East African Industrial Research Board

Abstract

THE fifth annual report of the East African Industrial Research Board (Pp. iii+28. Nairobi, P.O. Box 1587.), covering the year ended December 31, 1947, includes the report of the acting chairman, Mr. H. B. Stent, the General Laboratory report, the annual report of the Tanganyika Industrial Committee, 1947, and a list of publications on industrial research in East Africa. A departmental report on ceramics details the work carried out on bricks and roofing tiles, domestic pottery, refractories, building materials, glazed wall-tiles and drain-pipes, while a fairly full account is given of work on the extraction of undried pyrethrum flowers, which has given results comparing favourably with existing methods of extracting dried flowers and appears to merit large-scale trials. Work on silicophosphate is also described in detail, including the results of rotary kiln firings, laboratory-scale firings, and of investigations on the fractions of the clinker soluble in water and in citric acid. Investigations on the treatment of effluents from the processing of sisal and coffee have continued, and biological filtration gave promising results for the former. The Tanganyika Industrial Committee reports on the production of totaquina, the final target of 10,000 lb. for which was met early in November, 1947. Other investigations under the Committee related to the assay and manufacture of papain, and the assay and cultivation of pyrethrum flowers. The Board itself at its three meetings during the year focused its attention on negotiations for the early establishment of a permanent East African Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and a memorandum was submitted to the East African Governments and to the Colonial Office advocating the establishment of such an Organisation on the lines of other existing inter-territorial research organisations. Stress was laid on the vital need of such work if the large sums of money for the development of the East African territories are to be used to the best advantage.