials encouraged a wide expansion of electrical devices through the provision of cheap and efficient insulating materials. When cellulose fillers were added to this resinoid base many useful in dustrial applications were discovered in which materials requiring lightness, high finish, and mechanical strength were demanded. The use of mineral fillers has furnished materials less easy to process but which have high heat resistance and excellent water resistance. The latter property has resulted in the adaptation of the new materials for outdoor paint. Articles of considerable impact strength, such as automobile gear wheels, have also been made successfully from these plastics.
Paralleling this development has been the extensive research into the employment of cellulose as a base for plastics. Many articles of decoration and utility formerly made only in restricted quantities from natural products like amber, bone, wood, tortoise shell, etc., are now made from plastic materials derived from cellulose. Durable toilet-ware in gay colours, electrical appli ances, jewellery, lighting equipment, motion picture film, automo bile accessories, and a thousand and one other useful things (not omitting the ubiquitous cellophane) have been produced in vast quantities at low cost.
One of the great advantages of the utilization of this plastic material is the existing wealth of raw material, much of which was formerly regarded as waste. An additional development has been the creation, after much research, of an improved safety glass. Cellulose nitrate and acetate had certain marked disad vantages as the plastic filling for safety glass, chief of which was their tendency to become brittle and to lose their effectiveness at temperatures below F. A production drawback was the neces sity for sealing all edges of the glass to avoid evaporation of the plastic and to prevent moisture from attacking it. The develop ment of a polyvinyl acetal resin for the plastic film between sheets of glass has done much to remove these defects in laminated glass for safety purposes.