Mechanization of Chemical Documentation

The principal reasons for the failure of mechanized documentation to gain wide acceptance in chemistry are the inflexibility fo the systems used and the difficulties encountered in precisely formulating all search questions. The present paper describes documentation methods for structural formulae, reaction types, and other data; these methods are more flexible than those commonly used. To avoid the use of electronic computers for simple enquireies, it is suggested that small card files should be supplied ready‐encoded from a central store, and mechanically sorted in accordance with the code which best suits the particular case.