file which includes the original illustrations4 ,see #agadi-;h4htm or #agadi-;h4zip3 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/dirs_/#a_/ g_/a_/d_/agadi_/agadi-;h_/#agadi-;h4htm7 or 7https3_/_/www4gutenberg4org_/dirs_/#a_/ g_/a_/d_/agadi_/agadi-;h4zip7 ,transcriber's notes3 ,underscores before and after words denote italics4 ,underscore and denote subscripts4 ,footnotes moved to end of book4 ,the book starts using the word ,,chapter only after its chapter number ,,xi4 ,i have left it the same in this text4 ,the ,century ,books of ,useful ,science ,,creative ,,chemistry ,descriptive of ,recent ,achievements in the ,chemical ,industries by ,,edwin ,e4 ,,slosson1 ,m4,s41 ,,ph4,d4 ,literary ,editor of ,the ,independent1 ,associate in ,columbia ,school of ,journalism ,author of ,great ,american ,universities1 ,major ,prophets of ,today1 ,six ,major ,prophets1 ,on ,acylhalogenamine ,derivatives and the ,beckmann ,rearrangement1 ,composition of ,wyoming ,petroleum1 etc4 ,with ,many ,illustrations ,illustration 7,decorative7 ,new ,york ,the ,century ,co4 ,copyright1 #aiai1 by ,the ,century ,co4 ,copyright1 #aiag1 #aiah1 #aiai1 by ,the ,independent ,corporation ,published1 ,october1 #aiai ,illustration3 ,from ,america's ,munitions ,,the ,,production ,,of ,,new ,,and ,,stronger ,,forms ,,of ,,steel ,,is ,,one ,,of ,,the ,,greatest ,,triumphs ,,of ,,modern ,,chemistry ,the photograph shows the manufacture of a #ab-;inch gun at the plant of the ,midvale ,steel ,company during the late war4 ,the gun tube1 #da feet long1 has just been drawn from the furnace where it was tempered at white heat and is now ready for quenching4 ,,to ,,my ,,first ,,teacher ,,professor ,e4,h4,s4 ,,bailey ,,of ,,the ,,university ,,of ,,kansas ,,and ,,my ,,last ,,teacher ,,professor ,,julius ,,stieglitz ,,of ,,the ,,university ,,of ,,chicago ,,this ,,volume ,,is ,,gratefully ,,dedicated ,,contents ,i ,,three ,,periods ,,of ,,progress #c ,,ii ,,nitrogen #ad ,,iii ,,feeding ,,the ,,soil #cg ,,iv ,,coal-,,tar ,,colors #fj ,v ,,synthetic ,,perfumes ,,and ,,flavors #ic ,,vi ,,cellulose #aaj ,,vii ,,synthetic ,,plastics #abh ,,viii ,,the ,,race ,,for ,,rubber #ade ,,ix ,,the ,,rival ,,sugars #afd ,x ,,what ,,comes ,,from ,,corn #aha ,,xi ,,solidified ,,sunshine #aif ,,xii ,,fighting ,,with ,,fumes #bah ,,xiii ,,products ,,of ,,the ,,electric ,,furnace #bcf ,,xiv ,,metals1 ,,old ,,and ,,new #bfc ,,reading ,,references #big ,,index #cji ,a ,,card ,,of ,,thanks ,this book originated in a series of articles prepared for ,the ,independent in #aiag-ah for the purpose of interesting the general reader in the recent achievements of industrial chemistry and providing supplementary reading for students of chemistry in colleges and high schools4 ,i am indebted to ,hamilton ,holt1 editor of ,the ,independent1 and to ,karl ,v4,s4 ,howland1 its publisher1 for stimulus and opportunity to undertake the writing of these pages and for the privilege of reprinting them in this form4 ,in gathering the material for this volume ,i have received the kindly aid of so many companies and individuals that it is impossible to thank them all but ,i must at least mention as those to whom ,i am especially grateful for information1 advice and criticism3 ,thomas ,h4 ,norton of the ,department of ,commerce2 ,dr4 ,bernhard ,c4 ,hesse2 ,h4,s4 ,bailey of the ,department of ,agriculture2 ,professor ,julius ,stieglitz of the ,university of ,chicago2 ,l4,e4 ,edgar of the ,du ,pont de ,nemours ,company2 ,milton ,whitney of the ,u4,s4 ,bureau of ,soils2 ,dr4 ,h4,n4 ,mc,coy2 ,k4,f4 ,kellerman of the ,bureau of ,plant ,industry4 ,e4,e4,s4 ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,the production of new and stronger forms of steel is one of the greatest triumphs of modern chemistry ,frontispiece ,,facing ,,page ,the hand grenades contain potential chemical energy capable of causing a vast amount of destruction when released #af ,women in a munition plant engaged in the manufacture of tri-nitro-toluol #ag ,a chemical reaction on a large scale #cb ,burning air in a ,birkeland-,eyde furnace at the ,du,pont plant #cc ,a battery of ,birkeland-,eyde furnaces for the fixation of nitrogen at the ,du,pont plant #cc ,fixing nitrogen by calcium carbide #dj ,a barrow full of potash salts extracted from six tons of green kelp by the government chemists #da ,nature's silent method of nitrogen fixation #da ,in order to secure a new supply of potash salts the ,united ,states ,government set up an experimental plant at ,sutherland1 ,california1 for utilization of kelp #eb ,overhead suction at the ,san ,diego wharf pumping kelp from the barge to the digestion tanks #ec ,the kelp harvester gathering the seaweed from the ,pacific ,ocean #ec ,a battery of ,koppers by-product coke-ovens at the plant of the ,bethlehem ,steel ,company1 ,sparrows ,point1 ,maryland #fj ,in these mixing vats at the ,buffalo ,works1 aniline dyes are prepared #fa ,a paper mill in action #abj ,cellulose from wood pulp is now made into a large variety of useful articles of which a few examples are here pictured #aba ,plantation rubber #afj ,forest rubber #afj ,in making garden hose the rubber is formed into a tube by the machine on the right and coiled on the table to the left #afa ,the rival sugars #agf ,interior of a sugar mill showing the machinery for crushing cane to extract the juice #agg ,vacuum pans of the ,american ,sugar ,refinery ,company #agg ,cotton seed oil as it is squeezed from the seed by the presses #bjj ,cotton seed oil as it comes from the compressors flowing out of the faucets #bja ,splitting coconuts on the island of ,tahiti #baf ,the electric current passing through salt water in these cells decomposes the salt into caustic soda and chlorine gas #bag ,germans starting a gas attack on the ,russian lines #bbd ,filling the cannisters of gas masks with charcoal made from fruit pits--,long ,island ,city #bbe ,the chlorpicrin plant at the ,bdgewood ,arsenal #bcd ,repairing the broken stern post of the ,u4,s4,s4 ,northern ,pacific1 the biggest marine weld in the world #bce ,making aloxite in the electric furnaces by fusing coke and bauxite #bdj ,a block of carborundum crystals #bda ,making carborundum in the electric furnace #bda ,types of gas mask used by ,america1 the ,allies and ,germany during the war #bef ,pumping melted white phosphorus into hand grenades filled with water--,edgewood ,arsenal #beg ,filling shell with mustard gas #beg ,photomicrographs showing the structure of steel made by ,professor ,e4,g4 ,mahin of ,purdue ,university #bgb ,the microscopic structure of metals #bgc ,,introduction ,,by ,,julius ,,stieglitz ,formerly ,president of the ,american ,chemical ,society1 ,professor of ,chemistry in ,the ,university of ,chicago ,the recent war as never before in the history of the world brought to the nations of the earth a realization of the vital place which the science of chemistry holds in the development of the resources of a nation4 ,some of the most picturesque features of this awakening reached the great public through the press4 ,thus1 the adventurous trips of the ,deutschland with its cargoes of concentrated aniline dyes1 valued at millions of dollars1 emphasized as no other incident our former dependence upon ,germany for these products of her chemical industries4 ,the public read1 too1 that her chemists saved ,germany from an early disastrous defeat1 both in the field of military operations and in the matter of economic supplies3 unquestionably1 without the tremendous expansion of her plants for the production of nitrates and ammonia from the air by the processes of ,haber1 ,ostwald and others of her great chemists1 the war would have ended in #aiae1 or early in #aiaf1 from exhaustion of ,germany's supplies of nitrate explosives1 if not indeed from exhaustion of her food supplies as a consequence of the lack of nitrate and ammonia fertilizer for her fields4 ,inventions of substitutes for cotton1 copper1 rubber1 wool and many other basic needs have been reported4 ,these feats of chemistry1 performed under the stress of dire necessity1 have1 no doubt1 excited the wonder and interest of our public4 ,it is far more important at this time1 however1 when both for war and for peace needs1 the resources of our country are strained to the utmost1 that the public should awaken to a clear realization of what this science of chemistry really means for mankind1 to the realization that its wizardry permeates the whole life of the nation as a vitalizing1 protective and constructive agent very much in the same way as our blood1 coursing through our veins and arteries1 carries the constructive1 defensive and life-bringing materials to every organ in the body4 ,if the layman will but understand that chemistry is the fundamental science of the transformation of matter1 he will readily accept the validity of this sweeping assertion3 he will realize1 for instance1 why exactly the same fundamental laws of the science apply to1 and make possible scientific control of1 such widely divergent national industries as agriculture and steel manufacturing4 ,it governs the transformation of the salts1 minerals and humus of our fields and the components of the air into corn1 wheat1 cotton and the innumerable other products of the soil2 it governs no less the transformation of crude ores into steel and alloys1 which1 with the cunning born of chemical knowledge1 may be given practically any conceivable quality of hardness1 elasticity1 toughness or strength4 ,and exactly the same thing may be said of the hundreds of national activities that lie between the two extremes of agriculture and steel manufacture6 ,moreover1 the domain of the science of the transformation of matter includes even life itself as its loftiest phase3 from our birth to our return to dust the laws of chemistry are the controlling laws of life1 health1 disease and death1 and the ever clearer recognition of this relation is the strongest force that is raising medicine from the uncertain realm of an art to the safer sphere of an exact science4 ,to many scientific minds it has even become evident that those most wonderful facts of life1 heredity and character1 must find their final explanation in the chemical composition of the components of life producing1 germinal protoplasm3 mere form and shape are no longer supreme but are relegated to their proper place as the housing only of the living matter which functions chemically4 ,it must be quite obvious now why thoughtful men are insisting that the public should be awakened to a broad realization of the significance of the science of chemistry for its national life4 ,it is a difficult science in its details1 because it has found that it can best interpret the visible phenomena of the material world on the basis of the conception of invisible minute material atoms and molecules1 each a world in itself1 whose properties may be nevertheless accurately deduced by a rigorous logic controlling the highest type of scientific imagination4 ,but a layman is interested in the wonders of great bridges and of monumental buildings without feeling the need of inquiring into the painfully minute and extended calculations of the engineer and architect of the strains and stresses to which every pin and every bar of the great bridge and every bit of stone1 every foot of arch in a monumental edifice1 will be exposed4 ,so the public may understand and appreciate with the keenest interest the results of chemical effort without the need of instruction in the intricacies of our logic1 of our dealings with our minute1 invisible particles4 ,the whole nation's welfare demands1 indeed1 that our public be enlightened in the matter of the relation of chemistry to our national life4 ,thus1 if our commerce and our industries are to survive the terrific competition that must follow the restablishment of peace1 our public must insist that its representatives in ,congress preserve that independence in chemical manufacturing which the war has forced upon us in the matter of dyes1 of numberless invaluable remedies to cure and relieve suffering2 in the matter1 too1 of hundreds of chemicals1 which our industries need for their successful existence4 ,unless we are independent in these fields1 how easily might an unscrupulous competing nation do us untold harm by the mere device1 for instance1 of delaying supplies1 or by sending inferior materials to this country or by underselling our chemical manufacturers and1 after the destruction of our chemical independence1 handicapping our industries as they were in the first year or two of the great war6 ,this is not a mere possibility created by the imagination1 for our economic history contains instance after instance of the purposeful undermining and destruction of our industries in finer chemicals1 dyes and drugs by foreign interests bent on preserving their monopoly4 ,if one recalls that through control1 for instance1 of dyes by a competing nation1 control is in fact also established over products1 valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars1 in which dyes enter as an essential factor1 one may realize indeed the tremendous industrial and commercial power which is controlled by the single lever--chemical dyes4 ,of even more vital moment is chemistry in the domain of health3 the pitiful calls of our hospitals for local anesthetics to alleviate suffering on the operating table1 the frantic appeals for the hypnotic that soothes the epileptic and staves off his seizure1 the almost furious demands for remedy after remedy1 that came in the early years of the war1 are still ringing in the hearts of many of us4 ,no wonder that our small army of chemists is grimly determined not to give up the independence in chemistry which war has achieved for us6 ,only a widely enlightened public1 however1 can insure the permanence of what farseeing men have started to accomplish in developing the power of chemistry through research in every domain which chemistry touches4 ,the general public should realize that in the support of great chemical research laboratories of universities and technical schools it will be sustaining important centers from which the science which improves products1 abolishes waste1 establishes new industries and preserves life1 may reach out helpfully into all the activities of our great nation1 that are dependent on the transformation of matter4 ,the public is to be congratulated upon the fact that the writer of the present volume is better qualified than any other man in the country to bring home to his readers some of the great results of modern chemical activity as well as some of the big problems which must continue to engage the attention of our chemists4 ,dr4 ,slosson has indeed the unique quality of combining an exact and intimate knowledge of chemistry with the exquisite clarity and pointedness of expression of a born writer4 ,we have here an exposition by a master mind1 an exposition shorn of the terrifying and obscuring technicalities of the lecture room1 that will be as absorbing reading as any thrilling romance4 ,for the story of scientific achievement is the greatest epic the world has ever known1 and like the great national epics of bygone ages1 should quicken the life of the nation by a realization of its powers and a picture of its possibilities4 ,,creative ,,chemistry ,la ,chimie possde cette facult cratrice un degr plus minent que les autres sciences1 parce qu'elle pntre plus profondment et atteint jusqu'aux lments naturels des tres4 --,berthelot4 ,i ,,three ,,periods ,,of ,,progress ,the story of ,robinson ,crusoe is an allegory of human history4 ,man is a castaway upon a desert planet1 isolated from other inhabited worlds--if there be any such--by millions of miles of untraversable space4 ,he is absolutely dependent upon his own exertions1 for this world of his1 as ,wells says1 has no imports except meteorites and no exports of any kind4 ,man has no wrecked ship from a former civilization to draw upon for tools and weapons1 but must utilize as best he may such raw materials as he can find4 ,in this conquest of nature by man there are three stages distinguishable3 #a4 ,the ,appropriative ,period #b4 ,the ,adaptive ,period #c4 ,the ,creative ,period ,these eras overlap1 and the human race1 or rather its vanguard1 civilized man1 may be passing into the third stage in one field of human endeavor while still lingering in the second or first in some other respect4 ,but in any particular line this sequence is followed4 ,the primitive man picks up whatever he can find available for his use4 ,his successor in the next stage of culture shapes and develops this crude instrument until it becomes more suitable for his purpose4 ,but in the course of time man often finds that he can make something new which is better than anything in nature or naturally produced4 ,the savage discovers4 ,the barbarian improves4 ,the civilized man invents4 ,the first finds4 ,the second fashions4 ,the third fabricates4 ,the primitive man was a troglodyte4 ,he sought shelter in any cave or crevice that he could find4 ,later he dug it out to make it more roomy and piled up stones at the entrance to keep out the wild beasts4 ,this artificial barricade1 this false faade1 was gradually extended and solidified until finally man could build a cave for himself anywhere in the open field from stones he quarried out of the hill4 ,but man was not content with such materials and now puts up a building which may be composed of steel1 brick1 terra cotta1 glass1 concrete and plaster1 none of which materials are to be found in nature4 ,the untutored savage might cross a stream astride a floating tree trunk4 ,by and by it occurred to him to sit inside the log instead of on it1 so he hollowed it out with fire or flint4 ,later1 much later1 he constructed an ocean liner4 ,cain1 or whoever it was first slew his brother man1 made use of a stone or stick4 ,afterward it was found a better weapon could be made by tying the stone to the end of the stick1 and as murder developed into a fine art the stick was converted into the bow and this into the catapult and finally into the cannon1 while the stone was developed into the high explosive projectile4 ,the first music to soothe the savage breast was the soughing of the wind through the trees4 ,then strings were stretched across a crevice for the wind to play upon and there was the olian harp4 ,the second stage was entered when ,hermes strung the tortoise shell and plucked it with his fingers and when ,athena1 raising the wind from her own lungs1 forced it through a hollow reed4 ,from these beginnings we have the organ and the orchestra1 producing such sounds as nothing in nature can equal4 ,the first idol was doubtless a meteorite fallen from heaven or a fulgurite or concretion picked up from the sand1 bearing some slight resemblance to a human being4 ,later man made gods in his own image1 and so sculpture and painting grew until now the creations of futuristic art could be worshiped--if one wanted to--without violation of the second commandment1 for they are not the likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth4 ,in the textile industry the same development is observable4 ,the primitive man used the skins of animals he had slain to protect his own skin4 ,in the course of time he--or more probably his wife1 for it is to the women rather than to the men that we owe the early steps in the arts and sciences--fastened leaves together or pounded out bark to make garments4 ,later fibers were plucked from the sheepskin1 the cocoon and the cotton-ball1 twisted together and woven into cloth4 ,nowadays it is possible to make a complete suit of clothes1 from hat to shoes1 of any desirable texture1 form and color1 and not include any substance to be found in nature4 ,the first metals available were those found free in nature such as gold and copper4 ,in a later age it was found possible to extract iron from its ores and today we have artificial alloys made of multifarious combinations of rare metals4 ,the medicine man dosed his patients with decoctions of such roots and herbs as had a bad taste or queer look4 ,the pharmacist discovered how to extract from these their medicinal principle such as morphine1 quinine and cocaine1 and the creative chemist has discovered how to make innumerable drugs adapted to specific diseases and individual idiosyncrasies4 ,in the later or creative stages we enter the domain of chemistry1 for it is the chemist alone who possesses the power of reducing a substance to its constituent atoms and from them producing substances entirely new4 ,but the chemist has been slow to realize his unique power and the world has been still slower to utilize his invaluable services4 ,until recently indeed the leaders of chemical science expressly disclaimed what should have been their proudest boast4 ,the ,french chemist ,lavoisier in #agic defined chemistry as the science of analysis4 ,the ,german chemist ,gerhardt in #ahdd said3 ,i have demonstrated that the chemist works in opposition to living nature1 that he burns1 destroys1 analyzes1 that the vital force alone operates by synthesis1 that it reconstructs the edifice torn down by the chemical forces4 ,it is quite true that chemists up to the middle of the last century were so absorbed in the destructive side of their science that they were blind to the constructive side of it4 ,in this respect they were less prescient than their contemned predecessors1 the alchemists1 who1 foolish and pretentious as they were1 aspired at least to the formation of something new4 ,it was1 ,i think1 the ,french chemist ,berthelot who first clearly perceived the double aspect of chemistry1 for he defined it as the science of analysis and synthesis1 of taking apart and of putting together4 ,the motto of chemistry1 as of all the empirical sciences1 is savoir c'est pouvoir1 to know in order to do4 ,this is the pragmatic test of all useful knowledge4 ,berthelot goes on to say3 ,chemistry creates its object4 ,this creative faculty1 comparable to that of art itself1 distinguishes it essentially from the natural and historical sciences4444 ,these sciences do not control their object4 ,thus they are too often condemned to an eternal impotence in the search for truth of which they must content themselves with possessing some few and often uncertain fragments4 ,on the contrary1 the experimental sciences have the power to realize their conjectures4444 ,what they dream of that they can manifest in actuality4444 ,chemistry possesses this creative faculty to a more eminent degree than the other sciences because it penetrates more profoundly and attains even to the natural elements of existences4 ,since ,berthelot's time1 that is1 within the last fifty years1 chemistry has won its chief triumphs in the field of synthesis4 ,organic chemistry1 that is1 the chemistry of the carbon compounds1 so called because it was formerly assumed1 as ,gerhardt says1 that they could only be formed by vital force of organized plants and animals1 has taken a development far overshadowing inorganic chemistry1 or the chemistry of mineral substances4 ,chemists have prepared or know how to prepare hundreds of thousands of such organic compounds1 few of which occur in the natural world4 ,but this conception of chemistry is yet far from having been accepted by the world at large4 ,this was brought forcibly to my attention during the publication of these chapters in ,the ,independent by various letters1 raising such objections as the following3 ,when you say in your article on ,what ,comes from ,coal ,tar that ,art can go ahead of nature in the dyestuff business you have doubtless for the moment allowed your enthusiasm to sweep you away from the moorings of reason4 ,shakespeare1 anticipating you and your ,creative ,chemistry1 has shown the utter untenableness of your position3 ,nature is made better by no mean1 ,but nature makes that mean3 so o'er that art1 ,which1 you say1 adds to nature1 is an art ,that nature makes4 ,how can you say that art surpasses nature when you know very well that nothing man is able to make can in any way equal the perfection of all nature's products8 ,it is blasphemous of you to claim that man can improve the works of ,god as they appear in nature4 ,only the ,creator can create4 ,man only imitates1 destroys or defiles ,god's handiwork4 ,no1 it was not in momentary absence of mind that ,i claimed that man could improve upon nature in the making of dyes4 ,i not only said it1 but ,i proved it4 ,i not only proved it1 but ,i can back it up4 ,i will give a million dollars to anybody finding in nature dyestuffs as numerous1 varied1 brilliant1 pure and cheap as those that are manufactured in the laboratory4 ,i haven't that amount of money with me at the moment1 but the dyers would be glad to put it up for the discovery of a satisfactory natural source for their tinctorial materials4 ,this is not an opinion of mine but a matter of fact1 not to be decided by ,shakespeare1 who was not acquainted with the aniline products4 ,shakespeare in the passage quoted is indulging in his favorite amusement of a play upon words4 ,there is a possible and a proper sense of the word nature that makes it include everything except the supernatural4 ,therefore man and all his works belong to the realm of nature4 ,a tenement house in this sense is as natural as a bird's nest1 a peapod or a crystal4 ,but such a wide extension of the term destroys its distinctive value4 ,it is more convenient and quite as correct to use nature as ,i have used it1 in contradistinction to art1 meaning by the former the products of the mineral1 vegetable and animal kingdoms1 excluding the designs1 inventions and constructions of man which we call art4 ,we cannot1 in a general and abstract fashion1 say which is superior1 art or nature1 because it all depends on the point of view4 ,the worm loves a rotten log into which he can bore4 ,man prefers a steel cabinet into which the worm cannot bore4 ,if man cannot improve ,upon nature he has no motive for making anything4 ,artificial products are therefore superior to natural products as measured by man's convenience1 otherwise they would have no reason for existence4 ,science and ,christianity are at one in abhorring the natural man and calling upon the civilized man to fight and subdue him4 ,the conquest of nature1 not the imitation of nature1 is the whole duty of man4 ,metchnikoff and ,st4 ,paul unite in criticizing the body we were born with4 ,st4 ,augustine and ,huxley are in agreement as to the eternal conflict between man and nature4 ,in his ,romanes lecture on ,evolution and ,ethics ,huxley said3 ,the ethical progress of society depends1 not on imitating the cosmic process1 still less on running away from it1 but on combating it1 and again3 ,the history of civilization details the steps by which man has succeeded in building up an artificial world within the cosmos4 ,there speaks the true evolutionist1 whose one desire is to get away from nature as fast and far as possible4 ,imitate ,nature8 ,yes1 when we cannot improve upon her4 ,admire ,nature8 ,possibly1 but be not blinded to her defects4 ,learn from ,nature8 ,we should sit humbly at her feet until we can stand erect and go our own way4 ,love ,nature8 ,never6 ,she is our treacherous and unsleeping foe1 ever to be feared and watched and circumvented1 for at any moment and in spite of all our vigilance she may wipe out the human race by famine1 pestilence or earthquake and within a few centuries obliterate every trace of its achievement4 ,the wild beasts that man has kept at bay for a few centuries will in the end invade his palaces3 the moss will envelop his walls and the lichen disrupt them4 ,the clam may survive man by as many millennia as it preceded him4 ,in the ultimate devolution of the world animal life will disappear before vegetable1 the higher plants will be killed off before the lower1 and finally the three kingdoms of nature will be reduced to one1 the mineral4 ,civilized man1 enthroned in his citadel and defended by all the forces of nature that he has brought under his control1 is after all in the same situation as a savage1 shivering in the darkness beside his fire1 listening to the pad of predatory feet1 the rustle of serpents and the cry of birds of prey1 knowing that only the fire keeps his enemies off1 but knowing too that every stick he lays on the fire lessens his fuel supply and hastens the inevitable time when the beasts of the jungle will make their fatal rush4 ,chaos is the natural state of the universe4 ,cosmos is the rare and temporary exception4 ,of all the million spheres this is apparently the only one habitable and of this only a small part--the reader may draw the boundaries to suit himself--can be called civilized4 ,anarchy is the natural state of the human race4 ,it prevailed exclusively all over the world up to some five thousand years ago1 since which a few peoples have for a time succeeded in establishing a certain degree of peace and order4 ,this1 however1 can be maintained only by strenuous and persistent efforts1 for society tends naturally to sink into the chaos out of which it has arisen4 ,it is only by overcoming nature that man can rise4 ,the sole salvation for the human race lies in the removal of the primal curse1 the sentence of hard labor for life that was imposed on man as he left ,paradise4 ,some folks are trying to elevate the laboring classes2 some are trying to keep them down4 ,the scientist has a more radical remedy2 he wants to annihilate the laboring classes by abolishing labor4 ,there is no longer any need for human labor in the sense of personal toil1 for the physical energy necessary to accomplish all kinds of work may be obtained from external sources and it can be directed and controlled without extreme exertion4 ,man's first effort in this direction was to throw part of his burden upon the horse and ox or upon other men4 ,but within the last century it has been discovered that neither human nor animal servitude is necessary to give man leisure for the higher life1 for by means of the machine he can do the work of giants without exhaustion4 ,but the introduction of machines1 like every other step of human progress1 met with the most violent opposition from those it was to benefit4 ,smash 'em6 cried the workingman4 ,smash 'em6 cried the poet4 ,smash 'em6 cried the artist4 ,smash 'em6 cried the theologian4 ,smash 'em6 cried the magistrate4 ,this opposition yet lingers and every new invention1 especially in chemistry1 is greeted with general distrust and often with legislative prohibition4 ,man is the tool-using animal1 and the machine1 that is1 the power-driven tool1 is his peculiar achievement4 ,it is purely a creation of the human mind4 ,the wheel1 its essential feature1 does not exist in nature4 ,the lever1 with its to-and-fro motion1 we find in the limbs of all animals1 but the continuous and revolving lever1 the wheel1 cannot be formed of bone and flesh4 ,man as a motive power is a poor thing4 ,he can only convert three or four thousand calories of energy a day and he does that very inefficiently4 ,but he can make an engine that will handle a hundred thousand times that1 twice as efficiently and three times as long4 ,in this way only can he get rid of pain and toil and gain the wealth he wants4 ,gradually then he will substitute for the natural world an artificial world1 molded nearer to his heart's desire4 ,man the ,artifex will ultimately master ,nature and reign supreme over his own creation until chaos shall come again4 ,in the ancient drama it was deus ex machina that came in at the end to solve the problems of the play4 ,it is to the same supernatural agency1 the divinity in machinery1 that we must look for the salvation of society4 ,it is by means of applied science that the earth can be made habitable and a decent human life made possible4 ,creative evolution is at last becoming conscious4 ,,ii ,,nitrogen ,,preserver ,,and ,,destroyer ,,of ,,life ,in the eyes of the chemist the ,great ,war was essentially a series of explosive reactions resulting in the liberation of nitrogen4 ,nothing like it has been seen in any previous wars4 ,the first battles were fought with cellulose1 mostly in the form of clubs4 ,the next were fought with silica1 mostly in the form of flint arrowheads and spear-points4 ,then came the metals1 bronze to begin with and later iron4 ,the nitrogenous era in warfare began when ,friar ,roger ,bacon or ,friar ,schwartz--whichever it was--ground together in his mortar saltpeter1 charcoal and sulfur4 ,the ,chinese1 to be sure1 had invented gunpowder long before1 but they--poor innocents--did not know of anything worse to do with it than to make it into fire-crackers4 ,with the introduction of villainous saltpeter war ceased to be the vocation of the nobleman and since the nobleman had no other vocation he began to become extinct4 ,a bullet fired from a mile away is no respecter of persons4 ,it is just as likely to kill a knight as a peasant1 and a brave man as a coward4 ,you cannot fence with a cannon ball nor overawe it with a plumed hat4 ,the only thing you can do is to hide and shoot back4 ,now you cannot hide if you send up a column of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night--the most conspicuous of signals--every time you shoot4 ,so the next step was the invention of a smokeless powder4 ,in this the oxygen necessary for the combustion is already in such close combination with its fuel1 the carbon and hydrogen1 that no black particles of carbon can get away unburnt4 ,in the old-fashioned gunpowder the oxygen necessary for the combustion of the carbon and sulfur was in a separate package1 in the molecule of potassium nitrate1 and however finely the mixture was ground1 some of the atoms1 in the excitement of the explosion1 failed to find their proper partners at the moment of dispersal4 ,the new gunpowder besides being smokeless is ashless4 ,there is no black sticky mass of potassium salts left to foul the gun barrel4 ,the gunpowder period of warfare was actively initiated at the battle of ,cressy1 in which1 as a contemporary historian says1 ,the ,english guns made noise like thunder and caused much loss in men and horses4 ,smokeless powder as invented by ,paul ,vieille was adopted by the ,french ,government in #ahhg4 ,this1 then1 might be called the beginning of the guncotton or nitrocellulose period--or1 perhaps in deference to the caveman's club1 the second cellulose period of human warfare4 ,better1 doubtless1 to call it the high explosive period1 for various other nitro-compounds besides guncotton are being used4 ,the important thing to note is that all the explosives from gunpowder down contain nitrogen as the essential element4 ,it is customary to call nitrogen an inert element because it was hard to get it into combination with other elements4 ,it might1 on the other hand1 be looked upon as an active element because it acts so energetically in getting out of its compounds4 ,we can dodge the question by saying that nitrogen is a most unreliable and unsociable element4 ,like ,kipling's cat it walks by its wild lone4 ,it is not so bad as ,argon the ,lazy and the other celibate gases of that family1 where each individual atom goes off by itself and absolutely refuses to unite even temporarily with any other atom4 ,the nitrogen atoms will pair off with each other and stick together1 but they are reluctant to associate with other elements and when they do the combination is likely to break up any moment4 ,you all know people like that1 good enough when by themselves but sure to break up any club1 church or society they get into4 ,now1 the value of nitrogen in warfare is due to the fact that all the atoms desert in a body on the field of battle4 ,millions of them may be lying packed in a gun cartridge1 as quiet as you please1 but let a little disturbance start in the neighborhood--say a grain of mercury fulminate flares up--and all the nitrogen atoms get to trembling so violently that they cannot be restrained4 ,the shock spreads rapidly through the whole mass4 ,the hydrogen and carbon atoms catch up the oxygen and in an instant they are off on a stampede1 crowding in every direction to find an exit1 and getting more heated up all the time4 ,the only movable side is the cannon ball in front1 so they all pound against that and give it such a shove that it goes ten miles before it stops4 ,the external bombardment by the cannon ball is1 therefore1 preceded by an internal bombardment on the cannon ball by the molecules of the hot gases1 whose speed is about as great as the speed of the projectile that they propel4 ,illustration3 ,underwood ,underwood ,,the ,,hand ,,grenades ,,which ,,these ,,women ,,are ,,boring will contain potential chemical energy capable of causing a vast amount of destruction when released4 ,during the war the ,american ,government placed orders for #fh1jjj1jjj such grenades as are here shown4 ,illustration3 ,international ,film ,service1 ,inc4 ,,women ,,in ,a ,,munition ,,plant ,,engaged ,,in ,,the ,,manufacture ,,of ,,tri-,,nitro-,,toluol1 ,,the ,,most ,,important ,,of ,,modern ,,high ,,explosives ,the active agent in all these explosives is the nitrogen atom in combination with two oxygen atoms1 which the chemist calls the nitro group and which he represents by ,,no#b4 ,this group was1 as ,i have said1 originally used in the form of saltpeter or potassium nitrate1 but since the chemist did not want the potassium part of it--for it fouled his guns--he took the nitro group out of the nitrate by means of sulfuric acid and by the same means hooked it on to some compound of carbon and hydrogen that would burn without leaving any residue1 and give nothing but gases4 ,one of the simplest of these hydrocarbon derivatives is glycerin1 the same as you use for sunburn4 ,this mixed with nitric and sulfuric acids gives nitroglycerin1 an easy thing to make1 though ,i should not advise anybody to try making it unless he has his life insured4 ,but nitroglycerin is uncertain stuff to keep and being a liquid is awkward to handle4 ,so it was mixed with sawdust or porous earth or something else that would soak it up4 ,this molded into sticks is our ordinary dynamite4 ,if instead of glycerin we take cellulose in the form of wood pulp or cotton and treat this with nitric acid in the presence of sulfuric we get nitrocellulose or guncotton1 which is the chief ingredient of smokeless powder4 ,now guncotton looks like common cotton4 ,it is too light and loose to pack well into a gun4 ,so it is dissolved with ether and alcohol or acetone to make a plastic mass that can be molded into rods and cut into grains of suitable shape and size to burn at the proper speed4 ,here1 then1 we have a liquid explosive1 nitroglycerin1 that has to be soaked up in some porous solid1 and a porous solid1 guncotton1 that has to soak up some liquid4 ,why not solve both difficulties together by dissolving the guncotton in the nitroglycerin and so get a double explosive8 ,this is a simple idea4 ,any of us can see the sense of it--once it is suggested to us4 ,but ,alfred ,nobel1 the ,swedish chemist1 who thought it out first in #ahgh1 made millions out of it4 ,then1 apparently alarmed at the possible consequences of his invention1 he bequeathed the fortune he had made by it to found international prizes for medical1 chemical and physical discoveries1 idealistic literature and the promotion of peace4 ,but his posthumous efforts for the advancement of civilization and the abolition of war did not amount to much and his high explosives were later employed to blow into pieces the doctors1 chemists1 authors and pacifists he wished to reward4 ,nobel's invention1 cordite1 is composed of nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose with a little mineral jelly or vaseline4 ,besides cordite and similar mixtures of nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose there are two other classes of high explosives in common use4 ,one is made from carbolic acid1 which is familiar to us all by its use as a disinfectant4 ,if this is treated with nitric and sulfuric acids we get from it picric acid1 a yellow crystalline solid4 ,every government has its own secret formula for this type of explosive4 ,the ,british call theirs lyddite1 the ,french melinite and the ,japanese shimose4 ,the third kind of high explosives uses as its base toluol4 ,this is not so familiar to us as glycerin1 cotton or carbolic acid4 ,it is one of the coal tar products1 an inflammable liquid1 resembling benzene4 ,when treated with nitric acid in the usual way it takes up like the others three nitro groups and so becomes tri-nitro-toluol4 ,realizing that people could not be expected to use such a mouthful of a word1 the chemists have suggested various pretty nicknames1 trotyl1 tritol1 trinol1 tolite and trilit1 but the public1 with the wilfulness it always shows in the matter of names1 persists in calling it ,,tnt1 as though it were an author like ,g4,b4,s41 or ,g4,k4,c1 or ,f4,p4,a4 ,,tnt is the latest of these high explosives and in some ways the best of them4 ,picric acid has the bad habit of attacking the metals with which it rests in contact forming sensitive picrates that are easily set off1 but ,,tnt is inert toward metals and keeps well4 ,,tnt melts far below the boiling point of water so can be readily liquefied and poured into shells4 ,it is insensitive to ordinary shocks4 ,a rifle bullet can be fired through a case of it without setting it off1 and if lighted with a match it burns quietly4 ,the amazing thing about these modern explosives1 the organic nitrates1 is the way they will stand banging about and burning1 yet the terrific violence with which they blow up when shaken by an explosive wave of a particular velocity like that of a fulminating cap4 ,like picric acid1 ,,tnt stains the skin yellow and causes soreness and sometimes serious cases of poisoning among the employees1 mostly girls1 in the munition factories4 ,on the other hand1 the girls working with cordite get to using it as chewing gum2 a harmful habit1 not because of any danger of being blown up by it1 but because nitroglycerin is a heart stimulant and they do not need that4 ,illustration3 ,the ,genealogical ,tree of ,nitric ,acid ,from ,w4,q4 ,whitman's ,the ,story of ,nitrates in the ,war1 ,general ,science ,quarterly ,,tnt is by no means smokeless4 ,the ,german shells that exploded with a cloud of black smoke and which ,british soldiers called ,black ,marias1 coal-boxes or ,jack ,johnsons were loaded with it4 ,but it is an advantage to have a shell show where it strikes1 although a disadvantage to have it show where it starts4 ,it is these high explosives that have revolutionized warfare4 ,as soon as the first ,german shell packed with these new nitrates burst inside the ,gruson cupola at ,lige and tore out its steel and concrete by the roots the world knew that the day of the fixed fortress was gone4 ,the armies deserted their expensively prepared fortifications and took to the trenches4 ,the ,british troops in ,france found their weapons futile and sent across the ,channel the cry of ,send us high explosives or we perish6 ,the home ,government was slow to heed the appeal1 but no progress was made against the ,germans until the ,allies had the means to blast them out of their entrenchments by shells loaded with five hundred pounds of ,,tnt4 ,all these explosives are made from nitric acid and this used to be made from nitrates such as potassium nitrate or saltpeter4 ,but nitrates are rarely found in large quantities4 ,napoleon and ,lee had a hard time to scrape up enough saltpeter from the compost heaps1 cellars and caves for their gunpowder1 and they did not use as much nitrogen in a whole campaign as was freed in a few days' cannonading on the ,somme4 ,now there is one place in the world--and so far as we know one only--where nitrates are to be found abundantly4 ,this is in a desert on the western slope of the ,andes where ancient guano deposits have decomposed and there was not enough rain to wash away their salts4 ,here is a bed two miles wide1 two hundred miles long and five feet deep yielding some twenty to fifty per cent4 of sodium nitrate4 ,the deposit originally belonged to ,peru1 but ,chile fought her for it and got it in #ahha4 ,here all countries came to get their nitrates for agriculture and powder making4 ,germany was the largest customer and imported #gej1jjj tons of ,chilean nitrate in #aiac1 besides using #ajj1jjj tons of other nitrogen salts4 ,by this means her old1 wornout fields were made to yield greater harvests than our fresh land4 ,germany and ,england were like two duelists buying powder at the same shop4 ,the ,chilean ,government1 pocketing an export duty that aggregated half a billion dollars1 permitted the saltpeter to be shoveled impartially into ,british and ,german ships1 and so two nitrogen atoms1 torn from their ,pacific home and parted1 like ,evangeline and ,gabriel1 by transportation oversea1 may have found themselves flung into each other's arms from the mouths of opposing howitzers in the air of ,flanders4 ,goethe could write a romance on such a theme4 ,now the moment war broke out this source of supply was shut off to both parties1 for they blockaded each other4 ,the ,british fleet closed up the ,german ports while the ,german cruisers in the ,pacific took up a position off the coast of ,chile in order to intercept the ships carrying nitrates to ,england and ,france4 ,the ,panama ,canal1 designed to afford relief in such an emergency1 caved in most inopportunely4 ,the ,british sent a fleet to the ,pacific to clear the nitrate route1 but it was outranged and defeated on ,november #a1 #aiad4 ,then a stronger ,british fleet was sent out and smashed the ,germans off the ,falkland ,islands on ,december #h4 ,but for seven weeks the nitrate route had been closed while the chemical reactions on the ,marne and ,yser were decomposing nitrogen-compounds at an unheard of rate4 ,england was now free to get nitrates for her munition factories1 but ,germany was still bottled up4 ,she had stored up ,chilean nitrates in anticipation of the war and as soon as it was seen to be coming she bought all she could get in ,europe4 ,but this supply was altogether inadequate and the war would have come to an end in the first winter if ,german chemists had not provided for such a contingency in advance by working out methods of getting nitrogen from the air4 ,long ago it was said that the ,british ruled the sea and the ,french the land so that left nothing to the ,german but the air4 ,the ,germans seem to have taken this jibe seriously and to have set themselves to make the most of the aerial realm in order to challenge the ,british and ,french in the fields they had appropriated4 ,they had succeeded so far that the ,kaiser when he declared war might well have considered himself the ,prince of the ,power of the ,air4 ,he had a fleet of ,zeppelins and he had means for the fixation of nitrogen such as no other nation possessed4 ,the ,zeppelins burst like wind bags1 but the nitrogen plants worked and made ,germany independent of ,chile not only during the war1 but in the time of peace4 ,germany during the war used #bjj1jjj tons of nitric acid a year in explosives1 yet her supply of nitrogen is exhaustless4 ,illustration3 ,world production and consumption of fixed inorganic nitrogen expressed in tons nitrogen ,from ,the ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry1 ,march1 #aiai4 ,nitrogen is free as air4 ,that is the trouble2 it is too free4 ,it is fixed nitrogen that we want and that we are willing to pay for2 nitrogen in combination with some other elements in the form of food or fertilizer so we can make use of it as we set it free4 ,fixed nitrogen in its cheapest form1 ,chile saltpeter1 rose to #bej during the war4 ,free nitrogen costs nothing and is good for nothing4 ,if a land-owner has a right to an expanding pyramid of air above him to the limits of the atmosphere--as1 ,i believe1 the courts have decided in the eaves-dropping cases--then for every square foot of his ground he owns as much nitrogen as he could buy for #bejj4 ,the air is four-fifths free nitrogen and if we could absorb it in our lungs as we do the oxygen of the other fifth a few minutes breathing would give us a full meal4 ,but we let this free nitrogen all out again through our noses and then go and pay #ce cents a pound for steak or #fj cents a dozen for eggs in order to get enough combined nitrogen to live on4 ,though man is immersed in an ocean of nitrogen1 yet he cannot make use of it4 ,he is like ,coleridge's ,ancient ,mariner with water1 water1 everywhere1 nor any drop to drink4 ,nitrogen is1 as ,hood said not so truly about gold1 hard to get and hard to hold4 ,the bacteria that form the nodules on the roots of peas and beans have the power that man has not of utilizing free nitrogen4 ,instead of this quiet inconspicuous process man has to call upon the lightning when he wants to fix nitrogen4 ,the air contains the oxygen and nitrogen which it is desired to combine to form nitrates but the atoms are paired1 like to like4 ,passing an electric spark through the air breaks up some of these pairs and in the confusion of the shock the lonely atoms seize on their nearest neighbor and so may get partners of the other sort4 ,i have seen this same thing happen in a square dance where somebody made a blunder4 ,it is easy to understand the reaction if we represent the atoms of oxygen and nitrogen by the initials of their names in this fashion3 ,,nn ,,oo -- ,,no ,,no nitrogen oxygen nitric oxide ,the -- represents ,jove's thunderbolt1 a stroke of artificial lightning4 ,we see on the left the molecules of oxygen and nitrogen1 before taking the electric treatment1 as separate elemental pairs1 and then to the right of the arrow we find them as compound molecules of nitric oxide4 ,this takes up another atom of oxygen from the air and becomes ,,noo1 or using a subscript figure to indicate the number of atoms and so avoid repeating the letter1 ,,no#b which is the familiar nitro group of nitric acid 7,,ho--,,no#b7 and of its salts1 the nitrates1 and of its organic compounds1 the high explosives4 ,the ,,no#b is a brown and evil-smelling gas which when dissolved in water 7,,hoh7 and further oxidized is completely converted into nitric acid4 ,the apparatus which effects this transformation is essentially a gigantic arc light in a chimney through which a current of hot air is blown4 ,the more thoroughly the air comes under the action of the electric arc the more molecules of nitrogen and oxygen will be broken up and rearranged1 but on the other hand if the mixture of gases remains in the path of the discharge the ,,no molecules are also broken up and go back into their original form of ,,nn and ,,oo4 ,so the object is to spread out the electric arc as widely as possible and then run the air through it rapidly4 ,in the ,schnherr process the electric arc is a spiral flame twenty-three feet long through which the air streams with a vortex motion4 ,in the ,birkeland-,eyde furnace there is a series of semi-circular arcs spread out by the repellent force of a powerful electric magnet in a flaming disc seven feet in diameter with a temperature of #fcjj ,f4 ,in the ,pauling furnace the electrodes between which the current strikes are two cast iron tubes curving upward and