The thermal and mechanical properties of fired clay bricks containing three different pore‐forming additives at comparable concentrations (~25 wt %) were investigated. The additives included three types: inorganic (vermiculite), organic (sawdust), and ash (wood ash). These additives have very different pore‐forming mechanisms during the firing process and leave very different residuals in the fired brick. Brick properties are affected by the brick forming process (e.g., the raw materials, forming, drying, and firing processes), and so there is wide variation in the effects of additives on brick properties in the published literature. Therefore, the objective of this effort was to compare selected properties of fired clay bricks with different types of additives, while keeping the brick forming process the same. In this study, the trends in bulk density, porosity, water absorption, compressive strength, and thermal conductivity with incorporation of additives in clay bricks support those that have been published. However, the thermal conductivity of the brick with 25 wt % wood ash was comparable to that for the brick without additives, despite having greater porosity and lower bulk density. This supports that both the pores formed during the firing process and the residuals of the additives significantly impact the brick properties. © 2019 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 38: e13150, 2019

Ovens.-The writer's attention has been called to a review in the June number of the Journal, of the book entitled "A Short Treatise on the Destructive Distillation of Bituminous Coal," in which the reviewer draws some conclusions as to the disposal of coke oven by-products that hardly seem justified when the rapid development of these markets in recent years is considered, as well as their present status. The review questions whether the addition of a plant carbonizing 1,000 tons of coal daily, to the present by-product oven installation, producing approximately three and

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I 1 5 1 the prevention of war. What will the Day of the Chemist bring forward as his contribution to war's prevention? And yet despite the possession by the German nation of a highly honored body of the world's greatest scientists the scourge came and none could stay it. Something more then is required than simple devotion to scientific truth. Is it "reasonableness?" In other words, that spirit of mind which is not allied to partisanship-the balanced, considerate and open mind. When that shall be the recognized mental equipment of every scientific man, then shall dawn the True Day of the Chemist.