JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS takes place, but before such a load is cleared a sample is drawn from the delivery side and carefully examined in the laboratory. These remarks give some idea of the amount of care that is taken at all stages of production and delivery and it is certainly true that the resulting home-produced white oils compare most favourably with any offered by competitive sources. This talk would be incomplete without some mention of individual, national and international standards of purity. This is a very complex subject and it really requires a special study, but one or two points are mentioned by way of illustration. It is well known that the most generally recognised standard of purity in this country to-day is that laid down in the British Pharmacopmia. It stipulates, amongst other things, a minimum gravity and viscosity, the maximum amount of solid paraffins and the degree of carbonisable substances. It goes to a great length to explain how these carbonisable substances are determined and measured. The Statutory Order No. 1545 covering the Mule Spinning Special Regulations for Health states that "white oil" means a hydrocarbon oil of petroleum origin which has been drastically refined with sulphuric acid and conforms to a specified colour and viscosity. The specified colour is Plus 30 on a Saybolt co!orimeter and that means a water-white oil. Colour, or rather lack of colour for this class of oil is a good guide to standard of purity. It is, however, remarkable that so far there are no standards laid down on an official scale for stability, which is a very important characteristic for such oils not only in the cosmetics industry but in many others. For that matter it apphes equally importantly to many other commodities. A good deal of research on these points has been done in recent years, and the time seems ripe for some drastic change in standard of measurement of purity along spectrophotometric lines. Each national pharmacopoeia stipulates, for medicinal liquid paraffin, a sulphuric acid test. This test is a relic from the days when refinery pro- cedure was less drastic and stringent than it is to-day. The purpose of the acid test was to ensure, in the days when Russian crude oil was processed, that there should be no perceptible quantities of aromatic hydrocarbon molecules left in the refined material. Investigations during recent years have shown that the sulphuric acid test is no quahty criterion in this respect and that, in fact, it will fail extremely highly refined products if the conditions are such that there are no aromatic bodies for the sulphuric acid to sulphon- ate so that, instead, the acid dehydrogenates some naphthenic molecules which, in their turn, then become sulphonated. Most medicinal liquid paraffins show a characteristic band structure in the near ultra-violet region of the spectrum with a maximum at about 2710 A. a minimum at about 2490 A. and often a subsidiary maximum at 250

RECORDS AND COSTINGS IN THE PERFUMERY AND COSMETIC INDUSTRY about 2780 A. A great deal of work has been done to show that the quality and stability criterion for medicinal liquid paraffin can be based on such spectrophotometric data. The gist of this work was published in the 1951 volume of the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology. The criterion is briefly this: for medicinal liquid paraffin to be stable, the ratio of the absorp- tion intensities of the maximum at about 2710 A. and the minimum at about 2490 A. must be at least 2, and the absorption intensity of the maximum not larger than w •ø/ø = 0.1. When a liquid paraffin shows very little absorption •-•lcm in this spectral region, the absorption intensity at 2710 A. must be smaller than •']% ---- 0.006 for the material still to be stable and of good quality •-•lcm when its spectrum does not show any band structure in this region. Thus, a quantitative assessment is given of the quality and stability of medicinal liquid paraffin by two figures derived from the ultra-violet spec- trum of the material its absorption intensity at 2710 •. and the ratio of the absorption intensities at 2710 A. and 2490 A. For other white oils similar types of criteria are easily possible. From this brief description of one branch of research, it will be realised that the manufacture and use o f white oils is a progressive business. Research and development work in this group of specialised products has the con- tinuous attention of chemists and physicists not only in the oil industry but in the research laboratories of the many industries and scientific institu- tions concerned with their use. RECORDS AND COSTINGS IN THE PERFUMERY AND COSMETIC INDUSTRY E. POLAN* A straightforward method for the easy control of stock and the calculation of costs is described, and specimen record cards are given. INTRODUCTION THERE IS no need to stress the value of keeping records and calculating costs in an industrial concern. It is only by making use of these that such an organisation can run on a satisfactory basis, and the advantages are of especial value in times of depression or of severe competition. There is also the possibility that certain lines are being sold at a loss--or have such poor sales that the financial return is not worth the trouble involved or the amount of capital tied up. Admittedly there are some manufacturers---including compounders and cosmetic manufacturers--who run at such a high rate of profit that there is * Harry Green, Ltd., Hertford Rd., Barking, Essex. 251