outward like the horns of a ,texas steer and cooled by a stream of water passing through them4 ,these electric furnaces produce two or three ounces of nitric acid for each kilowatt-hour of current consumed4 ,whether they can compete with the natural nitrates and the products of other processes depends upon how cheaply they can get their electricity4 ,before the war there were several large installations in ,norway and elsewhere where abundant water power was available and now the ,norwegians are using half a million horse power continuously in the fixation of nitrogen and the rest of the world as much again4 ,the ,germans had invested largely in these foreign oxidation plants1 but shortly before the war they had sold out and turned their attention to other processes not requiring so much electrical energy1 for their country is poorly provided with water power4 ,the ,haber process1 that they made most of1 is based upon as simple a reaction as that we have been considering1 for it consists in uniting two elemental gases to make a compound1 but the elements in this case are not nitrogen and oxygen1 but nitrogen and hydrogen4 ,this gives ammonia instead of nitric acid1 but ammonia is useful for its own purposes and it can be converted into nitric acid if this is desired4 ,the reaction is3 ,,nn ,,hh ,,hh ,,hh -- ,,nhhh ,,nhhh ,nitrogen hydrogen ammonia ,the animals go in two by two1 but they come out four by four4 ,four molecules of the mixed elements are turned into two molecules and so the gas shrinks to half its volume4 ,at the same time it acquires an odor--familiar to us when we are curing a cold--that neither of the original gases had4 ,the agent that effects the transformation in this case is not the electric spark--for this would tend to work the reaction backwards--but uranium1 a rare metal1 which has the peculiar property of helping along a reaction while seeming to take no part in it4 ,such a substance is called a catalyst4 ,the action of a catalyst is rather mysterious and whenever we have a mystery we need an analogy4 ,we may1 then1 compare the catalyst to what is known as a good mixer in society4 ,you know the sort of man ,i mean4 ,he may not be brilliant or especially talkative1 but somehow there is always something doing at a picnic or house-party when he is along4 ,the tactful hostess1 the salon leader1 is a social catalyst4 ,the trouble with catalysts1 either human or metallic1 is that they are rare and that sometimes they get sulky and won't work if the ingredients they are supposed to mix are unsuitable4 ,but the uranium1 osmium1 platinum or whatever metal is used as a catalyzing agent is expensive and although it is not used up it is easily poisoned1 as the chemists say1 by impurities in the gases4 ,the nitrogen and the hydrogen for the ,haber process must then be prepared and purified before trying to combine them into ammonia4 ,the nitrogen is obtained by liquefying air by cold and pressure and then boiling off the nitrogen at #aid ,c4 ,the oxygen left is useful for other purposes4 ,the hydrogen needed is extracted by a similar process of fractional distillation from water-gas1 the blue-flame burning gas used for heating4 ,then the nitrogen and hydrogen1 mixed in the proportion of one to three1 as shown in the reaction given above1 are compressed to two hundred atmospheres1 heated to #acjj ,f4 and passed over the finely divided uranium4 ,the stream of gas that comes out contains about four per cent4 of ammonia1 which is condensed to a liquid by cooling and the uncombined hydrogen and nitrogen passed again through the apparatus4 ,the ammonia can be employed in refrigeration and other ways but if it is desired to get the nitrogen into the form of nitric acid it has to be oxidized by the so-called ,ostwald process4 ,this is the reaction3 ,,nh#c #d,o -- ,,hno#c ,h#b,o ammonia oxygen nitric acid water ,the catalyst used to effect this combination is the metal platinum in the form of fine wire gauze1 since the action takes place only on the surface4 ,the ammonia gas is mixed with air which supplies the oxygen and the heated mixture run through the platinum gauze at the rate of several yards a second4 ,although the gases come in contact with the platinum only a five-hundredth part of a second yet eighty-five per cent4 is converted into nitric acid4 ,the ,haber process for the making of ammonia by direct synthesis from its constituent elements and the supplemental ,ostwald process for the conversion of the ammonia into nitric acid were the salvation of ,germany4 ,as soon as the ,germans saw that their dash toward ,paris had been stopped at the ,marne they knew that they were in for a long war and at once made plans for a supply of fixed nitrogen4 ,the chief ,german dye factories1 the ,badische ,anilin and ,soda-,fabrik1 promptly put #ajj1jjj1jjj into enlarging its plant and raised its production of ammonium sulfate from #cj1jjj to #cjj1jjj tons4 ,one ,german electrical firm with aid from the city of ,berlin contracted to provide #ff1jjj1jjj pounds of fixed nitrogen a year at a cost of three cents a pound for the next twenty-five years4 ,the #gej1jjj tons of ,chilean nitrate imported annually by ,germany contained about #aaf1jjj tons of the essential element nitrogen4 ,the fourteen large plants erected during the war can fix in the form of nitrates #ejj1jjj tons of nitrogen a year1 which is more than twice the amount needed for internal consumption4 ,so ,germany is now not only independent of the outside world but will have a surplus of nitrogen products which could be sold even in ,america at about half what the farmer has been paying for ,south ,american saltpeter4 ,besides the ,haber or direct process there are other methods of making ammonia which are1 at least outside of ,germany1 of more importance4 ,most prominent of these is the cyanamid process4 ,this requires electrical power since it starts with a product of the electrical furnace1 calcium carbide1 familiar to us all as a source of acetylene gas4 ,if a stream of nitrogen is passed over hot calcium carbide it is taken up by the carbide according to the following equation3 ,ca,c#b ,n#b -- ,ca,c,n#b ,c calcium carbide nitrogen calcium cyanamid carbon ,calcium cyanamid was discovered in #ahie by ,caro and ,franke when they were trying to work out a new process for making cyanide to use in extracting gold4 ,it looks like stone and1 under the name of lime-nitrogen1 or ,kalkstickstoff1 or nitrolim1 is sold as a fertilizer4 ,if it is desired to get ammonia1 it is treated with superheated steam4 ,the reaction produces heat and pressure1 so it is necessary to carry it on in stout autoclaves or enclosed kettles4 ,the cyanamid is completely and quickly converted into pure ammonia and calcium carbonate1 which is the same as the limestone from which carbide was made4 ,the reaction is3 ,ca,c,n#b #c;,h#b,o -- ,ca,c,o#c #b,,nh#c calcium cyanamid water calcium carbonate ammonia ,another electrical furnace method1 the ,serpek process1 uses aluminum instead of calcium for the fixation of nitrogen4 ,bauxite1 or impure aluminum oxide1 the ordinary mineral used in the manufacture of metallic aluminum1 is mixed with coal and heated in a revolving electrical furnace through which nitrogen is passing4 ,the equation is3 ,al#b,o#c #c;,c ,n#b -- #b;,al,n #c;,,co aluminum carbon nitrogen aluminum carbon oxide nitride monoxide ,then the aluminum nitride is treated with steam under pressure1 which produces ammonia and gives back the original aluminum oxide1 but in a purer form than the mineral from which was made #b;,al,n #c;,h#b,o -- #b,,nh#c ,al#b,o#c ,aluminum water ammonia aluminum oxide nitride ,the ,serpek process is employed to some extent in ,france in connection with the aluminum industry4 ,these are the principal processes for the fixation of nitrogen now in use1 but they by no means exhaust the possibilities4 ,for instance1 ,professor ,john ,c4 ,bucher1 of ,brown ,university1 created a sensation in #aiag by announcing a new process which he had worked out with admirable completeness and which has some very attractive features4 ,it needs no electric power or high pressure retorts or liquid air apparatus4 ,he simply fills a twenty-foot tube with briquets made out of soda ash1 iron and coke and passes producer gas through the heated tube4 ,producer gas contains nitrogen since it is made by passing air over hot coal4 ,the reaction is3 #b,na#b;,,co#c #d;,c ,n#b #b,na,c,n #c;,,co sodium carbon nitrogen sodium carbon carbonate cyanide monoxide ,the iron here acts as the catalyst and converts two harmless substances1 sodium carbonate1 which is common washing soda1 and carbon1 into two of the most deadly compounds known to man1 cyanide and carbon monoxide1 which is what kills you when you blow out the gas4 ,sodium cyanide is a salt of hydrocyanic acid1 which for1 some curious reason is called ,prussic acid4 ,it is so violent a poison that1 as the freshman said in a chemistry recitation1 a single drop of it placed on the tongue of a dog will kill a man4 ,but sodium cyanide is not only useful in itself1 for the extraction of gold and cleaning of silver1 but can be converted into ammonia1 and a variety of other compounds such as urea and oxamid1 which are good fertilizers2 sodium ferrocyanide1 that makes ,prussian blue2 and oxalic acid used in dyeing4 ,professor ,bucher claimed that his furnace could be set up in a day at a cost of less than #ajj and could turn out #aej pounds of sodium cyanide in twenty-four hours4 ,this process was placed freely at the disposal of the ,united ,states ,government for the war and a #aj-ton plant was built at ,saltville1 ,va41 by the ,ordnance ,department4 ,but the armistice put a stop to its operations and left the future of the process undetermined4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,chemical ,,reaction ,,on ,a ,,large ,,scale ,from the chemist's standpoint modern warfare consists in the rapid liberation of nitrogen from its compounds ,illustration3 ,courtesy of ,e4,i4 du ,pont de ,nemours ,co4 ,,burning ,,air ,,in ,a ,,birkeland-,,eyde ,,furnace ,,at ,,the ,,du ,,pont ,,plant ,an electric arc consuming about #djjj horse-power of energy is passing between the ,u-shaped electrodes which are made of copper tube cooled by an internal current of water4 ,on the sides of the chamber are seen the openings through which the air passes impinging directly on both sides of the surface of the disk of flame4 ,this flame is approximately seven feet in diameter and appears to be continuous although an alternating current of fifty cycles a second is used4 ,the electric arc is spread into this disk flame by the repellent power of an electro-magnet the pointed pole of which is seen at bottom of the picture4 ,under this intense heat a part of the nitrogen and oxygen of the air combine to form oxides of nitrogen which when dissolved in water form the nitric acid used in explosives4 ,illustration3 ,courtesy of ,e4,i4 du ,pont de ,nemours ,co4 ,a ,,battery ,,of ,,birkeland-,,eyde ,,furnaces ,,for ,,the ,,fixation ,,of ,,nitrogen ,,at ,,the ,,du ,,pont ,,plant ,we might have expected that the fixation of nitrogen by passing an electrical spark through hot air would have been an ,american invention1 since it was ,franklin who snatched the lightning from the heavens as well as the scepter from the tyrant and since our output of hot air is unequaled by any other nation4 ,but little attention was paid to the nitrogen problem until #aiaf when it became evident that we should soon be drawn into a war with a first class power4 ,on ,june #c1 #aiaf1 ,congress placed #bj1jjj1jjj at the disposal of the president for investigation of the best1 cheapest and most available means for the production of nitrate and other products for munitions of war and useful in the manufacture of fertilizers and other useful products by water power or any other power4 ,but by the time war was declared on ,april #f1 #aiag1 no definite program had been approved and by the time the armistice was signed on ,november #aa1 #aiah1 no plants were in active operation4 ,but five plants had been started and two of them were nearly ready to begin work when they were closed by the ending of the war4 ,united ,states ,nitrate ,plant ,no4 #a was located at ,sheffield1 ,alabama1 and was designed for the production of ammonia by direct action from nitrogen and hydrogen according to the plans of the ,american ,chemical ,company4 ,its capacity was calculated at #fj1jjj pounds of anhydrous ammonia a day1 half of which was to be oxidized to nitric acid4 ,plant ,no4 #b was erected at ,muscle ,shoals1 ,alabama1 to use the process of the ,american ,cyanamid ,company4 ,this was contracted to produce #aaj1jjj tons of ammonium nitrate a year and later two other cyanamid plants of half that capacity were started at ,toledo and ,ancor1 ,ohio4 ,at ,muscle ,shoals a mushroom city of #bj1jjj sprang up on an ,alabama cotton field in six months4 ,the raw material1 air1 was as abundant there as anywhere and the power1 water1 could be obtained from the ,government hydro-electric plant on the ,tennessee ,river1 but this was not available during the war1 so steam was employed instead4 ,the heat of the coal was used to cool the air down to the liquefying point4 ,the principle of this process is simple4 ,everybody knows that heat expands and cold contracts1 but not everybody has realized the converse of this rule1 that expansion cools and compression heats4 ,if air is forced into smaller space1 as in a tire pump1 it heats up and if allowed to expand to ordinary pressure it cools off again4 ,but if the air while compressed is cooled and then allowed to expand it must get still colder and the process can go on till it becomes cold enough to congeal4 ,that is1 by expanding a great deal of air1 a little of it can be reduced to the liquefying point4 ,at ,muscle ,shoals the plant for liquefying air1 in order to get the nitrogen out of it1 consisted of two dozen towers each capable of producing #agfe cubic feet of pure nitrogen per hour4 ,the air was drawn in through two pipes1 a yard across1 and passed through scrubbing towers to remove impurities4 ,the air was then compressed to #fjj pounds per square inch4 ,nine tenths of the air was permitted to expand to #ej pounds and this expansion cooled down the other tenth1 still under high pressure1 to the liquefying point4 ,rectifying towers #bd feet high were stacked with trays of liquid air from which the nitrogen was continually bubbling off since its boiling point is twelve degrees centigrade lower than that of oxygen4 ,pure nitrogen gas collected at the top of the tower and the residual liquid air1 now about half oxygen1 was allowed to escape at the bottom4 ,the nitrogen was then run through pipes into the lime-nitrogen ovens4 ,there were #aecf of these about four feet square and each holding #afjj pounds of pulverized calcium carbide4 ,this is at first heated by an electrical current to start the reaction which afterwards produces enough heat to keep it going4 ,as the stream of nitrogen gas passes over the finely divided carbide it is absorbed to form calcium cyanamid as described on a previous page4 ,this product is cooled1 powdered and wet to destroy any quicklime or carbide left unchanged4 ,then it is charged into autoclaves and steam at high temperature and pressure is admitted4 ,the steam acting on the cyanamid sets free ammonia gas which is carried to towers down which cold water is sprayed1 giving the ammonia water1 familiar to the kitchen and the bathroom4 ,but since nitric acid rather than ammonia was needed for munitions1 the oxygen of the air had to be called into play4 ,this process1 as already explained1 is carried on by aid of a catalyzer1 in this case platinum wire4 ,at ,muscle ,shoals there were #fif of these catalyzer boxes4 ,the ammonia gas1 mixed with air to provide the necessary oxygen1 was admitted at the top and passed down through a sheet of platinum gauze of #hj mesh to the inch1 heated to incandescence by electricity4 ,in contact with this the ammonia is converted into gaseous oxides of nitrogen 7the familiar red fumes of the laboratory7 which1 carried off in pipes1 cooled and dissolved in water1 form nitric acid4 ,but since none of the national plants could be got into action during the war1 the ,united ,states was compelled to draw upon ,south ,america for its supply4 ,the imports of ,chilean saltpeter rose from half a million tons in #aiad to a million and a half in #aiag4 ,after peace was made the ,department of ,war turned over to the ,department of ,agriculture its surplus of saltpeter1 #aej1jjj tons1 and it was sold to ,american farmers at cost1 #ha a ton4 ,for nitrogen plays a double rle in human economy4 ,it appears like ,brahma in two aspects1 ,vishnu the ,preserver and ,siva the ,destroyer4 ,here ,i have been considering nitrogen in its maleficent aspect1 its use in war4 ,we now turn to its beneficent aspect1 its use in peace4 ,,iii ,,feeding ,,the ,,soil ,the ,great ,war not only starved people3 it starved the land4 ,enough nitrogen was thrown away in some indecisive battle on the ,aisne to save ,india from a famine4 ,the population of ,europe as a whole has not been lessened by the war1 but the soil has been robbed of its power to support the population4 ,a plant requires certain chemical elements for its growth and all of these must be within reach of its rootlets1 for it will accept no substitutes4 ,a wheat stalk in ,france before the war had placed at its feet nitrates from ,chile1 phosphates from ,florida and potash from ,germany4 ,all these were shut off by the firing line and the shortage of shipping4 ,out of the eighty elements only thirteen are necessary for crops4 ,four of these are gases3 hydrogen1 oxygen1 nitrogen and chlorine4 ,five are metals3 potassium1 magnesium1 calcium1 iron and sodium4 ,four are non-metallic solids3 carbon1 sulfur1 phosphorus and silicon4 ,three of these1 hydrogen1 oxygen and carbon1 making up the bulk of the plant1 are obtainable ad libitum from the air and water4 ,the other ten in the form of salts are dissolved in the water that is sucked up from the soil4 ,the quantity needed by the plant is so small and the quantity contained in the soil is so great that ordinarily we need not bother about the supply except in case of three of them4 ,they are nitrogen1 potassium and phosphorus4 ,these would be useless or fatal to plant life in the elemental form1 but fixed in neutral salt they are essential plant foods4 ,a ton of wheat takes away from the soil about #dg pounds of nitrogen1 #ah pounds of phosphoric acid and #ab pounds of potash4 ,if then the farmer does not restore this much to his field every year he is drawing upon his capital and this must lead to bankruptcy in the long run4 ,so much is easy to see1 but actually the question is extremely complicated4 ,when the ,german chemist1 ,justus von ,liebig1 pointed out in #ahdj the possibility of maintaining soil fertility by the application of chemicals it seemed at first as though the question were practically solved4 ,chemists assumed that all they had to do was to analyze the soil and analyze the crop and from this figure out1 as easily as balancing a bank book1 just how much of each ingredient would have to be restored to the soil every year4 ,but somehow it did not work out that way and the practical agriculturist1 finding that the formulas did not fit his farm1 sneered at the professors and whenever they cited ,liebig to him he irreverently transposed the syllables of the name4 ,the chemist when he went deeper into the subject saw that he had to deal with the colloids1 damp1 unpleasant1 gummy bodies that he had hitherto fought shy of because they would not crystallize or filter4 ,so the chemist called to his aid the physicist on the one hand and the biologist on the other and then they both had their hands full4 ,the physicist found that he had to deal with a polyvariant system of solids1 liquids and gases mutually miscible in phases too numerous to be handled by ,gibbs's ,rule4 ,the biologist found that he had to deal with the invisible flora and fauna of a new world4 ,plants obey the injunction of ,tennyson and rise on the stepping stones of their dead selves to higher things4 ,each successive generation lives on what is left of the last in the soil plus what it adds from the air and sunshine4 ,as soon as a leaf or tree trunk falls to the ground it is taken in charge by a wrecking crew composed of a myriad of microscopic organisms who proceed to break it up into its component parts so these can be used for building a new edifice4 ,the process is called rotting and the product1 the black1 gummy stuff of a fertile soil1 is called humus4 ,the plants1 that is1 the higher plants1 are not able to live on their own proteids as the animals are4 ,but there are lower plants1 certain kinds of bacteria1 that can break up the big complicated proteid molecules into their component parts and reduce the nitrogen in them to ammonia or ammonia-like compounds4 ,having done this they stop and turn over the job to another set of bacteria to be carried through the next step4 ,for you must know that soil society is as complex and specialized as that above ground and the tiniest bacterium would die rather than violate the union rules4 ,the second set of bacteria change the ammonia over to nitrites and then a third set1 the ,amalgamated ,union of ,nitrate ,workers1 steps in and completes the process of oxidation with an efficiency that ,ostwald might envy1 for ninety-six per cent4 of the ammonia of the soil is converted into nitrates4 ,but if the conditions are not just right1 if the food is insufficient or unwholesome or if the air that circulates through the soil is contaminated with poison gases1 the bacteria go on a strike4 ,the farmer1 not seeing the thing from the standpoint of the bacteria1 says the soil is sick and he proceeds to doctor it according to his own notion of what ails it4 ,first perhaps he tries running in strike breakers4 ,he goes to one of the firms that makes a business of supplying nitrogen-fixing bacteria from the scabs or nodules of the clover roots and scatters these colonies over the field4 ,but if the living conditions remain bad the newcomers will soon quit work too and the farmer loses his money4 ,if he is wise1 then1 he will remedy the conditions1 putting a better ventilation system in his soil perhaps or neutralizing the sourness by means of lime or killing off the ameboid banditti that prey upon the peaceful bacteria engaged in the nitrogen industry4 ,it is not an easy job that the farmer has in keeping billions of billions of subterranean servants contented and working together1 but if he does not succeed at this he wastes his seed and labor4 ,the layman regards the soil as a platform or anchoring place on which to set plants4 ,he measures its value by its superficial area without considering its contents1 which is as absurd as to estimate a man's wealth by the size of his safe4 ,the difference in point of view is well illustrated by the old story of the city chap who was showing his farmer uncle the sights of ,new ,york4 ,when he took him to ,central ,park he tried to astonish him by saying ,this land is worth #ejj1jjj an acre4 ,the old farmer dug his toe into the ground1 kicked out a clod1 broke it open1 looked at it1 spit on it and squeezed it in his hand and then said1 ,don't you believe it2 'tain't worth ten dollars an acre4 ,mighty poor soil ,i call it4 ,both were right4 ,illustration3 ,courtesy of ,american ,cyanamid ,co4 ,,fixing ,,nitrogen ,,by ,,calcium ,,carbide ,a view of the oven room in the plant of the ,american ,cyanamid ,company4 ,the steel cylinders standing in the background are packed with the carbide and then put into the ovens sunk in the floor4 ,when these are heated internally by electricity to #bjjj degrees ,fahrenheit pure nitrogen is let in and absorbed by the carbide1 making cyanamid1 which may be used as a fertilizer or for ammonia4 ,illustration3 ,photo by ,international ,film ,service ,a ,,barrow ,,full ,,of ,,potash ,,salts ,,extracted ,,from ,,six ,,tons ,,of ,,green ,,kelp ,,by ,,the ,,government ,,chemists ,illustration3 ,,nature',s ,,silent ,,method ,,of ,,nitrogen ,,fixation ,the nodules on the vetch roots contain colonies of bacteria which have the power of taking the free nitrogen out of the air and putting it in compounds suitable for plant food4 ,the modern agriculturist realizes that the soil is a laboratory for the production of plant food and he ordinarily takes more pains to provide a balanced ration for it than he does for his family4 ,of course the necessity of feeding the soil has been known ever since man began to settle down and the ancient methods of maintaining its fertility1 though discovered accidentally and followed blindly1 were sound and efficacious4 ,virgil1 who like ,liberty ,hyde ,bailey was fond of publishing agricultural bulletins in poetry1 wrote two thousand years ago3 ,but sweet vicissitudes of rest and toil ,make easy labor and renew the soil ,yet sprinkle sordid ashes all around ,and load with fatt'ning dung thy fallow soil4 ,the ashes supplied the potash and the dung the nitrate and phosphate4 ,long before the discovery of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria1 the custom prevailed of sowing pea-like plants every third year and then plowing them under to enrich the soil4 ,but such local supplies were always inadequate and as soon as deposits of fertilizers were discovered anywhere in the world they were drawn upon4 ,the richest of these was the ,chincha ,islands off the coast of ,peru1 where millions of penguins and pelicans had lived in a most untidy manner for untold centuries4 ,the guano composed of the excrement of the birds mixed with the remains of dead birds and the fishes they fed upon was piled up to a depth of #abj feet4 ,from this ,isle of ,penguins--which is not that described by ,anatole ,france--a billion dollars' worth of guano was taken and the deposit was soon exhausted4 ,then the attention of the world was directed to the mainland of ,peru and ,chile1 where similar guano deposits had been accumulated and1 not being washed away on account of the lack of rain1 had been deposited as sodium nitrate1 or saltpeter4 ,these beds were discovered by a ,german1 ,taddeo ,haenke1 in #ahji1 but it was not until the last quarter of the century that the nitrates came into common use as a fertilizer4 ,since then more than #ec1jjj1jjj tons have been taken out of these beds and the exportation has risen to a rate of #b1ejj1jjj to #c1jjj1jjj tons a year4 ,how much longer they will last is a matter of opinion and opinion is largely influenced by whether you have your money invested in ,chilean nitrate stock or in one of the new synthetic processes for making nitrates4 ,the ,united ,states ,department of ,agriculture says the nitrate beds will be exhausted in a few years4 ,on the other hand the ,chilean ,inspector ,general of ,nitrate ,deposits in his latest official report says that they will last for two hundred years at the present rate and that then there are incalculable areas of low grade deposits1 containing less than eleven per cent41 to be drawn upon4 ,anyhow1 the ,south ,american beds cannot long supply the world's need of nitrates and we shall some time be starving unless creative chemistry comes to the rescue4 ,in #ahih ,sir ,william ,crookes--the discoverer of the ,crookes tubes1 the radiometer and radiant matter--startled the ,british ,association for the ,advancement of ,science by declaring that the world was nearing the limit of wheat production and that by #aica the bread-eaters1 the ,caucasians1 would have to turn to other grains or restrict their population while the rice and millet eaters of ,asia would continue to increase4 ,sir ,william was laughed at then as a sensationalist4 ,he was1 but his sensations were apt to prove true and it is already evident that he was too near right for comfort4 ,before we were half way to the date he set we had two wheatless days a week1 though that was because we persisted in shooting nitrates into the air4 ,the area producing wheat was by decades3#a ,,the ,,wheat ,,fields ,,of ,,the ,,world ,acres #ahha-ij #aib1jjj1jjj #ahij-aijj #baa1jjj1jjj #aijj-aj #bdb1jjj1jjj ,probable limit #cjj1jjj1jjj ,if #cjj1jjj1jjj acres can be brought under cultivation for wheat and the average yield raised to twenty bushels to the acre1 that will give enough to feed a billion people if they eat six bushels a year as do the ,english4 ,whether this maximum is correct or not there is evidently some limit to the area which has suitable soil and climate for growing wheat1 so we are ultimately thrown back upon ,crookes's solution of the problem2 that is1 we must increase the yield per acre and this can only be done by the use of fertilizers and especially by the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen4 ,crookes estimated the average yield of wheat at #ab4g bushels to the acre1 which is more than it is in the new lands of the ,united ,states1 ,australia and ,russia1 but less than in ,europe1 where the soil is well fed4 ,what can be done to increase the yield may be seen from these figures3 ,,gain ,,in ,,the ,,yield ,,of ,,wheat ,,in ,,bushels ,,per ,,acre #ahhi-ij #aiac ,germany #ai #ce ,belgium #cj #ce ,france #ag #bj ,united ,kingdom #bh #cb ,united ,states #ab #ae ,the greatest gain was made in ,germany and we see a reason for it in the fact that the ,german importation of ,chilean saltpeter was #ee1jjj tons in #ahhj and #gdg1jjj tons in #aiac4 ,in potatoes1 too1 ,germany gets twice as big a crop from the same ground as we do1 #bbc bushels per acre instead of our #aac bushels4 ,but the ,united ,states uses on the average only #bh pounds of fertilizer per acre1 while ,europe uses #bjj4 ,it is clear that we cannot rely upon ,chile1 but make nitrates for ourselves as ,germany had to in war time4 ,in the first chapter we considered the new methods of fixing the free nitrogen from the air4 ,but the fixation of nitrogen is a new business in this country and our chief reliance so far has been the coke ovens4 ,when coal is heated in retorts or ovens for making coke or gas a lot of ammonia comes off with the other products of decomposition and is caught in the sulfuric acid used to wash the gas as ammonium sulfate4 ,our ,american coke-makers have been in the habit of letting this escape into the air and consequently we have been losing some #gjj1jjj tons of ammonium salts every year1 enough to keep our land rich and give us all the explosives we should need4 ,but now they are reforming and putting in ovens that save the by-products such as ammonia and coal tar1 so in #aiaf we got from this source #cbe1jjj tons a year4 ,illustration3 ,courtesy of ,scientific ,american4 ,consumption of potash for agricultural purposes in different countries ,germany had a natural monopoly of potash as ,chile had a natural monopoly of nitrates4 ,the agriculture of ,europe and ,america has been virtually dependent upon these two sources of plant foods4 ,now when the world was cleft in twain by the shock of ,august1 #aiad1 the ,allied ,powers had the nitrates and the ,central ,powers had the potash4 ,if ,germany had not had up her sleeve a new process for making nitrates she could not long have carried on a war and doubtless would not have ventured upon it4 ,but the outside world had no such substitute for the ,german potash salts and has not yet discovered one4 ,consequently the price of potash in the ,united ,states jumped from #dj to #djj and the cost of food went up with it4 ,even under the stimulus of prices ten times the normal and with chemists searching furnace crannies and bad lands the ,united ,states was able to scrape up less than #aj1jjj tons of potash in #aiaf1 and this was barely enough to satisfy our needs for two weeks6 ,illustration3 ,what happened to potash when the war broke out4 ,this diagram from the ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry of ,july1 #aiag1 shows how the supply of potassium muriate from ,germany was shut off in #aiad and how its price rose4 ,yet potash compounds are as cheap as dirt4 ,pick up a handful of gravel and you will be able to find much of it feldspar or other mineral containing some ten per cent4 of potash4 ,unfortunately it is in combination with silica1 which is harder to break up than a trust4 ,but constant washing wears away stones and the potash that the metallurgist finds too hard to extract in his hottest furnace is washed out in the course of time through the dropping of the gentle rain from heaven4 ,all rivers run to the sea and so the sea gets salt1 all sorts of salts1 principally sodium chloride 7our table salt7 and next magnesium1 calcium and potassium chlorides or sulfates in this order of abundance4 ,but if we evaporate sea-water down to dryness all these are left in a mix together and it is hard to sort them out4 ,only patient ,nature has time for it and she only did on a large scale in one place1 that is at ,stassfurt1 ,germany4 ,it seems that in the days when northwestern ,prussia was undetermined whether it should be sea or land it was flooded annually by sea-water4 ,as this slowly evaporated the dissolved salts crystallized out at the critical points1 leaving beds of various combinations4 ,each year there would be deposited three to five inches of salts with a thin layer of calcium sulfate or gypsum on top4 ,counting these annual layers1 like the rings on a stump1 we find that the ,stassfurt beds were ten thousand years in the making4 ,they were first worked for their salt1 common salt1 alone1 but in #ahcg the ,prussian ,government began prospecting for new and deeper deposits and found1 not the clean rock salt that they wanted1 but bittern1 largely magnesium sulfate or ,epsom salt1 which is not at all nice for table use4 ,this stuff was first thrown away until it was realized that it was much more valuable for the potash it contains than was the rock salt they were after4 ,then the ,germans began to purify the ,stassfurt salts and market them throughout the world4 ,they contain from fifteen to twenty-five per cent4 of magnesium chloride mixed with magnesium chloride in carnallite1 with magnesium sulfate in kainite and sodium chloride in sylvinite4 ,more than thirty thousand miners and workmen are employed in the ,stassfurt works4 ,there are some seventy distinct establishments engaged in the business1 but they are in combination4 ,in fact they are compelled to be1 for the ,german ,government is as anxious to promote trusts as the ,american ,government is to prevent them4 ,once the ,stassfurt firms had a falling out and began a cutthroat competition4 ,but the ,german ,government objects to its people cutting each other's throats4 ,american dealers were getting unheard of bargains when the ,german ,government stepped in and compelled the competing corporations to recombine under threat of putting on an export duty that would eat up their profits4 ,the advantages of such business coperation are specially shown in opening up a new market for an unknown product as in the case of the introduction of the ,stassfurt salts into ,american agriculture4 ,the farmer in any country is apt to be set in his ways and when it comes to inducing him to spend his hard-earned money for chemicals that he never heard of and could not pronounce he--quite rightly--has to be shown4 ,well1 he was shown4 ,it was1 if ,i remember right1 early in the nineties that the ,german ,kali ,syndikat began operations in ,america and the ,united ,states ,government became its chief advertising agent4 ,in every state there was an agricultural experiment station and these were provided liberally with illustrated literature on ,stassfurt salts with colored wall charts and sets of samples and free sacks of salts for field experiments4 ,the station men1 finding that they could rely upon the scientific accuracy of the information supplied by ,kali and that the experiments worked out well1 became enthusiastic advocates of potash fertilizers4 ,the station bulletins--which ,uncle ,sam was kind enough to carry free to all the farmers of the state--sometimes were worded so like the ,kali ,company advertising that the company might have raised a complaint of plagiarizing1 but they never did4 ,the ,chilean nitrates1 which are under ,british control1 were later introduced by similar methods through the agency of the state agricultural experiment stations4 ,as a result of all this missionary work1 which cost the ,kali ,company #ej1jjj a year1 the attention of a large proportion of ,american farmers was turned toward intensive farming and they began to realize the necessity of feeding the soil that was feeding them4 ,they grew dependent upon these two foreign and widely separated sources of supply4 ,in the year before the war the ,united ,states imported a million tons of ,stassfurt salts1 for which the farmers paid more than #bj1jjj1jjj4 ,then a declaration of ,american independence--the ,german embargo of #aiae--;cut us off from ,stassfurt and for five years we had to rely upon our own resources4 ,we have seen how ,germany--shut off from ,chile--solved the nitrogen problem for her fields and munition plants4 ,it was not so easy for us--shut off from ,germany--to solve the potash problem4 ,there is no more lack of potash in the rocks than there is of nitrogen in the air1 but the nitrogen is free and has only to be caught and combined1 while the potash is shut up in a granite prison from which it is hard to get it free4 ,it is not the percentage in the soil but the percentage in the soil water that counts4 ,a farmer with his potash locked up in silicates is like the merchant who has left the key of his safe at home in his other trousers4 ,he may be solvent1 but he cannot meet a sight draft4 ,it is only solvent potash that passes current4 ,in the days of our grandfathers we had not only national independence but household independence4 ,every homestead had its own potash plant and soap factory4 ,the frugal housewife dumped the maple wood ashes of the fireplace into a hollow log set up on end in the backyard4 ,water poured over the ashes leached out the lye1 which drained into a bucket beneath4 ,this gave her a solution of pearl ash or potassium carbonate whose concentration she tested with an egg as a hydrometer4 ,in the meantime she had been saving up all the waste grease from the frying pan and pork rinds from the plate and by trying out these she got her soap fat4 ,then on a day set apart for this disagreeable process in chemical technology she boiled the fat and the lye together and got soft soap1 or as the chemist would call it1 potassium stearate4 ,if she wanted hard soap she salted it out with brine4 ,the sodium stearate being less soluble was precipitated to the top and cooled into a solid cake that could be cut into bars by pack thread4 ,but the frugal housewife threw away in the waste water what we now consider the most valuable ingredients1 the potash and the glycerin4 ,but the old lye-leach is only to be found in ruins on an abandoned farm and we no longer burn wood at the rate of a log a night4 ,in #aiaf even under the stimulus of tenfold prices the amount of potash produced as pearl ash was only #dab tons--and we need #cjj1jjj tons in some form4 ,it would1 of course1 be very desirable as a conservation measure if all the sawdust and waste wood were utilized by charring it in retorts4 ,the gas makes a handy fuel4 ,the tar washed from the gas contains a lot of valuable products4 ,and potash can be leached out of the charcoal or from its ashes whenever it is burned4 ,but this at best would not go far toward solving the problem of our national supply4 ,there are other potash-bearing wastes that might be utilized4 ,the cement mills which use feldspar in combination with limestone give off a potash dust1 very much to the annoyance of their neighbors4 ,this can be collected by running the furnace clouds into large settling chambers or long flues1 where the dust may be caught in bags1 or washed out by water sprays or thrown down by electricity4 ,the blast furnaces for iron also throw off potash-bearing fumes4 ,our six-million-ton crop of sugar beets contains some #ab1jjj tons of nitrogen1 #djjj tons of phosphoric acid and #ah1jjj tons of potash1 all of which is lost except where the waste liquors from the sugar factory are used in irrigating the beet land4 ,the beet molasses1 after extracting all the sugar possible by means of lime1 leaves a waste liquor from which the potash can be recovered by evaporation and charring and leaching the residue4 ,the ,germans get #ejjj tons of potassium cyanide and as much ammonium sulfate annually from the waste liquor of their beet sugar factories and if it pays them to save this it ought to pay us where potash is dearer4 ,various other industries can put in a bit when ,uncle ,sam passes around the contribution basket marked ,potash for the ,poor4 ,wool wastes and fish refuse make valuable fertilizers1 although they will not go far toward solving the problem4 ,if we saved all our potash by-products they would not supply more than fifteen per cent4 of our needs4 ,though no potash beds comparable to those of ,stassfurt have yet been discovered in the ,united ,states1 yet in ,nebraska1 ,utah1 ,california and other western states there are a number of alkali lakes1 wet or dry1 containing a considerable amount of potash mixed with soda salts4 ,of these deposits the largest is ,searles ,lake1 ,california4 ,here there are some twelve square miles of salt crust some seventy feet deep and the brine as pumped out contains about four per cent4 of potassium chloride4 ,the quantity is sufficient to supply the country for over twenty years1 but it is not an easy or cheap job to separate the potassium from the sodium salts which are five times more abundant4 ,these being less soluble than the potassium salts crystallize out first when the brine is evaporated4 ,the final crystallization is done in vacuum pans as in getting sugar from the cane juice4 ,in this way the ,american ,trona ,corporation is producing some #dejj tons of potash salts a month besides a thousand tons of borax4 ,the borax which is contained in the brine to the extent of #a-a_/b per cent4 is removed from the fertilizer for a double reason4 ,it is salable by itself and it is detrimental to plant life4 ,another mineral source of potash is alunite1 which is a sort of natural alum1 or double sulfate of potassium and aluminum1 with about ten per cent4 of potash4 ,it contains a lot of extra alumina1 but after roasting in a kiln the potassium sulfate can be leached out4 ,the alunite beds near ,marysville1 ,utah1 were worked for all they were worth during the war1 but the process does not give potash cheap enough for our needs in ordinary times4 ,illustration3 ,photo by ,international ,film ,service ,,in ,,order ,,to ,,secure ,a ,,new ,,supply ,,of ,,potash ,,salts ,the ,united ,states ,government set up an experimental plant at ,sutherland1 ,california1 for the utilization of kelp4 ,the harvester cuts #dj tons of kelp at a load ,illustration3 ,,the ,,kelp ,,harvester ,,gathering ,,the ,,seaweed ,,from ,,the ,,pacific ,,ocean ,illustration3 ,courtesy of ,hercules ,powder ,co4 ,,overhead ,,suction ,,at ,,the ,,san ,,diego ,,wharf ,,pumping ,,kelp ,,from ,,the ,,barge ,,to ,,the ,,digestion ,,tanks ,the tourist going through ,wyoming on the ,union ,pacific will have to the north of him what is marked on the map as the ,leucite ,hills4 ,if he looks up the word in the ,unabridged that he carries in his satchel he will find that leucite is a kind of lava and that it contains potash4 ,but he will also observe that the potash is combined with alumina and silica1 which are hard to get out and useless when you get them out4 ,one of the lavas of the ,leucite ,hills1 that named from its native state ,wyomingite1 gives fifty-seven per cent4 of its potash in a soluble form on roasting with alunite--but this costs too much4 ,the same may be said of all the potash feldspars and mica4 ,they are abundant enough1 but until we find a way of utilizing the by-products1 say the silica in cement and the aluminum as a metal1 they cannot solve our problem4 ,since it is so hard to get potash from the land it has been suggested that we harvest the sea4 ,the experts of the ,united ,states ,department of ,agriculture have placed high hopes in the kelp or giant seaweed which floats in great masses in the ,pacific ,ocean not far off from the ,california coast4 ,this is harvested with ocean reapers run by gasoline engines and brought in barges to the shore1 where it may be dried and used locally as a fertilizer or burned and the potassium chloride leached out of the charcoal ashes4 ,but it is hard to handle the bulky1 slimy seaweed cheaply enough to get out of it the small amount of potash it contains4 ,so efforts are now being made to get more out of the kelp than the potash4 ,instead of burning the seaweed it is fermented in vats producing acetic acid 7vinegar74 ,from the resulting liquid can be obtained lime acetate1 potassium chloride1 potassium iodide1 acetone1 ethyl acetate 7used as a solvent for guncotton7 and algin1 a gelatin-like gum4 ,,production ,,of ,,potash ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states #aiaf #aiag ,source ,tons ,k#b,o ,per cent4 ,tons ,k#b,o ,per cent4 of total of total production production ,mineral sources3 ,natural brines #c1iid #da4a #bj1feb #fc4d ,altmite #a1hej #ai4j #b1djb #g4c ,dust from cement mills #a1fba #e4j ,dust from blast furnaces #ahe #j4f ,organic ,sources3 ,kelp #a1eef #af4j #c1geb #aj4i ,molasses residue from distillers #a1hde #ai4j #b1hdf #h4h ,wood ashes #dab #d4b #fba #a4i ,waste liquors from beet-sugar refineries #cfi #a4a ,miscellaneous industrial wastes #fc 4#g #cje #a4j ,total #i1gbj #ajj4j #cb1egc #ajj4j --,from ,u ,s4 ,bureau of ,mines ,report1 #aiah4 ,this table shows how inadequate was the reaction of the ,united ,states to the war demand for potassium salts4 ,the minimum yearly requirements of the ,united ,states are estimated to be #bej1jjj tons of potash4 ,this completes our survey of the visible sources of potash in ,america4 ,in #aiag under the pressure of the embargo and unprecedented prices the output of potash 7,k#b,o7 in various forms was raised to #cb1egc tons1 but this is only about a tenth as much as we needed4 ,in #aiah potash production was further raised to #eb1ace tons1 chiefly through the increase of the output from natural brines to #ci1bee tons1 nearly twice what it was the year before4 ,the rust in cotton and the resulting decrease in yield during the war are laid to lack of potash4 ,truck crops grown in soils deficient in potash do not stand transportation well4 ,the ,bureau of ,animal ,industry has shown in experiments in ,aroostook ,county1 ,maine1 that the addition of moderate amounts of potash doubled the yield of potatoes4 ,professor ,ostwald1 the great ,leipzig chemist1 boasted in the war3 ,america went into the war like a man with a rope round his neck which is in his enemy's hands and is pretty tightly drawn4 ,with its tremendous deposits ,germany has a world monopoly in potash1 a point of immense value which cannot be reckoned too highly when once this war is going to be settled4 ,it is in ,germany's power to dictate which of the nations shall have plenty of food and which shall starve4 ,if1 indeed1 some mineralogist or metallurgist will cut that rope by showing us a supply of cheap potash we will erect him a monument as big as ,washington's4 ,but ,ostwald is wrong in supposing that ,america is as dependent as ,germany upon potash4 ,the bulk of our food crops are at present raised without the use of any fertilizers whatever4 ,as the cession of ,lorraine in #ahga gave ,germany the phosphates she needed for fertilizers so the retrocession of ,alsace in #aiai gives ,france the potash she needed for fertilizers4 ,ten years before the war a bed of potash was discovered in the ,forest of ,monnebruck1 near ,hartmannsweilerkopf1 the peak for which ,french and ,germans contested so fiercely and so long4 ,the layer of potassium salts is #af-a_/b feet thick and the total deposit is estimated to be #bge1jjj1jjj tons of potash4 ,at any rate it is a formidable rival of ,stassfurt and its acquisition by ,france breaks the ,german monopoly4 ,when we turn to the consideration of the third plant food we feel better4 ,while the ,united ,states has no such monopoly of phosphates as ,germany had of potash and ,chile had of nitrates we have an abundance and to spare4 ,whereas we formerly imported about #ag1jjj1jjj worth of potash from ,germany and #bj1jjj1jjj worth of nitrates from ,chile a year we exported #g1jjj1jjj worth of phosphates4 ,whoever it was who first noticed that the grass grew thicker around a buried bone he lived so long ago that we cannot do honor to his powers of observation1 but ever since then--whenever it was--old bones have been used as a fertilizer4 ,but we long ago used up all the buffalo bones we could find on the prairies and our packing houses could not give us enough bone-meal to go around1 so we have had to draw upon the old bone-yards of prehistoric animals4 ,deposits of lime phosphate of such origin were found in ,south ,carolina in #ahgj and in ,florida in #ahhh4 ,since then the industry has developed with amazing rapidity until in #aiac the ,united ,states produced over three million tons of phosphates1 nearly half of which was sent abroad4 ,the chief source at present is the ,florida pebbles1 which are dredged up from the bottoms of lakes and rivers or washed out from the banks of streams by a hydraulic jet4 ,the gravel is washed free from the sand and clay1 screened and dried1 and then is ready for shipment4 ,the rock deposits of ,florida and ,south ,carolina are more limited than the pebble beds and may be exhausted in twenty-five or thirty years1 but ,tennessee and ,kentucky have a lot in reserve and behind them are ,idaho1 ,wyoming and other western states with millions of acres of phosphate land1 so in this respect we are independent4 ,but even here the war hit us hard4 ,for the calcium phosphate as it comes from the ground is not altogether available because it is not very soluble and the plants can only use what they can get in the water that they suck up from the soil4 ,but if the phosphate is treated with sulfuric acid it becomes more soluble and this product is sold as superphosphate4 ,the sulfuric acid is made mostly from iron pyrite and this we have been content to import1 over #hjj1jjj tons of it a year1 largely from ,spain1 although we have an abundance at home4 ,since the shortage of shipping shut off the foreign supply we are using more of our own pyrite and also our deposits of native sulfur along the ,gulf coast4 ,but as a consequence of this sulfuric acid during the war went up from #e to #be a ton and acidulated phosphates rose correspondingly4 ,germany is short on natural phosphates as she is long on natural potash4 ,but she has made up for it by utilizing a by-product of her steelworks4 ,when phosphorus occurs in iron ore1 even in minute amounts1 it makes the steel brittle4 ,much of the iron ores of ,alsace-,lorraine were formerly considered unworkable because of this impurity1 but shortly after ,germany took these provinces from ,france in #ahga a method was discovered by two ,british