80 cc. of benzene containing 0.5 cc. of water. Each solution was saturated with sulfurous dioxide and allowed to stand a t ordinary temperatures in loosely corked flasks (since these experiments were tried before we had found that the quinhydrone crystals were deposited without any evaporation of the solvent). After four weeks the flask containing the iodo-ani1 showed crystals, some of which were black like the quinhydrone, others brown like iodoanil, but, as the black crystals were no larger than the others, the darker color could not be due to greater thickness. This black color, which vie have neT-er observed with iodoanil alone, justifies us in inferring that the quinhydrone had been formed, and we were confirmed in this belief by the peculiarities in habit of the two sorts of crystals, for, while the black were usually terminated a t both ends by two planes a t an obtuse angle, the brown showed only one such termination, the other, if well developed, consisting of a single plane a t right angles to the sides. From the solution of chloroanil there had been deposited large clumps of white prisms evidently tetrachlorohydroquinone mixed with a small amount of yellow unchanged chloroanil, while only a yellow deposit of bromoanil was obtained from the experiment with this compound. Neither with chloroanil nor the bromoanil was there any indication of a substance with a darker color than yellow.'4ction of Iodoanil on Tetraiodohydroquinone.-To determine whether the formation of the quinhydrone required that the hydroquinone should be in the nascent state, a mixture of iodoanil and tetraiodohydroquinone, in the proportion of two molecules of the former to one of the latter, was dissolved in warm benzene. Upon cooling brown crystals of iodoanil separated and the liquid was then allowed to stand in a loosely corked flask for several weeks, when the crystals deposited were found to consist of long, slender, brown prisms and broader, black, prismatic plates, from which we infer that octoiodoquinhydrone had been formed in this case also, although in smaller quantity than in the experiment, in which the iodoanil was reduced by sulfurous acid. CAMBRIDGE, MASS[CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY. ] THE SPLITTING OF BENZHYDROLS BY THE ACTION OF BROMINE.

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THE latter part of the first decade of the present century, when chemical fibers first appeared on the market under the generic name of Artificial Silk, a group of silk manufacturers appointed a committee to look into this young fiber and report whether it offered any possibility of ultimate success as a textile fiber competitive with silk. After due deliberation, the committee reported that the fiber wras so harsh in feel and so easily weakened by water that there ivas no chance of its ever finding extensive use in the textile industry. That is what happens when men lack technically guided imaginations! Yet in spite of this report, there were consumed in GLSTAVUS J. ESSELEN Gustavos J. Esselen, Inc., Boston, Mass. the United States in 1934 more than 199,000,000 pounds of rayon ( 6) as compared with a little over 61,000,000 pounds of silk, or more than three times as much rayon as silk.Although there were in Europe several plants for the manufacture of artificial silk prior to 1900, the first plant in this country was erected in Marcus Hook, Pa., by the Viscose Company in 1910; the following year the plant produced viscose yarn at the rate of about 1000 pounds per day, the total production for the year being a little over 362,000 pounds. This factory was only about one-third the size of what is today considered the very smallest plant that will permit of economical production.