Amber-hi-lites [antikvár]

This compendium of the issues of Amber-Hi-Lites covering a period of half a century requires some commentary. Late in 1948, during the beginning of the modem era of ion exchange resin technology, several of my associates and I at Rohm and Haas Company discussed the merits of a company bulletin on the subject of ion exchange resin technology. The bulletin would be sent to customers, customers of customers, and prospective customers. Not only were the issues (185 in number. No. 185 published in 1989) distributed to the foregoing people in the U.S., but the distribution was international in scope and many academic institutions were also recipients of Amber-Hi-Lites. Further, the U.S. Patent Office was a recipient of Amber-HiLites and many decisions of the U.S. Patent Office referred to specific issues of Amber-Hi-Lites. Interestingly, the author recalls that a few issues of Amber-Hi-Lites were cited against two of his patent applications. The first issue of Amber-Hi-Lites was dated April, 1949, and differed considerably from later issues. There were several short items on the front page, covering various news items of interest to the ion exchange "industry". The second and third pages contained three short articles on Protein Purification, Silica Sorption and Bacteria Binding as well as several articles on ion exchange taken from the current literature. There was a short note on the bottom of the front page which read: "Every publication must have a motive, a plan, a reason for existence. And Amber-Hi-Lites is no exception. It will report all the news of ion exchange that it can hold, so that you who search for efficient process shortcuts, and you who have only an academic interest in ion exchange phenomena may run and read and file to read again." Whereas most of the issues were written by the author of this Introduction, he must sincerely acknowledge the efforts of the many who supported the concept of Amber-Hi-Lites and to those who contributed to the editing and publishing of the many issues as well as to those who wrote some of the issues. These include the following: Dr. George Bodamer Gerry Button Charlie Dickert Joe Fanelli Dr. Sallie Fisher The late Dr. Norman Frisch Bob Goodale Dick Hetherington Frank McGarvey The late Dr. F.J. Myers Bob Percival Dr. A1 Preuss Bill Waitz The late Dr. Hal Weaver Dr. A1 Winger Following their retirement from Diamond Shamrock, Drs. Irv Abrams and Bob Anderson each contributed an issue of Amber-Hi-Lites. In addition, the author must also acknowledge the foresight of the late E.C.B. Kirsopp, an early associate of the late Otto Haas, the founder of Rohm and Haas Company, who obtained the world rights to the patents of Adams and Holmes of the British Dept. of Science and Industrial Research (DSIR). When Mr. Kirsopp returned to the U.S. in the late thirties following one of his frequent visits to the UK. he told the Research Division of Rohm and Haas Company, then referred to as Resinous Products and Chemicals Company, that they were now in the ion exchange business. He further noted that if the research people thought that the major reason for the acquisition was to enter the field of water softening, he warned them that this was not the case. Although Mr. Kirsopp was not technically trained, he looked at the "rights" to the Adams and Holmes patents as a "hunting license" to explore novel applications and break new ground for these unusual polymers. He looked at these polymers as being"reactive" polymers. It should be recalled that the discovery of Adams and Holmes in the mid-thirties came upon this scene shortly after the classic work of Baekeland which led to the development of the Bakelite phenol formaldehyde polymers. Since Mr. Kirsopp was already deeply involved with the development of the phenol