metallurgists1 ,thomas and ,gilchrist1 by which the phosphorus is removed from the iron in the process of converting it into steel4 ,this consists in lining the crucible or converter with lime and magnesia1 which takes up the phosphorus from the melted iron4 ,this slag lining1 now rich in phosphates1 can be taken out and ground up for fertilizer4 ,so the phosphorus which used to be a detriment is now an additional source of profit and this ,british invention has enabled ,germany to make use of the territory she stole from ,france to outstrip ,england in the steel business4 ,in #aiaj ,germany produced #b1jjj1jjj tons of ,thomas slag while only #afj1jjj tons were produced in the ,united ,kingdom4 ,the open hearth process now chiefly used in the ,united ,states gives an acid instead of a basic phosphate slag1 not suitable as a fertilizer4 ,the iron ore of ,america1 with the exception of some of the southern ores1 carries so small a percentage of phosphorus as to make a basic process inadvisable4 ,recently the ,germans have been experimenting with a combined fertilizer1 ,schrder's potassium phosphate1 which is said to be as good as ,thomas slag for phosphates and as good as ,stassfurt salts for potash4 ,the ,american ,cyanamid ,company is just putting out a similar product1 ,ammo-,phos1 in which the ammonia can be varied from thirteen to twenty per cent4 and the phosphoric acid from twenty to forty-seven per cent4 so as to give the proportions desired for any crop4 ,we have then the possibility of getting the three essential plant foods altogether in one compound with the elimination of most of the extraneous elements such as lime and magnesia1 chlorids and sulfates4 ,for the last three hundred years the ,american people have been living on the unearned increment of the unoccupied land4 ,but now that all our land has been staked out in homesteads and we cannot turn to new soil when we have used up the old1 we must learn1 as the older races have learned1 how to keep up the supply of plant food4 ,only in this way can our population increase and prosper4 ,as we have seen1 the phosphate question need not bother us and we can see our way clear toward solving the nitrate question4 ,we gave the ,government #bj1jjj1jjj to experiment on the production of nitrates from the air and the results will serve for fields as well as firearms4 ,but the question of an independent supply of cheap potash is still unsolved4 ,,iv ,,coal-,,tar ,,colors ,if you put a bit of soft coal into a test tube 7or1 if you haven't a test tube1 into a clay tobacco pipe and lute it over with clay7 and heat it you will find a gas coming out of the end of the tube that will burn with a yellow smoky flame4 ,after all the gas comes off you will find in the bottom of the test tube a chunk of dry1 porous coke4 ,these1 then1 are the two main products of the destructive distillation of coal4 ,but if you are an unusually observant person1 that is1 if you are a born chemist with an eye to by-products1 you will notice along in the middle of the tube where it is neither too hot nor too cold some dirty drops of water and some black sticky stuff4 ,if you are just an ordinary person1 you won't pay any attention to this because there is only a little of it and because what you are after is the coke and gas4 ,you regard the nasty1 smelly mess that comes in between as merely a nuisance because it clogs up and spoils your nice1 clean tube4 ,now that is the way the gas-makers and coke-makers--being for the most part ordinary persons and not born chemists--used to regard the water and tar that got into their pipes4 ,they washed it out so as to have the gas clean and then ran it into the creek4 ,but the neighbors--especially those who fished in the stream below the gas-works--made a fuss about spoiling the water1 so the gas-men gave away the tar to the boys for use in celebrating the ,fourth of ,july and election night or sold it for roofing4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,production ,,of ,,coal ,,tar ,a battery of ,koppers by-product coke-ovens at the plant of the ,bethlehem ,steel ,company1 ,sparrows ,point1 ,maryland4 ,the coke is being pushed out of one of the ovens into the waiting car4 ,the vapors given off from the coal contain ammonia and the benzene compound used to make dyes and explosives ,illustration3 ,,in ,,these ,,mixing ,,vats ,,at ,,the ,,buffalo ,,works1 ,,aniline ,,dyes ,,are ,,prepared ,but this same tar1 which for a hundred years was thrown away and nearly half of which is thrown away yet in the ,united ,states1 turns out to be one of the most useful things in the world4 ,it is one of the strategic points in war and commerce4 ,it wounds and heals4 ,it supplies munitions and medicines4 ,it is like the magic purse of ,fortunatus from which anything wished for could be drawn4 ,the chemist puts his hand into the black mass and draws out all the colors of the rainbow4 ,this evil-smelling substance beats the rose in the production of perfume and surpasses the honey-comb in sweetness4 ,bishop ,berkeley1 after having proved that all matter was in your mind1 wrote a book to prove that wood tar would cure all diseases4 ,nobody reads it now4 ,the name is enough to frighten them off3 ,siris3 ,a ,chain of ,philosophical ,reflections and ,inquiries ,concerning the ,virtues of ,tar ,water4 ,he had a sort of mystical idea that tar contained the quintessence of the forest1 the purified spirit of the trees1 which could somehow revive the spirit of man4 ,people said he was crazy on the subject1 and doubtless he was1 but the interesting thing about it is that not even his active and ingenious imagination could begin to suggest all of the strange things that can be got out of tar1 whether wood or coal4 ,the reason why tar supplies all sorts of useful material is because it is indeed the quintessence of the forest1 of the forests of untold millenniums if it is coal tar4 ,if you are acquainted with a village tinker1 one of those all-round mechanics who still survive in this age of specialization and can mend anything from a baby-carriage to an automobile1 you will know that he has on the floor of his back shop a heap of broken machinery from which he can get almost anything he wants1 a copper wire1 a zinc plate1 a brass screw or a steel rod4 ,now coal tar is the scrap-heap of the vegetable kingdom4 ,it contains a little of almost everything that makes up trees4 ,but you must not imagine that all that comes out of coal tar is contained in it4 ,there are only about a dozen primary products extracted from coal tar1 but from these the chemist is able to build up hundreds of thousands of new substances4 ,this is true creative chemistry1 for most of these compounds are not to be found in plants and never existed before they were made in the laboratory4 ,it used to be thought that organic compounds1 the products of vegetable and animal life1 could only be produced by organized beings1 that they were created out of inorganic matter by the magic touch of some vital principle4 ,but since the chemist has learned how1 he finds it easier to make organic than inorganic substances and he is confident that he can reproduce any compound that he can analyze4 ,he cannot only imitate the manufacturing processes of the plants and animals1 but he can often beat them at their own game4 ,when coal is heated in the open air it is burned up and nothing but the ashes is left4 ,but heat the coal in an enclosed vessel1 say a big fireclay retort1 and it cannot burn up because the oxygen of the air cannot get to it4 ,so it breaks up4 ,all parts of it that can be volatized at a high heat pass off through the outlet pipe and nothing is left in the retort but coke1 that is carbon with the ash it contains4 ,when the escaping vapors reach a cool part of the outlet pipe the oily and tarry matter condenses out4 ,then the gas is passed up through a tower down which water spray is falling and thus is washed free from ammonia and everything else that is soluble in water4 ,this process is called destructive distillation4 ,what products come off depends not only upon the composition of the particular variety of coal used1 but upon the heat1 pressure and rapidity of distillation4 ,the way you run it depends upon what you are most anxious to have4 ,if you want illuminating gas you will leave in it the benzene4 ,if you are after the greatest yield of tar products1 you impoverish the gas by taking out the benzene and get a blue instead of a bright yellow flame4 ,if all you are after is cheap coke1 you do not bother about the by-products1 but let them escape and burn as they please4 ,the tourist passing across the coal region at night could see through his car window the flames of hundreds of old-fashioned bee-hive coke-ovens and if he were of economical mind he might reflect that this display of fireworks was costing the country #ge1jjj1jjj a year besides consuming the irreplaceable fuel supply of the future4 ,but since the gas was not needed outside of the cities and since the coal tar1 if it could be sold at all1 brought only a cent or two a gallon1 how could the coke-makers be expected to throw out their old bee-hive ovens and put in the expensive retorts and towers necessary to the recovery of the by-products8 ,but within the last ten years the by-product ovens have come into use and now nearly half our coke is made in them4 ,although the products of destructive distillation vary within wide limits1 yet the following table may serve to give an approximate idea of what may be got from a ton of soft coal3 #a ton of coal may give ,gas1 #ab1jjj cubic feet ,liquor 7,washings7 ammonium sulfate 7#g-be pounds7 ,tar 7#abj pounds7 benzene 7#aj-bj pounds7 toluene 7#c pounds7 xylene 7#a-a_/b pounds7 phenol 7#a_/b pound7 naphthalene 7#c_/h pound7 anthracene 7#a_/d pound7 pitch 7#hj pounds7 ,coke 7#abjj-aejj pounds7 ,when the tar is redistilled we get1 among other things1 the ten crudes which are fundamental material for making dyes4 ,their names are3 benzene1 toluene1 xylene1 phenol1 cresol1 naphthalene1 anthracene1 methyl anthracene1 phenanthrene and carbazol4 ,there6 ,i had to introduce you to the whole receiving line1 but now that that ceremony is over we are at liberty to do as we do at a reception1 meet our old friends1 get acquainted with one or two more and turn our backs on the rest4 ,two of them1 ,i am sure1 you've met before1 phenol1 which is common carbolic acid1 and naphthalene1 which we use for mothballs4 ,but notice one thing in passing1 that not one of them is a dye4 ,they are all colorless liquids or white solids4 ,also they all have an indescribable odor--all odors that you don't know are indescribable--which gives them and their progeny1 even when odorless1 the name of aromatic compounds4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #h4 ,diagram of the products obtained from coal and some of their uses4 ,the most important of the ten because he is the father of the family is benzene1 otherwise called benzol1 but must not be confused with benzine spelled with an i which we used to burn and clean our clothes with4 ,benzine is a kind of gasoline1 but benzene alias benzol has quite another constitution1 although it looks and burns the same4 ,now the search for the constitution of benzene is one of the most exciting chapters in chemistry2 also one of the most intricate chapters1 but1 in spite of that1 ,i believe ,i can make the main point of it clear even to those who have never studied chemistry--provided they retain their childish liking for puzzles4 ,it is really much like putting together the old six-block ,chinese puzzle4 ,the chemist can work better if he has a picture of what he is working with4 ,now his unit is the molecule1 which is too small even to analyze with the microscope1 no matter how high powered4 ,so he makes up a sort of diagram of the molecule1 and since he knows the number of atoms and that they are somehow attached to one another1 he represents each atom by the first letter of its name and the points of attachment or bonds by straight lines connecting the atoms of the different elements4 ,now it is one of the rules of the game that all the bonds must be connected or hooked up with atoms at both ends1 that there shall be no free hands reaching out into empty space4 ,carbon1 for instance1 has four bonds and hydrogen only one4 ,they unite1 therefore1 in the proportion of one atom of carbon to four of hydrogen1 or ,,ch#d1 which is methane or marsh gas and obviously the simplest of the hydrocarbons4 ,but we have more complex hydrocarbons such as ,c#f;,h#ad1 known as hexane4 ,now if you try to draw the diagrams or structural formulas of these two compounds you will easily get ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h-,c-,h ,h-,c-,c-,c-,c-,c-,c-,h ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h methane hexane ,each carbon atom1 you see1 has its four hands outstretched and duly grasped by one-handed hydrogen atoms or by neighboring carbon atoms in the chain4 ,we can have such chains as long as you please1 thirty or more in a chain2 they are all contained in kerosene and paraffin4 ,so far the chemist found it east to construct diagrams that would satisfy his sense of the fitness of things1 but when he found that benzene had the compostion ,c#f;,h#f he was puzzled4 ,if you try to draw the picture of ,c#f;,h#f you will get something like this3 -,c-,c-,c-,c-,c-,c- ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h ,h which is an absurdity because more than half of the carbon hands are waving wildly around asking to be held by something4 ,benzene1 ,c#f;,h#f1 evidently is like hexane1 ,c#f;,h#ad1 in having a chain of six carbon atoms1 but it has dropped its ,h's like an ,englishman4 ,eight of the ,h's are missing4 ,now one of the men who was worried over this benzene puzzle was the ,german chemist1 ,kekul4 ,one evening after working over the problem all day he was sitting by the fire trying to rest1 but he could not throw it off his mind4 ,the carbon and the hydrogen atoms danced like imps on the carpet and as he watched them through his half-closed eyes he suddenly saw that the chain of six carbon atoms had joined at the ends and formed a ring while the six hydrogen atoms were holding on to the outside hands1 in this fashion3 ,h ,c _/ ,h-,c ,c-,h ,h-,c ,c-,h _/_/ ,c ,h ,professor ,kekul saw at once that the demons of his subconscious self had furnished him with a clue to the labyrinth1 and so it proved4 ,we need not suppose that the benzene molecule if we could see it would look anything like this diagram of it1 but the theory works and that is all the scientist asks of any theory4 ,by its use thousands of new compounds have been constructed which have proved of inestimable value to man4 ,the modern chemist is not a discoverer1 he is an inventor4 ,he sits down at his desk and draws a ,kekul ring or rather hexagon4 ,then he rubs out an ,h and hooks a nitro group 7,,no#b7 on to the carbon in place of it2 next he rubs out the ,o#b of the nitro group and puts in ,h#b2 then he hitches on such other elements1 or carbon chains and rings as he likes4 ,he works like an architect designing a house and when he gets a picture of the proposed compounds to suit him he goes into the laboratory to make it4 ,first he takes down the bottle of benzene and boils up some of this with nitric acid and sulfuric acid4 ,this he puts in the nitro group and makes nitro-benzene1 ,c#f;,h#e,,no#b4 ,he treats this with hydrogen1 which displaces the oxygen and gives ,c#f;,h#e,,nh#b or aniline1 which is the basis of so many of these compounds that they are all commonly called the aniline dyes4 ,but aniline itself is not a dye4 ,it is a colorless or brownish oil4 ,it is not necessary to follow our chemist any farther now that we have seen how he works1 but before we pass on we will just look at one of his products1 not one of the most complicated but still complicated enough4 ,illustration3 ,a molecule of a coal-tar dye ,the name of this is sodium ditolyl-disazo-beta-naphthylamine- #f-sulfonic-beta-naphthylamine-#c4f-;dis ulfonate4 ,these chemical names of organic compounds are discouraging to the beginner and amusing to the layman1 but that is because neither of them realizes that they are not really words but formulas4 ,they are hyphenated because they come from ,germany4 ,the name given above is no more of a mouthful than a-square-plus-two-a-b-plus-b-square or ,third ,assistant ,secretary of ,war to the ,president of the ,united ,states of ,america4 ,the trade name of this dye is ,brilliant ,congo1 but while that is handier to say it does not mean anything4 ,nobody but an expert in dyes would know what it was1 while from the formula name any chemist familiar with such compounds could draw its picture1 tell how it would behave and what it was made from1 or even make it4 ,the old alchemist was a secretive and pretentious person and used to invent queer names for the purpose of mystifying and awing the ignorant4 ,but the chemist in dropping the al- has dropped the idea of secrecy and his names1 though equally appalling to the layman1 are designed to reveal and not to conceal4 ,from this brief explanation the reader who has not studied chemistry will1 ,i think1 be able to get some idea of how these very intricate compounds are built up step by step4 ,a completed house is hard to understand1 but when we see the mason laying one brick on top of another it does not seem so difficult1 although if we tried to do it we should not find it so easy as we think4 ,anyhow1 let me give you a hint4 ,if you want to make a good impression on a chemist don't tell him that he seems to you a sort of magician1 master of a black art1 and all that nonsense4 ,the chemist has been trying for three hundred years to live down the reputation of being inspired of the devil and it makes him mad to have his past thrown up at him in this fashion4 ,if his tactless admirers would stop saying it is all a mystery and a miracle to me1 and ,i cannot understand it and pay attention to what he is telling them they would understand it and would find that it is no more of a mystery or a miracle than anything else4 ,you can make an electrician mad in the same way by interrupting his explanation of a dynamo by asking3 ,but you cannot tell me what electricity really is4 ,the electrician does not care a rap what electricity really is--if there really is any meaning to that phrase4 ,all he wants to know is what he can do with it4 ,illustration3 ,,comparison ,,of ,,coal ,,and ,,its ,,distillation ,,products ,from ,hesse's ,the ,industry of the ,coal ,tar ,dyes1 ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry1 ,december1 #aiad ,the tar obtained from the gas plant or the coke plant has now to be redistilled1 giving off the ten crudes already mentioned and leaving in the still sixty-five per cent4 of pitch1 which may be used for roofing1 paving and the like4 ,the ten primary products or crudes are then converted into secondary products or intermediates by processes like that for the conversion of benzene into aniline4 ,there are some three hundred of these intermediates in use and from them are built up more than three times as many dyes4 ,the year before the war the ,american custom house listed #efgd distinct brands of synthetic dyes imported1 chiefly from ,germany1 but some of these were trade names for the same product made by different firms or represented by different degrees of purity or form of preparation4 ,although the number of possible products is unlimited and over five thousand dyes are known1 yet only about nine hundred are in use4 ,we can summarize the situation so3 ,coal-tar -- #aj crudes -- #cjj intermediates -- #ijj dyes -- #ejjj brands4 ,or1 to borrow the neat simile used by ,dr4 ,bernhard ,c4 ,hesse1 it is like cloth-making where ten fibers make #cjj yarns which are woven into #ijj patterns4 ,the advantage of the artificial dyestuffs over those found in nature lies in their variety and adaptability4 ,practically any desired tint or shade can be made for any particular fabric4 ,if my lady wants a new kind of green for her stockings or her hair she can have it4 ,candies and jellies and drinks can be made more attractive and therefore more appetizing by varied colors4 ,easter eggs and ,easter bonnets take on new and brighter hues4 ,more and more the chemist is becoming the architect of his own fortunes4 ,he does not make discoveries by picking up a beaker and pouring into it a little from each bottle on the shelf to see what happens4 ,he generally knows what he is after1 and he generally gets it1 although he is still often baffled and occasionally happens on something quite unexpected and perhaps more valuable than what he was looking for4 ,columbus was looking for ,india when he ran into an obstacle that proved to be ,america4 ,william ,henry ,perkin was looking for quinine when he blundered into that rich and undiscovered country1 the aniline dyes4 ,william ,henry was a queer boy4 ,he had rather listen to a chemistry lecture than eat4 ,when he was attending the ,city of ,london ,school at the age of thirteen there was an extra course of lectures on chemistry given at the noon recess1 so he skipped his lunch to take them in4 ,hearing that a ,german chemist named ,hofmann had opened a laboratory in the ,royal ,college of ,london he headed for that4 ,hofmann obviously had no fear of forcing the young intellect prematurely4 ,he perhaps had never heard that the tender petals of the adolescent mind must be allowed to open slowly4 ,he admitted young ,perkin at the age of fifteen and started him on research at the end of his second year4 ,an ,american student nowadays thinks he is lucky if he gets started on his research five years older than ,perkin4 ,now if ,hofmann had studied pedagogical psychology he would have been informed that nothing chills the ardor of the adolescent mind like being set at tasks too great for its powers4 ,if he had heard this and believed it1 he would not have allowed ,perkin to spend two years in fruitless endeavors to isolate phenanthrene from coal tar and to prepare artificial quinine--and in that case ,perkin would never have discovered the aniline dyes4 ,but ,perkin1 so far from being discouraged1 set up a private laboratory so he could work over-time4 ,while working here during the ,easter vacation of #ahef--the date is as well worth remembering as #ajff--;he was oxidizing some aniline oil when he got what chemists most detest1 a black1 tarry mass instead of nice1 clean crystals4 ,when he went to wash this out with alcohol he was surprised to find that it gave a beautiful purple solution4 ,this was mauve1 the first of the aniline dyes4 ,the funny thing about it was that when ,perkin tried to repeat the experiment with purer aniline he could not get his color4 ,it was because he was working with impure chemicals1 with aniline containing a little toluidine1 that he discovered mauve4 ,it was1 as ,i said1 a lucky accident4 ,but it was not accidental that the accident happened to the young fellow who spent his noonings and vacations at the study of chemistry4 ,a man may not find what he is looking for1 but he never finds anything unless he is looking for something4 ,mauve was a product of creative chemistry1 for it was a substance that had never existed before4 ,perkin's next great triumph1 ten years later1 was in rivaling ,nature in the manufacture of one of her own choice products4 ,this is alizarin1 the coloring matter contained in the madder root4 ,it was an ancient and oriental dyestuff1 known as ,turkey red or by its ,arabic name of alizari4 ,when madder was introduced into ,france it became a profitable crop and at one time half a million tons a year were raised4 ,a couple of ,french chemists1 ,robiquet and ,colin1 extracted from madder its active principle1 alizarin1 in #ahbh1 but it was not until forty years later that it was discovered that alizarin had for its base one of the coal-tar products1 anthracene4 ,then came a neck-and-neck race between ,perkin and his ,german rivals to see which could discover a cheap process for making alizarin from anthracene4 ,the ,german chemists beat him to the patent office by one day6 ,graebe and ,liebermann filed their application for a patent on the sulfuric acid process as ,no4 #aicf on ,june #be1 #ahfi4 ,perkin filed his for the same process as ,no4 #aidh on ,june #bf4 ,it had required twenty years to determine the constitution of alizarin1 but within six months from its first synthesis the commercial process was developed and within a few years the sale of artificial alizarin reached #h1jjj1jjj annually4 ,the madder fields of ,france were put to other uses and even the ,french soldiers became dependent on made-in-,germany dyes for their red trousers4 ,the ,british soldiers were placed in a similar situation as regards their red coats when after #ahgh the azo scarlets put the cochineal bug out of business4 ,the modern chemist has robbed royalty of its most distinctive insignia1 ,tyrian purple4 ,in ancient times to be porphyrogene1 that is born to the purple1 was like admission to the ,almanach de ,gotha at the present time1 for only princes or their wealthy rivals could afford to pay #fjj a pound for crimsoned linen4 ,the precious dye is secreted by a snail-like shellfish of the eastern coast of the ,mediterranean4 ,from a tiny sac behind the head a drop of thick whitish liquid1 smelling like garlic1 can be extracted4 ,if this is spread upon cloth of any kind and exposed to air and sunlight it turns first green1 next blue and then purple4 ,if the cloth is washed with soap--that is1 set by alkali--it becomes a fast crimson1 such as ,catholic cardinals still wear as princes of the church4 ,the ,phoenician merchants made fortunes out of their monopoly1 but after the fall of ,tyre it became one of the lost arts--and accordingly considered by those whose faces are set toward the past as much more wonderful than any of the new arts4 ,but in #aiji ,friedlander put an end to the superstition by analyzing ,tyrian purple and finding that it was already known4 ,it was the same as a dye that had been prepared five years before by ,sachs but had not come into commercial use because of its inferiority to others in the market4 ,it required #ab1jjj of the mollusks to supply the little material needed for analysis1 but once the chemist had identified it he did not need to bother the ,murex further1 for he could make it by the ton if he had wanted to4 ,the coloring principle turned out to be a di-brom indigo1 that is the same as the substance extracted from the ,indian plant1 but with the addition of two atoms of bromine4 ,why a particular kind of a shellfish should have got the habit of extracting this rare element from sea water and stowing it away in this peculiar form is one of those things no fellow can find out4 ,but according to the chemist the ,murex mollusk made a mistake in hitching the bromine to the wrong carbon atoms4 ,he finds as he would word it that the #f3f' di-brom indigo secreted by the shellfish is not so good as the #e3e' di-brom indigo now manufactured at a cheap rate and in unlimited quantity4 ,but we must not expect too much of a mollusk's mind4 ,in their cheapness lies the offense of the aniline dyes in the minds of some people4 ,our modern aristocrats would delight to be entitled porphyrogeniti and to wear exclusive gowns of purple and scarlet from the isles of ,elishah as was done in ,ezekiel's time1 but when any shopgirl or sailor can wear the royal color it spoils its beauty in their eyes4 ,applied science accomplishes a real democracy such as legislation has ever failed to establish4 ,any kind of dye found in nature can be made in the laboratory whenever its composition is understood and usually it can be made cheaper and purer than it can be extracted from the plant4 ,but to work out a profitable process for making it synthetically is sometimes a task requiring high skill1 persistent labor and heavy expenditure4 ,one of the latest and most striking of these achievements of synthetic chemistry is the manufacture of indigo4 ,indigo is one of the oldest and fastest of the dyestuffs4 ,to see that it is both ancient and lasting look at the unfaded blue cloths that enwrap an ,egyptian mummy4 ,when ,caesar conquered our ,british ancestors he found them tattooed with woad1 the native indigo4 ,but the chief source of indigo was1 as its name implies1 ,india4 ,in #ahig nearly a million acres in ,india were growing the indigo plant and the annual value of the crop was #bj1jjj1jjj4 ,then the fall began and by #aiad ,india was producing only #cjj1jjj worth6 ,what had happened to destroy this profitable industry8 ,some blight or insect8 ,no1 it was simply that the ,badische ,anilin-und-,soda ,fabrik had worked out a practical process for making artificial indigo4 ,that indigo on breaking up gave off aniline was discovered as early as #ahdj4 ,in fact that was how aniline got its name1 for when ,fritzsche distilled indigo with caustic soda he called the colorless distillate aniline1 from the ,arabic name for indigo1 anil or al-nil1 that is1 the blue-stuff4 ,but how to reverse the process and get indigo from aniline puzzled chemists for more than forty years until finally it was solved by ,adolf von ,baeyer of ,munich1 who died in #aiag at the age of eighty-four4 ,he worked on the problem of the constitution of indigo for fifteen years and discovered several ways of making it4 ,it is possible to start from benzene1 toluene or naphthalene4 ,the first process was the easiest1 but if you will refer to the products of the distillation of tar you will find that the amount of toluene produced is less than the naphthalene1 which is hard to dispose of4 ,that is1 if a dye factory had worked out a process for making indigo from toluene it would not be practicable because there was not enough toluene produced to supply the demand for indigo4 ,so the more complicated napthalene process was chosen in preference to the others in order to utilize this by-product4 ,the ,badische ,anilin-und-,soda ,fabrik spent #e1jjj1jjj and seventeen years in chemical research before they could make indigo1 but they gained a monopoly 7or1 to be exact1 ninety-six per cent47 of the world's production4 ,a hundred years ago indigo cost as much as #d a pound4 ,in #aiad we were paying fifteen cents a pound for it4 ,even the pauper labor of ,india could not compete with the ,german chemists at that price4 ,at the beginning of the present century ,germany was paying more than #c1jjj1jjj a year for indigo4 ,fourteen years later ,germany was selling indigo to the amount of #ab1fjj1jjj4 ,besides its cheapness1 artificial indigo is preferable because it is of uniform quality and greater purity4 ,vegetable indigo contains from forty to eighty per cent4 of impurities1 among them various other tinctorial substances4 ,artificial indigo is made pure and of any desired strength1 so the dyers can depend on it4 ,the value of the aniline colors lies in their infinite variety4 ,some are fast1 some will fade1 some will stand wear and weather as long as the fabric1 some will wash out on the spot4 ,dyes can be made that will attach themselves to wool1 to silk or to cotton1 and give it any shade of any color4 ,the period of discovery by accident has long gone by4 ,the chemist nowadays decides first just what kind of a dye he wants1 and then goes to work systematically to make it4 ,he begins by drawing a diagram of the molecule1 double-linking nitrogen or carbon and oxygen atoms to give the required intensity1 putting in acid or basic radicals to fasten it to the fiber1 shifting the color back and forth along the spectrum at will by introducing methyl groups1 until he gets it just to his liking4 ,art can go ahead of nature in the dyestuff business4 ,before man found that he could make all the dyes he wanted from the tar he had been burning up at home he searched the wide world over to find colors by which he could make himself--or his wife--garments as beautiful as those that arrayed the flower1 the bird and the butterfly4 ,he sent divers down into the ,mediterranean to rob the murex of his purple4 ,he sent ships to the new world to get ,brazil wood and to the oldest world for indigo4 ,he robbed the lady cochineal of her scarlet coat4 ,why these peculiar substances were formed only by these particular plants1 mussels and insects it is hard to understand4 ,i don't know that ,mrs4 ,cacti ,coccus derived any benefit from her scarlet uniform when khaki would be safer1 and ,i can't imagine that to a shellfish it was of advantage to turn red as it rots or to an indigo plant that its leaves in decomposing should turn blue4 ,but anyhow1 it was man that took advantage of them until he learned how to make his own dyestuffs4 ,our independent ancestors got along so far as possible with what grew in the neighborhood4 ,sweetapple bark gave a fine saffron yellow4 ,ribbons were given the hue of the rose by poke berry juice4 ,the ,confederates in their butternut-colored uniform were almost as invisible as if in khaki or feldgrau4 ,madder was cultivated in the kitchen garden4 ,only logwood from ,jamaica and indigo from ,india had to be imported4 ,that we are not so independent today is our own fault1 for we waste enough coal tar to supply ourselves and other countries with all the new dyes needed4 ,it is essentially a question of economy and organization4 ,we have forgotten how to economize1 but we have learned how to organize4 ,the ,british ,government gave the discoverer of mauve a title1 but it did not give him any support in his endeavors to develop the industry1 although ,england led the world in textiles and needed more dyes than any other country4 ,so in #ahgd ,sir ,william ,perkin relinquished the attempt to manufacture the dyes he had discovered because1 as he said1 ,oxford and ,cambridge refused to educate chemists or to carry on research4 ,their students1 trained in the classics for the profession of being a gentleman1 showed a decided repugnance to the laboratory on account of its bad smells4 ,so when ,hofmann went home he virtually took the infant industry along with him to ,germany1 where ,ph4,d4's were cheap and plentiful and not afraid of bad smells4 ,there the business throve amazingly1 and by #aiad the ,germans were manufacturing more than three-fourths of all the coal-tar products of the world and supplying material for most of the rest4 ,the ,british cursed the universities for thus imperiling the nation through their narrowness and neglect2 but this accusation1 though natural1 was not altogether fair1 for at least half the blame should go to the ,british dyer1 who did not care where his colors came from1 so long as they were cheap4 ,when finally the universities did turn over a new leaf and began to educate chemists1 the manufacturers would not employ them4 ,before the war six ,english factories producing dyestuffs employed only #ce chemists altogether1 while one ,german color works1 the ,hchster ,farbwerke1 employed #cjg expert chemists and #gd technologists4 ,this firm united with the six other leading dye companies of ,germany on ,january #a1 #aiaf1 to form a trust to last for fifty years4 ,during this time they will maintain uniform prices and uniform wage scales and hours of labor1 and exchange patents and secrets4 ,they will divide the foreign business pro rata and share the profits4 ,the ,german chemical works made big profits during the war1 mostly from munitions and medicines1 and will be1 through this new combination1 in a stronger position than ever to push the export trade4 ,as a consequence of letting the dye business get away from her1 ,england found herself in a fix when war broke out4 ,she did not have dyes for her uniforms and flags1 and she did not have drugs for her wounded4 ,she could not take advantage of the blockade to capture the ,german trade in ,asia and ,south ,america1 because she could not color her textiles4 ,a blue cotton dyestuff that sold before the war at sixty cents a pound1 brought #cd a pound4 ,a bright pink rhodamine formerly quoted at a dollar a pound jumped to #dh4 ,when one keg of dye ordinarily worth #ae was put up at forced auction sale in #aiae it was knocked down at #aejj4 ,the ,highlanders could not get the colors for their kilts until some ,german dyes were smuggled into ,england4 ,the textile industries of ,great ,britain1 that brought in a billion dollars a year and employed one and a half million workers1 were crippled for lack of dyes4 ,the demand for high explosives from the front could not be met because these also are largely coal-tar products4 ,picric acid is both a dye and an explosive4 ,it is made from carbolic acid and the famous trinitrotoluene is made from toluene1 both of which you will find in the list of the ten fundamental crudes4 ,both ,great ,britain and the ,united ,states realized the danger of allowing ,germany to recover her former monopoly1 and both have shown a readiness to cast overboard their traditional policies to meet this emergency4 ,the ,british ,government has discovered that a country without a tariff is a land without walls4 ,the ,american ,government has discovered that an industry is not benefited by being cut up into small pieces4 ,both governments are now doing all they can to build up big concerns and to provide them with protection4 ,the ,british ,government assisted in the formation of a national company for the manufacture of synthetic dyes by taking one-sixth of the stock and providing #ejj1jjj for a research laboratory4 ,but this effort is now reported to be a great failure because the ,government put it in charge of the politicians instead of the chemists4 ,the ,united ,states1 like ,england1 had become dependent upon ,germany for its dyestuffs4 ,we imported nine-tenths of what we used and most of those that were produced here were made from imported intermediates4 ,when the war broke out there were only seven firms and #ebh persons employed in the manufacture of dyes in the ,united ,states4 ,one of these1 the ,schoelkopf ,aniline and ,chemical ,works1 of ,buffalo1 deserves mention1 for it had stuck it out ever since #ahgi1 and in #aiad was making #ajf dyes4 ,in ,june1 #aiag1 this firm1 with the encouragement of the ,government ,bureau of ,foreign and ,domestic ,commerce1 joined with some of the other ,american producers to form a trade combination1 the ,national ,aniline and ,chemical ,company4 ,the ,du ,pont ,company also entered the field on an extensive scale and soon there were #aah concerns engaged in it with great profit4 ,during the war #bjj1jjj1jjj was invested in the domestic dyestuff industry4 ,to protect this industry ,congress put on a specific duty of five cents a pound and an ad valorem duty of #cj per cent4 on imported dyestuffs2 but if1 after five years1 ,american manufacturers are not producing #fj per cent4 in value of the domestic consumption1 the protection is to be removed4 ,for some reason1 not clearly understood and therefore hotly discussed1 ,congress at the last moment struck off the specific duty from two of the most important of the dyestuffs1 indigo and alizarin1 as well as from all medicinals and flavors4 ,the manufacture of dyes is not a big business1 but it is a strategic business4 ,heligoland is not a big island1 but ,england would have been glad to buy it back during the war at a high price per square yard4 ,american industries employing over two million men and women and producing over three billion dollars' worth of products a year are dependent upon dyes4 ,chief of these is of course textiles1 using more than half the dyes2 next come leather1 paper1 paint and ink4 ,we have been importing more than #ab1jjj1jjj worth of coal-tar products a year1 but the cottonseed oil we exported in #aiab would alone suffice to pay that bill twice over4 ,but although the manufacture of dyes cannot be called a big business1 in comparison with some others1 it is a paying business when well managed4 ,the ,german concerns paid on an average #bb per cent4 dividends on their capital and sometimes as high as #ej per cent4 ,most of the standard dyes have been so long in use that the patents are off and the processes are well enough known4 ,we have the coal tar and we have the chemists1 so there seems no good reason why we should not make our own dyes1 at least enough of them so we will not be caught napping as we were in #aiad4 ,it was decidedly humiliating for our ,government to have to beg ,germany to sell us enough colors to print our stamps and greenbacks and then have to beg ,great ,britain for permission to bring them over by ,dutch ships4 ,the raw material for the production of coal-tar products we have in abundance if we will only take the trouble to save it4 ,in #aiad the crude light oil collected from the coke-ovens would have produced only about #d1ejj1jjj gallons of benzol and #a1ejj1jjj gallons of toluol1 but in #aiag this output was raised to #dj1bjj1jjj gallons of benzol and #aj1bjj1jjj of toluol4 ,the toluol was used mostly in the manufacture of trinitrotoluol for use in ,europe4 ,when the war broke out in #aiad it shut off our supply of phenol 7carbolic acid7 for which we were dependent upon foreign sources4 ,this threatened not only to afflict us with headaches by depriving us of aspirin but also to removed the consolation of music1 for phenol is used in making phonographic records4 ,mr4 ,edison with his accustomed energy put up a factory within a few weeks for the manufacture of synthetic phenol4 ,when we entered the war the need for phenol became yet more imperative1 for it was needed to make picric acid for filling bombs4 ,this demand was met1 and in #aiag there were fifteen new plants turning out #fd1adf1dii pounds of phenol valued at #bc1gai1hje4 ,some of the coal-tar products1 as we see1 serve many purposes4 ,for instance1 picric acid appears in three places in this book4 ,it is a high explosive4 ,it is a powerful and permanent yellow dye as any one who has touched it knows4 ,thirdly it is used as an antiseptic to cover burned skin4 ,other coal-tar dyes are used for the same purpose1 malachite green1 brilliant green1 crystal violet1 ethyl violet and ,victoria blue1 so a patient in a military hospital is decorated like an ,easter egg4 ,during the last five years surgeons have unfortunately had unprecedented opportunities for the study of wounds and fortunately they have been unprecedentedly successful in finding improved methods of treating them4 ,in former wars a serious wound meant usually death or amputation4 ,now nearly ninety per cent4 of the wounded are able to continue in the service4 ,the reason for this improvement is that medicines are now being made to order instead of being gathered from ,china to ,peru4 ,the old herb doctor picked up any strange plant that he could find and tried it on any sick man that would let him4 ,this empirical method1 though hard on the patients1 resulted in the course of five thousand years in the discovery of a number of useful remedies4 ,but the modern medicine man when he knows the cause of the disease is usually able to devise ways of counteracting it directly4 ,for instance1 he knows1 thanks to ,pasteur and ,metchnikoff1 that the cause of wound infection is the bacterial enemies of man which swarm by the million into any breach in his protective armor1 the skin4 ,now when a breach is made in a line of intrenchments the defenders rush troops to the threatened spot for two purposes1 constructive and destructive1 engineers and warriors1 the former to build up the rampart with sandbags1 the latter to kill the enemy4 ,so when the human body is invaded the blood brings to the breach two kinds of defenders4 ,one is the serum which neutralizes the bacterial poison and by coagulating forms a new skin or scab over the exposed flesh4 ,the other is the phagocytes or white corpuscles1 the free lances of our corporeal militia1 which attack and kill the invading bacteria4 ,the aim of the physician then is to aid these defenders as much as possible without interfering with them4 ,therefore the antiseptic he is seeking is one that will assist the serum in protecting and repairing the broken tissues and will kill the hostile bacteria without killing the friendly phagocytes4 ,carbolic acid1 the most familiar of the coal-tar antiseptics1 will destroy the bacteria when it is diluted with #bej parts of water1 but unfortunately it puts a stop to the fighting activities of the phagocytes when it is only half that strength1 or one to #ejj1 so it cannot destroy the infection without hindering the healing4 ,in this search for substances that would attack a specific disease germ one of the leading investigators was ,prof4 ,paul ,ehrlich1 a ,german physician of the ,hebrew race4 ,he found that the aniline dyes were useful for staining slides under the microscope1 for they would pick out particular cells and leave others uncolored and from this starting point he worked out organic and metallic compounds which would destroy the bacteria and parasites that cause some of the most dreadful of diseases4 ,a year after the war broke out ,professor ,ehrlich died while working in his laboratory on how to heal with coal-tar compounds the wounds inflicted by explosives from the same source4 ,one of the most valuable of the aniline antiseptics employed by ,ehrlich is flavine or1 if the reader prefers to call it by its full name1 diaminomethylacridinium chloride4 ,flavine1 as its name implies1 is a yellow dye and will kill the germs causing ordinary abscesses when in solution as dilute as one part of the dye to #bjj1jjj parts of water1 but it does not interfere with the bactericidal action of the white blood corpuscles unless the solution is #djj times as strong as this1 that is one part in #ejj4 ,unlike carbolic acid and other antiseptics it is said to stimulate the serum instead of impairing its activity4 ,another antiseptic of the coal-tar family which has recently been brought into use by ,dr4 ,dakin of the ,rockefeller ,institute is that called by ,european physicians chloramine-,t and by ,american physicians chlorazene and by chemists para-toluene-sodium-sulfo-chloramide4 ,this may serve to illustrate how a chemist is able to make such remedies as the doctor needs1 instead of depending upon the accidental by-products of plants4 ,on an earlier page ,i explained how by starting with the simplest of ring-compounds1 the benzene of coal tar1 we could get aniline4 ,suppose we go a step further and boil the aniline oil with acetic acid1 which is the acid of vinegar minus its water4 ,this easy process gives us acetanilid1 which when introduced into the market some years ago under the name of antifebrin made a fortune for its makers4 ,the making of medicines from coal tar began in #ahgd when ,kolbe made salicylic acid from carbolic acid4 ,salicylic acid is a rheumatism remedy and had previously been extracted from willow bark4 ,if now we treat salicylic acid with concentrated acetic acid we get aspirin4 ,from aniline again are made phenacetin1 antipyrin and a lot of other drugs that have become altogether too popular as headache remedies--say rather headache relievers4 ,another class of synthetics equally useful and likewise abused1 are the soporifics1 such as sulphonal1 veronal and medinal4 ,when it is not desired to put the patient to sleep but merely to render insensible a particular place1 as when a tooth is to be pulled1 cocain may be used4 ,this1 like alcohol and morphine1 has proved a curse as well as a blessing and its sale has had to be restricted because of the many victims to the habit of using this drug4 ,cocain is obtained from the leaves of the ,south ,american coca tree1 but can be made artificially from coal-tar products4 ,the laboratory is superior to the forest because other forms of local anesthetics1 such as eucain and novocain1 can be made that are better than the natural alkaloid because more effective and less poisonous4 ,i must not forget to mention another lot of coal-tar derivatives in which some of my readers will take a personal interest4 ,that is the photographic developers4 ,i am old enough to remember when we used to develop our plates in ferrous sulfate solution and you never saw nicer negatives than we got with it4 ,but when pyrogallic acid came in we switched over to that even though it did stain our fingers and sometimes our plates4 ,later came a swarm of new organic reducing agents under various fancy names1 such as metol1 hydro 7short for hydro-quinone7 and eikongen 7the image-maker74 ,every fellow fixed up his own formula and called his fellow-members of the camera club fools for not adopting it though he secretly hoped they would not4 ,under the double stimulus of patriotism and high prices the ,american drug and dyestuff industry developed rapidly4 ,in #aiag about as many pounds of dyes were manufactured in ,america as were imported in #aiac and our exports of ,american-made dyes exceeded in value our imports before the war4 ,in #aiad the output of ,american dyes was valued at #b1ejj1jjj4 ,in #aiag it amounted to over #eg1jjj1jjj4 ,this does not mean that the problem was solved1 for the home products were not equal in variety and sometimes not in quality to those made in ,germany4 ,many valuable dyes were lacking and the cost was of course much higher4 ,whether the ,american industry can compete with the foreign in an open market and on equal terms is impossible to say because such conditions did not prevail before the war and they are not going to prevail in the future4 ,formerly the large ,german cartels through their agents and branches in this country kept the business in their own hands and now the ,american manufacturers are determined to maintain the independence they have acquired4 ,they will not depend hereafter upon the tariff to cut off competition but have adopted more effective measures4 ,the #dejj ,german chemical patents that had been seized by the ,alien ,property ,custodian were sold by him for #bej1jjj to the ,chemical ,foundation1 an association of ,american manufacturers organized for the ,americanization of such institutions as may be affected thereby1 for the exclusion or elimination of alien interests hostile or detrimental to said industries and for the advancement of chemical and allied science and industry in the ,united ,states4 ,the ,foundation has a large fighting fund so that it may be able to commence immediately and prosecute with the utmost vigor infringement proceedings whenever the first ,german attempt shall hereafter be made to import into this country4 ,so much mystery has been made of the achievements of ,german chemists--as though the ,teutonic brain had a special lobe for that faculty1 lacking in other craniums--that ,i want to quote what ,dr4 ,hesse says about his first impressions of a ,german laboratory of industrial research3 ,directly after graduating from the ,university of ,chicago in #ahif1 ,i entered the employ of the largest coal-tar dye works in the world at its plant in ,germany and indeed in one of its research laboratories4 ,this was my first trip outside the ,united ,states and it was1 of course1 an event of the first magnitude for me to be in ,europe1 and1 as a chemist1 to be in ,germany1 in a ,german coal-tar dye plant1 and to cap it all in its research laboratory--a real sanctum sanctorum for chemists4 ,in a short time the daily routine wore the novelty off my