MUCH good work is being done in industrial research by the Mellon Institute of Pittsburgh. In the Shoe Factory and in the Starchroom Laundry Journal of October 1933 interesting tests are described on shoe leather and on ‘Calgon’, a special form of sodium metaphosphate for use in laundering. In introducing a new special leather, it was found necessary to supplement actual wearing trials by laboratory tests. The ‘Vici’ leather, produced by a new method of tanning, was exposed in an oxygen bomb and in a fadeometer, and it was tested for use as a water bag. But these methods were not sufficient. It was necessary to test the resistance of the leather to ‘scuffing’, that is, to surface disfigurement by a sharp, cutting blow. Shoes made from various leathers were enclosed in a wooden drum with buttons on the inside. The air in the drum was kept at a temperature of 100° F. and it was rotated at 18 revolutions per minute. Five sample shoes are placed in the drum with a moist abrasive and the test is completed when the counter shows that 700 revolutions have been made. The samples are then carefully wiped and dried and are graded on the basis of the number, area and depth of the scuffs. This test gave satisfactory results. The story told in the Laundry Journal of the technical development of sodium metaphosphate from being merely a laboratory curiosity to being a valuable commercial product is most interesting. Calgon dissolves soaps in the washer, shortens the time required, is not harmful to the materials or injurious to colours. It has excellent emulsifying properties, as shown by its successful use in the laundering of greasy overalls.