Robert Fulton, Eli Whitney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford — these are some of the larger-than-life figures who spring to mind when reflecting on the history of innovation and invention in the U.S. But the first person in American history to…
A reclusive expert of 19th-century photography laid the foundation for mechanochemistry, a once-ignored field that is re-emerging in ‘green chemistry’ applications For decades in the late 1800s, Carey Lea had been fascinated by the chemistry of photography, and had studied…
Transparent polymer film started with an accident . . . and spurred a packaging revolution One night in Paris, in 1900, Swiss chemist Jacques Brandenberger was enjoying dinner in a restaurant when he noticed that a fellow patron had spilled…
Atmospheric Storage Tanks This refers to the [Engineering Practice] article “Designing Atmospheric Storage Tanks” [March 2017, pp. 77–82]. It is interesting and informative. Please convey my congratulations to the author. Some of the suggested methods may lead to expensive designs…
Control Engineering for Chemical Engineers The March 2017 Chemical Engineering issue features the article “Control Engineering for Chemical Engineers” [pp. 42–50]. The author has brought up an interesting topic that should concern everybody working at any chemical processing facility. I…
Steam Concepts I enjoy reading your magazine and find many of its articles informative and helpful. I noticed several errors in the [Facts at Your Fingertips] article, Steam Concepts, [February 2017, p. 32] and wanted to bring them to your…
The preliminary value for the December CE Plant Cost Index (CEPCI; the most recent available) was higher than the previous month’s value by a signficant margin for the second consecutive month. The jump was due to a rise in the…
Pump Safety: Flirting With Disaster I just finished reading your article (Pump Safety: Flirting With Disaster, pp. 67–70, December 2016) and want to indicate the following: In the third example, the text said that the HBEP/HSO is 0.7, but in…
Communicating in acronyms I finally got around to reading the May 2016 issue of Chemical Engineering. I was fascinated with the editorial [p.5]. I have been an engineer since 1968 and in the EH&S (environmental, health and safety) field since…
At the April 2016 Seattle meeting of the ASME B31.3 Process Piping Code Committee, a presentation — a cautionary note in a manner of speaking — was given by Barry Messer of Fluor Corp. (www.fluor.com). The topic was the unexpectedly…