experience and ,i then settled down to calm analysis and dispassionate appraisal of my surroundings and to compare what was actually before and around me with my expectations4 ,i found that the general laboratory equipment was no better than what ,i had been accustomed to2 that my colleagues had no better fundamental training than ,i had enjoyed nor any better fact--or manipulative--equipment than ,i2 that those in charge of the work had no better general intellectual equipment nor any more native ability than had my instructors2 in short1 there was nothing new about it all1 nothing that we did not have back home1 nothing--except the specific problems that were engaging their attention1 and the special opportunities of attacking them4 ,those problems were of no higher order of complexity than those ,i had been accustomed to for years1 in fact1 most of them were not very complex from a purely intellectual viewpoint4 ,there was nothing inherently uncanny1 magical or wizardly about their occupation whatever4 ,it was nothing but plain hard work and keeping everlastingly at it4 ,now1 what was the actual thing behind that chemical laboratory that we did not have at home8 ,it was money1 willing to back such activity1 convinced that in the final outcome1 a profit would be made2 money1 willing to take university graduates expecting from them no special knowledge other than a good and thorough grounding in scientific research and provide them with opportunity to become specialists suited to the factory's needs4 ,it is evidently not impossible to make the ,united ,states self-sufficient in the matter of coal-tar products4 ,we've got the tar2 we've got the men2 we've got the money1 too4 ,whether such a policy would pay us in the long run or whether it is necessary as a measure of military or commercial self-defense is another question that cannot here be decided4 ,but whatever share we may have in it the coal-tar industry has increased the economy of civilization and added to the wealth of the world by showing how a waste by-product could be utilized for making new dyes and valuable medicines1 a better use for tar than as fuel for political bonfires and as clothing for the nakedness of social outcasts4 ,v ,,synthetic ,,perfumes ,,and ,,flavors ,the primitive man got his living out of such wild plants and animals as he could find4 ,next he1 or more likely his wife1 began to cultivate the plants and tame the animals so as to insure a constant supply4 ,this was the first step toward civilization1 for when men had to settle down in a community 7civitas7 they had to ameliorate their manners and make laws protecting land and property4 ,in this settled and orderly life the plants and animals improved as well as man and returned a hundredfold for the pains that their master had taken in their training4 ,but still man was dependent upon the chance bounties of nature4 ,he could select1 but he could not invent4 ,he could cultivate1 but he could not create4 ,if he wanted sugar he had to send to the ,west ,indies4 ,if he wanted spices he had to send to the ,east ,indies4 ,if he wanted indigo he had to send to ,india4 ,if he wanted a febrifuge he had to send to ,peru4 ,if he wanted a fertilizer he had to send to ,chile4 ,if he wanted rubber he had to send to the ,congo4 ,if he wanted rubies he had to send to ,mandalay4 ,if he wanted otto of roses he had to send to ,turkey4 ,man was not yet master of his environment4 ,this period of cultivation1 the second stage of civilization1 began before the dawn of history and lasted until recent times4 ,we might almost say up to the twentieth century1 for it was not until the fundamental laws of heredity were discovered that man could originate new species of plants and animals according to a predetermined plan by combining such characteristics as he desired to perpetuate4 ,and it was not until the fundamental laws of chemistry were discovered that man could originate new compounds more suitable to his purpose than any to be found in nature4 ,since the progress of mankind is continuous it is impossible to draw a date line1 unless a very jagged one1 along the frontier of human culture1 but it is evident that we are just entering upon the third era of evolution in which man will make what he needs instead of trying to find it somewhere4 ,the new epoch has hardly dawned1 yet already a man may stay at home in ,new ,york or ,london and make his own rubber and rubies1 his own indigo and otto of roses4 ,more than this1 he can make gems and colors and perfumes that never existed since time began4 ,the man of science has signed a declaration of independence of the lower world and we are now in the midst of the revolution4 ,our eyes are dazzled by the dawn of the new era4 ,we know what the hunter and the horticulturist have already done for man1 but we cannot imagine what the chemist can do4 ,if we look ahead through the eyes of one of the greatest of ,french chemists1 ,berthelot1 this is what we shall see3 ,the problem of food is a chemical problem4 ,whenever energy can be obtained economically we can begin to make all kinds of aliment1 with carbon borrowed from carbonic acid1 hydrogen taken from the water and oxygen and nitrogen drawn from the air4444 ,the day will come when each person will carry for his nourishment his little nitrogenous tablet1 his pat of fatty matter1 his package of starch or sugar1 his vial of aromatic spices suited to his personal taste2 all manufactured economically and in unlimited quantities2 all independent of irregular seasons1 drought and rain1 of the heat that withers the plant and of the frost that blights the fruit2 all free from pathogenic microbes1 the origin of epidemics and the enemies of human life4 ,on that day chemistry will have accomplished a world-wide revolution that cannot be estimated4 ,there will no longer be hills covered with vineyards and fields filled with cattle4 ,man will gain in gentleness and morality because he will cease to live by the carnage and destruction of living creatures4444 ,the earth will be covered with grass1 flowers and woods and in it the human race will dwell in the abundance and joy of the legendary age of gold--provided that a spiritual chemistry has been discovered that changes the nature of man as profoundly as our chemistry transforms material nature4 ,but this is looking so far into the future that we can trust no man's eyesight1 not even ,berthelot's4 ,there is apparently no impossibility about the manufacture of synthetic food1 but at present there is no apparent probability of it4 ,there is no likelihood that the laboratory will ever rival the wheat field4 ,the cornstalk will always be able to work cheaper than the chemist in the manufacture of starch4 ,but in rarer and choicer products of nature the chemist has proved his ability to compete and even to excel4 ,what have been from the dawn of history to the rise of synthetic chemistry the most costly products of nature8 ,what could tempt a merchant to brave the perils of a caravan journey over the deserts of ,asia beset with ,arab robbers8 ,what induced the ,portuguese and ,spanish mariners to risk their frail barks on perilous waters of the ,cape of ,good ,hope or the ,horn8 ,the chief prizes were perfumes1 spices1 drugs and gems4 ,and why these rather than what now constitutes the bulk of oversea and overland commerce8 ,because they were precious1 portable and imperishable4 ,if the merchant got back safe after a year or two with a little flask of otto of roses1 a package of camphor and a few pearls concealed in his garments his fortune was made4 ,if a single ship of the argosy sent out from ,lisbon came back with a load of sandalwood1 indigo or nutmeg it was regarded as a successful venture4 ,you know from reading the ,bible1 or if not that1 from your reading of ,arabian ,nights1 that a few grains of frankincense or a few drops of perfumed oil were regarded as gifts worthy the acceptance of a king or a god4 ,these products of the ,orient were equally in demand by the toilet and the temple4 ,the unctorium was an adjunct of the ,roman bathroom4 ,kings had to be greased and fumigated before they were thought fit to sit upon a throne4 ,there was a theory1 not yet altogether extinct1 that medicines brought from a distance were most efficacious1 especially if1 besides being expensive1 they tasted bad like myrrh or smelled bad like asafetida4 ,and if these failed to save the princely patient he was embalmed in aromatics or1 as we now call them1 antiseptics of the benzene series4 ,today1 as always1 men are willing to pay high for the titillation of the senses of smell and taste4 ,the ,african savage will trade off an ivory tusk for a piece of soap reeking with synthetic musk4 ,the clubman will pay #aj for a bottle of wine which consists mostly of water with about ten per cent4 of alcohol1 worth a cent or two1 but contains an unweighable amount of the bouquet that can only be produced on the sunny slopes of ,champagne or in the valley of the ,rhine4 ,but very likely the reader is quite as extravagant1 for when one buys the natural violet perfumery he is paying at the rate of more than #aj1jjj a pound for the odoriferous oil it contains2 the rest is mere water and alcohol4 ,but you would not want the pure undiluted oil if you could get it1 for it is unendurable4 ,a single whiff of it paralyzes your sense of smell for a time just as a loud noise deafens you4 ,of the five senses1 three are physical and two chemical4 ,by touch we discern pressures and surface textures4 ,by hearing we receive impressions of certain air waves and by sight of certain ether waves4 ,but smell and taste lead us to the heart of the molecule and enable us to tell how the atoms are put together4 ,these twin senses stand like sentries at the portals of the body1 where they closely scrutinize everything that enters4 ,sounds and sights may be disagreeable1 but they are never fatal4 ,a man can live in a boiler factory or in a cubist art gallery1 but he cannot live in a room containing hydrogen sulfide4 ,since it is more important to be warned of danger than guided to delights our senses are made more sensitive to pain than pleasure4 ,we can detect by the smell one two-millionth of a milligram of oil of roses or musk1 but we can detect one two-billionth of a milligram of mercaptan1 which is the vilest smelling compound that man has so far invented4 ,if you do not know how much a milligram is consider a drop picked up by the point of a needle and imagine that divided into two billion parts4 ,also try to estimate the weight of the odorous particles that guide a dog to the fox or warn a deer of the presence of man4 ,the unaided nostril can rival the spectroscope in the detection and analysis of unweighable amounts of matter4 ,what we call flavor or savor is a joint effect of taste and odor in which the latter predominates4 ,there are only four tastes of importance1 acid1 alkaline1 bitter and sweet4 ,the acid1 or sour taste1 is the perception of hydrogen atoms charged with positive electricity4 ,the alkaline1 or soapy taste1 is the perception of hydroxyl radicles charged with negative electricity4 ,the bitter and sweet tastes and all the odors depend upon the chemical constitution of the compound1 but the laws of the relation have not yet been worked out4 ,since these sense organs1 the taste and smell buds1 are sunk in the moist mucous membrane they can only be touched by substances soluble in water1 and to reach the sense of smell they must also be volatile so as to be diffused in the air inhaled by the nose4 ,the taste of food is mostly due to the volatile odors of it that creep up the back-stairs into the olfactory chamber4 ,a chemist given an unknown substance would have to make an elementary analysis and some tedious tests to determine whether it contained methyl or ethyl groups1 whether it was an aldehyde or an ester1 whether the carbon atoms were singly or doubly linked and whether it was an open chain or closed4 ,but let him get a whiff of it and he can give instantly a pretty shrewd guess as to these points4 ,his nose knows4 ,although the chemist does not yet know enough to tell for certain from looking at the structural formula what sort of odor the compound would have or whether it would have any1 yet we can divide odoriferous substances into classes according to their constitution4 ,what are commonly known as fruity odors belong mostly to what the chemist calls the fatty or aliphatic series4 ,for instance1 we may have in a ripe fruit an alcohol 7say ethyl or common alcohol7 and an acid 7say acetic or vinegar7 and a combination of these1 the ester or organic salt 7in this case ethyl acetate71 which is more odorous than either of its components4 ,these esters of the fatty acids give the characteristic savor to many of our favorite fruits1 candies and beverages4 ,the pear flavor1 amyl acetate1 is made from acetic acid and amyl alcohol--though amyl alcohol 7fusel oil7 has a detestable smell4 ,pineapple is ethyl butyrate--but the acid part of it 7butyric acid7 is what gives ,limburger cheese its aroma4 ,these essential oils are easily made in the laboratory1 but cannot be extracted from the fruit for separate use4 ,if the carbon chain contains one or more double linkages we get the flowery perfumes4 ,for instance1 here is the symbol of geraniol1 the chief ingredient of otto of roses3 7,,ch#c7b;,c ,,chch#b;,,ch#b;,c7,,ch#c7b ,,chch#b,,oh ,the rose would smell as sweet under another name1 but it may be questioned whether it would stand being called by the name of dimethyl-#b-f-octadiene-#b-f-ol-#h4 ,geraniol by oxidation goes into the aldehyde1 citral1 which occurs in lemons1 oranges and verbena flowers4 ,another compound of this group1 linalool1 is found in lavender1 bergamot and many flowers4 ,geraniol1 as you would see if you drew up its structural formula in the way ,i described in the last chapter1 contains a chain of six carbon atoms1 that is1 the same number as make a benzene ring4 ,now if we shake up geraniol and other compounds of this group 7the diolefines7 with diluted sulfuric acid the carbon chain hooks up to form a benzene ring1 but with the other carbon atoms stretched across it2 rather too complicated to depict here4 ,these bridged rings of the formula ,c#e;,h#h1 or some multiple of that1 constitute the important group of the terpenes which occur in turpentine and such wild and woodsy things as sage1 lavender1 caraway1 pine needles and eucalyptus4 ,going further in this direction we are led into the realm of the heavy oriental odors1 patchouli1 sandalwood1 cedar1 cubebs1 ginger and camphor4 ,camphor can now be made directly from turpentine so we may be independent of ,formosa and ,borneo4 ,when we have a six carbon ring without double linkings 7cyclo-aliphatic7 or with one or two such1 we get soft and delicate perfumes like the violet 7ionone and irone74 ,but when these pass into the benzene ring with its three double linkages the odor becomes more powerful and so characteristic that the name aromatic compound has been extended to the entire class of benzene derivatives1 although many of them are odorless4 ,the essential oils of jasmine1 orange blossoms1 musk1 heliotrope1 tuberose1 ylang ylang1 etc41 consist mostly of this class and can be made from the common source of aromatic compounds1 coal tar4 ,the synthetic flavors and perfumes are made in the same way as the dyes by starting with some coal-tar product or other crude material and building up the molecule to the desired complexity4 ,for instance1 let us start with phenol1 the ill-smelling and poisonous carbolic acid of disagreeable associations and evil fame4 ,treat this to soda-water and it is transformed into salicylic acid1 a white odorless powder1 used as a preservative and as a rheumatism remedy4 ,add to this methyl alcohol which is obtained by the destructive distillation of wood and is much more poisonous than ordinary ethyl alcohol4 ,the alcohol and the acid heated together will unite with the aid of a little sulfuric acid and we get what the chemist calls methyl salicylate and other people call oil of wintergreen1 the same as is found in wintergreen berries and birch bark4 ,we have inherited a taste for this from our pioneer ancestors and we use it extensively to flavor our soft drinks1 gum1 tooth paste and candy1 but the ,europeans have not yet found out how nice it is4 ,but1 starting with phenol again1 let us heat it with caustic alkali and chloroform4 ,this gives us two new compounds of the same composition1 but differing a little in the order of the atoms4 ,if you refer back to the diagram of the benzene ring which ,i gave in the last chapter1 you will see that there are six hydrogen atoms attached to it4 ,now any or all these hydrogen atoms may be replaced by other elements or groups and what the product is depends not only on what the new elements are1 but where they are put4 ,it is like spelling words4 ,the three letters t1 r and a mean very different things according to whether they are put together as art1 tar or rat4 ,or1 to take a more apposite illustration1 every hostess knows that the success of her dinner depends upon how she seats her guests around the table4 ,so in the case of aromatic compounds1 a little difference in the seating arrangement around the benzene ring changes the character4 ,the two derivatives of phenol1 which we are now considering1 have two substituting groups4 ,one is--,o-,h 7called the hydroxyl group74 ,the other is--,,cho 7called the aldehyde group74 ,if these are opposite 7called the para position7 we have an odorless white solid4 ,if they are side by side 7called the ortho position7 we have an oil with the odor of meadowsweet4 ,treating the odorless solid with methyl alcohol we get audepine 7or anisic aldehyde7 which is the perfume of hawthorn blossoms4 ,but treating the other of the twin products1 the fragrant oil1 with dry acetic acid 7,perkin's reaction7 we get cumarin1 which is the perfume part of the tonka or tonquin beans that our forefathers used to carry in their snuff boxes4 ,one ounce of cumarin is equal to four pounds of tonka beans4 ,it smells sufficiently like vanilla to be used as a substitute for it in cheap extracts4 ,in perfumery it is known as new mown hay4 ,you may remember what ,i said on a former page about the career of ,william ,henry ,perkin1 the boy who loved chemistry better than eating1 and how he discovered the coal-tar dyes4 ,well1 it is also to his ingenious mind that we owe the starting of the coal-tar perfume business which has had almost as important a development4 ,perkin made cumarin in #ahfh1 but this1 like the dye industry1 escaped from ,english hands and flew over the ,north ,sea4 ,before the war ,germany was exporting #a1ejj1jjj worth of synthetic perfumes a year4 ,part of these went to ,france1 where they were mixed and put up in fancy bottles with ,french names and sold to ,americans at fancy prices4 ,the real vanilla flavor1 vanillin1 was made by ,tiemann in #ahgd4 ,at first it sold for nearly #hjj a pound1 but now it may be had for #aj4 ,how extensively it is now used in chocolate1 ice cream1 soda water1 cakes and the like we all know4 ,it should be noted that cumarin and vanillin1 however they may be made1 are not imitations1 but identical with the chief constituent of the tonka and vanilla beans and1 of course1 are equally wholesome or harmless4 ,but the nice palate can distinguish a richer flavor in the natural extracts1 for they contain small quantities of other savory ingredients4 ,a true perfume consists of a large number of odoriferous chemical compounds mixed in such proportions as to produce a single harmonious effect upon the sense of smell in a fine brand of perfume may be compounded a dozen or twenty different ingredients and these1 if they are natural essences1 are complex mixtures of a dozen or so distinct substances4 ,perfumery is one of the fine arts4 ,the perfumer1 like the orchestra leader1 must know how to combine and cordinate his instruments to produce a desired sensation4 ,a ,wagnerian opera requires #ajc musicians4 ,a ,strauss opera requires #aab4 ,now if the concert manager wants to economize he will insist upon cutting down on the most expensive musicians and dropping out some of the others1 say1 the supernumerary violinists and the man who blows a single blast or tinkles a triangle once in the course of the evening4 ,only the trained ear will detect the difference and the manager can make more money4 ,suppose our mercenary impresario were unable to get into the concert hall of his famous rival4 ,he would then listen outside the window and analyze the sound in this fashion3 ,fifty per cent4 of the sound is made by the tuba1 #bj per cent4 by the bass drum1 #ae per cent4 by the 'cello and #aj per cent4 by the clarinet4 ,there are some other instruments1 but they are not loud and ,i guess if we can leave them out nobody will know the difference4 ,so he makes up his orchestra out of these four alone and many people do not know the difference4 ,the cheap perfumer goes about it in the same way4 ,he analyzes1 for instance1 the otto or oil of roses which cost during the war #djj a pound--if you could get it at any price--and he finds that the chief ingredient is geraniol1 costing only #e1 and next is citronelol1 costing #bj2 then comes nerol and others4 ,so he makes up a cheap brand of perfumery out of three or four such compounds4 ,but the genuine oil of roses1 like other natural essences1 contains a dozen or more constituents and to leave many of them out is like reducing an orchestra to a few loud-sounding instruments or a painting to a three-color print4 ,a few years ago an attempt was made to make music electrically by producing separately each kind of sound vibration contained in the instruments imitated4 ,theoretically that seems easy1 but practically the tone was not satisfactory because the tones and overtones of a full orchestra or even of a single violin are too numerous and complex to be reproduced individually4 ,so the synthetic perfumes have not driven out the natural perfumes1 but1 on the contrary1 have aided and stimulated the growth of flowers for essences4 ,the otto or attar of roses1 favorite of the ,persian monarchs and romances1 has in recent years come chiefly from ,bulgaria4 ,but wars are not made with rosewater and the ,bulgars for the last five years have been engaged in other business than cultivating their own gardens4 ,the alembic or still was invented by the ,arabian alchemists for the purpose of obtaining the essential oil or attar of roses4 ,but distillation1 even with the aid of steam1 is not altogether satisfactory4 ,for instance1 the distilled rose oil contains anywhere from #aj to #gd per cent4 of a paraffin wax 7stearopten7 that is odorless and1 on the other hand1 phenyl-ethyl alcohol1 which is an important constituent of the scent of roses1 is broken up in the process of distillation4 ,so the perfumer can improve on the natural or rather the distilled oil by leaving out part of the paraffin and adding the missing alcohol4 ,even the imported article taken direct from the still is not always genuine1 for the wily ,bulgar sometimes increases the yield by sprinkling his roses in the vat with synthetic geraniol just as the wily ,italian pours a barrel of ,american cottonseed oil over his olives in the press4 ,another method of extracting the scent of flowers is by enfleurage1 which takes advantage of the tendency of fats to absorb odors4 ,you know how butter set beside fish in the ice box will get a fishy flavor4 ,in enfleurage moist air is carried up a tower passing alternately over trays of fresh flowers1 say violets1 and over glass plates covered with a thin layer of lard4 ,the perfumed lard may then be used as a pomade or the perfume may be extracted by alcohol4 ,but many sweet flowers do not readily yield an essential oil1 so in such oases we have to rely altogether upon more or less successful substitutes4 ,for instance1 the perfumes sold under the names of heliotrope1 lily of the valley1 lilac1 cyclamen1 honeysuckle1 sweet pea1 arbutus1 mayflower and magnolia are not produced from these flowers but are simply imitations made from other essences1 synthetic or natural4 ,among the thousand flowers that contribute to the ,eau de ,mille ,fleurs are the civet cat1 the musk deer and the sperm whale4 ,some of the published formulas for ,jockey ,club call for civet or ambergris and those of ,lavender ,water for musk and civet4 ,the less said about the origin of these three animal perfumes the better4 ,fortunately they are becoming too expensive to use and are being displaced by synthetic products more agreeable to a refined imagination4 ,the musk deer may now be saved from extinction since we can make tri-nitro-butyl-xylene from coal tar4 ,this synthetic musk passes muster to human nostrils1 but a cat will turn up her nose at it4 ,the synthetic musk is not only much cheaper than the natural1 but a dozen times as strong1 or let us say1 goes a dozen times as far1 for nobody wants it any stronger4 ,such powerful scents as these are only pleasant when highly diluted1 yet they are1 as we have seen1 essential ingredients of the finest perfumes4 ,for instance1 the natural oil of jasmine and other flowers contain traces of indols and skatols which have most disgusting odors4 ,though our olfactory organs cannot detect their presence yet we perceive their absence so they have to be put into the artificial perfume4 ,just so a brief but violent discord in a piece of music or a glaring color contrast in a painting may be necessary to the harmony of the whole4 ,it is absurd to object to artificial perfumes1 for practically all perfumes now sold are artificial in the sense of being compounded by the art of the perfumer and whether the materials he uses are derived from the flowers of yesteryear or of ,carboniferous ,era is nobody's business but his4 ,and he does not tell4 ,the materials can be purchased in the open market4 ,various recipes can be found in the books4 ,but every famous perfumer guards well the secret of his formulas and hands it as a legacy to his posterity4 ,the ancient ,roman family of ,frangipani has been made immortal by one such hereditary recipe4 ,the ,farina family still claims to have the exclusive knowledge of how to make ,eau de ,cologne4 ,this famous perfume was first compounded by an ,italian1 ,giovanni ,maria ,farina1 who came to ,cologne in #agji4 ,it soon became fashionable and was for a time the only scent allowed at some of the ,german courts4 ,the various published recipes contain from six to a dozen ingredients1 chiefly the oils of neroli1 rosemary1 bergamot1 lemon and lavender dissolved in very pure alcohol and allowed to age like wine4 ,the invention1 in #ahie1 of artificial neroli 7orange flowers7 has improved the product4 ,french perfumery1 like the ,german1 had its origin in ,italy1 when ,catherine de' ,medici came to ,paris as the bride of ,henri ,,ii4 ,she brought with her1 among other artists1 her perfumer1 ,sieur ,toubarelli1 who established himself in the flowery land of ,grasse4 ,here for four hundred years the industry has remained rooted and the family formulas have been handed down from generation to generation4 ,in the city of ,grasse there were at the outbreak of the war fifty establishments making perfumes4 ,the ,french perfumer does not confine himself to a single sense4 ,he appeals as well to sight and sound and association4 ,he adds to the attractiveness of his creation by a quaintly shaped bottle1 an artistic box and an enticing name such as ,dans les ,nues1 ,le ,coeur de ,jeannette1 ,nuit de ,chine1 ,un ,air ,embaum1 ,le ,vertige1 ,bon ,vieux ,temps1 ,l',heure ,bleue1 ,nuit d',amour1 ,quelques ,fleurs1 ,djer-,kiss4 ,the requirements of a successful scent are very strict4 ,a perfume must be lasting1 but not strong4 ,all its ingredients must continue to evaporate in the same proportion1 otherwise it will change odor and deteriorate4 ,scents kill one another as colors do4 ,the minutest trace of some impurity or foreign odor may spoil the whole effect4 ,to mix the ingredients in a vessel of any metal but aluminum or even to filter through a tin funnel is likely to impair the perfume4 ,the odoriferous compounds are very sensitive and unstable bodies1 otherwise they would have no effect upon the olfactory organ4 ,the combination that would be suitable for a toilet water would not be good for a talcum powder and might spoil in a soap4 ,perfumery is used even in the scentless powders and soaps4 ,in fact it is now used more extensively1 if less intensively1 than ever before in the history of the world4 ,during the ,unwashed ,ages1 commonly called the ,dark ,ages1 between the destruction of the ,roman baths and the construction of the modern bathroom1 the art of the perfumer1 like all the fine arts1 suffered an eclipse4 ,the odor of sanctity was in highest esteem and what that odor was may be imagined from reading the lives of the saints4 ,but in the course of centuries the refinements of life began to seep back into ,europe from the ,east by means of the ,arabs and ,crusaders1 and chemistry1 then chiefly the art of cosmetics1 began to revive4 ,when science1 the greatest democratizing agent on earth1 got into action it elevated the poor to the ranks of kings and priests in the delights of the palate and the nose4 ,we should not despise these delights1 for the pleasure they confer is greater1 in amount at least1 than that of the so-called higher senses4 ,we eat three times a day2 some of us drink oftener2 few of us visit the concert hall or the art gallery as often as we do the dining room4 ,then1 too1 these primitive senses have a stronger influence upon our emotional nature than those acquired later in the course of evolution4 ,as ,kipling puts it3 ,smells are surer than sounds or sights ,to make your heart-strings crack4 ,,vi ,,cellulose ,organic compounds1 on which our life and living depend1 consist chiefly of four elements3 carbon1 hydrogen1 oxygen and nitrogen4 ,these compounds are sometimes hard to analyze1 but when once the chemist has ascertained their constitution he can usually make them out of their elements--if he wants to4 ,he will not want to do it as a business unless it pays and it will not pay unless the manufacturing process is cheaper than the natural process4 ,this depends primarily upon the cost of the crude materials4 ,what1 then1 is the market price of these four elements8 ,oxygen and nitrogen are free as air1 and as we have seen in the second chapter1 their direct combination by the electric spark is possible4 ,hydrogen is free in the form of water but expensive to extricate by means of the electric current4 ,but we need more carbon than anything else and where shall we get that8 ,bits of crystallized carbon can be picked up in ,south ,africa and elsewhere1 but those who can afford to buy them prefer to wear them rather than use them in making synthetic food4 ,graphite is rare and hard to melt4 ,we must then have recourse to the compounds of carbon4 ,the simplest of these1 carbon dioxide1 exists in the air but only four parts in ten thousand by volume4 ,to extract the carbon and get it into combination with the other elements would be a difficult and expensive process4 ,here1 then1 we must call in cheap labor1 the cheapest of all laborers1 the plants4 ,pine trees on the highlands and cotton plants on the lowlands keep their green traps set all the day long and with the captured carbon dioxide build up cellulose4 ,if1 then1 man wants free carbon he can best get it by charring wood in a kiln or digging up that which has been charred in nature's kiln during the ,carboniferous ,era4 ,but there is no reason why he should want to go back to elemental carbon when he can have it already combined with hydrogen in the remains of modern or fossil vegetation4 ,the synthetic products on which modern chemistry prides itself1 such as vanillin1 camphor and rubber1 are not built up out of their elements1 ,c1 ,h and ,o1 although they might be as a laboratory stunt4 ,instead of that the raw material of the organic chemist is chiefly cellulose1 or the products of its recent or remote destructive distillation1 tar and oil4 ,it is unnecessary to tell the reader what cellulose is since he now holds a specimen of it in his hand1 pretty pure cellulose except for the sizing and the specks of carbon that mar the whiteness of its surface4 ,this utilization of cellulose is the chief cause of the difference between the modern world and the ancient1 for what is called the invention of printing is essentially the inventing of paper4 ,the ,romans made type to stamp their coins and lead pipes with and if they had had paper to print upon the world might have escaped the ,dark ,ages4 ,but the clay tablets of the ,babylonians were cumbersome2 the wax tablets of the ,greeks were perishable2 the papyrus of the ,egyptians was fragile2 parchment was expensive and penning was slow1 so it was not until literature was put on a paper basis that democratic education became possible4 ,at the present time sheepskin is only used for diplomas1 treaties and other antiquated documents4 ,and even if your diploma is written in ,latin it is likely to be made of sulfated cellulose4 ,the textile industry has followed the same law of development that ,i have indicated in the other industries4 ,here again we find the three stages of progress1 7#a7 utilization of natural products1 7#b7 cultivation of natural products1 7#c7 manufacture of artificial products4 ,the ancients were dependent upon plants1 animals and insects for their fibers4 ,china used silk1 ,greece and ,rome used wool1 ,egypt used flax and ,india used cotton4 ,in the course of cultivation for three thousand years the animal and vegetable fibers were lengthened and strengthened and cheapened4 ,but at last man has risen to the level of the worm and can spin threads to suit himself4 ,he can now rival the wasp in the making of paper4 ,he is no longer dependent upon the flax and the cotton plant1 but grinds up trees to get his cellulose4 ,a ,new ,york newspaper uses up nearly #bjjj acres of forest a year4 ,the ,united ,states grinds up about five million cords of wood a year in the manufacture of pulp for paper and other purposes4 ,in making mechanical pulp the blocks of wood1 mostly spruce and hemlock1 are simply pressed sidewise of the grain against wet grindstones4 ,but in wood fiber the cellulose is in part combined with lignin1 which is worse than useless4 ,to break up the ligno-cellulose combine chemicals are used4 ,the logs for this are not ground fine1 but cut up by disk chippers4 ,the chips are digested for several hours under heat and pressure with acid or alkali4 ,there are three processes in vogue4 ,in the most common process the reagent is calcium sulfite1 made by passing sulfur fumes 7,,so#b7 into lime water4 ,in another process a solution of caustic of soda is used to disintegrate the wood4 ,the third1 known as the sulfate process1 should rather be called the sulfide process since the active agent is an alkaline solution of sodium sulfide made by roasting sodium sulfate with the carbonaceous matter extracted from the wood4 ,this sulfate process1 though the most recent of the three1 is being increasingly employed in this country1 for by means of it the resinous pine wood of the ,south can be worked up and the final product1 known as kraft paper because it is strong1 is used for wrapping4 ,but whatever the process we get nearly pure cellulose which1 as you can see by examining this page under a microscope1 consists of a tangled web of thin white fibers1 the remains of the original cell walls4 ,owing to the severe treatment it has undergone wood pulp paper does not last so long as the linen rag paper used by our ancestors4 ,the pages of the newspapers1 magazines and books printed nowadays are likely to become brown and brittle in a few years1 no great loss for the most part since they have served their purpose1 though it is a pity that a few copies of the worst of them could not be printed on permanent paper for preservation in libraries so that future generations could congratulate themselves on their progress in civilization4 ,but in our absorption in the printed page we must not forget the other uses of paper4 ,the paper clothing1 so often prophesied1 has not yet arrived4 ,even paper collars have gone out of fashion--if they ever were in4 ,in ,germany during the war paper was used for socks1 shirts and shoes as well as handkerchiefs and napkins but it could not stand wear and washing4 ,our sanitary engineers have set us to drinking out of sharp-edged paper cups and we blot our faces instead of wiping them4 ,twine is spun of paper and furniture made of the twine1 a rival of rattan4 ,cloth and matting woven of paper yarn are being used for burlap and grass in the making of bags and suitcases4 ,here1 however1 we are not so much interested in manufactures of cellulose itself1 that is1 wood1 paper and cotton1 as we are in its chemical derivatives4 ,cellulose1 as we can see from the symbol1 ,c#f;,h#aj,o#e1 is composed of the three elements of carbon1 hydrogen and oxygen4 ,these are present in the same proportion as in starch 7,c#f;,h#aj,o#e71 while glucose or grape sugar 7,c#f;,h#ab,o#f7 has one molecule of water more4 ,but glucose is soluble in cold water and starch is soluble in hot1 while cellulose is soluble in neither4 ,consequently cellulose cannot serve us for food1 although some of the vegetarian animals1 notably the goat1 have a digestive apparatus that can handle it4 ,in ,finland and ,germany birch wood pulp and straw were used not only as an ingredient of cattle food but also put into war bread4 ,it is not likely1 however1 that the human stomach even under the pressure of famine is able to get much nutriment out of sawdust4 ,but by digesting with dilute acid sawdust can be transformed into sugars and these by fermentation into alcohol1 so it would be possible for a man after he has read his morning paper to get drunk on it4 ,if the cellulose1 instead of being digested a long time in dilute acid1 is dipped into a solution of sulfuric acid 7#ej to #hj per cent47 and then washed and dried it acquires a hard1 tough and translucent coating that makes it water-proof and grease-proof4 ,this is the parchment paper that has largely replaced sheepskin4 ,strong alkali has a similar effect to strong acid4 ,in #ahdd ,john ,mercer1 a ,lancashire calico printer1 discovered that by passing cotton cloth or yarn through a cold #cj per cent4 solution of caustic soda the fiber is shortened and strengthened4 ,for over forty years little attention was paid to this discovery1 but when it was found that if the material was stretched so that it could not shrink on drying the twisted ribbons of the cotton fiber were changed into smooth-walled cylinders like silk1 the process came into general use and nowadays much that passes for silk is mercerized cotton4 ,another step was taken when ,cross of ,london discovered that when the mercerized cotton was treated with carbon disulfide it was dissolved to a yellow liquid4 ,this liquid contains the cellulose in solution as a cellulose xanthate and on acidifying or heating the cellulose is recovered in a hydrated form4 ,if this yellow solution of cellulose is squirted out of tubes through extremely minute holes into acidulated water1 each tiny stream becomes instantly solidified into a silky thread which may be spun and woven like that ejected from the spinneret of the silkworm4 ,the origin of natural silk1 if we think about it1 rather detracts from the pleasure of wearing it1 and if he who needlessly sets foot upon a worm is to be avoided as a friend we must hope that the advance of the artificial silk industry will be rapid enough to relieve us of the necessity of boiling thousands of baby worms in their cradles whenever we want silk stockings4 ,on a plain rush hurdle a silkworm lay ,when a proud young princess came that way4 ,the haughty daughter of a lordly king ,threw a sidelong glance at the humble thing1 ,little thinking she walked in pride ,in the winding sheet where the silkworm died4 ,but so far we have not reached a stage where we can altogether dispense with the services of the silkworm4 ,the viscose threads made by the process look as well as silk1 but they are not so strong1 especially when wet4 ,besides the viscose method there are several other methods of getting cellulose into solution so that artificial fibers may be made from it4 ,a strong solution of zinc chloride will serve and this process used to be employed for making the threads to be charred into carbon filaments for incandescent bulbs4 ,cellulose is also soluble in an ammoniacal solution of copper hydroxide4 ,the liquid thus formed is squirted through a fine nozzle into a precipitating solution of caustic soda and glucose1 which brings back the cellulose to its original form4 ,in the chapter on explosives ,i explained how cellulose treated with nitric acid in the presence of sulfuric acid was nitrated4 ,the cellulose molecule having three hydroxyl 7--,,oh7 groups1 can take up one1 two or three nitrate groups 7--,,ono#b74 ,the higher nitrates are known as guncotton and form the basis of modern dynamite and smokeless powder4 ,the lower nitrates1 known as pyroxylin1 are less explosive1 although still very inflammable4 ,all these nitrates are1 like the original cellulose1 insoluble in water1 but unlike the original cellulose1 soluble in a mixture of ether and alcohol4 ,the solution is called collodion and is now in common use to spread a new skin over a wound4 ,the great war might be traced back to ,nobel's cut finger4 ,alfred ,nobel was a ,swedish chemist--and a pacifist4 ,one day while working in the laboratory he cut his finger1 as chemists are apt to do1 and1 again as chemists are apt to do1 he dissolved some guncotton in ether-alcohol and swabbed it on the wound4 ,at this point1 however1 his conduct diverges from the ordinary1 for instead of standing idle1 impatiently waving his hand in the air to dry the film as most people1 including chemists1 are apt to do1 he put his mind on it and it occurred to him that this sticky stuff1 slowly hardening to an elastic mass1 might be just the thing he was hunting as an absorbent and solidifier of nitroglycerin4 ,so instead of throwing away the extra collodion that he had made he mixed it with nitroglycerin and found that it set to a jelly4 ,the blasting gelatin thus discovered proved to be so insensitive to shock that it could be safely transported or fired from a cannon4 ,this was the first of the high explosives that have been the chief factor in modern warfare4 ,but on the whole1 collodion has healed more wounds than it has caused besides being of infinite service to mankind otherwise4 ,it has made modern photography possible1 for the film we use in the camera and moving picture projector consists of a gelatin coating on a pyroxylin backing4 ,if collodion is forced through fine glass tubes instead of through a slit1 it comes out a thread instead of a film4 ,if the collodion jet is run into a vat of cold water the ether and alcohol dissolve2 if it is run into a chamber of warm air they evaporate4 ,the thread of nitrated cellulose may be rendered less inflammable by taking out the nitrate groups by treatment with ammonium or calcium sulfide4 ,this restores the original cellulose1 but now it is an endless thread of any desired thickness1 whereas the native fiber was in size and length adapted to the needs of the cottonseed instead of the needs of man4 ,the old motto1 ,if you want a thing done the way you want it you must do it yourself1 explains why the chemist has been called in to supplement the work of nature in catering to human wants4 ,instead of nitric acid we may use strong acetic acid to dissolve the cotton4 ,the resulting cellulose acetates are less inflammable than the nitrates1 but they are more brittle and more expensive4 ,motion picture films made from them can be used in any hall without the necessity of imprisoning the operator in a fire-proof box where if anything happens he can burn up all by himself without disturbing the audience4 ,the cellulose acetates are being used for auto goggles and gas masks as well as for windows in leather curtains and transparent coverings for index cards4 ,a new use that has lately become important is the varnishing of aeroplane wings1 as it does not readily absorb water or catch fire and makes the cloth taut and air-tight4 ,aeroplane wings can be made of cellulose acetate sheets as transparent as those of a dragon-fly and not easy to see against the sky4 ,the nitrates1 sulfates and acetates are the salts or esters of the respective acids1 but recently true ethers or oxides of cellulose have been prepared that may prove still better since they contain no acid radicle and are neutral and stable4 ,these are in brief the chief processes for making what is commonly but quite improperly called artificial silk4 ,they are not the same substance as silkworm silk and ought not to be--though they sometimes are--sold as such4 ,they are none of them as strong as the silk fiber when wet1 although if ,i should venture to say which of the various makes weakens the most on wetting ,i should get myself into trouble4 ,i will only say that if you have a grudge against some fisherman give him a fly line of artificial silk1 'most any kind4 ,the nitrate process was discovered by ,count ,hilaire de ,chardonnet while he was at the ,polytechnic ,school of ,paris1 and he devoted his life and his fortune trying to perfect it4 ,samples of the artificial silk were exhibited at the ,paris ,exposition in #ahhi and two years later he started a factory at ,basanon4 ,in #ahib1 ,cross and ,bevan1 ,english chemists1 discovered the viscose or xanthate process1 and later the acetate process4 ,but although all four of these processes were invented in ,france and ,england1 ,germany reaped most benefit from the new industry1 which was bringing into that country #f1jjj1jjj a year before the war4 ,the largest producer in the world was the ,vereinigte ,glanzstoff-,fabriken of ,elberfeld1 which was paying annual dividends of #cd per cent4 in #aiad4 ,the raw materials1 as may be seen1 are cheap and abundant1 merely cellulose1 salt1 sulfur1 carbon1 air and water4 ,any kind of cellulose can be used1 cotton waste1 rags1 paper1 or even wood pulp4 ,the processes are various1 the names of the products are numerous and the uses are innumerable4 ,even the most inattentive must have noticed the widespread employment of these new forms of cellulose4 ,we can buy from a street barrow for fifteen cents near-silk neckties that look as well as those sold for seventy-five4 ,as for wear--well1 they all of them wear till after we get tired of wearing them4 ,paper vulcanized by being run through a #cj per cent4 solution of zinc chloride and subjected to hydraulic pressure comes out hard and horny and may be used for trunks and suit cases4 ,viscose tubes for sausage containers are more sanitary and appetizing than the customary casings4 ,viscose replaces ramie or cotton in the ,welsbach gas mantles4 ,viscose film1 transparent and a thousandth of an inch thick 7cellophane71 serves for candy wrappers4 ,cellulose acetate cylinders spun out of larger orifices than silk are trying--not very successfully as yet--to compete with hog's bristles and horsehair4 ,stir powdered metals into the cellulose solution and you have the ,bayko yarn4 ,bayko 7from the manufacturers1 ,farbenfabriken vorm4 ,friedr4 ,bayer and ,company7 is one of those telescoped names like ,socony1 ,nylic1 ,fominco1 ,alco1 ,ropeco1 ,ripans1 ,penn-,yan1 ,anzac1 ,dagor1 ,dora and ,cadets1 which will be the despair of future philologers4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,paper ,,mill ,,in ,,action ,this photograph was taken in the barking room of the big pulp mill of the ,great ,northern ,paper ,company at ,millinocket1 ,maine ,illustration3 ,,cellulose ,,from ,,wood ,,pulp ,this is now made into a large variety of useful articles of which a few examples are here pictured ,soluble cellulose may enable us in time to dispense with the weaver as well as the silkworm4 ,it may by one operation give us fabrics instead of threads4 ,a machine has been invented for manufacturing net and lace1 the liquid material being poured on one side of a roller and the fabric being reeled off on the other side4 ,the process seems capable of indefinite extension and application to various sorts of woven1 knit and reticulated goods4 ,the raw material is cotton waste and the finished fabric is a good substitute for silk4 ,as in the process of making artificial silk the cellulose is dissolved in a cupro-ammoniacal solution1 but instead of being forced out through minute openings to form threads1 as in that process1 the paste is allowed to flow upon a revolving cylinder which is engraved with the pattern of the desired textile4 ,a scraper removes the excess and the turning of the cylinder brings the paste in the engraved lines down into a bath which solidifies it4 ,tulle or net is now what is chiefly being turned out1 but the engraved design may be as elaborate and artistic as desired1 and various materials can be used4 ,since the threads wherever they cross are united1 the fabric is naturally stronger than the ordinary4 ,it is all of a piece and not composed of parts4 ,in short1 we seem to be on the eve of a revolution in textiles that is the same as that taking place in building materials4 ,our concrete structures1 however great1 are all one stone4 ,they are not built up out of blocks1 but cast as a whole4 ,lace has always been the aristocrat among textiles4 ,it has maintained its exclusiveness hitherto by being based upon hand labor4 ,in no other way could one get so much painful1 patient toil put into such a light and portable form4 ,a filmy thing twined about a neck or dropping from a wrist represented years of work by poor peasant girls or pallid1 unpaid nuns4 ,a visit to a lace factory1 even to the public rooms where the wornout women were not to be seen1 is enough to make one resolve never to purchase any such thing made by hand again4 ,but our good resolutions do not last long and in time we forget the strained eyes and bowed backs1 or1 what is worse1 value our bit of lace all the more because it means that some poor woman has put her life and health into it1 netting and weaving1 purling and knotting1 twining and twisting1 throwing and drawing1 thread by thread1 day after day1 until her eyes can no longer see and her fingers have become stiffened4 ,but man is not naturally cruel4 ,he does not really enjoy being a slave driver1 either of human or animal slaves1 although he can be hardened to it with shocking ease if there seems no other way of getting what he wants4 ,so he usually welcomes that ,great ,liberator1 the ,machine4 ,he prefers to drive the tireless engine than to whip the straining horses4 ,he had rather see the farmer riding at ease in a mowing machine than bending his back over a scythe4 ,the ,machine is not only the ,great ,liberator1 it is the ,great ,leveler also4 ,it is the most powerful of the forces for democracy4 ,an aristocracy can hardly be maintained except by distinction in dress1 and distinction in dress can only be maintained by sumptuary laws or costliness4 ,sumptuary laws are unconstitutional in this country1 hence