Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

DR. GEORGE H. BROWN GIVES THE PENICILLIN ELECTRONIC DEHYDRATING APPARATUS HE DEVELOPED IN RCA LABORATORIES A FINAL INSPECTION BEFORE IT IS SHIPPED TO THE E. R. SQUIBB & SONS PLANT AT NEW BRUNSWICK. N. J. AIDS PENICILLIN PRODUCTION Electronic System Developed in RCA Laboratories Completes in Thirty Min- utes Evaporation Process Requiring 24 Hours by Conventional Metliotis IMPELLED by recurrinjr de- mands from American fighting fronts and homefront sickrooms for increased production of the re- nowned drug penicillin, the Radio Corporation of America has devel- oped an electronic system that in 30 minutes completes an operation which requires 24 hours by the con- ventional system in the bulk-pro- duction of purified penicillin solu- tion— a time-consuming step in production. This achievement was announced jointly today by the RCA Labora- tories, Princeton, N. J., one of the world's foremost centers of radio and electronic research, which has conceived radio-frequency concen- tration of penicillin solution, and E. R. Squibb & Sons, manufactur- ing chemists to the medical profes- sion since 1858, under whose auspices extensive tests have just been completed. Tests at the new Squibb penicil- lin production plant at New Bruns- wick, N. J., showed that in one day's operation a single RCA elec- tronic apparatus had a potential capacity of concentrating penicillin solutions containing approximately 2.000,000,000 Oxford units. The speed of operation is about 48 times as fast as it is in one of the conventional "freeze-drying" ma- chines. The number of units con- centrated in 24 hours in an RCA electronic appai'atus corresponds to approximately 20,000 ampuls, each containing 100,000 units —an amount sufficient to treat 4,000 patients re(|uiring 500,000 units each. S(|uibb scientists disclosed that during the experimental jieriod starting on May 5, when the high- frequency equipment was installed, they conducted more than 1,000 tests to ascertain the relative ef- fectiveness of the electronic system and the conventional method of concentrating this product. The advantages in using radio heat, ;iside from speeding the process, included: 1. Reduction in operating costs, equivalent to the saving of one ton of dry ice a day, or approximately $65 evei-y 24 hours. 2. Reduction in maintenance costs through elimination of complicated freezing appara- tus and high vacuum pumps. 3. Smoother flow of produc- tion, with less chance of shut- downs and other delays due to refrigeration and mechanical difficulties. 4. Reduction in floor space requirements by nearly 10 times, as the RCA etiuipment takes up about the space of an ui)-ended office desk. In addition, RCA officials pointed out, the radio frequency equipment represents a large saving in initial investment, as compared with the installations required for concen- tration by freeze-drying, with sin- gle units of the RCA equipment tested at Squibb destined to be sold at about $6,000 which is several hundred per cent less than some of the present installations in use by the Nation's eighteen producers of Iienicillin. Horace A. Holaday, Associate Director in Charge of Squibb Bio- logical Laboratories, who super- vised the tests, had this to say: "On the basis of what 1 have observed, the RCA apparatus offers an important contributions in facil- itating the evaporation of the final purified penicillin solution. It greatly simplifies the operation. [RADIO AGE 7]