Trade Information Bulletins

Part L The Cost of Chilean Nitrate. IT. F. Bam and H. S. MuHiken. Published as Trade Information Bulletin... 

Part II. General Review of the Nitrogen Situation in the United States. H. A. Curtis. Published as Trade Information Bulletin No. 226 (1924). 

Part III. The Air-Nitrogen Processes, J. M. Braham, Published as Trade Information Bulletin No. 240 (1924). Discusses commercial development, chemistry, costs, nature of products, and chances for improvement of various processes also the conversion of initial products into compounds suited to agricultural, military and industrial needs. 

Breithut, Frederick E. British Dyestuffs Industry. Supplement to Commerce Reports. Department of Commerce. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Trade Information Bulletin No. 231, May 19, 1924. Washington, D C. Government Printing Office, 1924. 

Trade information available in reference library. Receives quarterly Statistical Bulletin. Has data on prices, production, currencies, population, public health, weather. No scientific information. 

Bulletin (of general trade information), Norwegian American Commerce monthly trade publication)... 

USDA (2002a) Recent Growth Patterns in the US Organic Foods Market, by C. Dimitri and C. Greene, US Dept, of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Market and Trade Econ. Div. and Resource Econ. Div. Agric. Information Bulletin 777, Sept. 

Some companies have found success with a periodic publication of incident abstracts. Each incident may appear as a one or two paragraph summary in a quarterly bulletin. This information is circulated widely within the corporation or is available online. If a site has a special interest in one particular incident, full details are then requested by direct contact between the two sites. The highly abbreviated summary has other uses, such as material for employee safety training meetings or bulletin board postings. This is another example of the practical trade-off between quantity of incidents publicized and the amount of detail presented for each incident. 

New information is constantly becoming available through publication in periodicals, books, trade bulletins, government reports, university bulletins, and many other sources. Many of the publications are devoted to shortcut methods for estimating physical properties or making design calculations, while others present compilations of essential data in the form of nomographs or tables. 

Until a relatively few years ago the volume of technical trade literature was relatively small. A few pioneering companies such as the R. T. Vanderbilt Co. and the Du Pont Co. issued mimeographed or printed bulletins or trade releases at regular or irregular intervals. These contained a variety of useful information from specific information concerning the publishers products and their properties or applications to general engineering data. 

Some of these types of literature present only limited information. Others, however, are very elaborate. Many of the house organs and books or bulletins published directly by various companies are extremely well edited and profusely illustrated with charts, photos, and cartoons. (Items 1, 10, and 11 in the foregoing list are borderline cases they represent substitutes for technical trade literature as it is normally considered.)... 

Those in attendance at conventions and trade shows are frequently afforded an opportunity to pick up literature in connection with exhibits. Many companies which issue technical bulletins and other literature will, on request, place the reader s name on a regular mailing fist to receive material automatically as it is issued. Sometimes the lists are classified so that the individual recipient is sent only information which is of specific interest to him. Some of these mailing lists are seldom revised, whereas other organizations send out check-up cards every few months. 

The type of filing system employed is important in determining the availability of information to the searcher. Some companies file ever3rthing under the company name and may segregate these into categories such as suppliers and customers. Frequently the technical data sheet, bulletin, or other item of trade literature is not accessible to the searcher who does not know the name of the company manufacturing the product or providing the service in question. 

Considerable useful and up-to-date information on plastic and elastomeric foams is available from journals, manufacturers bulletins, technical conferences and their published proceedings, seminars and workshops, standardization activities, trade associations, consultants and information centers (such as PLASTEC), in addition to books, many of which have been cited in the previous chapters. Some of these sources will be listed and commented upon briefly in this chapter. 

Editors of trade publications and scientific journals are acquainted with many of the manufacturers publications, and the editors may be a source of considerable current information. Also, the advertising pages of trade papers carry announcements of new technical data bulletins. Most of the large manufacturers and many small ones have established technical service organizations which prepare publications and may be consulted in specific cases in which general data are not sufficient. 

At the present time abstracts in the field of fabrication methods and equipment for plastics are not a very important source of information. No formal abstracting service in this field is known to the authors, although possibly some abstracts cover fabricating methods and equipment when such information appears in other classifications of literature. Chemical Abstracts deals mainly with the chemical nature of the materials being fabricated and not with the fabrication processes and machinery. It does not appear likely that an abstract service would be able to pay its own way because of the relatively few engineers who are engaged in development of fabrication methods and equipment for plastics. Some of the trade magazines do abstract each others articles as well as recently received manufacturers technical data bulletins. This information is not usually classified nor is it selected by any systematic method. 

Issues weekly bulletin Report on Indonesia. Office of Trade Commission (same address) issues Economic Trade Notes, and export-import statistics. Research files of Information Office contain publications in English, issued by various ministries in Indonesia ... 

Issues Irish Trade Journal and Staiistical Bulletin (quarterly) which contains information regarding industrial, financial, agricultural, transportation, labor, and social situations in Ireland, and Trade Statistics of Ireland (monthly)... 

Will make contacts with proper sources. Has Commercial Information, monthly bulletin, which contains articles in English on industry and trade. Issued by Chamber of Commerce of Yugoslavia, P. O. Box 47, Beograd, Yugoslavia... 

These alternatives nonetheless can also serve to simplify the protection of trade secret information. For example, lists of substances found in the workplace can be posted on bulletin boards with specific warnings as to the secret nature of the information. Some employers include this information in training booklets rather than posting them. In other cases, employers may label hazardous chemicals with coded information, the meaning of which can be made available to employees on request. These are only examples of alternatives that can simplify trade secret problems. No single approach is likely to be ideal for every workplace. 

In lieu of the strictly chemical engineering books, sources of general information which are used, not only in their own rightful functions but also to compensate for the lack of information, include (1) bulletins of manufacturers of chemicals, (2) bulletins of the manufacturers of special materials and metals, (3) publications of university laboratories and experiment stations, (4) pamphlets from industrial and trade associations and industrial institutes, (5) government publications from various bureaus, such as Chemistry and Agricultural Economics in the Department of Agriculture, the Bureaus of Census, Mines, Patents, and Standards in the Department of Commerce, as well as the Internal Revenue in the Treasury Department, and the U.S. Tariff Commission. 

Electronic Bulletin Board Networking Teachers. Teachers are often isolated, both geographically and intellectually. The chemistry teacher is frequently the sole exponent of that discipline in the school, or possibly the district, and professional stimulation is obtained only at an occasional meeting. Teachers need a network, not only to reduce their sense of isolation, but to allow them to access information, trade ideas with their peers and, in general, to participate in the fraternity of professionals in their discipline. 

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