the stress laid upon costliness4 ,but machinery tends to bring styles and fabrics within the reach of all4 ,the shopgirl is almost as well dressed on the street as her rich customer4 ,the man who buys ready-made clothing is only a few weeks behind the vanguard of the fashion4 ,there is often no difference perceptible to the ordinary eye between cheap and high-priced clothing once the price tag is off4 ,jewels as a portable form of concentrated costliness have been in favor from the earliest ages1 but now they are losing their factitious value through the advance of invention4 ,rubies of unprecedented size1 not imitation1 but genuine rubies1 can now be manufactured at reasonable rates4 ,and now we may hope that lace may soon be within the reach of all1 not merely lace of the established forms1 but new and more varied and intricate and beautiful designs1 such as the imagination has been able to conceive1 but the hand cannot execute4 ,dissolving nitrocellulose in ether and alcohol we get the collodion varnish that we are all familiar with since we have used it on our cut fingers4 ,spread it on cloth instead of your skin and it makes a very good leather substitute4 ,as we all know to our cost the number of animals to be skinned has not increased so rapidly in recent years as the number of feet to be shod4 ,after having gone barefoot for a million years or so the majority of mankind have decided to wear shoes and this change in fashion comes at a time1 roughly speaking1 when pasture land is getting scarce4 ,also there are books to be bound and other new things to be done for which leather is needed4 ,the war has intensified the stringency2 so has feminine fashion4 ,the conventions require that the shoe-tops extend nearly to skirt-bottom and this means that an inch or so must be added to the shoe-top every year4 ,consequent to this rise in leather we have to pay as much for one shoe as we used to pay for a pair4 ,here1 then1 is a chance for ,necessity to exercise her maternal function4 ,and she has responded nobly4 ,a progeny of new substances have been brought forth and1 what is most encouraging to see1 they are no longer trying to worm their way into favor as surreptitious surrogates under the names of leatheret1 leatherine1 leatheroid and leather-this-or-that but come out boldly under names of their own coinage and declare themselves not an imitation1 not even a substitute1 but better than leather4 ,this policy has had the curious result of compelling the cowhide men to take full pages in the magazines to call attention to the forgotten virtues of good old-fashioned sole-leather6 ,there are now upon the market synthetic shoes that a vegetarian could wear with a clear conscience4 ,the soles are made of some rubber composition2 the uppers of cellulose fabric 7canvas7 coated with a cellulose solution such as ,i have described4 ,each firm keeps its own process for such substance a dead secret1 but without prying into these we can learn enough to satisfy our legitimate curiosity4 ,the first of the artificial fabrics was the old-fashioned and still indispensable oil-cloth1 that is canvas painted or printed with linseed oil carrying the desired pigments4 ,linseed oil belongs to the class of compounds that the chemist calls unsaturated and the psychologist would call unsatisfied4 ,they take up oxygen from the air and become solid1 hence are called the drying oils1 although this does not mean that they lose water1 for they have not any to lose4 ,later1 ground cork was mixed with the linseed oil and then it went by its ,latin name1 linoleum4 ,the next step was to cut loose altogether from the natural oils and use for the varnish a solution of some of the cellulose esters1 usually the nitrate 7pyroxylin or guncotton71 more rarely the acetate4 ,as a solvent the ether-alcohol mixture forming collodion was1 as we have seen1 the first to be employed1 but now various other solvents are in use1 among them castor oil1 methyl alcohol1 acetone1 and the acetates of amyl or ethyl4 ,some of these will be recognized as belonging to the fruit essences that we considered in ,chapter ,v1 and doubtless most of us have perceived an odor as of over-ripe pears1 bananas or apples mysteriously emanating from a newly lacquered radiator4 ,with powdered bronze1 imitation gold1 aluminum or something of the kind a metallic finish can be put on any surface4 ,canvas coated or impregnated with such soluble cellulose gives us new flexible and durable fabrics that have other advantages over leather besides being cheaper and more abundant4 ,without such material for curtains and cushions the automobile business would have been sorely hampered4 ,it promises to provide us with a book binding that will not crumble to powder in the course of twenty years4 ,linen collars may be water-proofed and possibly ,dame ,fashion--being a fickle lady--may some day relent and let us wear such sanitary and economical neckwear4 ,for shoes1 purses1 belts and the like the cellulose varnish or veneer is usually colored and stamped to resemble the grain of any kind of leather desired1 even snake or alligator4 ,if instead of dissolving the cellulose nitrate and spreading it on fabric we combine it with camphor we get celluloid1 a plastic solid capable of innumerable applications4 ,but that is another story and must be reserved for the next chapter4 ,but before leaving the subject of cellulose proper ,i must refer back again to its chief source1 wood4 ,we inherited from the ,indians a well-wooded continent4 ,but the pioneer carried an ax on his shoulder and began using it immediately4 ,for three hundred years the trees have been cut down faster than they could grow1 first to clear the land1 next for fuel1 then for lumber and lastly for paper4 ,consequently we are within sight of a shortage of wood as we are of coal and oil4 ,but the coal and oil are irrecoverable while the wood may be regrown1 though it would require another three hundred years and more to grow some of the trees we have cut down4 ,for fuel a pound of coal is about equal to two pounds of wood1 and a pound of gasoline to three pounds of wood in heating value1 so there would be a great loss in efficiency and economy if the world had to go back to a wood basis4 ,but when that time shall come1 as1 of course1 it must come some time1 the wood will doubtless not be burned in its natural state but will be converted into hydrogen and carbon monoxide in a gas producer or will be distilled in closed ovens giving charcoal and gas and saving the by-products1 the tar and acid liquors4 ,as it is now the lumberman wastes two-thirds of every tree he cuts down4 ,the rest is left in the forest as stump and tops or thrown out at the mill as sawdust and slabs4 ,the slabs and other scraps may be used as fuel or worked up into small wood articles like laths and clothes-pins4 ,the sawdust is burned or left to rot4 ,but it is possible1 although it may not be profitable1 to save all this waste4 ,in a former chapter ,i showed the advantages of the introduction of by-product coke-ovens4 ,the same principle applies to wood as to coal4 ,if a cord of wood 7#abh cubic feet7 is subjected to a process of destructive distillation it yields about #ej bushels of charcoal1 #aa1ejj cubic feet of gas1 #be gallons of tar1 #aj gallons of crude wood alcohol and #bjj pounds of crude acetate of lime4 ,resinous woods such as pine and fir distilled with steam give turpentine and rosin4 ,the acetate of lime gives acetic acid and acetone4 ,the wood 7methyl7 alcohol is almost as useful as grain 7ethyl7 alcohol in arts and industry and has the advantage of killing off those who drink it promptly instead of slowly4 ,the chemist is an economical soul4 ,he is never content until he has converted every kind of waste product into some kind of profitable by-product4 ,he now has his glittering eye fixed upon the mountains of sawdust that pile up about the lumber mills4 ,he also has a notion that he can beat lumber for some purposes4 ,,vii ,,synthetic ,,plastics ,in the last chapter ,i told how ,alfred ,nobel cut his finger and1 daubing it over with collodion1 was led to the discovery of high explosive1 dynamite4 ,i remarked that the first part of this process--the hurting and the healing of the finger--might happen to anybody but not everybody would be led to discovery thereby4 ,that is true enough1 but we must not think that the ,swedish chemist was the only observant man in the world4 ,about this same time a young man in ,albany1 named ,john ,wesley ,hyatt1 got a sore finger and resorted to the same remedy and was led to as great a discovery4 ,his father was a blacksmith and his education was confined to what he could get at the seminary of ,eddytown1 ,new ,york1 before he was sixteen4 ,at that age he set out for the ,west to make his fortune4 ,he made it1 but after a long1 hard struggle4 ,his trade of typesetter gave him a living in ,illinois1 ,new ,york or wherever he wanted to go1 but he was not content with his wages or his hours4 ,however1 he did not strike to reduce his hours or increase his wages4 ,on the contrary1 he increased his working time and used it to increase his income4 ,he spent his nights and ,sundays in making billiard balls1 not at all the sort of thing you would expect of a young man of his ,christian name4 ,but working with billiard balls is more profitable than playing with them--though that is not the sort of thing you would expect a man of my surname to say4 ,hyatt had seen in the papers an offer of a prize of #aj1jjj for the discovery of a satisfactory substitute for ivory in the making of billiard balls and he set out to get that prize4 ,i don't know whether he ever got it or not1 but ,i have in my hand a newly published circular announcing that ,mr4 ,hyatt has now perfected a process for making billiard balls better than ivory4 ,meantime he has turned out several hundred other inventions1 many of them much more useful and profitable1 but ,i imagine that he takes less satisfaction in any of them than he does in having solved the problem that he undertook fifty years ago4 ,the reason for the prize was that the game on the billiard table was getting more popular and the game in the ,african jungle was getting scarcer1 especially elephants having tusks more than #b-g_/af inches in diameter4 ,the raising of elephants is not an industry that promises as quick returns as raising chickens or ,belgian hares4 ,to make a ball having exactly the weight1 color and resiliency to which billiard players have become accustomed seemed an impossibility4 ,hyatt tried compressed wood1 but while he did not succeed in making billiard balls he did build up a profitable business in stamped checkers and dominoes4 ,setting type in the way they did it in the sixties was hard on the hands4 ,and if the skin got worn thin or broken the dirty lead type were liable to infect the fingers4 ,one day in #ahfc ,hyatt1 finding his fingers were getting raw1 went to the cupboard where was kept the liquid cuticle used by the printers4 ,but when he got there he found it was bare1 for the vial had tipped over--you know how easily they tip over--and the collodion had run out and solidified on the shelf4 ,possibly ,hyatt was annoyed1 but if so he did not waste time raging around the office to find out who tipped over that bottle4 ,instead he pulled off from the wood a bit of the dried film as big as his thumb nail and examined it with that 'satiable curtiosity1 as ,kipling calls it1 which is characteristic of the born inventor4 ,he found it tough and elastic and it occurred to him that it might be worth #aj1jjj4 ,it turned out to be worth many times that4 ,collodion1 as ,i have explained in previous chapters1 is a solution in ether and alcohol of guncotton 7otherwise known as pyroxylin or nitrocellulose71 which is made by the action of nitric acid on cotton4 ,hyatt tried mixing the collodion with ivory powder1 also using it to cover balls of the necessary weight and solidity1 but they did not work very well and besides were explosive4 ,a ,colorado saloon keeper wrote in to complain that one of the billiard players had touched a ball with a lighted cigar1 which set it off and every man in the room had drawn his gun4 ,the trouble with the dissolved guncotton was that it could not be molded4 ,it did not swell up and set2 it merely dried up and shrunk4 ,when the solvent evaporated it left a wrinkled1 shriveled1 horny film1 satisfactory to the surgeon but not to the man who wanted to make balls and hairpins and knife handles out of it4 ,in ,england ,alexander ,parkes began working on the problem in #ahee and stuck to it for ten years before he1 or rather his backers1 gave up4 ,he tried mixing in various things to stiffen up the pyroxylin4 ,of these1 camphor1 which he tried in #ahfe1 worked the best1 but since he used castor oil to soften the mass articles made of parkesine did not hold up in all weathers4 ,another ,englishman1 ,daniel ,spill1 an associate of ,parkes1 took up the problem where he had dropped it and turned out a better product1 xylonite1 though still sticking to the idea that castor oil was necessary to get the two solids1 the guncotton and the camphor1 together4 ,but ,hyatt1 hearing that camphor could be used and not knowing enough about what others had done to follow their false trails1 simply mixed his camphor and guncotton together without any solvent and put the mixture in a hot press4 ,the two solids dissolved one another and when the press was opened there was a clear1 solid1 homogeneous block of--what he named--celluloid4 ,the problem was solved and in the simplest imaginable way4 ,tissue paper1 that is1 cellulose1 is treated with nitric acid in the presence of sulfuric acid4 ,the nitration is not carried so far as to produce the guncotton used in explosives but only far enough to make a soluble nitrocellulose or pyroxylin4 ,this is pulped and mixed with half the quantity of camphor1 pressed into cakes and dried4 ,if this mixture is put into steam-heated molds and subjected to hydraulic pressure it takes any desired form4 ,the process remains essentially the same as was worked out by the ,hyatt brothers in the factory they set up in ,newark in #ahgb and some of their original machines are still in use4 ,but this protean plastic takes innumerable forms and almost as many names4 ,each factory has its own secrets and lays claim to peculiar merits4 ,the fundamental product itself is not patented1 so trade names are copyrighted to protect the product4 ,i have already mentioned three1 parkesine1 xylonite and celluloid1 and ,i may add1 without exhausting the list of species belonging to this genus1 viscoloid1 lithoxyl1 fiberloid1 coraline1 eburite1 pulveroid1 ivorine1 pergamoid1 duroid1 ivortus1 crystalloid1 transparene1 litnoid1 petroid1 pasbosene1 cellonite and pyralin4 ,celluloid can be given any color or colors by mixing in aniline dyes or metallic pigments4 ,the color may be confined to the surface or to the interior or pervade the whole4 ,if the nitrated tissue paper is bleached the celluloid is transparent or colorless4 ,in that case it is necessary to add an antacid such as urea to prevent its getting yellow or opaque4 ,to make it opaque and less inflammable oxides or chlorides of zinc1 aluminum1 magnesium1 etc41 are mixed in4 ,without going into the question of their variations and relative merits we may consider the advantages of the pyroxylin plastics in general4 ,here we have a new substance1 the product of the creative genius of man1 and therefore adaptable to his needs4 ,it is hard but light1 tough but elastic1 easily made and tolerably cheap4 ,heated to the boiling point of water it becomes soft and flexible4 ,it can be turned1 carved1 ground1 polished1 bent1 pressed1 stamped1 molded or blown4 ,to make a block of any desired size simply pile up the sheets and put them in a hot press4 ,to get sheets of any desired thickness1 simply shave them off the block4 ,to make a tube of any desired size1 shape or thickness squirt out the mixture through a ring-shaped hole or roll the sheets around a hot bar4 ,cut the tube into sections and you have rings to be shaped and stamped into box bodies or napkin rings4 ,print words or pictures on a celluloid sheet1 put a thin transparent sheet over it and weld them together1 then you have something like the horn book of our ancestors1 but better4 ,nowadays such things as celluloid and pyralin can be sold under their own name1 but in the early days the artificial plastics1 like every new thing1 had to resort to camouflage1 a very humiliating expedient since in some cases they were better than the material they were forced to imitate4 ,tortoise shell1 for instance1 cracks1 splits and twists1 but a tortoise shell comb of celluloid looks as well and lasts better4 ,horn articles are limited to size of the ceratinous appendages that can be borne on the animal's head1 but an imitation of horn can be made of any thickness by wrapping celluloid sheets about a cone4 ,ivory1 which also has a laminated structure1 may be imitated by rolling together alternate white opaque and colorless translucent sheets4 ,some of the sheets are wrinkled in order to produce the knots and irregularities of the grain of natural ivory4 ,man's chief difficulty in all such work is to imitate the imperfections of nature4 ,his whites are too white1 his surfaces are too smooth1 his shapes are too regular1 his products are too pure4 ,the precious red coral of the ,mediterranean can be perfectly imitated by taking a cast of a coral branch and filling in the mold with celluloid of the same color and hardness4 ,the clear luster of amber1 the dead black of ebony1 the cloudiness of onyx1 the opalescence of alabaster1 the glow of carnelian--once confined to the selfish enjoyment of the rich--are now within the reach of every one1 thanks to this chameleon material4 ,mosaics may be multiplied indefinitely by laying together sheets and sticks of celluloid1 suitably cut and colored to make up the picture1 fusing the mass1 and then shaving off thin layers from the end4 ,that chef d'oeuvre of the ,venetian glass makers1 the ,battle of ,isus1 from the ,house of the ,faun in ,pompeii1 can be reproduced as fast as the machine can shave them off the block4 ,and the tesserae do not fall out like those you bought on the ,rialto4 ,the process thus does for mosaics1 ivory and coral what printing does for pictures4 ,it is a mechanical multiplier and only by such means can we ever attain to a state of democratic luxury4 ,the product1 in cases where the imitation is accurate1 is equally valuable except to those who delight in thinking that coral insects1 ,italian craftsmen and elephants have been laboring for years to put a trinket into their hands4 ,the ,lord may be trusted to deal with such selfish souls according to their deserts4 ,but it is very low praise for a synthetic product that it can pass itself off1 more or less acceptably1 as a natural product4 ,if that is all we could do without it4 ,it must be an improvement in some respects on anything to be found in nature or it does not represent a real advance4 ,so celluloid and its congeners are not confined to the shapes of shell and coral and crystal1 or to the grain of ivory and wood and horn1 the colors of amber and amethyst and lapis lazuli1 but can be given forms and textures and tints that were never known before #ahfi4 ,let me see now1 have ,i mentioned all the uses of celluloid8 ,oh1 no1 there are handles for canes1 umbrellas1 mirrors and brushes1 knives1 whistles1 toys1 blown animals1 card cases1 chains1 charms1 brooches1 badges1 bracelets1 rings1 book bindings1 hairpins1 campaign buttons1 cuff and collar buttons1 cuffs1 collars and dickies1 tags1 cups1 knobs1 paper cutters1 picture frames1 chessmen1 pool balls1 ping pong balls1 piano keys1 dental plates1 masks for disfigured faces1 penholders1 eyeglass frames1 goggles1 playing cards--and you can carry on the list as far as you like4 ,celluloid has its disadvantages4 ,you may mold1 you may color the stuff as you will1 the scent of the camphor will cling around it still4 ,this is not usually objectionable except where the celluloid is trying to pass itself off for something else1 in which case it deserves no sympathy4 ,it is attacked and dissolved by hot acids and alkalies4 ,it softens up when heated1 which is handy in shaping it though not so desirable afterward4 ,but the worst of its failings is its combustibility4 ,it is not explosive1 but it takes fire from a flame and burns furiously with clouds of black smoke4 ,but celluloid is only one of many plastic substances that have been introduced to the present generation4 ,a new and important group of them is now being opened up1 the so-called condensation products4 ,if you will take down any old volume of chemical research you will find occasionally words to this effect3 ,the reaction resulted in nothing but an insoluble resin which was not further investigated4 ,such a passage would be marked with a tear if chemists were given to crying over their failures4 ,for it is the epitaph of a buried hope4 ,it likely meant the loss of months of labor4 ,the reason the chemist did not do anything further with the gummy stuff that stuck up his test tube was because he did not know what to do with it4 ,it could not be dissolved1 it could not be crystallized1 it could not be distilled1 therefore it could not be purified1 analyzed and identified4 ,what had happened was in most cases this4 ,the molecule of the compound that the chemist was trying to make had combined with others of its kind to form a molecule too big to be managed by such means4 ,financiers call the process a merger4 ,chemists call it polymerization4 ,the resin was a molecular trust1 indissoluble1 uncontrollable and contaminating everything it touched4 ,but chemists--like governments--have learned wisdom in recent years4 ,they have not yet discovered in all cases how to undo the process of polymerization1 or1 if you prefer the financial phrase1 how to unscramble the eggs4 ,but they have found that these molecular mergers are very useful things in their way4 ,for instance there is a liquid known as isoprene 7,c#e;,h#h74 ,this on heating or standing turns into a gum1 that is nothing less than rubber1 which is some multiple of ,c#e;,h#h4 ,for another instance there is formaldehyde1 an acrid smelling gas1 used as a disinfectant4 ,this has the simplest possible formula for a carbohydrate1 ,,ch#b,o4 ,but in the leaf of a plant this molecule multiplies itself by six and turns into a sweet solid glucose 7,c#f;,h#ab,o#f71 or with the loss of water into starch 7,c#f;,h#aj,o#e7 or cellulose 7,c#f;,h#aj,o#e74 ,but formaldehyde is so insatiate that it not only combines with itself but seizes upon other substances1 particularly those having an acquisitive nature like its own4 ,such a substance is carbolic acid 7phenol7 which1 as we all know1 is used as a disinfectant like formaldehyde because it1 too1 has the power of attacking decomposable organic matter4 ,now ,prof4 ,adolf von ,baeyer discovered in #ahgb that when phenol and formaldehyde were brought into contact they seized upon one another and formed a combine of unusual tenacity1 that is1 a resin4 ,but as ,i have said1 chemists in those days were shy of resins4 ,kleeberg in #ahia tried to make something out of it and ,w4,h4 ,story in #ahie went so far as to name the product resinite1 but nothing came of it until #aiji when ,l4,h4 ,baekeland undertook a serious and systematic study of this reaction in ,new ,york4 ,baekeland was a ,belgian chemist1 born at ,ghent in #ahfc and professor at ,bruges4 ,while a student at ,ghent he took up photography as a hobby and began to work on the problem of doing away with the dark-room by producing a printing paper that could be developed under ordinary light4 ,when he came over to ,america in #ahhi he brought his idea with him and four years later turned out ,velox1 with which doubtless the reader is familiar4 ,velox was never patented because1 as ,dr4 ,baekeland explained in his speech of acceptance of the ,perkin medal from the chemists of ,america1 lawsuits are too expensive4 ,manufacturers seem to be coming generally to the opinion that a synthetic name copyrighted as a trademark affords better protection than a patent4 ,later ,dr4 ,baekeland turned his attention to the phenol condensation products1 working gradually up from test tubes to ton vats according to his motto3 ,make your mistakes on a small scale and your profits on a large scale4 ,he found that when equal weights of phenol and formaldehyde were mixed and warmed in the presence of an alkaline catalytic agent the solution separated into two layers1 the upper aqueous and the lower a resinous precipitate4 ,this resin was soft1 viscous and soluble in alcohol or acetone4 ,but if it was heated under pressure it changed into another and a new kind of resin that was hard1 inelastic1 unplastic1 infusible and insoluble4 ,the chemical name of this product is polymerized oxybenzyl methylene glycol anhydride1 but nobody calls it that1 not even chemists4 ,it is called ,bakelite after its inventor4 ,the two stages in its preparation are convenient in many ways4 ,for instance1 porous wood may be soaked in the soft resin and then by heat and pressure it is changed to the bakelite form and the wood comes out with a hard finish that may be given the brilliant polish of ,japanese lacquer4 ,paper1 cardboard1 cloth1 wood pulp1 sawdust1 asbestos and the like may be impregnated with the resin1 producing tough and hard material suitable for various purposes4 ,brass work painted with it and then baked at #cjj ,f4 acquires a lacquered surface that is unaffected by soap4 ,forced in powder or sheet form into molds under a pressure of #abjj to #bjjj pounds to the square inch it takes the most delicate impressions4 ,billiard balls of bakelite are claimed to be better than ivory because1 having no grain1 they do not swell unequally with heat and humidity and so lose their sphericity4 ,pipestems and beads of bakelite have the clear brilliancy of amber and greater strength4 ,fountain pens made of it are transparent so you can see how much ink you have left4 ,a new and enlarging field for bakelite and allied products is the making of noiseless gears for automobiles and other machinery1 also of air-plane propellers4 ,celluloid is more plastic and elastic than bakelite4 ,it is therefore more easily worked in sheets and small objects4 ,celluloid can be made perfectly transparent and colorless while bakelite is confined to the range between a clear amber and an opaque brown or black4 ,on the other hand bakelite has the advantage in being tasteless1 odorless1 inert1 insoluble and non-inflammable4 ,this last quality and its high electrical resistance give bakelite its chief field of usefulness4 ,electricity was discovered by the ,greeks1 who found that amber 7electron7 when rubbed would pick up straws4 ,this means simply that amber1 like all such resinous substances1 natural or artificial1 is a non-conductor or di-electric and does not carry off and scatter the electricity collected on the surface by the friction4 ,bakelite is used in its liquid form for impregnating coils to keep the wires from shortcircuiting and in its solid form for commutators1 magnetos1 switch blocks1 distributors1 and all sorts of electrical apparatus for automobiles1 telephones1 wireless telegraphy1 electric lighting1 etc4 ,bakelite1 however1 is only one of an indefinite number of such condensation products4 ,as ,baeyer said long ago3 ,it seems that all the aldehydes will1 under suitable circumstances1 unite with the aromatic hydrocarbons to form resins4 ,so instead of phenol1 other coal tar products such as cresol1 naphthol or benzene itself may be used4 ,the carbon links 7-,,ch#b-1 methylene7 necessary to hook these carbon rings together may be obtained from other substances than the aldehydes1 for instance from the amines1 or ammonia derivatives4 ,three chemists1 ,l4,v4 ,kedman1 ,a4,j4 ,weith and ,f4,p4 ,broek1 working in #aiaj on the ,industrial ,fellowships of the late ,robert ,kennedy ,duncan at the ,university of ,kansas1 developed a process using formin instead of formaldehyde4 ,formin--or1 if you insist upon its full name1 hexa-methylene-tetramine--is a sugar-like substance with a fish-like smell4 ,this mixed with crystallized carbolic acid and slightly warmed melts to a golden liquid that sets on pouring into molds4 ,it is still plastic and can be bent into any desired shape1 but on further heating it becomes hard without the need of pressure4 ,ammonia is given off in this process instead of water which is the by-product in the case of formaldehyde4 ,the product is similar to bakelite1 exactly how similar is a question that the courts will have to decide4 ,the inventors threatened to call it ,phenyl-endeka-saligeno-saligenin1 but1 rightly fearing that this would interfere with its salability1 they have named it redmanol4 ,a phenolic condensation product closely related to bakelite and redmanol is condensite1 the invention of ,jonas ,walter ,aylesworth4 ,aylesworth was trained in what he referred to as the greatest university of the world1 the ,edison laboratory4 ,he entered this university at the age of nineteen at a salary of #c a week1 but ,edison soon found that he had in his new boy an assistant who could stand being shut up in the laboratory working day and night as long as he could4 ,after nine years of close association with ,edison he set up a little laboratory in his own back yard to work out new plastics4 ,he found that by acting on naphthalene--the moth-ball stuff--with chlorine he got a series of useful products called halowaxes4 ,the lower chlorinated products are oils1 which may be used for impregnating paper or soft wood1 making it non-inflammable and impregnable to water4 ,if four atoms of chlorine enter the naphthalene molecule the product is a hard wax that rings like a metal4 ,condensite is anhydrous and infusible1 and like its rivals finds its chief employment in the insulation parts of electrical apparatus4 ,the records of the ,edison phonograph are made of it4 ,so are the buttons of our blue-jackets4 ,the ,government at the outbreak of the war ordered #dj1jjj goggles in condensite frames to protect the eyes of our gunners from the glare and acid fumes4 ,the various synthetics played an important part in the war4 ,according to an ancient military pun the endurance of soldiers depends upon the strength of their soles4 ,the new compound rubber soles were found useful in our army and the ,germans attribute their success in making a little leather go a long way during the late war to the use of a new synthetic tanning material known as neradol4 ,there are various forms of this4 ,some are phenolic condensation products of formaldehyde like those we have been considering1 but some use coal-tar compounds having no phenol groups1 such as naphthalene sulfonic acid4 ,these are now being made in ,england under such names as paradol1 cresyntan and syntan4 ,they have the advantage of the natural tannins such as bark in that they are of known strength and can be varied to suit4 ,this very grasping compound1 formaldehyde1 will attack almost anything1 even molecules many times its size4 ,gelatinous and albuminous substances of all sorts are solidified by it4 ,glue1 skimmed milk1 blood1 eggs1 yeast1 brewer's slops1 may by this magic agent be rescued from waste and reappear in our buttons1 hairpins1 roofing1 phonographs1 shoes or shoe-polish4 ,the ,french have made great use of casein hardened by formaldehyde into what is known as galalith 7i4e41 milkstone74 ,this is harder than celluloid and non-inflammable1 but has the disadvantages of being more brittle and of absorbing moisture4 ,a mixture of casein and celluloid has something of the merits of both4 ,the ,japanese1 as we should expect1 are using the juice of the soy bean1 familiar as a condiment to all who patronize chop-sueys or use ,worcestershire sauce4 ,the soy glucine coagulated by formalin gives a plastic said to be better and cheaper than celluloid4 ,its inventor1 ,s4 ,sato1 of ,sendai ,university1 has named it1 according to ,american precedent1 ,satolite1 and has organized a million-dollar ,satolite ,company at ,mukojima4 ,the algin extracted from the ,pacific kelp can be used as a rubber surrogate for water-proofing cloth4 ,when combined with heavier alkaline bases it forms a tough and elastic substance that can be rolled into transparent sheets like celluloid or turned into buttons and knife handles4 ,in ,australia when the war shut off the supply of tin the ,government commission appointed to devise means of preserving fruits recommended the use of cardboard containers varnished with magramite4 ,this is a name the ,australians coined for synthetic resin made from phenol and formaldehyde like bakelite4 ,magramite dissolved in alcohol is painted on the cardboard cans and when these are stoved the coating becomes insoluble4 ,tarasoff has made a series of condensation products from phenol and formaldehyde with the addition of sulfonated oils4 ,these are formed by the action of sulfuric acid on coconut1 castor1 cottonseed or mineral oils4 ,the products of this combination are white plastics1 opaque1 insoluble and infusible4 ,since ,i am here chiefly concerned with ,creative ,chemistry1 that is1 with the art of making substances not found in nature1 ,i have not spoken of shellac1 asphaltum1 rosin1 ozocerite and the innumerable gums1 resins and waxes1 animal1 mineral and vegetable1 that are used either by themselves or in combination with the synthetics4 ,what particular dope or mud is used to coat a canvas or form a telephone receiver is often hard to find out4 ,the manufacturer finds secrecy safer than the patent office and the chemist of a rival establishment is apt to be baffled in his attempt to analyze and imitate4 ,but we of the outside world are not concerned with this1 though we are interested in the manifold applications of these new materials4 ,there seems to be no limit to these compounds and every week the journals report new processes and patents4 ,but we must not allow the new ones to crowd out the remembrance of the oldest and most famous of the synthetic plasters1 hard rubber1 to which a separate chapter must be devoted4 ,,viii ,,the ,,race ,,for ,,rubber ,there is one law that regulates all animate and inanimate things4 ,it is formulated in various ways1 for instance3 ,running down a hill is easy4 ,in ,latin it reads1 facilis descensus ,averni4 ,herbert ,spencer calls it the dissolution of definite coherent heterogeneity into indefinite incoherent homogeneity4 ,mother ,goose expresses it in the fable of ,humpty ,dumpty1 and the business man extracts the moral as1 ,you can't unscramble an egg4 ,the theologian calls it the dogma of natural depravity4 ,the physicist calls it the second law of thermodynamics4 ,clausius formulates it as ,the entropy of the world tends toward a maximum4 ,it is easier to smash up than to build up4 ,children find that this is true of their toys2 the ,bolsheviki have found that it is true of a civilization4 ,so1 too1 the chemist knows analysis is easier than synthesis and that creative chemistry is the highest branch of his art4 ,this explains why chemists discovered how to take rubber apart over sixty years before they could find out how to put it together4 ,the first is easy4 ,just put some raw rubber into a retort and heat it4 ,if you can stand the odor you will observe the caoutchouc decomposing and a benzine-like liquid distilling over4 ,this is called isoprene4 ,any ,freshman chemist could write the reaction for this operation4 ,it is simply ,c#aj;,h#af -- #b;,c#e;,h#h caoutchouc isoprene ,that is1 one molecule of the gum splits up into two molecules of the liquid4 ,it is just as easy to write the reaction in the reverse directions1 as #b isoprene-- #a caoutchouc1 but nobody could make it go in that direction4 ,yet it could be done4 ,it had been done4 ,but the man who did it did not know how he did it and could not do it again4 ,professor ,tilden in ,may1 #ahib1 read a paper before the ,birmingham ,philosophical ,society in which he said3 ,i was surprised a few weeks ago at finding the contents of the bottles containing isoprene from turpentine entirely changed in appearance4 ,in place of a limpid1 colorless liquid the bottles contained a dense syrup in which were floating several large masses of a yellowish color4 ,upon examination this turned out to be ,india rubber4 ,but neither ,professor ,tilden nor any one else could repeat this accidental metamorphosis4 ,it was tantalizing1 for the world was willing to pay #b1jjj1jjj1jjj a year for rubber and the forests of the ,amazon and ,congo were failing to meet the demand4 ,a large share of these millions would have gone to any chemist who could find out how to make synthetic rubber and make it cheaply enough4 ,with such a reward of fame and fortune the competition among chemists was intense4 ,it took the form of an international contest in which ,england and ,germany were neck and neck4 ,illustration3 ,courtesy of the ,india ,rubber ,world4 ,what goes into rubber and what is made out of it ,the ,english1 who had been beaten by the ,germans in the dye business where they had the start1 were determined not to lose in this4 ,prof4 ,w4,h4 ,perkin1 of ,manchester ,university1 was one of the most eager1 for he was inspired by a personal grudge against the ,germans as well as by patriotism and scientific zeal4 ,it was his father who had1 fifty years before1 discovered mauve1 the first of the anilin dyes1 but ,england could not hold the business and its rich rewards went over to ,germany4 ,so in #aiji a corps of chemists set to work under ,professor ,perkin in the ,manchester laboratories to solve the problem of synthetic rubber4 ,what reagent could be found that would reverse the reaction and convert the liquid isoprene into the solid rubber8 ,it was discovered1 by accident1 we may say1 but it should be understood that such advantageous accidents happen only to those who are working for them and know how to utilize them4 ,in ,july1 #aiaj1 ,dr4 ,matthews1 who had charge of the research1 set some isoprene to drying over metallic sodium1 a common laboratory method of freeing a liquid from the last traces of water4 ,in ,september he found that the flask was filled with a solid mass of real rubber instead of the volatile colorless liquid he had put into it4 ,twenty years before the discovery would have been useless1 for sodium was then a rare and costly metal1 a little of it in a sealed glass tube being passed around the chemistry class once a year as a curiosity1 or a tiny bit cut off and dropped in water to see what a fuss it made4 ,but nowadays metallic sodium is cheaply produced by the aid of electricity4 ,the difficulty lay rather in the cost of the raw material1 isoprene4 ,in industrial chemistry it is not sufficient that a thing can be made2 it must be made to pay4 ,isoprene could be obtained from turpentine1 but this was too expensive and limited in supply4 ,it would merely mean the destruction of pine forests instead of rubber forests4 ,starch was finally decided upon as the best material1 since this can be obtained for about a cent a pound from potatoes1 corn and many other sources4 ,here1 however1 the chemist came to the end of his rope and had to call the bacteriologist to his aid4 ,the splitting of the starch molecule is too big a job for man2 only the lower organisms1 the yeast plant1 for example1 know enough to do that4 ,owing perhaps to the entente cordiale a ,french biologist was called into the combination1 ,professor ,fernbach1 of the ,pasteur ,institute1 and after eighteen months' hard work he discovered a process of fermentation by which a large amount of fusel oil can be obtained from any starchy stuff4 ,hitherto the aim in fermentation and distillation had been to obtain as small a proportion of fusel as possible1 for fusel oil is a mixture of the heavier alcohols1 all of them more poisonous and malodorous than common alcohol4 ,but here1 as has often happened in the history of industrial chemistry1 the by-product turned out to be more valuable than the product4 ,from fusel oil by the use of chlorine isoprene can be prepared1 so the chain was complete4 ,but meanwhile the ,germans had been making equal progress4 ,in #aije ,prof4 ,karl ,harries1 of ,berlin1 found out the name of the caoutchouc molecule4 ,this discovery was to the chemists what the architect's plan of a house is to the builder4 ,they knew then what they were trying to construct and could go about their task intelligently4 ,mark ,twain said that he could understand something about how astronomers could measure the distance of the planets1 calculate their weights and so forth1 but he never could see how they could find out their names even with the largest telescopes4 ,this is a joke in astronomy but it is not in chemistry4 ,for when the chemist finds out the structure of a compound he gives it a name which means that4 ,the stuff came to be called caoutchouc1 because that was the way the ,spaniards of ,columbus's time caught the ,indian word cahuchu4 ,when ,dr4 ,priestley called it ,india rubber he told merely where it came from and what it was good for4 ,but when ,harries named it #a-e-;dimethyl-cyclo-octadien-#a-e any chemist could draw a picture of it and give a guess as to how it could be made4 ,even a person without any knowledge of chemistry can get the main point of it by merely looking at this diagram3 ,c ,c ,c---,c ,c--,c ,c ,c--,c ,c -- ,c ,c--,c ,c ,c--,c ,c ,c ,c---,c ,illustration3 isoprene turns into caoutchouc ,i have dropped the #af ,h's or hydrogen atoms of the formula for simplicity's sake4 ,they simply hook on wherever they can4 ,you will see that the isoprene consists of a chain of four carbon atoms 7represented by the ,c's7 with an extra carbon on the side4 ,in the transformation of this colorless liquid into soft rubber two of the double linkages break and so permit the two chains of #d ,c's to unite to form one ring of eight4 ,if you have ever played ring-around-a-rosy you will get the idea4 ,in ,chapter ,,iv ,i explained that the anilin dyes are built up upon the benzene ring of six carbon atoms4 ,the rubber ring consists of eight at least and probably more4 ,any substance containing that peculiar carbon chain with two double links ,c,c-,c,c can double up--polymerize1 the chemist calls it--into a rubber-like substance4 ,so we may have many kinds of rubber1 some of which may prove to be more useful than that which happens to be found in nature4 ,with the structural formula of ,harries as a clue chemists all over the world plunged into the problem with renewed hope4 ,the famous ,bayer dye works at ,elberfeld took it up and there in ,august1 #aiji1 ,dr4 ,fritz ,hofmann worked out a process for the converting of pure isoprene into rubber by heat4 ,then in #aiaj ,harries happened upon the same sodium reaction as ,matthews1 but when he came to get it patented he found that the ,englishman had beaten him to the patent office by a few weeks4 ,this ,anglo-,german rivalry came to a dramatic climax in #aiab at the great hall of the ,college of the ,city of ,new ,york when ,dr4 ,carl ,duisberg1 of the ,elberfeld factory1 delivered an address on the latest achievements of the chemical industry before the ,eighth--and the last for a long time--,international ,congress of ,applied ,chemistry4 ,duisberg insisted upon talking in ,german1 although more of his auditors would have understood him in ,english4 ,he laid full emphasis upon ,german achievements and cast doubt upon the claim of the ,englishman ,tilden to have prepared artificial rubber in the eighties4 ,perkin1 of ,manchester1 confronted him with his new process for making rubber from potatoes1 but ,duisberg countered by proudly displaying two automobile tires made of synthetic rubber with which he had made a thousand-mile run4 ,the intense antagonism between the ,british and ,german chemists at this congress was felt by all present1 but we did not foresee that in two years from that date they would be engaged in manufacturing poison gas to fire at one another4 ,it was1 however1 realized that more was at stake than personal reputation and national prestige4 ,under pressure of the new demand for automobiles the price of rubber jumped from #a4be to #c a pound in #aiaj1 and millions had been invested in plantations4 ,if ,professor ,perkin was right when he told the congress that by his process rubber could be made for less than #be cents a pound it meant that these plantations would go the way of the indigo plantations when the ,germans succeeded in making artificial indigo4 ,if ,dr4 ,duisberg was right when he told the congress that synthetic rubber would certainly appear on the market in a very short time1 it meant that ,germany in war or peace would become independent of ,brazil in the matter of rubber as she had become independent of ,chile in the matter of nitrates4 ,as it turned out both scientists were too sanguine4 ,synthetic rubber has not proved capable of displacing natural rubber by underbidding it nor even of replacing natural rubber when this is shut out4 ,when ,germany was blockaded and the success of her armies depended on rubber1 price was no object4 ,three ,danish sailors who were caught by ,united ,states officials trying to smuggle dental rubber into ,germany confessed that they had been selling it there for gas masks at #gc a pound4 ,the ,german gas masks in the latter part of the war were made without rubber and were frail and leaky4 ,they could not have withstood the new gases which ,american chemists were preparing on an unprecedented scale4 ,every scrap of old rubber in ,germany was saved and worked over and over and diluted with fillers and surrogates to the limit of elasticity4 ,spring tires were substituted for pneumatics4 ,so it is evident that the supply of synthetic rubber could not have been adequate or satisfactory4 ,neither1 on the other hand1 have the ,british made a success of the ,perkin process1 although they spent #bjj1jjj on it in the first two years4 ,but1 of course1 there was not the same necessity for it as in the case of ,germany1 for ,england had practically a monopoly of the world's supply of natural rubber either through owning plantations or controlling shipping4 ,if rubber could not be manufactured profitably in ,germany when the demand was imperative and price no consideration it can hardly be expected to compete with the natural under peace conditions4 ,the problem of synthetic rubber has then been solved scientifically but not industrially4 ,it can be made but cannot be made to pay4 ,the difficulty is to find a cheap enough material to start with4 ,we can make rubber out of potatoes--but potatoes have other uses4 ,it would require more land and more valuable land to raise the potatoes than to raise the rubber4 ,we can get isoprene by the distillation of turpentine--but why not bleed a rubber tree as well as a pine tree8 ,turpentine is neither cheap nor abundant enough4 ,any kind of wood1 sawdust for instance1 can be utilized by converting the cellulose over into sugar and fermenting this to alcohol1 but the process is not likely to prove profitable4 ,petroleum when cracked up to make gasoline gives isoprene or other double-bond compounds that go over into some form of rubber4 ,but the most interesting and most promising of all is the complete inorganic synthesis that dispenses with the aid of vegetation and starts with coal and lime4 ,these heated together in the electric furnace form calcium carbide and this1 as every automobilist knows1 gives acetylene by contact with water4 ,from this gas isoprene can be made and the isoprene converted into rubber by sodium1 or acid or alkali or simple heating4 ,acetone1 which is also made from acetylene1 can be converted directly into rubber by fuming sulfuric acid4 ,this seems to have been the process chiefly used by the ,germans during the war4 ,several carbide factories were devoted to it4 ,but the intermediate and by-products of the process1 such as alcohol1 acetic acid and acetone1 were in as much demand for war purposes as rubber4 ,the ,germans made some rubber from pitch imported from ,sweden4 ,they also found a useful substitute in aluminum naphthenate made from ,baku petroleum1 for it is elastic and plastic and can be vulcanized4 ,so although rubber can be made in many different ways it is not profitable to make it in any of them4 ,we have to rely still upon the natural product1 but we can greatly improve upon the way nature produces it4 ,when the call came for more rubber for the electrical and automobile industries the first attempt to increase the supply was to put pressure upon the natives to bring in more of the latex4 ,as a consequence the trees were bled to death and sometimes also the natives4 ,the ,belgian atrocities in the ,congo shocked the civilized world and at ,putumayo on the upper ,amazon the same cause produced the same horrible effects4 ,but no matter what cruelty was practiced the tropical forests could not be made to yield a sufficient increase1 so the cultivation of the rubber was begun by far-sighted men in ,dutch ,java1 ,sumatra and ,borneo and in ,british ,malaya and ,ceylon4 ,brazil1 feeling secure in the possession of a natural monopoly1 made no effort to compete with these parvenus4 ,it cost about as much to gather rubber from the ,amazon forests as it did to raise it on a ,malay plantation1 that is1 #be cents a pound4 ,the ,brazilian ,government clapped on another #be cents export duty and spent the money lavishly4 ,in #aiaa the treasury of ,para took in #b1jjj1jjj from the rubber tax and a good share of the money was spent on a magnificent new theater at ,manaos--not on setting out rubber trees4 ,the result of this rivalry between the collector and the cultivator is shown by the fact that in the decade #aijg-aiag the world's output of plantation rubber increased from #ajjj to #bjd1jjj tons1 while the output of wild rubber decreased from #fh1jjj to #ec1jjj4 ,besides this the plantation rubber is a cleaner and more even product1 carefully coagulated by acetic acid instead of being smoked over a forest fire4 ,it comes in pale yellow sheets instead of big black balls loaded with the dirt or sticks and stones that the honest ,indian sometimes adds to make a bigger lump4 ,what's better1 the man who milks the rubber trees on a plantation may live at home where he can be decently looked after4 ,the agriculturist and the chemist may do what the philanthropist and statesman could not accomplish3 put an end to the cruelties involved in the international struggle for black gold4 ,the ,united ,states uses three-fourths of the world's rubber output and grows none of it4 ,what is the use of tropical possessions if we do not make use of them8 ,the ,philippines could grow all our rubber and keep a #cjj1jjj1jjj business under our flag4 ,santo ,domingo1 where rubber was first discovered1 is now under our supervision and could be enriched by the industry4 ,the ,guianas1 where the rubber tree was first studied1 might be purchased4 ,it is chiefly for lack of a definite colonial policy that our rubber industry1 by far the largest in the world1 has to be dependent upon foreign sources for all its raw materials4 ,because the ,philippines are likely to be cast off at any