The American Synthetic Organic Chemicals Industry by Steen Kathryn

Author:Steen, Kathryn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2014-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 7.1. U.S. Chemical Warfare Association, “National Safety.” (Courtesy of the Manuscript, Archive, and Rare Book Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, Charles H. Herty Papers, box 98, folder 21.)

Volwiler explained that Abbott Labs had to invest $17,000 and two and a half years of research to supplement information from the German patent in order to produce cinchophen. Novocaine had cost even more in time and money in cooperative research between Abbott and the University of Illinois before Abbott could bring it to market. Elmer K. Bolton of Du Pont recounted some of the difficulties his company encountered in attempting to employ the German patents. One of the biggest problems was simply identifying which patents were related to which dyes. Beyond that, because Du Pont chemists did not have appropriate methods to measure the progress of a reaction, they regularly achieved only low yields of poor quality. They eventually discovered that the patented processes required modifications, such as including additional ingredients, altering the temperature, or changing the concentration of solutions, before the researchers could achieve commercial products. In short, Bolton stated that the patents “do not have any practical value without the know-how.”64 Such a judgment could presumably apply to nearly all patents at all times, but in the years immediately following World War I and in the court case, this general characteristic could be used to register complaints specifically against the German chemical patents.

Anderson had difficulty contesting the chemists’ testimony that they had all been forced to alter substantially the processes described in the German patents to achieve the desired products. All through the hearings, Judge Morris had adopted a liberal policy on the kinds of evidence permitted by each side in the case. However, as Anderson pushed the industrial chemists to describe in detail how they had departed from the procedures outlined in the patents, Morris implemented his first restrictions on evidence and curtailed Anderson’s probe. The chemists said they feared divulging trade secrets, and Morris felt strongly that participation in the trial should not jeopardize the companies’ investments and make manufacturers reluctant to appear in court in the future. The judge’s decision prevented Anderson from questioning the validity of the chemists’ statements, and the lawyer could only observe obliquely that it was in the chemists’ self-interest to condemn the patents.65

In addition to the industry chemists, Julius Stieglitz, one of the most respected organic chemists in the country, appeared for the Chemical Foundation to criticize the patent descriptions. Stieglitz had received his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin and had trained under August W. Hofmann, the famed German organic chemist, before joining the chemistry department at the University of Chicago. During the war Stieglitz conducted research on Salvarsan, and he found the patent description defective on more than one count. The patent failed to state that the starting material needed to be absolutely pure. Normally manufacturers expected to settle for some lesser degree of purity, he said. The patent also neglected to mention the point at which moisture had to be excluded.

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