moment1 ,american manufacturers are placing their plantations in the ,dutch or ,british possessions4 ,the ,goodyear ,company has secured a concession of #bj1jjj acres near ,medan in ,dutch ,sumatra4 ,while the ,united ,states is planning to relinquish its ,pacific possessions the ,british have more than doubled their holdings in ,new ,guinea by the acquisition of ,kaiser ,wilhelm's ,land1 good rubber country4 ,the ,british ,malay ,states in #aiag exported over #aah1jjj1jjj worth of plantation-grown rubber and could have sold more if shipping had not been short and production restricted4 ,fully #ij per cent4 of the cultivated rubber is now grown in ,british colonies or on ,british plantations in the ,dutch ,east ,indies4 ,to protect this monopoly an act has been passed preventing foreigners from buying more land in the ,malay ,peninsula4 ,the ,japanese have acquired there #ej1jjj acres1 on which they are growing more than a million dollars' worth of rubber a year4 ,the ,british ,tropical ,life says of the ,american invasion3 ,as ,america is so extremely wealthy ,uncle ,sam can well afford to continue to buy our rubber as he has been doing instead of coming in to produce rubber to reduce his competition as a buyer in the world's market4 ,the ,malaya estates calculate to pay a dividend of #bj per cent4 on the investment with rubber selling at #cj cents a pound and every two cents additional on the price brings a further #c-a_/b per cent4 dividend4 ,the output is restricted by the ,rubber ,growers' ,association so as to keep the price up to #ej-gj cents4 ,when the plantations first came into bearing in #aiaj rubber was bringing nearly #c a pound1 and since it can be produced at less than #cj cents a pound we can imagine the profits of the early birds4 ,the fact that the world's rubber trade was in the control of ,great ,britain caused ,america great anxiety and financial loss in the early part of the war when the ,british ,government1 suspecting--not without reason--that some ,american rubber goods were getting into ,germany through neutral nations1 suddenly shut off our supply4 ,this threatened to kill the fourth largest of our industries and it was only by the submission of ,american rubber dealers to the closest supervision and restriction by the ,british authorities that they were allowed to continue their business4 ,sir ,francis ,hopwood1 in laying down these regulations1 gave emphatic warning that in case any manufacturer1 importer or dealer came under suspicion his permits should be immediately revoked4 ,reinstatement will be slow and difficult4 ,the ,british ,government will cancel first and investigate afterward4 ,of course the ,british had a right to say under what conditions they should sell their rubber and we cannot blame them for taking such precautions to prevent its getting to their enemies1 but it placed the ,united ,states in a humiliating position and if we had not been in sympathy with their side it would have aroused more resentment than it did4 ,but it made evident the desirability of having at least part of our supply under our own control and1 if possible1 within our own country4 ,rubber is not rare in nature1 for it is contained in almost every milky juice4 ,every country boy knows that he can get a self-feeding mucilage brush by cutting off a milkweed stalk4 ,the only native source so far utilized is the guayule1 which grows wild on the deserts of the ,mexican and the ,american border4 ,the plant was discovered in #aheb by ,dr4 ,j4,m4 ,bigelow near ,escondido ,creek1 ,texas4 ,professor ,asa ,gray described it and named it ,parthenium argentatum1 or the silver ,pallas4 ,when chopped up and macerated guayule gives a satisfactory quality of caoutchouc in profitable amounts4 ,in #aiaa seven thousand tons of guayule were imported from ,mexico2 in #aiag only seventeen hundred tons4 ,why this falling off8 ,because the eager exploiters had killed the goose that laid the golden egg1 or in plain language1 pulled up the plant by the roots4 ,now guayule is being cultivated and is reaped instead of being uprooted4 ,experiments at the ,tucson laboratory have recently removed the difficulty of getting the seed to germinate under cultivation4 ,this seems the most promising of the home-grown plants and1 until artificial rubber can be made profitable1 gives us the only chance of being in part independent of oversea supply4 ,there are various other gums found in nature that can for some purposes be substituted for caoutchouc4 ,gutta percha1 for instance1 is pliable and tough though not very elastic4 ,it becomes plastic by heat so it can be molded1 but unlike rubber it cannot be hardened by heating with sulfur4 ,a lump of gutta percha was brought from ,java in #agff and placed in a ,british museum1 where it lay for nearly a hundred years before it occurred to anybody to do anything with it except to look at it4 ,but a ,german electrician1 ,siemens1 discovered in #ahdg that gutta percha was valuable for insulating telegraph lines and it found extensive employment in submarine cables as well as for golf balls1 and the like4 ,balata1 which is found in the forests of the ,guianas1 is between gutta percha and rubber1 not so good for insulation but useful for shoe soles and machine belts4 ,the bark of the tree is so thick that the latex does not run off like caoutchouc when the bark is cut4 ,so the bark has to be cut off and squeezed in hand presses4 ,formerly this meant cutting down the tree1 but now alternate strips of the bark are cut off and squeezed so the tree continues to live4 ,when ,columbus discovered ,santo ,domingo he found the natives playing with balls made from the gum of the caoutchouc tree4 ,the soldiers of ,pizarro1 when they conquered ,inca-,land1 adopted the ,peruvian custom of smearing caoutchouc over their coats to keep out the rain4 ,a ,french scientist1 ,m4 de la ,condamine1 who went to ,south ,america to measure the earth1 came back in #agde with some specimens of caoutchouc from ,para as well as quinine from ,peru4 ,the vessel on which he returned1 the brig ,minerva1 had a narrow escape from capture by an ,english cruiser1 for ,great ,britain was jealous of any trespassing on her ,american sphere of influence4 ,the ,old ,world need not have waited for the discovery of the ,new1 for the rubber tree grows wild in ,annam as well as ,brazil1 but none of the ,asiatics seems to have discovered any of the many uses of the juice that exudes from breaks in the bark4 ,the first practical use that was made of it gave it the name that has stuck to it in ,english ever since4 ,magellan announced in #aggb that it was good to remove pencil marks4 ,a lump of it was sent over from ,france to ,priestley1 the clergyman chemist who discovered oxygen and was mobbed out of ,manchester for being a republican and took refuge in ,pennsylvania4 ,he cut the lump into little cubes and gave them to his friends to eradicate their mistakes in writing or figuring4 ,then they asked him what the queer things were and he said that they were ,india rubbers4 ,illustration3 ,,forest ,,rubber ,compare this tropical tangle and gnarled trunk with the straight tree and cleared ground of the plantation4 ,at the foot of the trunk are cups collecting rubber juice4 ,illustration3 ,,plantation ,,rubber ,this spiral cut draws off the milk as completely and quickly as possible without harming the tree4 ,the man is pulling off a strip of coagulated rubber that clogs it4 ,illustration3 ,,in ,,making ,,garden ,,hose ,,the ,,rubber ,,is ,,formed ,,into ,a ,,tube ,,by ,,the ,,machine ,,on ,,the ,,right ,,and ,,coiled ,,on ,,the ,,table ,,to ,,the ,,left ,the ,peruvian natives had used caoutchouc for water-proof clothing1 shoes1 bottles and syringes1 but ,europe was slow to take it up1 for the stuff was too sticky and smelled too bad in hot weather to become fashionable in fastidious circles4 ,in #ahbe ,mackintosh made his name immortal by putting a layer of rubber between two cloths4 ,a ,german chemist1 ,ludersdorf1 discovered in #ahcb that the gum could be hardened by treating it with sulfur dissolved in turpentine4 ,but it was left to a ,yankee inventor1 ,charles ,goodyear1 of ,connecticut1 to work out a practical solution of the problem4 ,a friend of his1 ,hayward1 told him that it had been revealed to him in a dream that sulfur would harden rubber1 but unfortunately the angel or defunct chemist who inspired the vision failed to reveal the details of the process4 ,so ,hayward sold out his dream to ,goodyear1 who spent all his own money and all he could borrow from his friends trying to convert it into a reality4 ,he worked for ten years on the problem before the lucky accident came to him4 ,one day in #ahci he happened to drop on the hot stove of the kitchen that he used as a laboratory a mixture of caoutchouc and sulfur4 ,to his surprise he saw the two substances fuse together into something new4 ,instead of the soft1 tacky gum and the yellow1 brittle brimstone he had the tough1 stable1 elastic solid that has done so much since to make our footing and wheeling safe1 swift and noiseless4 ,the gumshoes or galoshes that he was then enabled to make still go by the name of rubbers in this country1 although we do not use them for pencil erasers4 ,goodyear found that he could vary this vulcanized rubber at will4 ,by adding a little more sulfur he got a hard substance which1 however1 could be softened by heat so as to be molded into any form wanted4 ,out of this hard rubber vulcanite or ebonite were made combs1 hairpins1 penholders and the like1 and it has not yet been superseded for some purposes by any of its recent rivals1 the synthetic resins4 ,the new form of rubber made by the ,germans1 methyl rubber1 is said to be a superior substitute for the hard variety but not satisfactory for the soft4 ,the electrical resistance of the synthetic product is #bj per cent1 higher than the natural1 so it is excellent for insulation1 but it is inferior in elasticity4 ,in the latter part of the war the methyl rubber was manufactured at the rate of #afe tons a month4 ,the first pneumatic tires1 known then as patent aerial wheels1 were invented by ,robert ,william ,thomson of ,london in #ahdf4 ,on the following year a carriage equipped with them was seen in the streets of ,new ,york ,city4 ,but the pneumatic tire did not come into use until after #ahhh1 when an ,irish horse-doctor1 ,john ,boyd ,dunlop1 of ,belfast1 tied a rubber tube around the wheels of his little son's velocipede4 ,within seven years after that a #be1jjj1jjj corporation was manufacturing ,dunlop tires4 ,later ,america took the lead in this business4 ,in #aiac the ,united ,states exported #c1jjj1jjj worth of tires and tubes4 ,in #aiag the ,american exports rose to #ac1jjj1jjj1 not counting what went to the ,allies4 ,the number of pneumatic tires sold in #aiag is estimated at #ah1jjj1jjj1 which at an average cost of #be would amount to #dej1jjj1jjj4 ,no matter how much synthetic rubber may be manufactured or how many rubber trees are set out there is no danger of glutting the market1 for as the price falls the uses of rubber become more numerous4 ,one can think of a thousand ways in which rubber could be used if it were only cheap enough4 ,in the form of pads and springs and tires it would do much to render traffic noiseless4 ,even the elevated railroad and the subway might be opened to conversation1 and the city made habitable for mild voiced and gentle folk4 ,it would make one's step sure1 noiseless and springy1 whether it was used individualistically as rubber heels or collectivistically as carpeting and paving4 ,in roofing and siding and paint it would make our buildings warmer and more durable4 ,it would reduce the cost and permit the extension of electrical appliances of almost all kinds4 ,in short1 there is hardly any other material whose abundance would contribute more to our comfort and convenience4 ,noise is an automatic alarm indicating lost motion and wasted energy4 ,silence is economy and resiliency is superior to resistance4 ,a gumshoe outlasts a hobnailed sole and a rubber tube full of air is better than a steel tire4 ,,ix ,,the ,,rival ,,sugars ,the ancient ,greeks1 being an inquisitive and acquisitive people1 were fond of collecting tales of strange lands4 ,they did not care much whether the stories were true or not so long as they were interesting4 ,among the marvels that the ,greeks heard from the ,far ,east two of the strangest were that in ,india there were plants that bore wool without sheep and reeds that bore honey without bees4 ,these incredible tales turned out to be true and in the course of time ,europe began to get a little calico from ,calicut and a kind of edible gravel that the ,arabs who brought it called sukkar4 ,but of course only kings and queens could afford to dress in calico and have sugar prescribed for them when they were sick4 ,fortunately1 however1 in the course of time the ,arabs invaded ,spain and forced upon the unwilling inhabitants of ,europe such instrumentalities of higher civilization as arithmetic and algebra1 soap and sugar4 ,later the ,spaniards by an act of equally unwarranted and beneficent aggression carried the sugar cane to the ,caribbean1 where it thrived amazingly4 ,the ,west ,indies then became a rival of the ,east ,indies as a treasure-house of tropical wealth and for several centuries the ,spanish1 ,portuguese1 ,dutch1 ,english1 ,danes and ,french fought like wildcats to gain possession of this little nest of islands and the routes leading thereunto4 ,the ,english finally overcame all these enemies1 whether they fought her singly or combined4 ,great ,britain became mistress of the seas and took such ,caribbean lands as she wanted4 ,but in the end her continental foes came out ahead1 for they rendered her victory valueless4 ,they were defeated in geography but they won in chemistry4 ,canning boasted that the ,new ,world had been called into existence to redress the balance of the ,old4 ,napoleon might have boasted that he had called in the sugar beet to balance the sugar cane4 ,france was then1 as ,germany was a century later1 threatening to dominate the world4 ,england1 then as in the ,great ,war1 shut off from the seas the shipping of the aggressive power4 ,france then1 like ,germany later1 felt most keenly the lack of tropical products1 chief among which1 then but not in the recent crisis1 was sugar4 ,the cause of this vital change is that in #agdg ,marggraf1 a ,berlin chemist1 discovered that it was possible to extract sugar from beets4 ,there was only a little sugar in the beet root then1 some six per cent41 and what he got out was dirty and bitter4 ,one of his pupils in #ahja set up a beet sugar factory near ,breslau under the patronage of the ,king of ,prussia1 but the industry was not a success until ,napoleon took it up and in #ahaj offered a prize of a million francs for a practical process4 ,how the ,french did make fun of him for this crazy notion6 ,in a comic paper of that day you will find a cartoon of ,napoleon in the nursery beside the cradle of his son and heir1 the ,king of ,rome--known to the readers of ,rostand as l',aiglon4 ,the ,emperor is squeezing the juice of a beet into his coffee and the nurse has put a beet into the mouth of the infant ,king1 saying3 ,suck1 dear1 suck4 ,your father says it's sugar4 ,in like manner did the wits ridicule ,franklin for fooling with electricity1 ,rumford for trying to improve chimneys1 ,parmentier for thinking potatoes were fit to eat1 and ,jefferson for believing that something might be made of the country west of the ,mississippi4 ,in all ages ridicule has been the chief weapon of conservatism4 ,if you want to know what line human progress will take in the future read the funny papers of today and see what they are fighting4 ,the satire of every century from ,aristophanes to the latest vaudeville has been directed against those who are trying to make the world wiser or better1 against the teacher and the preacher1 the scientist and the reformer4 ,in spite of the ridicule showered upon it the despised beet year by year gained in sweetness of heart4 ,the percentage of sugar rose from six to eighteen and by improved methods of extraction became finally as pure and palatable as the sugar of the cane4 ,an acre of ,german beets produces more sugar than an acre of ,louisiana cane4 ,continental ,europe waxed wealthy while the ,british ,west ,indies sank into decay4 ,as the beets of ,europe became sweeter the population of the islands became blacker4 ,before the war ,england was paying out #abe1jjj1jjj for sugar1 and more than two-thirds of this money was going to ,germany and ,austria-,hungary4 ,fostered by scientific study1 protected by tariff duties1 and stimulated by export bounties1 the beet sugar industry became one of the financial forces of the world4 ,the ,english at home1 especially the marmalade-makers1 at first rejoiced at the idea of getting sugar for less than cost at the expense of her continental rivals4 ,but the suffering colonies took another view of the situation4 ,in #ahhh a conference of the powers called at ,london agreed to stop competing by the pernicious practice of export bounties1 but ,france and the ,united ,states refused to enter1 so the agreement fell through4 ,another conference ten years later likewise failed1 but when the parvenu beet sugar ventured to invade the historic home of the cane the limit of toleration had been reached4 ,the ,council of ,india put on countervailing duties to protect their homegrown cane from the bounty-fed beet4 ,this forced the calling of a convention at ,brussels in #aijc to equalize the conditions of competition between beet sugar and cane sugar of the various countries1 at which the powers agreed to a mutual suppression of bounties4 ,beet sugar then divided the world's market equally with cane sugar and the two rivals stayed substantially neck and neck until the ,great ,war came4 ,this shut out from ,england the product of ,germany1 ,austria-,hungary1 ,belgium1 northern ,france and ,russia and took the farmers from their fields4 ,the battle lines of the ,central ,powers enclosed the land which used to grow a third of the world's supply of sugar4 ,in #aiac the beet and the cane each supplied about nine million tons of sugar4 ,in #aiag the output of cane sugar was #aa1bjj1jjj and of beet sugar #e1cjj1jjj tons4 ,consequently the ,old ,world had to draw upon the ,new4 ,cuba1 on which the ,united ,states used to depend for half its sugar supply1 sent over #gjj1jjj tons of raw sugar to ,england in #aiaf4 ,the ,united ,states sent as much more refined sugar4 ,the lack of shipping interfered with our getting sugar from our tropical dependencies1 ,hawaii1 ,porto ,rico and the ,philippines4 ,the homegrown beets give us only a fifth and the cane of ,louisiana and ,texas only a fifteenth of the sugar we need4 ,as a result we were obliged to file a claim in advance to get a pound of sugar from the corner grocery and then we were apt to be put off with rock candy1 muscovado or honey4 ,lemon drops proved useful for ,russian tea and the long sweetening of our forefathers came again into vogue in the form of various syrups4 ,the ,united ,states was accustomed to consume almost a fifth of all the sugar produced in the world--and then we could not get it4 ,illustration3 ,,map ,,showing ,,location ,,of ,,european ,,beet ,,sugar ,,factories--,,also ,,battle ,,lines ,,at ,,close ,,of #aiah ,,estimated ,,that ,,one-,,third ,,of ,,worlds ,,production ,,before ,,the ,,war ,,was ,,produced ,,within ,,battle ,,lines ,courtesy ,american ,sugar ,refining ,co4 ,the shortage made us realize how dependent we have become upon sugar4 ,yet it was1 as we have seen1 practically unknown to the ancients and only within the present generation has it become an essential factor in our diet4 ,as soon as the chemist made it possible to produce sugar at a reasonable price all nations began to buy it in proportion to their means4 ,americans1 as the wealthiest people in the world1 ate the most1 ninety pounds a year on the average for every man1 woman and child4 ,in other words we ate our weight of sugar every year4 ,the ,english consumed nearly as much as the ,americans2 the ,french and ,germans about half as much2 the ,balkan peoples less than ten pounds per annum2 and the ,african savages none4 ,illustration3 ,how the sugar beet has gained enormously in sugar content under chemical control ,pure white sugar is the first and greatest contribution of chemistry to the world's dietary4 ,it is unique in being a single definite chemical compound1 sucrose1 ,c#ab;,h#bb,o#aa4 ,all natural nutriments are more or less complex mixtures4 ,many of them1 like wheat or milk or fruit1 contain in various proportions all of the three factors of foods1 the fats1 the proteids and the carbohydrates1 as well as water and the minerals and other ingredients necessary to life4 ,but sugar is a simple substance1 like water or salt1 and like them is incapable of sustaining life alone1 although unlike them it is nutritious4 ,in fact1 except the fats there is no more nutritious food than sugar1 pound for pound1 for it contains no water and no waste4 ,it is therefore the quickest and usually the cheapest means of supplying bodily energy4 ,but as may be seen from its formula as given above it contains only three elements1 carbon1 hydrogen and oxygen1 and omits nitrogen and other elements necessary to the body4 ,an engine requires not only coal but also lubricating oil1 water and bits of steel and brass to keep it in repair4 ,but as a source of the energy needed in our strenuous life sugar has no equal and only one rival1 alcohol4 ,alcohol is the offspring of sugar1 a degenerate descendant that retains but few of the good qualities of its sire and has acquired some evil traits of its own4 ,alcohol1 like sugar1 may serve to furnish the energy of a steam engine or a human body4 ,used as a fuel alcohol has certain advantages1 but used as a food it has the disqualification of deranging the bodily mechanism4 ,even a little alcohol will impair the accuracy and speed of thought and action1 while a large quantity1 as we all know from observation if not experience1 will produce temporary incapacitation4 ,when man feeds on sugar he splits it up by the aid of air into water and carbon dioxide in this fashion3 ,c#ab;,h#bb,o#aa #ab,o#b -- #aa;,h#b,o #ab;,,co#b cane sugar oxygen water carbon dioxide ,when sugar is burned the reaction is just the same4 ,but when the yeast plant feeds on sugar it carries the process only part way and instead of water the product is alcohol1 a very different thing1 so they say who have tried both as beverages4 ,the yeast or fermentation reaction is this3 ,c#ab;,h#bb,o#aa ,h#b,o -- #d;,c#b;,h#f,o #d;,,co#b cane sugar water alcohol carbon dioxide ,alcohol then is the first product of the decomposition of sugar1 a dangerous half-way house4 ,the twin product1 carbon dioxide or carbonic acid1 is a gas of slightly sour taste which gives an attractive tang and effervescence to the beer1 wine1 cider or champagne4 ,that is to say1 one of these twins is a pestilential fellow and the other is decidedly agreeable4 ,yet for several thousand years mankind took to the first and let the second for the most part escape into the air4 ,but when the chemist appeared on the scene he discovered a way of separating the two and bottling the harmless one for those who prefer it4 ,an increasing number of people were found to prefer it1 so the ,american soda-water fountain is gradually driving ,demon ,rum out of the civilized world4 ,the brewer nowadays caters to two classes of customers4 ,he bottles up the beer with the alcohol and a little carbonic acid in it for the saloon and he catches the rest of the carbonic acid that he used to waste and sells it to the drug stores for soda-water or uses it to charge some non-alcoholic beer of his own4 ,this catering to rival trades is not an uncommon thing with the chemist4 ,as we have seen1 the synthetic perfumes are used to improve the natural perfumes4 ,cottonseed is separated into oil and meal2 the oil going to make margarin and the meal going to feed the cows that produce butter4 ,some people have been drinking coffee1 although they do not like the taste of it1 because they want the stimulating effect of its alkaloid1 caffein4 ,other people liked the warmth and flavor of coffee but find that caffein does not agree with them4 ,formerly one had to take the coffee whole or let it alone4 ,now one can have his choice1 for the caffein is extracted for use in certain popular cold drinks and the rest of the bean sold as caffein-free coffee4 ,most of the soft drinks that are now gradually displacing the hard ones consist of sugar1 water and carbonic acid1 with various flavors1 chiefly the esters of the fatty and aromatic acids1 such as ,i described in a previous chapter4 ,these are still usually made from fruits and spices and in some cases the law or public opinion requires this1 but eventually1 ,i presume1 the synthetic flavors will displace the natural and then we shall get rid of such extraneous and indigestible matter as seeds1 skins and bark4 ,suppose the world had always been used to synthetic and hence seedless figs1 strawberries and blackberries4 ,suppose then some manufacturer of fig paste or strawberry jam should put in ten per cent4 of little round hard wooden nodules1 just the sort to get stuck between the teeth or caught in the vermiform appendix4 ,how long would it be before he was sent to jail for adulterating food8 ,but neither jail nor boycott has any reformatory effect on ,nature4 ,nature is quite human in that respect4 ,but you can reform ,nature as you can human beings by looking out for heredity and culture4 ,in this way ,mother ,nature has been quite cured of her bad habit of putting seeds in bananas and oranges4 ,figs she still persists in adulterating with particles of cellulose as nutritious as sawdust4 ,but we can circumvent the old lady at this4 ,i got on ,christmas a package of figs from ,california without a seed in them4 ,somebody had taken out all the seeds--it must have been a big job--and then put the figs together again as natural looking as life and very much better tasting4 ,sugar and alcohol are both found in ,nature2 sugar in the ripe fruit1 alcohol when it begins to decay4 ,but it was the chemist who discovered how to extract them4 ,he first worked with alcohol and unfortunately succeeded4 ,previous to the invention of the still by the ,arabian chemists man could not get drunk as quickly as he wanted to because his liquors were limited to what the yeast plant could stand without intoxication4 ,when the alcoholic content of wine or beer rose to seventeen per cent4 at the most the process of fermentation stopped because the yeast plants got drunk and quit working4 ,that meant that a man confined to ordinary wine or beer had to drink ten or twenty quarts of water to get one quart of the stuff he was after1 and he had no liking for water4 ,so the chemist helped him out of this difficulty and got him into worse trouble by distilling the wine4 ,the more volatile part that came over first contained the flavor and most of the alcohol4 ,in this way he could get liquors like brandy and whisky1 rum and gin1 containing from thirty to eighty per cent4 of alcohol4 ,this was the origin of the modern liquor problem4 ,the wine of the ancients was strong enough to knock out ,noah and put the companions of ,socrates under the table1 but it was not until distilled liquors came in that alcoholism became chronic1 epidemic and ruinous to whole populations4 ,but the chemist later tried to undo the ruin he had quite inadvertently wrought by introducing alcohol into the world4 ,one of his most successful measures was the production of cheap and pure sugar which1 as we have seen1 has become a large factor in the dietary of civilized countries4 ,as a country sobers up it takes to sugar as a self-starter to provide the energy needed for the strenuous life4 ,a five o'clock candy is a better restorative than a five o'clock highball or even a five o'clock tea1 for it is a true nutrient instead of a mere stimulant4 ,it is a matter of common observation that those who like sweets usually do not like alcohol4 ,women1 for instance1 are apt to eat candy but do not commonly take to alcoholic beverages4 ,look around you at a banquet table and you will generally find that those who turn down their wine glasses generally take two lumps in their demi-tasses4 ,we often hear it said that whenever a candy store opens up a saloon in the same block closes up4 ,our grandmothers used to warn their daughters3 ,don't marry a man who does not want sugar in his tea4 ,he is likely to take to drink4 ,so1 young man1 when next you give a box of candy to your best girl and she offers you some1 don't decline it4 ,eat it and pretend to like it1 at least1 for it is quite possible that she looked into a physiology and is trying you out4 ,you never can tell what girls are up to4 ,in the army and navy ration the same change has taken place as in the popular dietary4 ,the ration of rum has been mostly replaced by an equivalent amount of candy or marmalade4 ,instead of the tippling trooper of former days we have the chocolate soldier4 ,no previous war in history has been fought so largely on sugar and so little on alcohol as the last one4 ,when the war reduced the supply and increased the demand we all felt the sugar famine and it became a mark of patriotism to refuse candy and to drink coffee unsweetened4 ,this1 however1 is not1 as some think1 the mere curtailment of a superfluous or harmful luxury1 the sacrifice of a pleasant sensation4 ,it is a real deprivation and a serious loss to national nutrition4 ,for there is no reason to think the constantly rising curve of sugar consumption has yet reached its maximum or optimum4 ,individuals overeat1 but not the population as a whole4 ,according to experiments of the ,department of ,agriculture men doing heavy labor may add three-quarters of a pound of sugar to their daily diet without any deleterious effects4 ,this is at the rate of #bge pounds a year1 which is three times the average consumption of ,england and ,america4 ,but the ,department does not state how much a girl doing nothing ought to eat between meals4 ,of the #bejj to #cejj calories of energy required to keep a man going for a day the best source of supply is the carbohydrates1 that is1 the sugars and starches4 ,the fats are more concentrated but are more expensive and less easily assimilable4 ,the proteins are also more expensive and their decomposition products are more apt to clog up the system4 ,common sugar is almost an ideal food4 ,cheap1 clean1 white1 portable1 imperishable1 unadulterated1 pleasant-tasting1 germ-free1 highly nutritious1 completely soluble1 altogether digestible1 easily assimilable1 requires no cooking and leaves no residue4 ,its only fault is its perfection4 ,it is so pure that a man cannot live on it4 ,four square lumps give one hundred calories of energy4 ,but twenty-five or thirty-five times that amount would not constitute a day's ration1 in fact one would ultimately starve on such fare4 ,it would be like supplying an army with an abundance of powder but neglecting to provide any bullets1 clothing or food4 ,to make sugar the sole food is impossible4 ,to make it the main food is unwise4 ,it is quite proper for man to separate out the distinct ingredients of natural products--to extract the butter from the milk1 the casein from the cheese1 the sugar from the cane--but he must not forget to combine them again at each meal with the other essential foodstuffs in their proper proportion4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,rival ,,sugars ,the sugar beet of the north has become a close rival of the sugar cane of the south ,illustration3 ,,interior ,,of ,a ,,sugar ,,mill ,,showing ,,the ,,machinery ,,for ,,crushing ,,cane ,,to ,,extract ,,the ,,juice ,illustration3 ,courtesy of ,american ,sugar ,refinery ,co4 ,,vacuum ,,pans ,,of ,,the ,,american ,,sugar ,,refinery ,,company ,in these air-tight vats the water is boiled off from the cane juice under diminished atmospheric pressure until the sugar crystallizes out ,sugar is not a synthetic product and the business of the chemist has been merely to extract and purify it4 ,but this is not so simple as it seems and every sugar factory has had to have its chemist4 ,he has analyzed every mother beet for a hundred years4 ,he has watched every step of the process from the cane to the crystal lest the sucrose should invert to the less sweet and non-crystallizable glucose4 ,he has tested with polarized light every shipment of sugar that has passed through the custom house1 much to the mystification of congressmen who have often wondered at the money and argumentation expended in a tariff discussion over the question of the precise angle of rotation of the plane of vibration of infinitesimal waves in a hypothetical ether4 ,the reason for this painstaking is that there are dozens of different sugars1 so much alike that they are difficult to separate4 ,they are all composed of the same three elements1 ,c1 ,h and ,o1 and often in the same proportion4 ,sometimes two sugars differ only in that one has a right-handed and the other a left-handed twist to its molecule4 ,they bear the same resemblance to one another as the two gloves of a pair4 ,cane sugar and beet sugar are when completely purified the same substance1 that is1 sucrose1 ,c#ab;,h#bb,o#aa4 ,the brown and straw-colored sugars1 which our forefathers used and which we took to using during the war1 are essentially the same but have not been so completely freed from moisture and the coloring and flavoring matter of the cane juice4 ,maple sugar is mostly sucrose4 ,so partly is honey4 ,candies are made chiefly of sucrose with the addition of glucose1 gums or starch1 to give them the necessary consistency and of such colors and flavors1 natural or synthetic1 as may be desired4 ,practically all candy1 even the cheapest1 is nowadays free from deleterious ingredients in the manufacture1 though it is liable to become contaminated in the handling4 ,in fact sugar is about the only food that is never adulterated4 ,it would be hard to find anything cheaper to add to it that would not be easily detected4 ,sanding the sugar1 the crime of which grocers are generally accused1 is the one they are least likely to be guilty of4 ,besides the big family of sugars which are all more or less sweet1 similar in structure and about equally nutritious1 there are1 very curiously1 other chemical compounds of altogether different composition which taste like sugar but are not nutritious at all4 ,one of these is a coal-tar derivative1 discovered accidentally by an ,american student of chemistry1 ,ira ,remsen1 afterward president of ,johns ,hopkins ,university1 and named by him saccharin4 ,this has the composition ,c#f;,h#d;,,coso#b,,nh1 and as you may observe from the symbol it contains sulfur 7,s7 and nitrogen 7,n7 and the benzene ring 7,c#f;,h#d7 that are not found in any of the sugars4 ,it is several hundred times sweeter than sugar1 though it has also a slightly bitter aftertaste4 ,a minute quantity of it can therefore take the place of a large amount of sugar in syrups1 candies and preserves1 so because it lends itself readily to deception its use in food has been prohibited in the ,united ,states and other countries4 ,but during the war1 on account of the shortage of sugar1 it came again into use4 ,the ,european governments encouraged what they formerly tried to prevent1 and it became customary in ,germany or ,italy to carry about a package of saccharin tablets in the pocket and drop one or two into the tea or coffee4 ,such reversals of administrative attitude are not uncommon4 ,when the use of hops in beer was new it was prohibited by ,british law4 ,but hops became customary nevertheless and now the law requires hops to be used in beer4 ,when workingmen first wanted to form unions1 laws were passed to prevent them4 ,but now1 in ,australia for instance1 the laws require workingmen to form unions4 ,governments naturally tend to a conservative reaction against anything new4 ,it is amusing to turn back to the pure food agitation of ten years ago and read the sensational articles in the newspapers about the poisonous nature of this dangerous drug1 saccharin1 in view of the fact that it is being used by millions of people in ,europe in amounts greater than once seemed to upset the tender stomachs of the ,washington poison squads4 ,but saccharin does not appear to be responsible for any fatalities yet1 though people are said to be heartily sick of it4 ,and well they may be1 for it is not a substitute for sugar except to the sense of taste4 ,glucose may correctly be called a substitute for sucrose as margarin for butter1 since they not only taste much the same but have about the same food value4 ,but to serve saccharin in the place of sugar is like giving a rubber bone to a dog4 ,it is reported from ,europe that the constant use of saccharin gives one eventually a distaste for all sweets4 ,this is quite likely1 although it means the reversal within a few years of prehistoric food habits4 ,mankind has always associated sweetness with food value1 for there are few sweet things found in nature except the sugars4 ,we think we eat sugar because it is sweet4 ,but we do not4 ,we eat it because it is good for us4 ,the reason it tastes sweet to us is because it is good for us4 ,so man makes a virtue out of necessity1 a pleasure out of duty1 which is the essence of ethics4 ,in the ancient days of ,ind the great ,raja ,trishanku possessed an earthly paradise that had been constructed for his delectation by a magician4 ,therein grew all manner of beautiful flowers1 savory herbs and delicious fruits such as had never been known before outside heaven4 ,of them all the ,raja and his harems liked none better than the reed from which they could suck honey4 ,but ,indra1 being a jealous god1 was wroth when he looked down and beheld mere mortals enjoying such delights4 ,so he willed the destruction of the enchanted garden4 ,with drought and tempest it was devastated1 with fire and hail1 until not a leaf was left of its luxuriant vegetation and the ground was bare as a threshing floor4 ,but the roots of the sugar cane are not destroyed though the stalk be cut down2 so when men ventured to enter the desert where once had been this garden of ,eden1 they found the cane had grown up again and they carried away cuttings of it and cultivated it in their gardens4 ,thus it happened that the nectar of the gods descended first to monarchs and their favorites1 then was spread among the people and carried abroad to other lands until now any child with a penny in his hand may buy of the best of it4 ,so it has been with many things4 ,so may it be with all things4 ,x ,,what ,,comes ,,from ,,corn ,the discovery of ,america dowered mankind with a world of new flora4 ,the early explorers in their haste to gather up gold paid little attention to the more valuable products of field and forest1 but in the course of centuries their usefulness has become universally recognized4 ,the potato and tomato1 which ,europe at first considered as unfit for food or even as poisonous1 have now become indispensable among all classes4 ,new ,world drugs like quinine and cocaine have been adopted into every pharmacopeia4 ,cocoa is proving a rival of tea and coffee1 and even the banana has made its appearance in ,european markets4 ,tobacco and chicle occupy the nostrils and jaws of a large part of the human race4 ,maize and rubber are become the common property of mankind1 but still may be called ,american4 ,the ,united ,states alone raises four-fifths of the corn and uses three-fourths of the caoutchouc of the world4 ,all flesh is grass4 ,this may be taken in a dietary as well as a metaphorical sense4 ,the graminaceae provide the greater part of the sustenance of man and beast2 hay and cereals1 wheat1 oats1 rye1 barley1 rice1 sugar cane1 sorghum and corn4 ,from an ,american viewpoint the greatest of these1 physically and financially1 is corn4 ,the corn crop of the ,united ,states for #aiag1 amounting to #c1aei1jjj1jjj bushels1 brought in more money than the wheat1 cotton1 potato and rye crops all together4 ,when ,columbus reached the ,west ,indies he found the savages playing with rubber balls1 smoking incense sticks of tobacco and eating cakes made of a new grain that they called mahiz4 ,when ,pizarro invaded ,peru he found this same cereal used by the natives not only for food but also for making alcoholic liquor1 in spite of the efforts of the ,incas to enforce prohibition4 ,when the ,pilgrim ,fathers penetrated into the woods back of ,plymouth ,harbor they discovered a cache of ,indian corn4 ,so throughout the three ,americas1 from ,canada to ,peru1 corn was king and it has proved worthy to rank with the rival cereals of other continents1 the wheat of ,europe and the rice of ,asia4 ,but food habits are hard to change and for the most part the people of the ,old ,world are still ignorant of the delights of hasty pudding and ,indian pudding1 of hoe-cake and hominy1 of sweet corn and popcorn4 ,i remember thirty years ago seeing on a ,london stand a heap of dejected popcorn balls labeled ,novel ,american ,confection4 ,please ,try ,one4 ,but nobody complied with this pitiful appeal but me and ,i was sorry that ,i did4 ,americans used to respond with a shipload of corn whenever an appeal came from famine sufferers in ,armenia1 ,russia1 ,ireland1 ,india or ,austria1 but their generosity was chilled when they found that their gift was resented as an insult or as an attempt to poison the impoverished population1 who declared that they would rather die than eat it--and some of them did4 ,our ,department of ,agriculture sent maize missionaries to ,europe with farmers and millers as educators and expert cooks to serve free flapjacks and pones1 but the propaganda made little impression and today ,americans are urged to eat more of their own corn because the famished families of the war-stricken region will not touch it4 ,just so the beggars of ,munich revolted at potato soup when the pioneer of ,american food chemists1 ,bumford1 attempted to introduce this transatlantic dish4 ,but here we are not so much concerned with corn foods as we are with its manufactured products4 ,if you split a kernel in two you will find that it consists of three parts3 a hard and horny hull on the outside1 a small oily and nitrogenous germ at the point1 and a white body consisting mostly of starch4 ,each of these is worked up into various products1 as may be seen from the accompanying table4 ,the hull forms bran and may be mixed with the gluten as a cattle food4 ,the corn steeped for several days with sulfurous acid is disintegrated and on being ground the germs are floated off1 the gluten or nitrogenous portion washed out1 the starch grains settled down and the residue pressed together as oil cake fodder4 ,the refined oil from the germ is marketed as a table or cooking oil under the name of ,mazola and comes into competition with olive1 peanut and cottonseed oil in the making of vegetable substitutes for lard and butter4 ,inferior grades may be used for soaps or for glycerin and perhaps nitroglycerin4 ,a bushel of corn yields a pound or more of oil4 ,from the corn germ also is extracted a gum called paragol that forms an acceptable substitute for rubber in certain uses4 ,the red rubber sponges and the eraser tips to pencils may be made of it and it can contribute some twenty per cent4 to the synthetic soles of shoes4 ,illustration3 ,,corn ,,products ,starch1 which constitutes fifty-five per cent4 of the corn kernel1 can be converted into a variety of products for dietary and industrial uses4 ,as found in corn1 potatoes or any other vegetables starch consists of small1 round1 white1 hard grains1 tasteless1 and insoluble in cold water4 ,but hot water converts it into a soluble1 sticky form which may serve for starching clothes or making cornstarch pudding4 ,carrying the process further with the aid of a little acid or other catalyst it takes up water and goes over into a sugar1 dextrose1 commonly called glucose4 ,expressed in chemical shorthand this reaction is ,c#f;,h#aj,o#e ,h#b,o -- ,c#f;,h#ab,o#f starch water dextrose ,this reaction is carried out on forty million bushels of corn a year in the ,united ,states4 ,the starch milk1 that is1 the starch grains washed out from the disintegrated corn kernel by water1 is digested in large pressure tanks under fifty pounds of steam with a few tenths of one per cent4 of hydrochloric acid until the required degree of conversion is reached4 ,then the remaining acid is neutralized by caustic soda1 and thereby converted into common salt1 which in this small amount does not interfere but rather enhances the taste4 ,the product is the commercial glucose or corn syrup1 which may if desired be evaporated to a white powder4 ,it is a mixture of three derivatives of starch in about this proportion3 ,maltose #de per cent4 ,dextrose #bj per cent4 ,dextrin #ce per cent4 ,there are also present three- or four-tenths of one per cent4 salt and as much of the corn protein and a variable amount of water4 ,it will be noticed that the glucose 7dextrose71 which gives name to the whole1 is the least of the three ingredients4 ,maltose1 or malt sugar1 has the same composition as cane sugar 7,c#ab;,h#bb,o#aa71 but is not nearly so sweet4 ,dextrin1 or starch paste1 is not sweet at all4 ,dextrose or glucose is otherwise known2 as grape sugar1 for it is commonly found in grapes and other ripe fruits4 ,it forms half of honey and it is one of the two products into which cane sugar splits up when we take it into the mouth4 ,it is not so sweet as cane sugar and cannot be so readily crystallized1 which1 however1 is not altogether a disadvantage4 ,the process of changing starch into dextrose that takes place in the great steam kettles of the glucose factory is essentially the same as that which takes place in the ripening of fruit and in the digestion of starch4 ,a large part of our nutriment1 therefore1 consists of glucose either eaten as such in ripe fruits or produced in the mouth or stomach by the decomposition of the starch of unripe fruit1 vegetables and cereals4 ,glucose may be regarded as a predigested food4 ,in spite of this well-known fact we still sometimes read poor food articles in which glucose is denounced as a dangerous adulterant and even classed as a poison4 ,the other ingredients of commercial glucose1 the maltose and dextrin1 have of course the same food value as the dextrose1 since they are made over into dextrose in the process of digestion4 ,whether the glucose syrup is fit to eat depends1 like anything else1 on how it is made4 ,if1 as was formerly sometimes the case1 sulfuric acid was used to effect the conversion of the starch or sulfurous acid to bleach the glucose and these acids were not altogether eliminated1 the product might be unwholesome or worse4 ,some years ago in ,england there was a mysterious epidemic of arsenical poisoning among beer drinkers4 ,on tracing it back it was found that the beer had been made from glucose which had been made from sulfuric acid which had been made from sulfur which had been made from a batch of iron pyrites which contained a little arsenic4 ,the replacement of sulfuric acid by hydrochloric has done away with that danger and the glucose now produced is pure4 ,the old recipe for home-made candy called for the addition of a little vinegar to the sugar syrup to prevent graining4 ,the purpose of the acid was of course to invert part of the cane sugar to glucose so as to keep it from crystallizing out again4 ,the professional candy-maker now uses the corn glucose for that purpose1 so if we accuse him of adulteration on that ground we must levy the same accusation against our grandmothers4 ,the introduction of glucose into candy manufacture has not injured but greatly increased the sale of sugar for the same purpose4 ,this is not an uncommon effect of scientific progress1 for as we have observed1 the introduction of synthetic perfumes has stimulated the production of odoriferous flowers and the price of butter has gone up with the introduction of margarin4 ,so1 too1 there are more weavers employed and they get higher wages than in the days when they smashed up the first weaving machines1 and the same is true of printers and typesetting machines4 ,the popular animosity displayed toward any new achievement of applied science is never justified1 for it benefits not only the world as a whole but usually even those interests with which it seems at first to conflict4 ,the chemist is an economizer4 ,it is his special business to hunt up waste products and make them useful4 ,he was1 for instance1 worried over the waste of the cores and skins and scraps that were being thrown away when apples were put up4 ,apple pulp contains pectin1 which is what makes jelly jell1 and berries and fruits that are short of it will refuse to jell4 ,but using these for their flavor he adds apple pulp for pectin and glucose for smoothness and sugar for sweetness and1 if necessary1 synthetic dyes for color1 he is able to put on the market a variety of jellies1 jams and marmalades at very low price4 ,the same principle applies here as in the case of all compounded food products4 ,if they are made in cleanly fashion1 contain no harmful ingredients and are truthfully labeled there is no reason for objecting to them4 ,but if the manufacturer goes so far as to put strawberry seeds--or hayseed--into his artificial strawberry jam ,i think that might properly be called adulteration1 for it is imitating the imperfections of nature1 and man ought to be too proud to do that4 ,the old-fashioned open kettle molasses consisted mostly of glucose and other invert sugars together with such cane sugar as could not be crystallized out4 ,but when the vacuum pan was introduced the molasses was impoverished of its sweetness and beet sugar does not yield any molasses4 ,so we now have in its place the corn syrups consisting of about #he per cent4 of glucose and #ae per cent4 of sugar flavored with maple or vanillin or whatever we like4 ,it is encouraging to see the bill boards proclaiming the virtues of ,karo syrup and ,mazola oil when only a few years ago the products of our national cereal were without honor in their own country4 ,many other products besides foods are made from corn starch4 ,dextrin serves in place of the old gum arabic for the mucilage of our envelopes and stamps4 ,another form of dextrin sold as ,kordex is used to hold together the sand of the cores of castings4 ,after the casting has been made the scorched core can be shaken out4 ,glucose is used in place of sugar as a filler for cheap soaps and for leather4 ,altogether more than a hundred different commercial products are now made from corn1 not counting cob pipes4 ,every year the factories of the ,united ,states work up over #ej1jjj1jjj bushels of corn into #hjj1jjj1jjj pounds of corn syrup1 #fjj1jjj1jjj pounds of starch1 #bcj1jjj1jjj pounds of corn sugar1 #fbe1jjj1jjj pounds of gluten feed1 #ij1jjj1jjj pounds of oil and #ij1jjj1jjj pounds of oil cake4 ,two million bushels of cobs are wasted every year in the ,united ,states4 ,can't something be made out of them8 ,this is the question that is agitating the chemists of the ,carbohydrate ,laboratory of the ,department of ,agriculture at ,washington4 ,they have found it possible to work up the corn cobs into glucose and xylose by heating with acid4 ,but glucose can be more cheaply obtained from other starchy or woody materials and they cannot find a market for the xylose4 ,this is a sort of a sugar but only about half as sweet as that from cane4 ,who can invent a use for it6 ,more promising is the discovery by this laboratory that by digesting the cobs with hot water there can be extracted about #cj per cent4 of a gum suitable for bill posting and labeling4 ,since the starches and sugars belong to the same class of compounds as the celluloses they also can be acted upon by nitric acid with the production of explosives like guncotton4 ,nitro-sugar has not come into common use1 but nitro-starch is found to be one of safest of the high explosives4 ,on account of the danger of decomposition and spontaneous explosion from the presence of foreign substances the materials in explosives must be of the purest possible4 ,it was formerly thought that tapioca must be imported from ,java for making nitro-starch4 ,but during the war when shipping was short1 the ,war ,department found that it could be made better and cheaper from our home-grown corn starch4 ,when the war closed the ,united ,states was making #a1gbj1jjj pounds of nitro-starch a month for loading hand grenades4 ,so1 too1 the ,post ,office ,department discovered that it could use mucilage made of corn dextrin as well as that which used to be made from tapioca4 ,this is progress in the right direction4 ,it would be well to divert some of the energetic efforts now devoted to the increase of commerce to the discovery of ways of reducing the need for commerce by the development of home products4 ,there is no merit in simply hauling things around the world4 ,in the last chapter we saw how dextrose or glucose could be converted by fermentation into alcohol4 ,since corn starch1 as we have seen1 can be converted into dextrose1 it can serve as a source of alcohol4 ,this was1 in fact1 one of the earliest misuses to which corn was put1 and before the war put a stop to it #cd1jjj1jjj bushels went into the making of whiskey in the ,united ,states every year1 not counting the moonshiners' output4 ,but even though we left off drinking whiskey the distillers could still thrive4 ,mars is more thirsty than ,bacchus4 ,the output of whiskey1 denatured for industrial purposes1 is more than three times what is was before the war1 and the price has risen from #cj cents a gallon to #fg cents4 ,this may make it profitable to utilize sugars1 starches and cellulose that formerly were out of the question4 ,according to the calculations of the ,forest ,products ,laboratory of ,madison it costs from #cg to #dd cents a gallon to make alcohol from corn1 but it may be made from sawdust at a cost of from #ad to #bj cents4 ,this is not wood alcohol 7that is1 methyl alcohol1 ,,ch#d,o7 such as is made by the destructive distillation of wood1 but genuine grain alcohol 7ethyl alcohol1 ,c#b;,h#f,o71 such as is made by the fermentation of glucose or other sugar4 ,the first step in the process is to digest the sawdust or chips with dilute sulfuric acid under heat and pressure4 ,this converts the cellulose 7wood fiber7 in large part into glucose 7corn sugar7 which may be extracted by hot water in a diffusion battery as in extracting the sugar from beet chips4 ,this glucose solution may then be fermented by yeast and the resulting alcohol distilled off4 ,the process is perfectly practicable but has yet to be proved profitable4 ,but the sulfite liquors of the paper mills are being worked up successfully into industrial alcohol4 ,the rapidly approaching exhaustion of our oil fields which the war has accelerated leads us to look around to see what we can get to take the place of gasoline4 ,one of the most promising of the suggested substitutes is alcohol4 ,the ,united ,states is exceptionally rich in mineral oil1 but some countries1 for instance ,england1 ,germany1 ,france and ,australia1 have little or none4 ,the ,australian ,advisory ,council of ,science1 called to consider the problem1 recommends alcohol for stationary engines and motor cars4 ,alcohol has the disadvantage of being less volatile than gasoline so it is hard to start up the engine from the cold4 ,but the lower volatility and ignition point of alcohol are an advantage in that it can be put under a pressure of #aej pounds to the square inch4 ,a pound of gasoline contains fifty per cent4 more potential energy than a pound of alcohol1 but since the alcohol vapor can be put under twice the compression of the gasoline and requires only one-third the amount of air1 the thermal efficiency of an alcohol engine may be fifty per cent4 higher than that of a gasoline engine4 ,alcohol also has several other conveniences that can count in its favor4 ,in the case of incomplete combustion the cylinders are less likely to be clogged with carbon and the escaping gases do not have the offensive odor of the gasoline smoke4 ,alcohol does not ignite so easily as gasoline and the fire is more readily put out1 for water thrown upon blazing alcohol dilutes it and puts out the flame while gasoline floats on water and the fire is spread by it4 ,it is possible to increase the inflammability of alcohol by mixing with it some hydrocarbon such as gasoline1 benzene or acetylene4 ,in the ,taylor-,white process the vapor from low-grade alcohol containing #ag per cent4 water is passed over calcium carbide4 ,this takes out the water and adds acetylene gas1 making a suitable mixture for an internal combustion engine4 ,alcohol can be made from anything of a starchy1 sugary or woody nature1 that is1 from the main substance of all vegetation4 ,if we start with wood 7cellulose7 we convert it first into sugar 7glucose7 and1 of course1 we could stop here and use it for food instead of carrying it on into alcohol4 ,this provides one factor of our food1 the carbohydrate1 but by growing the yeast plants on glucose and feeding them with nitrates made from the air we can get the protein and fat4 ,so it is quite possible to live on sawdust1 although it would be too expensive a diet for anybody but a millionaire1 and he would not enjoy it4 ,glucose has been made from formaldehyde and this in turn made from carbon1 hydrogen and oxygen1 so the synthetic production of food from the elements is not such an absurdity as it was thought when ,berthelot suggested it half a century ago4 ,the first step in the making of alcohol is to change the starch over into sugar4 ,this transformation is effected in the natural course of sprouting by which the insoluble starch stored up in the seed is converted into the soluble glucose for the sap of the growing plant4 ,this malting process is that mainly made use of in the production of alcohol from grain4 ,but there are other ways of effecting the change4 ,it may be done by heating with acid as we have seen1 or according to a method now being developed the final conversion may be accomplished by mold instead of malt4 ,in applying this method1 known as the amylo process1 to corn1 the meal is mixed with twice its weight of water1 acidified with hydrochloric acid and steamed4 ,the mash is then cooled down somewhat1 diluted with sterilized water and innoculated with the mucor filaments4 ,as the mash molds the starch is gradually changed over to glucose and if this is the product desired the process may be stopped at this point4 ,but if alcohol is wanted yeast is added to ferment the sugar4 ,by keeping it alkaline and treating with the proper bacteria a high yield of glycerin can be obtained4 ,in the fermentation process for making alcoholic liquors a little glycerin is produced as a by-product4 ,glycerin1 otherwise called glycerol1 is intermediate between sugar and alcohol4 ,its molecule contains three carbon atoms1 while glucose has six and alcohol two4 ,it is possible to increase the yield of glycerin if desired by varying the form of fermentation4 ,this was desired most earnestly in ,germany during the war1 for the ,british blockade shut off the importation of the fats and oils from which the ,germans extracted the glycerin for their nitroglycerin4 ,under pressure of this necessity they worked out a process of getting glycerin in quantity from sugar and1 news of this being brought to this country by ,dr4 ,alonzo ,taylor1 the ,united ,states ,treasury ,department set up a special laboratory to work out this problem4 ,john ,r4 ,eoff and other chemists working in this laboratory succeeded in getting a yield of twenty per cent4 of glycerin by fermenting black strap molasses or other syrup with ,california wine yeast4 ,during the fermentation it is necessary to neutralize the acetic acid formed with sodium or calcium carbonate4 ,it was estimated that glycerin could be made from waste sugars at about a quarter of its war-time cost1 but it is doubtful whether the process would be profitable at normal prices4 ,we can1 if we like1 dispense with either yeast or bacteria in the production of glycerin4 ,glucose syrup suspended in oil under steam pressure with finely divided nickel as a catalyst and treated with nascent hydrogen will take up the hydrogen and be converted into glycerin4 ,but the yield is poor and the process expensive4 ,food serves substantially the same purpose in the body as fuel in the engine4 ,it provides the energy for work4 ,the carbohydrates1 that is the sugars1 starches and celluloses1 can all be used as fuels and can all--even1 as we have seen1 the cellulose--be used as foods4 ,the final products1 water and carbon dioxide1 are in both cases the same and necessarily therefore the amount of energy produced is the same in the body as in the engine4 ,corn is a good example of the equivalence of the two sources of energy4 ,there are few better foods and no better fuels4 ,i can remember the good old days in ,kansas when we had corn to burn4 ,it was both an economy and a luxury1 for--at ten cents a bushel--it was cheaper than coal or wood and preferable to either at any price4 ,the long yellow ears1 each wrapped in its own kindling1 could be handled without crocking the fingers4 ,each kernel as it crackled sent out a blazing jet of oil and the cobs left a fine bed of coals for the corn popper to be shaken over4 ,driftwood and the pyrotechnic fuel they make now by soaking sticks in strontium and copper salts cannot compare with the old-fashioned corn-fed fire in beauty and the power of evoking visions4 ,doubtless such luxury would be condemned as wicked nowadays1 but those who have known the calorific value of corn would find it hard to abandon it altogether1 and ,i fancy that the ,western farmer's wife1 when she has an extra batch of baking to do1 will still steal a few ears from the crib4 ,,xi ,,solidified ,,sunshine ,all life and all that life accomplishes depend upon the supply of solar energy stored in the form of food4 ,the chief sources of this vital energy are the fats and the sugars4 ,the former contain two and a quarter times the potential energy of the latter4 ,both1 when completely purified1 consist of nothing but carbon1 hydrogen and oxygen2 elements that are to be found freely everywhere in air and water4 ,so when the sunny southland exports fats and oils1 starches and sugar1 it is then sending away nothing material but what comes back to it in the next wind4 ,what it is sending to the regions of more slanting sunshine is merely some of the surplus of the radiant energy it has received so abundantly1 compacted for convenience into a portable and edible form4 ,in previous chapters ,i have dealt with some of the uses of cotton1 its employment for cloth1 for paper1 for artificial fibers1 for explosives1 and for plastics4 ,but ,i have ignored the thing that cotton is attached to and for which1 in the economy of nature1 the fibers are formed2 that is1 the seed4 ,it is as though ,i had described the aeroplane and ignored the aviator whom it was designed to carry4 ,but in this neglect ,i am but following the example of the human race1 which for three thousand years used the fiber but made no use of the seed except to plant the next crop4 ,just as mankind is now divided into the two great classes1 the wheat-eaters and the rice-eaters1 so the ancient world was divided into the wool-wearers and the cotton-wearers4 ,the people of ,india wore cotton2 the ,europeans wore wool4 ,when the ,greeks under ,alexander fought their way to the ,far ,east they were surprised to find wool growing on trees4 ,later travelers returning from ,cathay told of the same marvel and travelers who stayed at home and wrote about what they had not seen1 like ,sir ,john ,maundeville1 misunderstood these reports and elaborated a legend of a tree that bore live lambs as fruit4 ,here1 for instance1 is how a ,french poetical botanist1 ,delacroix1 described it in #agia1 as translated from his ,latin verse3 ,upon a stalk is fixed a living brute1 ,a rooted plant bears quadruped for fruit2 ,it has a fleece1 nor does it want for eyes1 ,and from its brows two wooly horns arise4 ,the rude and simple country people say ,it is an animal that sleeps by day ,and wakes at night1 though rooted to the ground1 ,to feed on grass within its reach around4 ,but modern commerce broke down the barrier between ,east and ,west4 ,a new cotton country1 the best in the world1 was discovered in ,america4 ,cotton invaded ,england and after a hard fight1 with fists as well as finance1 wool was beaten in its chief stronghold4 ,cotton became ,king and the wool-sack in the ,house of ,lords lost its symbolic significance4 ,still two-thirds of the cotton crop1 the seed1 was wasted and it is only within the last fifty years that methods of using it have been developed to any extent4 ,the cotton crop of the ,united ,states for #aiag amounted to about #aa1jjj1jjj bales of #ejj pounds each4 ,when the ,great ,war broke out and no cotton could be exported to ,germany and little to ,england the ,south was in despair1 for cotton went down to five or six cents a pound4 ,the national ,government1 regardless of states' rights1 was called upon for aid and everybody was besought to buy a bale4 ,those who responded to this patriotic appeal were well rewarded1 for cotton rose as the war went on and sold at twenty-nine cents a pound4 ,,illustration3 ,,products ,,and ,,uses ,,of ,,cottonseed ,but the chemist has added some #aej1jjj1jjj a year to the value of the crop by discovering ways of utilizing the cottonseed that used to be thrown away or burned as fuel4 ,the genealogical table of the progeny of the cottonseed herewith printed will give some idea of their variety4 ,if you will examine a cottonseed you will see first that there is a fine fuzz of cotton fiber sticking to it4 ,these linters can be removed by machinery and used for any purpose where length of fiber is not essential4 ,for instance1 they may be nitrated as described in previous articles and used for making smokeless powder or celluloid4 ,on cutting open the seed you will observe that it consists of an oily1 mealy kernel encased in a thin brown hull4 ,the hulls1 amounting to #gjj or #ijj pounds in a ton of seed1 were formerly burned4 ,now1 however1 they bring from #d to #aj a ton because they can be ground up into cattle-feed or paper stock or used as fertilizer4 ,the kernel of the cottonseed on being pressed yields a yellow oil and leaves a mealy cake4 ,this last1 mixed with the hulls1 makes a good fodder for fattening cattle4 ,also1 adding twenty-five per cent4 of the refined cottonseed meal to our war bread made it more nutritious and no less palatable4 ,cottonseed meal contains about forty per cent4 of protein and is therefore a highly concentrated and very valuable feeding stuff4 ,before the war we were exporting nearly half a million tons of cottonseed meal to ,europe1 chiefly to ,germany and ,denmark1 where it is used for dairy cows4 ,the ,british yeoman1 his country's pride1 has not yet been won over to the use of any such newfangled fodder and consequently the ,british manufacturer could not compete with his continental rivals in the seed-crushing business1 for he could not dispose of his meal-cake by-product as did they4 ,illustration3 ,photo by ,press ,illustrating ,service ,cottonseed ,oil ,as ,it ,is ,squeezed ,from ,the ,seed ,by ,the ,presses ,illustration3 ,photo by ,press ,illustrating ,service ,cottonseed ,oil ,as ,it ,comes ,from ,the ,compressors ,flowing ,out ,of ,the ,faucets ,when cold it is firm and white like lard ,let us now turn to the most valuable of the cottonseed products1 the oil4 ,the seed contains about twenty per cent4 of oil1 most of which can be squeezed out of the hot seeds by hydraulic pressure4 ,it comes out as a red liquid of a disagreeable odor4 ,this is decolorized1 deodorized and otherwise purified in various ways3 by treatment with alkalies or acids1 by blowing air and steam through it1 by shaking up with fuller's earth1 by settling and filtering4 ,the refined product is a yellow oil1 suitable for table use4 ,formerly1 on account of the popular prejudice against any novel food products1 it used to masquerade as olive oil4 ,now1 however1 it boldly competes with its ancient rival in the lands of the olive tree and ,america ships some #gjj1jjj barrels of cottonseed oil a year to the ,mediterranean4 ,the ,turkish ,government tried to check the spread of cottonseed oil by calling it an adulterant and prohibiting its mixture with olive oil4 ,the result was that the sale of ,turkish olive oil fell off because people found its flavor too strong when undiluted4 ,italy imports cottonseed oil and exports her olive oil4 ,denmark imports cottonseed meal and margarine and exports her butter4 ,northern nations are accustomed to hard fats and do not take to oils for cooking or table use as do the southerners4 ,butter and lard are preferred to olive oil and ghee4 ,but this does not rule out cottonseed4 ,it can be combined with the hard fats of animal or vegetable origin in margarine or it may itself be hardened by hydrogen4 ,to understand this interesting reaction which is profoundly affecting international relations it will be necessary to dip into the chemistry of the subject4 ,here are the symbols of the chief ingredients of the fats and oils4 ,please look at them4 ,linoleic acid ,c#ah;,h#cb,o#b ,oleic acid ,c#ah;,h#cd,o#b ,stearic acid ,c#ah;,h#cf,o#b ,don't skip these because you have not studied chemistry4 ,that's why ,i am giving them to you4 ,if you had studied chemistry you would know them without my telling4 ,just examine them and you will discover the secret4 ,you will see that all three are composed of the same elements1 carbon1 hydrogen1 and oxygen4 ,notice next the number of atoms in each element as indicated by the little low figures on the right of each letter4 ,you observe that all three contain the same number of atoms of carbon and oxygen but differ in the amount of hydrogen4 ,this trifling difference in composition makes a great difference in behavior4 ,the less the hydrogen the lower the melting point4 ,or to say the same thing in other words1 fatty substances low in hydrogen are apt to be liquids and those with a full complement of hydrogen atoms are apt to be solids at the ordinary temperature of the air4 ,it is common to call the former oils and the latter fats1 but that implies too great a dissimilarity1 for the distinction depends on whether we are living in the tropics or the arctic4 ,it is better1 therefore1 to lump them all together and call them soft fats and hard fats1 respectively4 ,fats of the third order1 the stearic group1 are called saturated because they have taken up all the hydrogen they can hold4 ,fats of the other two groups are called unsaturated4 ,the first1 which have the least hydrogen1 are the most eager for more4 ,if hydrogen is not handy they will take up other things1 for instance oxygen4 ,linseed oil1 which consists largely1 as the name implies1 of linoleic acid1 will absorb oxygen on exposure to the air and become hard4 ,that is why it is used in painting4 ,such oils are called drying oils1 although the hardening process is not really drying1 since they contain no water1 but is oxidation4 ,the semi-drying oils1 those that will harden somewhat on exposure to the air1 include the oils of cottonseed1 corn1 sesame1 soy bean and castor bean4 ,olive oil and peanut oil are non-drying and contain oleic compounds 7olein74 ,the hard fats1 such as stearin1 palmitin and margarin1 are mostly of animal origin1 tallow and lard1 though coconut and palm oil contain a large proportion of such saturated compounds4 ,though the chemist talks of the fatty acids1 nobody else would call them so because they are not sour4 ,but they do behave like the acids in forming salts with bases4 ,the alkali salts of the fatty acids are known to us as soaps4 ,in the natural fats they exist not as free acids but as salts of an organic base1 glycerin1 as ,i explained in a previous chapter4 ,the natural fats and oils consist of complex mixtures of the glycerin compounds of these acids 7known as olein1 stearin1 etc471 as well as various others of a similar sort4 ,if you will set a bottle of salad oil in the ice-box you will see it separate into two parts4 ,the white1 crystalline solid that separates out is largely stearin4 ,the part that remains liquid is largely olein4 ,you might separate them by filtering it cold and if then you tried to sell the two products you would find that the hard fat would bring a higher price than the oil1 either for food or soap4 ,if you tried to keep them you would find that the hard fat kept neutral and sweet longer than the other4 ,you may remember that the perfumes 7as well as their odorous opposites7 were mostly unsaturated compounds4 ,so we find that it is the free and unsaturated fatty acids that cause butter and oil to become rank and rancid4 ,obviously1 then1 we could make money if we could turn soft1 unsaturated fats like olein into hard1 saturated fats like stearin4 ,referring to the symbols we see that all that is needed to effect the change is to get the former to unite with hydrogen4 ,this requires a little coaxing4 ,the coaxer is called a catalyst4 ,a catalyst1 as ,i have previously explained1 is a substance that by its mere presence causes the union of two other substances that might otherwise remain separate4 ,for that reason the catalyst is referred to as a chemical parson4 ,finely divided metals have a strong catalytic action4 ,platinum sponge is excellent but too expensive4 ,so in this case nickel is used4 ,a nickel salt mixed with charcoal or pumice is reduced to the metallic state by heating in a current of hydrogen4 ,then it is dropped into the tank of oil and hydrogen gas is blown through4 ,the hydrogen may be obtained by splitting water into its two components1 hydrogen and oxygen1 by means of the electrical current1 or by passing steam over spongy iron which takes out the oxygen4 ,the stream of hydrogen blown through the hot oil converts the linoleic acid to oleic and then the oleic into stearic4 ,if you figured up the weights from the symbols given above you would find that it takes about one pound of hydrogen to convert a hundred pounds of olein to stearin and the cost is only about one cent a pound4 ,the nickel is unchanged and is easily separated4 ,a trace of nickel may remain in the product1 but as it is very much less than the amount dissolved when food is cooked in nickel-plated vessels it cannot be regarded as harmful4 ,even more unsaturated fats may be hydrogenated4 ,fish oil has hitherto been almost unusable because of its powerful and persistent odor4 ,this is chiefly due to a fatty acid which properly bears the uneuphonious name of clupanodonic acid and has the composition of ,c#ah;,h#bh,o#b4 ,by comparing this with the symbol of the odorless stearic acid1 ,c#ah;,h#cf,o#b1 you will see that all the rank fish oil lacks to make it respectable is eight hydrogen atoms4 ,a ,japanese chemist1 ,tsujimoto1 has discovered how to add them and now the reformed fish oil under the names of talgol and candelite serves for lubricant and even enters higher circles as a soap or food4 ,this process of hardening fats by hydrogenation resulted from the experiments of a ,french chemist1 ,professor ,sabatier of ,toulouse1 in the last years of the last century1 but1 as in many other cases1 the ,germans were the first to take it up and profit by it4 ,before the war the copra or coconut oil from the ,british ,asiatic colonies of ,india1 ,ceylon and ,malaya went to ,germany at the rate of #ae1jjj1jjj a year4 ,the palm kernels grown in ,british ,west ,africa were shipped1 not to ,liverpool1 but to ,hamburg1 #ai1jjj1jjj worth annually4 ,here the oil was pressed out and used for margarin and the residual cake used for feeding cows produced butter or for feeding hogs produced lard4 ,half of the copra raised in the ,british possessions was sent to ,germany and half of the oil from it was resold to the ,british margarin candle and soap makers at a handsome profit4 ,the ,british chemists were not blind to this1 but they could do nothing1 first because the ,english politician was wedded to free trade1 second1 because the ,english farmer would not use oil cake for his stock4 ,france was in a similar situation4 ,marseilles produced #ae1ejj1jjj gallons of oil from peanuts grown largely in the ,french ,african colonies--but shipped the oil-cake on to ,hamburg4 ,meanwhile the ,germans1 in pursuit of their policy of attaining economic independence1 were striving to develop their own tropical territory4 ,the subjects of ,king ,george who because they had the misfortune to live in ,india were excluded from the ,british ,south ,african dominions or mistreated when they did come1 were invited to come to ,german ,east ,africa and set to raising peanuts in rivalry to ,french ,senegal and ,british ,coromandel4 ,before the war ,germany got half of the ,egyptian cottonseed and half of the ,philippine copra4 ,that is one of the reasons why ,german warships tried to check ,dewey at ,manila in #ahih and ,german troops tried to conquer ,egypt in #aiae4 ,but the tide of war set the other way and the ,german plantations of palmnuts and peanuts in ,africa have come into ,british possession and now the ,british ,government is starting an educational campaign to teach their farmers to feed oil cake like the ,germans and their people to eat peanuts like the ,americans4 ,the ,germans shut off from the tropical fats supply were hard up for food and for soap1 for lubricants and for munitions4 ,every person was given a fat card that reduced his weekly allowance to the minimum4 ,millers were required to remove the germs from their cereals and deliver them to the war department4 ,children were set to gathering horse-chestnuts1 elderberries1 linden-balls1 grape seeds1 cherry stones and sunflower heads1 for these contain from six to twenty per cent4 of oil4 ,even the blue-bottle fly--hitherto an idle creature for whom ,beelzebub found mischief--was conscripted into the national service and set to laying eggs by the billion on fish refuse4 ,within a few days there is a crop of larvae which1 to quote the ,chemische ,zentralblatt1 yields forty-five grams per kilogram of a yellow oil4 ,this product1 we should hope1 is used for axle-grease and nitroglycerin1 although properly purified it would be as nutritious as any other--to one who has no imagination4 ,driven to such straits ,germany would have given a good deal for one of those tropical islands that we are so careless about4 ,it might have been supposed that since the ,united ,states possessed the best land in the world for the production of cottonseed1 coconuts1 peanuts1 and corn that it would have led all other countries in the utilization of vegetable oils for food4 ,that this country has not so used its advantage is due to the fact that the new products have not merely had to overcome popular conservatism1 ignorance and prejudice--hard things to fight in any case--but have been deliberately checked and hampered by the state and national governments in defense of vested interests4 ,the farmer vote is a power that no politician likes to defy and the dairy business in every state was thoroughly organized4 ,in ,new ,york the oleomargarin industry that in #ahgi was turning out products valued at more than #e1jjj1jjj a year was completely crushed out by state legislation4#b ,the output of the ,united ,states1 which in #aijb had risen to #abf1jjj1jjj pounds1 was cut down to #dc1jjj1jjj pounds in #aiji by federal legislation4 ,according to the disingenuous custom of ,american lawmakers the ,act of #aijb was passed through ,congress as a revenue measure1 although it meant a loss to the ,government of more than three million dollars a year over what might be produced by a straight two cents a pound tax4 ,a wholesale dealer in oleomargarin was made to pay a higher license than a wholesale liquor dealer4 ,the federal law put a tax of ten cents a pound on yellow oleomargarin and a quarter of a cent a pound on the uncolored4 ,but people--doubtless from pure prejudice--prefer a yellow spread for their bread1 so the economical housewife has to work over her oleomargarin with the annatto which is given to her when she buys a package or1 if the law prohibits this1 which she is permitted to steal from an open box on the grocer's counter4 ,a plausible pretext for such legislation is afforded by the fact that the butter substitutes are so much like butter that they cannot be easily distinguished from it unless the use of annatto is permitted to butter and prohibited to its competitors4 ,fradulent sales of substitutes of any kind ought to be prevented1 but the recent pure food legislation in ,america has shown that it is possible to secure truthful labeling without resorting to such drastic measures4 ,in ,europe the laws against substitution were very strict1 but not devised to restrict the industry4 ,consequently the margarin output of ,germany doubled in the five years preceding the war and the output of ,england tripled4 ,in ,denmark the consumption of margarin rose from #h4h pounds per capita in #ahij to #cb4f pounds in #aiab4 ,yet the butter business1 ,denmark's pride1 was not injured1 and ,germany and ,england imported more butter than ever before4 ,now that the price of butter in ,america has gone over the seventy-five cent mark ,congress may conclude that it no longer needs to be protected against competition4 ,the compound lards or lard compounds1 consisting usually of cottonseed oil and oleo-stearin1 although the latter may now be replaced by hardened oil1 met with the same popular prejudice and attempted legislative interference1 but succeeded more easily in coming into common use under such names as ,cottosuet1 ,kream ,krisp1 ,kuxit1 ,korno1 ,cottolene and ,crisco4 ,oleomargarin1 now generally abbreviated to margarin1 originated1 like many other inventions1 in military necessity4 ,the ,french ,government in #ahfi offered a prize for a butter substitute for the army that should be cheaper and better than butter in that it did not spoil so easily4 ,the prize was won by a ,french chemist1 ,mge-,mouries1 who found that by chilling beef fat the solid stearin could be separated from an oil 7oleo7 which was the substantially same as that in milk and hence in butter4 ,neutral lard acts the same4 ,this discovery of how to separate the hard and soft fats was followed by improved methods for purifying them and later by the process for converting the soft into the hard fats by hydrogenation4 ,the net result was to put into the hands of the chemist the ability to draw his materials at will from any land and from the vegetable and animal kingdoms and to combine them as he will to make new fat foods for every use2 hard for summer1 soft for winter2 solid for the northerners and liquid for the southerners2 white1 yellow or any other color1 and flavored to suit the taste4 ,the ,hindu can eat no fat from the sacred cow2 the ,mohammedan and the ,jew can eat no fat from the abhorred pig2 the vegetarian will touch neither2 other people will take both4 ,no matter1 all can be accommodated4 ,all the fats and oils1 though they consist of scores of different compounds1 have practically the same food value when freed from the extraneous matter that gives them their characteristic flavors4 ,they are all practically tasteless and colorless4 ,the various vegetable and animal oils and fats have about the same digestibility1 #ih per cent41#c and are all ordinarily completely utilized in the body1 supplying it with two and a quarter times as much energy as any other food4 ,it does not follow1 however1 that there is no difference in the products4 ,the margarin men accuse butter of harboring tuberculosis germs from which their product1 because it has been heated or is made from vegetable fats1 is free4 ,the butter men retort that margarin is lacking in vitamines1 those mysterious substances which in minute amounts are necessary for life and especially for growth4 ,both the claim and the objection lose a large part of their force where the margarin1 as is customarily the case1 is mixed with butter or churned up with milk to give it the familiar flavor4 ,but the difficulty can be easily overcome4 ,the milk used for either butter or margarin should be free or freed from disease germs4 ,if margarin is altogether substituted for butter1 the necessary vitamines may be sufficiently provided by milk1 eggs and greens4 ,owing to these new processes all the fatty substances of all lands have been brought into competition with each other4 ,in such a contest the vegetable is likely to beat the animal and the southern to win over the northern zones4 ,in ,europe before the war the proportion of the various ingredients used to make butter substitutes was as follows3 ,,average ,,composition ,,of ,,european ,,margarin ,per ,cent4 ,animal hard fats #be ,vegetable hard fats #ce ,copra #bi ,palm-kernel #f ,vegetable soft fats #bf ,cottonseed #ac ,peanut #f ,sesame #f ,soya-bean #a ,water1 milk1 salt #ad #ajj ,this is not the composition of any particular brand but the average of them all4 ,the use of a certain amount of the oil of the sesame seed is required by the laws of ,germany and ,denmark because it can be easily detected by a chemical color test and so serves to prevent the margarin containing it from being sold as butter4 ,open sesame6 is the password to these markets4 ,remembering that margarin originally was made up entirely of animal fats1 soft and hard1 we can see from the above figures how rapidly they are being displaced by the vegetable fats4 ,the cottonseed and peanut oils have replaced the original oleo oil and the tropical oils from the coconut 7copra7 and ,african palm are crowding out the animal hard fats4 ,since now we can harden at will any of the vegetable oils it is possible to get along altogether without animal fats4 ,such vegetable margarins were originally prepared for sale in ,india1 but proved unexpectedly popular in ,europe1 and are now being introduced into ,america4 ,they are sold under various trade names suggesting their origin1 such as palmira1 palmona1 milkonut1 cocose1 coconut oleomargarin and nucoa nut margarin4 ,the last named is stated to be made of coconut oil 7for the hard fat7 and peanut oil 7for the soft fat71 churned up with a culture of pasteurized milk 7to impart the butter flavor74 ,the law requires such a product to be branded oleomargarine although it is not4 ,such cases of compulsory mislabeling are not rare4 ,you remember the ,pigs is ,pigs story4 ,peanut butter has won its way into the ,american menu without any camouflage whatever1 and as a salad oil it is almost equally frank about its lowly origin4 ,this nut1 which grows on a vine instead of a tree1 and is dug from the ground like potatoes instead of being picked with a pole1 goes by various names according to locality1 peanuts1 ground-nuts1 monkey-nuts1 arachides and goobers4 ,as it takes the place of cotton oil in some of its products so it takes its place in the fields and oilmills of ,texas left vacant by the bollweevil4 ,the once despised peanut added some #ef1jjj1jjj to the wealth of the ,south in #aiaf4 ,the peanut is rich in the richest of foods1 some #ej per cent4 of oil and #cj per cent4 of protein4 ,the latter can be worked up into meat substitutes that will make the vegetarian cease to envy his omnivorous neighbor4 ,thanks largely to the chemist who has opened these new fields of usefulness1 the peanut-raiser got #a4be a bushel in #aiag instead of the #cj cents that he got four years before4 ,it would be impossible to enumerate all the available sources of vegetable oils1 for all seeds and nuts contain more or less fatty matter and as we become more economical we shall utilize of what we now throw away4 ,the germ of the corn kernel1 once discarded in the manufacture of starch1 now yields a popular table oil4 ,from tomato seeds1 one of the waste products of the canning factory1 can be extracted #bb per cent4 of an edible oil4 ,oats contain #g per cent4 of oil4 ,from rape seed the ,japanese get #bj1jjj tons of oil a year4 ,to the sources previously mentioned may be added pumpkin seeds1 poppy seeds1 raspberry seeds1 tobacco seeds1 cockleburs1 hazelnuts1 walnuts1 beechnuts and acorns4 ,the oil-bearing seeds of the tropics are innumerable and will become increasingly essential to the inhabitants of northern lands4 ,it was the realization of this that brought on the struggle of the great powers for the possession of tropical territory which1 for years before1 they did not think worth while raising a flag over4 ,no country in the future can consider itself safe unless it has secure access to such sources4 ,we had a sharp lesson in this during the war4 ,palm oil1 it seems1 is necessary for the manufacture of tinplate1 an industry that was built up in the ,united ,states by the ,mc,kinley tariff4 ,the ,british possessions in ,west ,africa were the chief source of palm oil and the ,germans had the handling of it4 ,during the war the ,british ,government assumed control of the palm oil products of the ,british and ,german colonies and prohibited their export to other countries than ,england4 ,americans protested and beseeched1 but in vain4 ,the ,british held1 quite correctly1 that they needed all the oil they could get for food and lubrication and nitroglycerin4 ,but the ,british also needed canned meat from ,america for their soldiers and when it was at length brought to their attention that the packers could not ship meat unless they had cans and that cans could not be made without tin and that tin could not be made without palm oil the ,british ,government consented to let us buy a little of their palm oil4 ,the lesson is that of ,voltaire's story1 ,candide1 ,let us cultivate our own garden--and plant a few palm trees in it--also rubber trees1 but that is another story4 ,the international struggle for oil led to the partition of the ,pacific as the struggle for rubber led to the partition of ,africa4 ,theodor ,weber1 as ,stevenson says1 harried the ,samoans to get copra much as ,king ,leopold of ,belgium harried the ,congoese to get caoutchouc4 ,it was ,weber who first fully realized that the ,south ,sea islands1 formerly given over to cannibals1 pirates and missionaries1 might be made immensely valuable through the cultivation of the coconut palms4 ,when the ripe coconut is split open and exposed to the sun the meat dries up and shrivels and in this form1 called copra1 it can be cut out and shipped to the factory where the oil is extracted and refined4 ,weber while ,german ,consul in ,samoa was also manager of what was locally known as the long-handled concern 7,deutsche ,handels und ,plantagen ,gesellschaft der ,sdsee ,inseln zu ,hamburg71 a pioneer commercial and semi-official corporation that played a part in the ,pacific somewhat like the ,british ,hudson ,bay ,company in ,canada or ,east ,india ,company in ,hindustan4 ,through the agency of this corporation on the start ,germany acquired a virtual monopoly of the transportation and refining of coconut oil and would have become the dominant power in the ,pacific if she had not been checked by force of arms4 ,in ,apia ,bay in #ahhi and again in ,manila ,bay in #ahih an ,american fleet faced a ,german fleet ready for action while a ,british warship lay between4 ,so we rescued the ,philippines and ,samoa from ,german rule and in #aiad ,german power was eliminated from the ,pacific4 ,during the ten years before the war1 the production of copra in the ,german islands more than doubled and this was only the beginning of the business4 ,now these islands have been divided up among ,australia1 ,new ,zealand and ,japan1 and these countries are planning to take care of the copra4 ,but although we get no extension of territory from the war we still have the ,philippines and some of the ,samoan ,islands1 and these are capable of great development4 ,from her share of the ,samoan ,islands ,germany got a million dollars' worth of copra and we might get more from ours4 ,the ,philippines now lead the world in the production of copra1 but ,java is a close second and ,ceylon not far behind4 ,if we do not look out we will be beaten both by the ,dutch and the ,british1 for they are undertaking the cultivation of the coconut on a larger scale and in a more systematic way4 ,according to an official bulletin of the ,philippine ,government a coconut plantation should bring in dividends ranging from #aj to #ge per cent4 from the tenth to the hundredth year4 ,and this being printed in #aiac figured the price of copra at #c-a_/b cents1 whereas it brought #d-a_/b cents in #aiah1 so the prospect is still more encouraging4 ,the copra is half fat and can be cheaply shipped to ,america1 where it can be crushed in the southern oilmills when they are not busy on cottonseed or peanuts4 ,but even this cost of transportation can be reduced by extracting the oil in the islands and shipping it in bulk like petroleum in tank steamers4 ,in the year ending ,june1 #aiah1 the ,united ,states imported from the ,philippines #aee1jjj1jjj pounds of coconut oil worth #ah1jjj1jjj and #bbj1jjj1jjj pounds of copra worth #aj1jjj1jjj4 ,but this was about half our total importations2 the rest of it we had to get from foreign countries4 ,panama palms may give us a little relief from this dependence on foreign sources4 ,in #aiag we imported #ai1jjj1jjj whole coconuts from ,panama valued at #gjj1jjj4 ,illustration3 ,,splitting ,,coconuts ,,on ,,the ,,island ,,of ,,tahiti ,after drying in the sun the meat is picked and the oil extracted for making coconut butter ,illustration3 ,from ,america's ,munitions ,,the ,,electric ,,current ,,passing ,,through ,,salt ,,water ,,in ,,these ,,cells ,,decomposes ,,the ,,salt ,,into ,,caustic ,,soda ,,and ,,chlorine ,,gas ,there were eight rooms like this in the ,edgewood plant1 capable of producing #bjj1jjj pounds of chlorine a day ,a new form of fat that has rapidly come into our market is the oil of the soya or soy bean4 ,in #aiah we imported over #cjj1jjj1jjj pounds of soy-bean oil1 mostly from ,manchuria4 ,the oil is used in manufacture of substitutes for butter1 lard1 cheese1 milk and cream1 as well as for soap and paint4 ,the soy-bean can be raised in the ,united ,states wherever corn can be grown and provides provender for man and beast4 ,the soy meal left after the extraction of the oil makes a good cattle food and the fermented juice affords the shoya sauce made familiar to us through the popularity of the chop-suey restaurants4 ,as meat and dairy products become scarcer and dearer we shall become increasingly dependent upon the vegetable fats4 ,we should therefore devise means of saving what we now throw away1 raise as much as we can under our own flag1 keep open avenues for our foreign supply and encourage our cooks to make use of the new products invented by our chemists4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,fighting ,,with ,,fumes ,the ,germans opened the war using projectiles seventeen inches in diameter4 ,they closed it using projectiles one one-hundred millionth of an inch in diameter4 ,and the latter were more effective than the former4 ,as the dimensions were reduced from molar to molecular the battle became more intense4 ,for when the ,big ,bertha had shot its bolt1 that was the end of it4 ,whomever it hit was hurt1 but after that the steel fragments of the shell lay on the ground harmless and inert4 ,the men in the dugouts could hear the shells whistle overhead without alarm4 ,but the poison gas could penetrate where the rifle ball could not4 ,the malignant molecules seemed to search out their victims4 ,they crept through the crevices of the subterranean shelters4 ,they hunted for the pinholes in the face masks4 ,they lay in wait for days in the trenches for the soldiers' return as a cat watches at the hole of a mouse4 ,the cannon ball could be seen and heard4 ,the poison gas was invisible and inaudible1 and sometimes even the chemical sense which nature has given man for his protection1 the sense of smell1 failed to give warning of the approach of the foe4 ,the smaller the matter that man can deal with the more he can get out of it4 ,so long as man was dependent for power upon wind and water his working capacity was very limited4 ,but as soon as he passed over the border line from physics into chemistry and learned how to use the molecule1 his efficiency in work and warfare was multiplied manifold4 ,the molecular bombardment of the piston by steam or the gases of combustion runs his engines and propels his cars4 ,the first man who wanted to kill another from a safe distance threw the stone by his arm's strength4 ,david added to his arm the centrifugal force of a sling when he slew ,goliath4 ,the ,romans improved on this by concentrating in a catapult the strength of a score of slaves and casting stone cannon balls to the top of the city wall4 ,but finally man got closer to nature's secret and discovered that by loosing a swarm of gaseous molecules he could throw his projectile seventy-five miles and then by the same force burst it into flying fragments4 ,there is no smaller projectile than the atom unless our belligerent chemists can find a way of using the electron stream of the cathode ray4 ,but this so far has figured only in the pages of our scientific romancers and has not yet appeared on the battlefield4 ,if1 however1 man could tap the reservoir of sub-atomic energy he need do no more work and would make no more war1 for unlimited powers of construction and destruction would be at his command4 ,the forces of the infinitesimal are infinite4 ,the reason why a gas is so active is because it is so egoistic4 ,psychologically interpreted1 a gas consists of particles having the utmost aversion to one another4 ,each tries to get as far away from every other as it can4 ,there is no cohesive force2 no attractive impulse2 nothing to draw them together except the all too feeble power of gravitation4 ,the hotter they get the more they try to disperse and so the gas expands4 ,the gas represents the extreme of individualism as steel represents the extreme of collectivism4 ,the combination of the two works wonders4 ,a hot gas in a steel cylinder is the most powerful agency known to man1 and by means of it he accomplishes his greatest achievements in peace or war time4 ,the projectile is thrown from the gun by the expansive force of the gases released from the powder and when it reaches its destination it is blown to pieces by the same force4 ,this is the end of it if it is a shell of the old-fashioned sort1 for the gases of combustion mingle harmlessly with the air of which they are normal constituents4 ,but if it is a poison gas shell each molecule as it is released goes off straight into the air with a speed twice that of the cannon ball and carries death with it4 ,a man may be hit by a heavy piece of lead or iron and still survive1 but an unweighable amount of lethal gas may be fatal to him4 ,most of the novelties of the war were merely extensions of what was already known4 ,to increase the caliber of a cannon from #ch to #db centimeters or its range from #cj to #ge miles does indeed make necessary a decided change in tactics1 but it is not comparable to the revolution effected by the introduction of new weapons of unprecedented power such as airplanes1 submarines1 tanks1 high explosives or poison gas4 ,if any army had been as well equipped with these in the beginning as all armies were at the end it might easily have won the war4 ,that is to say1 if the general staff of any of the powers had had the foresight and confidence to develop and practise these modes of warfare on a large scale in advance it would have been irresistible against an enemy unprepared to meet them4 ,but no military genius appeared on either side with sufficient courage and imagination to work out such schemes in secret before trying them out on a small scale in the open4 ,consequently the enemy had fair warning and ample time to learn how to meet them and methods of defense developed concurrently with methods of attack4 ,for instance1 consider the motor fortresses to which ,ludendorff ascribes his defeat4 ,the ,british first sent out a few clumsy tanks against the ,german lines4 ,then they set about making a lot of stronger and livelier ones1 but by the time these were ready the ,germans had field guns to smash them and chain fences with concrete posts to stop them4 ,on the other hand1 if the ,germans had followed up their advantage when they first set the cloud of chlorine floating over the battlefield of ,ypres they might have won the war in the spring of #aiae instead of losing it in the fall of #aiah4 ,for the ,british were unprepared and unprotected against the silent death that swept down upon them on the #bbnd of ,april1 #aiae4 ,what happened then is best told by ,sir ,arthur ,conan ,doyle in his ,history of the ,great ,war4 ,from the base of the ,german trenches over a considerable length there appeared jets of whitish vapor1 which gathered and swirled until they settled into a definite low cloud-bank1 greenish-brown below and yellow above1 where it reflected the rays of the sinking sun4 ,this ominous bank of vapor1 impelled by a northern breeze1 drifted swiftly across the space which separated the two lines4 ,the ,french troops1 staring over the top of their parapet at this curious screen which ensured them a temporary relief from fire1 were observed suddenly to throw up their hands1 to clutch at their throats1 and to fall to the ground in the agonies of asphyxiation4 ,many lay where they had fallen1 while their comrades1 absolutely helpless against this diabolical agency1 rushed madly out of the mephitic mist and made for the rear1 over-running the lines of trenches behind them4 ,many of them never halted until they had reached ,ypres1 while others rushed westwards and put the canal between themselves and the enemy4 ,the ,germans1 meanwhile1 advanced1 and took possession of the successive lines of trenches1 tenanted only by the dead garrisons1 whose blackened faces1 contorted figures1 and lips fringed with the blood and foam from their bursting lungs1 showed the agonies in which they had died4 ,some thousands of stupefied prisoners1 eight batteries of ,french field-guns1 and four ,british #d4g's1 which had been placed in a wood behind the ,french position1 were the trophies won by this disgraceful victory4 ,under the shattering blow which they had received1 a blow particularly demoralizing to ,african troops1 with their fears of magic and the unknown1 it was impossible to rally them effectually until the next day4 ,it is to be remembered in explanation of this disorganization that it was the first experience of these poison tactics1 and that the troops engaged received the gas in a very much more severe form than our own men on the right of ,langemarck4 ,for a time there was a gap five miles broad in the front of the position of the ,allies1 and there were many hours during which there was no substantial force between the ,germans and ,ypres4 ,they wasted their time1 however1 in consolidating their ground1 and the chance of a great coup passed forever4 ,they had sold their souls as soldiers1 but the ,devil's price was a poor one4 ,had they had a corps of cavalry ready1 and pushed them through the gap1 it would have been the most dangerous moment of the war4 ,a deserter had come over from the ,german side a week before and told them that cylinders of poison gas had been laid in the front trenches1 but no one believed him or paid any attention to his tale4 ,war was then1 in the ,englishman's opinion1 a gentleman's game1 the royal sport1 and poison was prohibited by the ,hague rules4 ,but the ,germans were not playing the game according to the rules1 so the ,british soldiers were strangled in their own trenches and fell easy victims to the advancing foe4 ,within half an hour after the gas was turned on #hj per cent4 of the opposing troops were knocked out4 ,the ,canadians1 with wet handkerchiefs over their faces1 closed in to stop the gap1 but if the ,germans had been prepared for such success they could have cleared the way to the coast4 ,but after such trials the ,germans stopped the use of free chlorine and began the preparation of more poisonous gases4 ,in some way that may not be revealed till the secret history of the war is published1 the ,british ,intelligence ,department obtained a copy of the lecture notes of the instructions to the ,german staff giving details of the new system of gas warfare to be started in ,december4 ,among the compounds named was phosgene1 a gas so lethal that one part in ten thousand of air may be fatal4 ,the antidote for it is hexamethylene tetramine4 ,this is not something the soldier--or anybody else--is accustomed to carry around with him1 but the ,british having had a chance to cram up in advance on the stolen lecture notes were ready with gas helmets soaked in the reagent with the long name4 ,the ,germans rejoiced when gas bombs took the place of bayonets because this was a field in which intelligence counted for more than brute force and in which therefore they expected to be supreme4 ,as usual they were right in their major premise but wrong in their conclusion1 owing to the egoism of their implicit minor premise4 ,it does indeed give the advantage to skill and science1 but the ,germans were beaten at their own game1 for by the end of the war the ,united ,states was able to turn out toxic gases at a rate of #bjj tons a day1 while the output of ,germany or ,england was only about #cj tons4 ,a gas plant was started at ,edgewood1 ,maryland1 in ,november1 #aiag4 ,by ,march it was filling shell and before the war put a stop to its activities in the fall it was producing #a1cjj1jjj pounds of chlorine1 #a1jjj1jjj pounds of chlorpicrin1 #a1cjj1jjj pounds of phosgene and #gjj1jjj pounds of mustard gas a month4 ,chlorine1 the first gas used1 is unpleasantly familiar to every one who has entered a chemical laboratory or who has smelled the breath of bleaching powder4 ,it is a greenish-yellow gas made from common salt4 ,the ,germans employed it at ,ypres by laying cylinders of the liquefied gas in the trenches1 about a yard apart1 and running a lead discharge pipe over the parapet4 ,when the stop cocks are turned the gas streams out and since it is two and a half times as heavy as air it rolls over the ground like a noisome mist4 ,it works best when the ground slopes gently down toward the enemy and when the wind blows in that direction at a rate between four and twelve miles an hour4 ,but the wind1 being strictly neutral1 may change its direction without warning and then the gases turn back in their flight and attack their own side1 something that rifle bullets have never been known to do4 ,illustration3 ,international ,film ,service ,,germans ,,starting ,a ,,gas ,,attack ,,on ,,the ,,russian ,,lines ,behind the cylinders from which the gas streams are seen three lines of ,german troops waiting to attack4 ,the photograph was taken from above by a ,russian airman ,illustration3 ,press ,illustrating ,service ,,filling ,,the ,,cannisters ,,of ,,gas ,,masks ,,with ,,charcoal ,,made ,,from ,,fruit ,,pits ,,in ,,long ,,island ,,city ,because free chlorine would not stay put and was dependent on the favor of the wind for its effect1 it was later employed1 not as an elemental gas1 but in some volatile liquid that could be fired in a shell and so released at any particular point far back of the front trenches4 ,the most commonly used of these compounds was phosgene1 which1 as the reader can see by inspection of its formula1 ,c,o,cl#b1 consists of chlorine 7,cl7 combined with carbon monoxide 7,,co71 the cause of deaths from illuminating gas4 ,these two poisonous gases1 chlorine and carbon monoxide1 when mixed together1 will not readily unite1 but if a ray of sunlight falls upon the mixture they combine at once4 ,for this reason ,john ,davy1 who discovered the compound over a hundred years ago1 named it phosgene1 that is1 produced by light4 ,the same roots recur in hydrogen1 so named because it is produced from water1 and phosphorus1 because it is a light-bearer4 ,in its modern manufacture the catalyzer or instigator of the combination is not sunlight but porous carbon4 ,this is packed in iron boxes eight feet long1 through which the mixture of the two gases was forced4 ,carbon monoxide may be made by burning coke with a supply of air insufficient for complete combustion1 but in order to get the pure gas necessary for the phosgene common air was not used1 but instead pure oxygen extracted from it by a liquid air plant4 ,phosgene is a gas that may be condensed easily to a liquid by cooling it down to #df degrees ,fahrenheit4 ,a mixture of three-quarters chlorine with one-quarter phosgene has been found most effective4 ,by itself phosgene has an inoffensive odor somewhat like green corn and so may fail to arouse apprehension until a toxic concentration is reached4 ,but even small doses have such an effect upon the heart action for days afterward that a slight exertion may prove fatal4 ,the compound manufactured in largest amount in ,america was chlorpicrin4 ,this1 like the others1 is not so unfamiliar as it seems4 ,as may be seen from its formula1 ,c,cl#c,,no#b1 it is formed by joining the nitric acid radical 7,,no#b71 found in all explosives1 with the main part of chloroform 7,h,c,cl#c74 ,this is not quite so poisonous as phosgene1 but it has the advantage that it causes nausea and vomiting4 ,the soldier so affected is forced to take off his gas mask and then may fall victim to more toxic gases sent over simultaneously4 ,chlorpicrin is a liquid and is commonly loaded in a shell or bomb with #bj per cent4 of tin chloride1 which produces dense white fumes that go through gas masks4 ,it is made from picric acid 7trinitrophenol71 one of the best known of the high explosives1 by treatment with chlorine4 ,the chlorine is obtained1 as it is in the household1 from common bleaching powder1 or chloride of lime4 ,this is mixed with water to form a cream in a steel still #ah feet high and #h feet in diameter4 ,a solution of calcium picrate1 that is1 the lime salt of picric acid1 is pumped in and as the reaction begins the mixture heats up and the chlorpicrin distils over with the steam4 ,when the distillate is condensed the chlorpicrin1 being the heavier liquid1 settles out under the layer of water and may be drawn off to fill the shell4 ,much of what a student learns in the chemical laboratory he is apt to forget in later life if he does not follow it up4 ,but there are two gases that he always remembers1 chlorine and hydrogen sulfide4 ,he is lucky if he has escaped being choked by the former or sickened by the latter4 ,he can imagine what the effect would be if two offensive fumes could be combined without losing their offensive features4 ,now a combination something like this is the so-called mustard gas1 which is not a gas and is not made from mustard4 ,but it is easily gasified1 and oil of mustard is about as near as ,nature dare come to making such sinful stuff4 ,it was first made by ,guthrie1 an ,englishman1 in #ahfj1 and rediscovered by a ,german chemist1 ,victor ,meyer1 in #ahhf1 but he found it so dangerous to work with that he abandoned the investigation4 ,nobody else cared to take it up1 for nobody could see any use for it4 ,so it remained in innocuous desuetude1 a mere name in ,beilstein's ,dictionary1 together with the thousands of other organic compounds that have been invented and never utilized4 ,but on ,july #ab1 #aiag1 the ,british holding the line at ,ypres were besprinkled with this villainous substance4 ,its success was so great that the ,germans henceforth made it their main reliance and soon the ,allies followed suit4 ,in one offensive of ten days the ,germans are said to have used a million shells containing #bejj tons of mustard gas4 ,the making of so dangerous a compound on a large scale was one of the most difficult tasks set before the chemists of this and other countries1 yet it was successfully solved4 ,the raw materials are chlorine1 alcohol and sulfur4 ,the alcohol is passed with steam through a vertical iron tube filled with kaolin and heated4 ,this converts the alcohol into a gas known as ethylene 7,c#b;,h#d74 ,passing a stream of chlorine gas into a tank of melted sulfur produces sulfur monochloride and this treated with the ethylene makes the mustard4 ,the final reaction was carried on at the ,edgewood ,arsenal in seven airtight tanks or reactors1 each having a capacity of #cj1jjj pounds4 ,the ethylene gas being led into the tank and distributed through the liquid sulfur chloride by porous blocks or fine nozzles1 the two chemicals combined to form what is officially named di-chlor-di-ethyl-sulfide 7,cl,c#b;,h#d,,sc#b;,h#d;,cl74 ,this1 however1 is too big a mouthful1 so even the chemists were glad to fall in with the commonalty and call it mustard gas4 ,the effectiveness of mustard depends upon its persistence4 ,it is a stable liquid1 evaporating slowly and not easily decomposed4 ,it lingers about trenches and dugouts and impregnates soil and cloth for days4 ,gas masks do not afford complete protection1 for even if they are impenetrable they must be taken off some time and the gas lies in wait for that time4 ,in some cases the masks were worn continuously for twelve hours after the attack1 but when they were removed the soldiers were overpowered by the poison4 ,a place may seem to be free from it but when the sun heats up the ground the liquid volatilizes and the vapor soaks through the clothing4 ,as the men become warmed up by work their skin is blistered1 especially under the armpits4 ,the mustard acts like steam1 producing burns that range from a mere reddening to serious ulcerations1 always painful and incapacitating1 but if treated promptly in the hospital rarely causing death or permanent scars4 ,the gas attacks the eyes1 throat1 nose and lungs and may lead to bronchitis or pneumonia4 ,it was found necessary at the front to put all the clothing of the soldiers into the sterilizing ovens every night to remove all traces of mustard4 ,general ,johnson and his staff in the #ggth ,division were poisoned in their dugouts because they tried to alleviate the discomfort of their camp cots by bedding taken from a neighboring village that had been shelled the day before4 ,of the #ibe cases requiring medical attention at the ,edgewood ,arsenal #fgd were due to mustard4 ,during the month of ,august #c-a_/b per cent4 of the mustard plant force were sent to the hospital each day on the average4 ,but the record of the ,edgewood ,arsenal is a striking demonstration of what can be done in the prevention of industrial accidents by the exercise of scientific prudence4 ,in spite of the fact that from three to eleven thousand men were employed at the plant for the year #aiah and turned out some twenty thousand tons of the most poisonous gases known to man1 there were only three fatalities and not a single case of blindness4 ,besides the four toxic gases previously described1 chlorine1 phosgene1 chlorpicrin and mustard1 various other compounds have been and many others might be made4 ,a list of those employed in the present war enumerates thirty1 among them compounds of bromine1 arsenic and cyanogen that may prove more formidable than any so far used4 ,american chemists kept very mum during the war but occasionally one could not refrain from saying3 ,if the ,kaiser knew what ,i know he would surrender unconditionally by telegraph4 ,no doubt the science of chemical warfare is in its infancy and every foresighted power has concealed weapons of its own in reserve4 ,one deadly compound1 whose identity has not yet been disclosed1 is known as ,lewisite1 from ,professor ,lewis of ,northwestern1 who was manufacturing it at the rate of ten tons a day in the ,mouse ,trap stockade near ,cleveland4 ,throughout the history of warfare the art of defense has kept pace with the art of offense and the courage of man has never failed1 no matter to what new danger he was exposed4 ,as each new gas employed by the enemy was detected it became the business of our chemists to discover some method of absorbing or neutralizing it4 ,porous charcoal1 best made from such dense wood as coconut shells1 was packed in the respirator box together with layers of such chemicals as will catch the gases to be expected4 ,charcoal absorbs large quantities of any gas4 ,soda lime and potassium permanganate and nickel salts were among the neutralizers used4 ,the mask is fitted tightly about the face or over the head with rubber4 ,the nostrils are kept closed with a clip so breathing must be done through the mouth and no air can be inhaled except that passing through the absorbent cylinder4 ,men within five miles of the front were required to wear the masks slung on their chests so they could be put on within six seconds4 ,a well-made mask with a fresh box afforded almost complete immunity for a time and the soldiers learned within a few days to handle their masks adroitly4 ,so the problem of defense against this new offensive was solved satisfactorily1 while no such adequate protection against the older weapons of bayonet and shrapnel has yet been devised4 ,then the problem of the offense was to catch the opponent with his mask off or to make him take it off4 ,here the lachrymators and the sternutators1 the tear gases and the sneeze gases1 came into play4 ,phenylcarbylamine chloride would make the bravest soldier weep on the battlefield with the abandonment of a ,greek hero4 ,di-phenyl-chloro-arsine would set him sneezing4 ,the ,germans alternated these with diabolical ingenuity so as to catch us unawares4 ,some shells gave off voluminous smoke or a vile stench without doing much harm1 but by the time our men got used to these and grew careless about their masks a few shells of some extremely poisonous gas were mixed with them4 ,the ideal gas for belligerent purposes would be odorless1 colorless and invisible1 toxic even when diluted by a million parts of air1 not set on fire or exploded by the detonator of the shell1 not decomposed by water1 not readily absorbed1 stable enough to stand storage for six months and capable of being manufactured by the thousands of tons4 ,no one gas will serve all aims4 ,for instance1 phosgene being very volatile and quickly dissipated is thrown into trenches that are soon to be taken while mustard gas being very tenacious could not be employed in such a case for the trenches could not be occupied if they were captured4 ,the extensive use of poison gas in warfare by all the belligerents is a vindication of the ,american protest at the ,hague ,conference against its prohibition4 ,at the ,first ,conference of #ahii ,captain ,mahan argued very sensibly that gas shells were no worse than other projectiles and might indeed prove more merciful and that it was illogical to prohibit a weapon merely because of its novelty4 ,the ,british delegates voted with the ,americans in opposition to the clause the contracting parties agree to abstain from the use of projectiles the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases4 ,but both ,great ,britain and ,germany later agreed to the provision4 ,the use of poison gas by ,germany without warning was therefore an act of treachery and a violation of her pledge1 but the ,united ,states has consistently refused to bind herself to any such restriction4 ,the facts reported by ,general ,amos ,a4 ,fries1 in command of the overseas branch of the ,american ,chemical ,warfare ,service1 give ample support to the ,american contention at ,the ,hague3 ,out of #ajjj gas casualties there are from #cj to #dj fatalities1 while out of #ajjj high explosive casualties the number of fatalities run from #bjj to #bej4 ,while exact figures are as yet not available concerning the men permanently crippled or blinded by high explosives one has only to witness the debarkation of a shipload of troops to be convinced that the number is very large4 ,on the other hand there is1 so far as known at present1 not a single case of permanent disability or blindness among our troops due to gas and this in face of the fact that the ,germans used relatively large quantities of this material4 ,in the light of these facts the prejudice against the use of gas must gradually give way2 for the statement made to the effect that its use is contrary to the principles of humanity will apply with far greater force to the use of high explosives4 ,as a matter of fact1 for certain purposes toxic gas is an ideal agent4 ,for example1 it is difficult to imagine any agent more effective or more humane that may be used to render an opposing battery ineffective or to protect retreating troops4 ,captain ,mahan's argument at ,the ,hague against the proposed prohibition of poison gas is so cogent and well expressed that it has been quoted in treatises on international law ever since4 ,these reasons were1 briefly3 #a4 ,that no shell emitting such gases is as yet in practical use or has undergone adequate experiment2 consequently1 a vote taken now would be taken in ignorance of the facts as to whether the results would be of a decisive character or whether injury in excess of that necessary to attain the end of warfare--the immediate disabling of the enemy--would be inflicted4 #b4 ,that the reproach of cruelty and perfidy1 addressed against these supposed shells1 was equally uttered formerly against firearms and torpedoes1 both of which are now employed without scruple4 ,until we know the effects of such asphyxiating shells1 there was no saying whether they would be more or less merciful than missiles now permitted4 ,that it was illogical1 and not demonstrably humane1 to be tender about asphyxiating men with gas1 when all are prepared to admit that it was allowable to blow the bottom out of an ironclad at midnight1 throwing four or five hundred into the sea1 to be choked by water1 with scarcely the remotest chance of escape4 ,as ,captain ,mahan says1 the same objection has been raised at the introduction of each new weapon of war1 even though it proved to be no more cruel than the old4 ,the modern rifle ball1 swift and small and sterilized by heat1 does not make so bad a wound as the ancient sword and spear1 but we all remember how gunpowder was regarded by the dandies of ,hotspur's time3 ,and it was great pity1 so it was1 ,this villainous saltpeter should be digg'd ,out of the bowels of the harmless earth ,which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd ,so cowardly2 and but for these vile guns ,he would himself have been a soldier4 ,the real reason for the instinctive aversion manifested against any new arm or mode of attack is that it reveals to us the intrinsic horror of war4 ,we naturally revolt against premeditated homicide1 but we have become so accustomed to the sword and latterly to the rifle that they do not shock us as they ought when we think of what they are made for4 ,the ,constitution of the ,united ,states prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishments4 ,the two adjectives were apparently used almost synonymously1 as though any unusual punishment were necessarily cruel1 and so indeed it strikes us4 ,but our ingenious lawyers were able to persuade the courts that electrocution1 though unknown to the ,fathers and undeniably unusual1 was not unconstitutional4 ,dumdum bullets are rightfully ruled out because they inflict frightful and often incurable wounds1 and the aim of humane warfare is to disable the enemy1 not permanently to injure him4 ,illustration3 ,from ,america's ,munitions ,,the ,,chlorpicrin ,,plant ,,at ,,the ,,edgewood ,,arsenal ,from these stills1 filled with a mixture of bleaching powder1 lime1 and picric acid1 the poisonous gas1 chlorpicrin1 distills off4 ,this plant produced #ca tons in one day ,illustration3 ,courtesy of the ,metal and ,thermit ,corporation1 ,n4,y4 ,,repairing ,,the ,,broken ,,stern ,,post ,,of ,,the ,u4,s4,s4 ,,northern ,,pacific1 ,,the ,,biggest ,,marine ,,weld ,,in ,,the ,,world ,on the right the fractured stern post is shown4 ,on the left it is being mended by means of thermit4 ,two crucibles each containing #gjj pounds of the thermit mixture are seen on the sides of the vessel4 ,from the bottom of these the melted steel flowed down to fill the fracture ,in spite of the opposition of the ,american and ,british delegates the ,first ,hague ,conference adopted the clause1 ,the contracting powers agree to abstain from the use of projectiles the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases4 ,the word sole 7unique7 which appears in the original ,french text of ,the ,hague convention is left out of the official ,english translation4 ,this is a strange omission considering that the ,french and ,british defended their use of explosives which diffuse asphyxiating and deleterious gases on the ground that this was not the sole purpose of the bombs but merely an accidental effect of the nitric powder used4 ,the ,hague ,congress of #aijg placed in its rules for war3 ,it is expressly forbidden to employ poisons or poisonous weapons4 ,but such attempts to rule out new and more effective means of warfare are likely to prove futile in any serious conflict and the restriction gives the advantage to the most unscrupulous side4 ,we ,americans1 if ever we give our assent to such an agreement1 would of course keep it1 but our enemy--whoever he may be in the future--will be1 as he always has been1 utterly without principle and will not hesitate to employ any weapon against us4 ,besides1 as the ,germans held1 chemical warfare favors the army that is most intelligent1 resourceful and disciplined and the nation that stands highest in science and industry4 ,this advantage1 let us hope1 will be on our side4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,products ,,of ,,the ,,electric ,,furnace ,the control of man over the materials of nature has been vastly enhanced by the recent extension of the range of temperature at his command4 ,when ,fahrenheit stuck the bulb of his thermometer into a mixture of snow and salt he thought he had reached the nadir of temperature1 so he scratched a mark on the tube where the mercury stood and called it zero4 ,but we know that absolute zero1 the total absence of heat1 is #dei of ,fahrenheit's degrees lower than his zero point4 ,the modern scientist can get close to that lowest limit by making use of the cooling by the expansion principle4 ,he first liquefies air under pressure and then releasing the pressure allows it to boil off4 ,a tube of hydrogen immersed in the liquid air as it evaporates is cooled down until it can be liquefied4 ,then the boiling hydrogen is used to liquefy helium1 and as this boils off it lowers the temperature to within three or four degrees of absolute zero4 ,the early metallurgist had no hotter a fire than he could make by blowing charcoal with a bellows4 ,this was barely enough for the smelting of iron4 ,but by the bringing of two carbon rods together1 as in the electric arc light1 we can get enough heat to volatilize the carbon at the tips1 and this means over #gjjj degrees ,fahrenheit4 ,by putting a pressure of twenty atmospheres onto the arc light we can raise it to perhaps #ad1jjj degrees1 which is #cjjj degrees hotter than the sun4 ,this gives the modern man a working range of about #ad1ejj degrees1 so it is no wonder that he can perform miracles4 ,when a builder wants to make an old house over into a new one he takes it apart brick by brick and stone by stone1 then he puts them together in such new fashion as he likes4 ,the electric furnace enables the chemist to take his materials apart in the same way4 ,as the temperature rises the chemical and physical forces that hold a body together gradually weaken4 ,first the solid loosens up and becomes a liquid1 then this breaks bonds and becomes a gas4 ,compounds break up into their elements4 ,the elemental molecules break up into their component atoms and finally these begin to throw off corpuscles of negative electricity eighteen hundred times smaller than the smallest atom4 ,these electrons appear to be the building stones of the universe4 ,no indication of any smaller units has been discovered1 although we need not assume that in the electron science has delivered1 what has been called1 its ultim-atom4 ,the ,greeks called the elemental particles of matter atoms because they esteemed them indivisible1 but now in the light of the ,x-ray we can witness the disintegration of the atom into electrons4 ,all the chemical and physical properties of matter1 except perhaps weight1 seem to depend upon the number and movement of the negative and positive electrons and by their rearrangement one element may be transformed into another4 ,so the electric furnace1 where the highest attainable temperature is combined with the divisive and directive force of the current1 is a magical machine for accomplishment of the metamorphoses desired by the creative chemist4 ,a hundred years ago ,davy1 by dipping the poles of his battery into melted soda lye1 saw forming on one of them a shining globule like quicksilver4 ,it was the metal sodium1 never before seen by man4 ,nowadays this process of electrolysis 7electric loosening7 is carried out daily by the ton at ,niagara4 ,the reverse process1 electro-synthesis 7electric combining71 is equally simple and even more important4 ,by passing a strong electric current through a mixture of lime and coke the metal calcium disengages itself from the oxygen of the lime and attaches itself to the carbon4 ,or1 to put it briefly1 ,ca,o #c;,c -- ,ca,c#b ,,co lime coke calcium carbon carbide monoxide ,this reaction is of peculiar importance because it bridges the gulf between the organic and inorganic worlds4 ,it was formerly supposed that the substances found in plants and animals1 mostly complex compounds of carbon1 hydrogen and oxygen1 could only be produced by vital forces4 ,if this were true it meant that chemistry was limited to the mineral kingdom and to the extraction of such carbon compounds as happened to exist ready formed in the vegetable and animal kingdoms4 ,but fortunately this barrier to human achievement proved purely illusory4 ,the organic field1 once man had broken into it1 proved easier to work in than the inorganic4 ,but it must be confessed that man is dreadfully clumsy about it yet4 ,he takes a thousand horsepower engine and an electric furnace at several thousand degrees to get carbon into combination with hydrogen while the little green leaf in the sunshine does it quietly without getting hot about it4 ,evidently man is working as wastefully as when he used a thousand slaves to drag a stone to the pyramid or burned down a house to roast a pig4 ,not until his laboratory is as cool and calm and comfortable as the forest and the field can the chemist call himself completely successful4 ,but in spite of his clumsiness the chemist is actually making things that he wants and cannot get elsewhere4 ,the calcium carbide that he manufactures from inorganic material serves as the raw material for producing all sorts of organic compounds4 ,the electric furnace was first employed on a large scale by the ,cowles ,electric ,smelting and ,aluminum ,company at ,cleveland in #ahhe4 ,on the dump were found certain lumps of porous gray stone which1 dropped into water1 gave off a gas that exploded at touch of a match with a splendid bang and flare4 ,this gas was acetylene1 and we can represent the reaction thus3 ,ca,c#b #b ,h#b,o -- ,c#b;,h#b ,ca,o#b;,h#b calcium carbide added to water gives acetylene and slaked lime ,we are all familiar with this reaction now1 for it is acetylene that gives the dazzling light of the automobiles and of the automatic signal buoys of the seacoast4 ,when burned with pure oxygen instead of air it gives the hottest of chemical flames1 hotter even than the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe4 ,for although a given weight of hydrogen will give off more heat when it burns than carbon will1 yet acetylene will give off more heat than either of its elements or both of them when they are separate4 ,this is because acetylene has stored up heat in its formation instead of giving it off as in most reactions1 or to put it in chemical language1 acetylene is an endothermic compound4 ,it has required energy to bring the ,h and the ,c together1 therefore it does not require energy to separate them1 but1 on the contrary1 energy is released when they are separated4 ,that is to say1 acetylene is explosive not only when mixed with air as coal gas is but by itself4 ,under a suitable impulse acetylene will break up into its original carbon and hydrogen with great violence4 ,it explodes with twice as much force without air as ordinary coal gas with air4 ,it forms an explosive compound with copper1 so it has to be kept out of contact with brass tubes and stopcocks4 ,but compressed in steel cylinders and dissolved in acetone1 it is safe and commonly used for welding and melting4 ,it is a marvelous though not an unusual sight on city streets to see a man with blue glasses on cutting down through a steel rail with an oxy-acetylene blowpipe as easily as a carpenter saws off a board4 ,with such a flame he can carve out a pattern in a steel plate in a way that reminds me of the days when ,i used to make brackets with a scroll saw out of cigar boxes4 ,the torch will travel through a steel plate an inch or two thick at a rate of six to ten inches a minute4 ,illustration3 ,courtesy of the ,carborundum ,company1 ,niagara ,falls ,,making ,,aloxite ,,in ,,the ,,electric ,,furnaces ,,by ,,fusing ,,coke ,,and ,,bauxite ,in the background are the circular furnaces4 ,in the foreground are the fused masses of the product ,illustration3 ,courtesy of the ,carborundum ,co41 ,niagara ,falls ,a ,,block ,,of ,,carborundum ,,crystals ,illustration3 ,courtesy of the ,carborundum ,co41 ,niagara ,falls ,,making ,,carborundum ,,in ,,the ,,electric ,,furnace ,at the end may be seen the attachments for the wires carrying the electric current and on the side the flames from the burning carbon4 ,the temperatures attainable with various fuels in the compound blowpipe are said to be3 ,acetylene with oxygen #ghgh ,f4 ,hydrogen with oxygen #fghe ,f4 ,coal gas with oxygen #fege ,f4 ,gasoline with oxygen #eghh ,f4 ,if we compare the formula of acetylene1 ,c#b;,h#b with that of ethylene1 ,c#b;,h#d1 or with ethane1 ,c#b;,h#f1 we see that acetylene could take on two or four more atoms4 ,it is evidently what the chemists call an unsaturated compound1 one that has not reached its limit of hydrogenation4 ,it is therefore a very active and energetic compound1 ready to pick up on the slightest instigation hydrogen or oxygen or chlorine or any other elements that happen to be handy4 ,this is why it is so useful as a starting point for synthetic chemistry4 ,to build up from this simple substance1 acetylene1 the higher compounds of carbon and oxygen it is necessary to call in the aid of that mysterious agency1 the catalyst4 ,acetylene is not always acted upon by water1 as we know1 for we see it bubbling up through the water when prepared from the carbide4 ,but if to the water be added a little acid and a mercury salt1 the acetylene gas will unite with the water forming a new compound1 acetaldehyde4 ,we can show the change most simply in this fashion3 ,c#b;,h#b ,h#b,o -- ,c#b;,h#d,o acetylene added to water forms acetaldehyde ,acetaldehyde is not of much importance in itself1 but is useful as a transition4 ,if its vapor mixed with hydrogen is passed over finely divided nickel1 serving as a catalyst1 the two unite and we have alcohol1 according to this reaction3 ,c#b;,h#d,o ,h#b -- ,c#b;,h#f,o acetaldehyde added to hydrogen forms alcohol ,alcohol we are all familiar with--some of us too familiar1 but the prohibition laws will correct that4 ,the point to be noted is that the alcohol we have made from such unpromising materials as limestone and coal is exactly the same alcohol as is obtained by the fermentation of fruits and grains by the yeast plant as in wine and beer4 ,it is not a substitute or imitation4 ,it is not the wood spirits 7methyl alcohol1 ,,ch#d,o71 produced by the destructive distillation of wood1 equally serviceable as a solvent or fuel1 but undrinkable and poisonous4 ,now1 as we all know1 cider and wine when exposed to the air gradually turn into vinegar1 that is1 by the growth of bacteria the alcohol is oxidized to acetic acid4 ,we can1 if we like1 dispense with the bacteria and speed up the process by employing a catalyst4 ,acetaldehyde1 which is halfway between alcohol and acid1 may also be easily oxidized to acetic acid4 ,the relationship is readily seen by this3 ,c#b;,h#f,o -- ,,cc#b;,h#d,o -- ,c#b;,h#d,o#c alcohol acetaldehyde acetic acid ,acetic acid1 familiar to us in a diluted and flavored form as vinegar1 is when concentrated of great value in industry1 especially as a solvent4 ,i have already referred to its use in combination with cellulose as a dope for varnishing airplane canvas or making non-inflammable film for motion pictures4 ,its combination with lime1 calcium acetate1 when heated gives acetone1 which1 as may be seen from its formula 7,c#c;,h#f,o7 is closely related to the other compounds we have been considering1 but it is neither an alcohol nor an acid4 ,it is extensively employed as a solvent4 ,acetone is not only useful for dissolving solids but it will under pressure dissolve many times its volume of gaseous acetylene4 ,this is a convenient way of transporting and handling acetylene for lighting or welding4 ,if instead of simply mixing the acetone and acetylene in a solution we combine them chemically we can get isoprene1 which is the mother substance of ordinary ,india rubber4 ,from acetone also is made the war rubber of the ,germans 7methyl rubber71 which ,i have mentioned in a previous chapter4 ,the ,germans had been getting about half their supply of acetone from ,american acetate of lime and this was of course shut off4 ,that which was produced in ,germany by the distillation of beech wood was not even enough for the high explosives needed at the front4 ,so the ,germans resorted to rotting potatoes--or rather let us say1 since it sounds better--to the cultivation of ,bacillus macerans4 ,this particular bacillus converts the starch of the potato into two-thirds alcohol and one-third acetone4 ,but soon potatoes got too scarce to be used up in this fashion1 so the ,germans turned to calcium carbide as a source of acetone and before the war ended they had a factory capable of manufacturing #bjjj tons of methyl rubber a year4 ,this shows the advantage of having several strings to a bow4 ,the reason why acetylene is such an active and acquisitive thing the chemist explains1 or rather expresses1 by picturing its structure in this shape3 ,h-,ctriple bond,c-,h ,now the carbon atoms are holding each other's hands because they have nothing else to do4 ,there are no other elements around to hitch on to4 ,but the two carbons of acetylene readily loosen up and keeping the connection between them by a single bond reach out in this fashion with their two disengaged arms and grab whatever alien atoms happen to be in the vicinity3 ,h-,c-,c-,h ,carbon atoms belong to the quadrumani like the monkeys1 so they are peculiarly fitted to forming chains and rings4 ,this accounts for the variety and complexity of the carbon compounds4 ,so when acetylene gas mixed with other gases is passed over a catalyst1 such as a heated mass of iron ore or clay 7hydrates or silicates of iron or aluminum71 it forms all sorts of curious combinations4 ,in the presence of steam we may get such simple compounds as acetic acid1 acetone and the like4 ,but when three acetylene molecules join to form a ring of six carbon atoms we get compounds of the benzene series such as were described in the chapter on the coal-tar colors4 ,if ammonia is mixed with acetylene we may get rings with the nitrogen atom in place of one of the carbons1 like the pyridins and quinolins1 pungent bases such as are found in opium and tobacco4 ,or if hydrogen sulfide is mixed with the acetylene we may get thiophenes1 which have sulfur in the ring4 ,so1 starting with the simple combination of two atoms of carbon with two of hydrogen1 we can get directly by this single process some of the most complicated compounds of the organic world1 as well as many others not found in nature4 ,in the development of the electric furnace ,america played a pioneer part4 ,provost ,smith of the ,university of ,pennsylvania1 who is the best authority on the history of chemistry in ,america1 claims for ,robert ,hare1 a ,philadelphia chemist born in #agha1 the honor of constructing the first electrical furnace4 ,with this crude apparatus and with no greater electromotive force than could be attained from a voltaic pile1 he converted charcoal into graphite1 volatilized phosphorus from its compounds1 isolated metallic calcium and synthesized calcium carbide4 ,it is to ,hare also that we owe the invention in #ahja of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe1 which nowadays is used with acetylene as well as hydrogen4 ,with this instrument he was able to fuse strontia and volatilize platinum4 ,but the electrical furnace could not be used on a commercial scale until the dynamo replaced the battery as a source of electricity4 ,the industrial development of the electrical furnace centered about the search for a cheap method of preparing aluminum4 ,this is the metallic base of clay and therefore is common enough4 ,but clay1 as we know from its use in making porcelain1 is very infusible and difficult to decompose4 ,sixty years ago aluminum was priced at #adj a pound1 but one would have had difficulty in buying such a large quantity as a pound at any price4 ,at international expositions a small bar of it might be seen in a case labeled silver from clay4 ,mechanics were anxious to get the new metal1 for it was light and untarnishable1 but the metallurgists could not furnish it to them at a low enough price4 ,in order to extract it from clay a more active metal1 sodium1 was essential4 ,but sodium also was rare and expensive4 ,in those days a professor of chemistry used to keep a little stick of it in a bottle under kerosene and once a year he whittled off a piece the size of a pea and threw it into water to show the class how it sizzled and gave off hydrogen4 ,the way to get cheaper aluminum was1 it seemed1 to get cheaper sodium and ,hamilton ,young ,castner set himself at this problem4 ,he was a ,brooklyn boy1 a student of ,chandler's at ,columbia4 ,you can see the bronze tablet in his honor at the entrance of ,havemeyer ,hall4 ,in #ahhf he produced metallic sodium by mixing caustic soda with iron and charcoal in an iron pot and heating in a gas furnace4 ,before this experiment sodium sold at #b a pound2 after it sodium sold at twenty cents a pound4 ,but although ,castner had succeeded in his experiment he was defeated in his object4 ,for while he was perfecting the sodium process for making aluminum the electrolytic process for getting aluminum directly was discovered in ,oberlin4 ,so the #bej1jjj plant of the ,aluminium ,company ,ltd4 that ,castner had got erected at ,birmingham1 ,england1 did not make aluminum at all1 but produced sodium for other purposes instead4 ,castner then turned his attention to the electrolytic method of producing sodium by the use of the power of ,niagara ,falls1 electric power4 ,here in #ahid he succeeded in separating common salt into its component elements1 chlorine and sodium1 by passing the electric current through brine and collecting the sodium in the mercury floor of the cell4 ,the sodium by the action of water goes into caustic soda4 ,nowadays sodium and chlorine and their components are made in enormous quantities by the decomposition of salt4 ,the ,united ,states ,government in #aiah procured nearly #d1jjj1jjj pounds of chlorine for gas warfare4 ,the discovery of the electrical process of making aluminum that displaced the sodium method was due to ,charles ,m4 ,hall4 ,he was the son of a ,congregational minister and as a boy took a fancy to chemistry through happening upon an old text-book of that science in his father's library4 ,he never knew who the author was1 for the cover and title page had been torn off4 ,the obstacle in the way of the electrolytic production of aluminum was1 as ,i have said1 because its compounds were so hard to melt that the current could not pass through4 ,in #ahhf1 when ,hall was twenty-two1 he solved the problem in the laboratory of ,oberlin ,college with no other apparatus than a small crucible1 a gasoline burner to heat it with and a galvanic battery to supply the electricity4 ,he found that a ,greenland mineral1 known as cryolite 7a double fluoride of sodium and aluminum71 was readily fused and would dissolve alumina 7aluminum oxide74 ,when an electric current was passed through the melted mass the metal aluminum would collect at one of the poles4 ,in working out the process and defending his claims ,hall used up all his own money1 his brother's and his uncle's1 but he won out in the end and ,judge ,taft held that his patent had priority over the ,french claim of ,hrault4 ,on his death1 a few years ago1 ,hall left his large fortune to his ,alma ,mater1 ,oberlin4 ,two other young men from ,ohio1 ,alfred and ,eugene ,cowles1 with whom ,hall was for a time associated1 wore the first to develop the wide possibilities of the electric furnace on a commercial scale4 ,in #ahhe they started the ,cowles ,electric ,smelting and ,aluminum ,company at ,lockport1 ,new ,york1 using ,niagara power4 ,the various aluminum bronzes made by absorbing the electrolyzed aluminum in copper attracted immediate attention by their beauty and usefulness in electrical work and later the company turned out other products besides aluminum1 such as calcium carbide1 phosphorus1 and carborundum4 ,they got carborundum as early as #ahhe but miscalled it crystallized silicon1 so its introduction was left to ,e4,a4 ,acheson1 who was a graduate of ,edison's laboratory4 ,in #ahia he packed clay and charcoal into an iron bowl1 connected it to a dynamo and stuck into the mixture an electric light carbon connected to the other pole of the dynamo4 ,when he pulled out the rod he found its end encrusted with glittering crystals of an unknown substance4 ,they were blue and black and iridescent1 exceedingly hard and very beautiful4 ,he sold them at first by the carat at a rate that would amount to #efj a pound4 ,they were as well worth buying as diamond dust1 but those who purchased them must have regretted it1 for much finer crystals were soon on sale at ten cents a pound4 ,the mysterious substance turned out to be a compound of carbon and silicon1 the simplest possible compound1 one atom of each1 ,c,si4 ,acheson set up a factory at ,niagara1 where he made it in ten-ton batches4 ,the furnace consisted simply of a brick box fifteen feet long and seven feet wide and deep1 with big carbon electrodes at the ends4 ,between them was packed a mixture of coke to supply the carbon1 sand to supply the silicon1 sawdust to make the mass porous and salt to make it fusible4 ,illustration3 ,the first ,american electric furnace1 constructed by ,robert ,hare of ,philadelphia4 ,from ,chemistry in ,america1 by ,edgar ,fahs ,smith ,the substance thus produced at ,niagara ,falls is known as carborundum south of the ,american-,canadian boundary and as crystolon north of this line1 as carbolon by another firm1 and as silicon carbide by chemists the world over4 ,since it is next to the diamond in hardness it takes off metal faster than emery 7aluminum oxide71 using less power and wasting less heat in futile fireworks4 ,it is used for grindstones of all sizes1 including those the dentist uses on your teeth4 ,it has revolutionized shop-practice1 for articles can be ground into shape better and quicker than they can be cut4 ,what is more1 the artificial abrasives do not injure the lungs of the operatives like sandstone4 ,the output of artificial abrasives in the ,united ,states and ,canada for #aiag was3 ,tons ,value ,silicon carbide #h1cbc #a1jgd1aeb ,aluminum oxide #dh1dfc #f1ifi1chg ,a new use for carborundum was found during the war when ,uncle ,sam assumed the rle of ,jove as cloud-compeller4 ,acting on carborundum with chlorine--also1 you remember1 a product of electrical dissolution--the chlorine displaces the carbon1 forming silicon tetra-chloride 7,si,cl#d71 a colorless liquid resembling chloroform4 ,when this comes in contact with moist air it gives off thick1 white fumes1 for water decomposes it1 giving a white powder 7silicon hydroxide7 and hydrochloric acid4 ,if ammonia is present the acid will unite with it1 giving further white fumes of the salt1 ammonium chloride4 ,so a mixture of two parts of silicon chloride with one part of dry ammonia was used in the war to produce smoke-screens for the concealment of the movements of troops1 batteries and vessels or put in shells so the outlook could see where they burst and so get the range4 ,titanium tetra-chloride1 a similar substance1 proved #ej per cent4 better than silicon1 but phosphorus--which also we get from the electric furnace--was the most effective mistifier of all4 ,before the introduction of the artificial abrasives fine grinding was mostly done by emery1 which is an impure form of aluminum oxide found in nature4 ,a purer form is made from the mineral bauxite by driving off its combined water4 ,bauxite is the ore from which is made the pure aluminum oxide used in the electric furnace for the production of metallic aluminum4 ,formerly we imported a large part of our bauxite from ,france1 but when the war shut off this source we developed our domestic fields in ,arkansas1 ,alabama and ,georgia1 and these are now producing half a million tons a year4 ,bauxite simply fused in the electric furnace makes a better abrasive than the natural emery or corundum1 and it is sold for this purpose under the name of aloxite1 alundum1 exolon1 lionite or coralox4 ,when the fused bauxite is worked up with a bonding material into crucibles or muffles and baked in a kiln it forms the alundum refractory ware4 ,since alundum is porous and not attacked by acids it is used for filtering hot and corrosive liquids that would eat up filter-paper4 ,carborundum or crystolon is also made up into refractory ware for high temperature work4 ,when the fused mass of the carborundum furnace is broken up there is found surrounding the carborundum core a similar substance though not quite so hard and infusible1 known as carborundum sand or siloxicon4 ,this is mixed with fireclay and used for furnace linings4 ,many new forms of refractories have come into use to meet the demands of the new high temperature work4 ,the essentials are that it should not melt or crumble at high heat and should not expand and contract greatly under changes of temperature 7low coefficient of thermal expansion74 ,whether it is desirable that it should heat through readily or slowly 7coefficient of thermal conductivity7 depends on whether it is wanted as a crucible or as a furnace lining4 ,lime 7calcium oxide7 fuses only at the highest heat of the electric furnace1 but it breaks down into dust4 ,magnesia 7magnesium oxide7 is better and is most extensively employed4 ,for every ton of steel produced five pounds of magnesite is needed4 ,formerly we imported #ij per cent4 of our supply from ,austria1 but now we get it from ,california and ,washington4 ,in #aiac the ,american production of magnesite was only #ifjj tons4 ,in #aiah it was #bbe1jjj4 ,zirconia 7zirconium oxide7 is still more refractory and in spite of its greater cost zirkite is coming into use as a lining for electric furnaces4 ,silicon is next to oxygen the commonest element in the world4 ,it forms a quarter of the earth's crust1 yet it is unfamiliar to most of us4 ,that is because it is always found combined with oxygen in the form of silica as quartz crystal or sand4 ,this used to be considered too refractory to be blown but is found to be easily manipulable at the high temperatures now at the command of the glass-blower4 ,so the chemist rejoices in flasks that he can heat red hot in the ,bunsen burner and then plunge into ice water without breaking1 and the cook can bake and serve in a dish of pyrex1 which is #hj per cent4 silica4 ,at the beginning of the twentieth century minute specimens of silicon were sold as laboratory curiosities at the price of #ajj an ounce4 ,two years later it was turned out by the barrelful at ,niagara as an accidental by-product and could not find a market at ten cents a pound4 ,silicon from the electric furnace appears in the form of hard1 glittering metallic crystals4 ,an alloy of iron and silicon1 ferro-silicon1 made by heating a mixture of iron ore1 sand and coke in the electrical furnace1 is used as a deoxidizing agent in the manufacture of steel4 ,since silicon has been robbed with difficulty of its oxygen it takes it on again with great avidity4 ,this has been made use of in the making of hydrogen4 ,a mixture of silicon 7or of the ferro-silicon alloy containing #ij per cent4 of silicon7 with soda and slaked lime is inert1 compact and can be transported to any point where hydrogen is needed1 say at a battle front4 ,then the hydrogenite1 as the mixture is named1 is ignited by a hot iron ball and goes off like thermit with the production of great heat and the evolution of a vast volume of hydrogen gas4 ,or the ferro-silicon may be simply burned in an atmosphere of steam in a closed tank after ignition with a pinch of gunpowder4 ,the iron and the silicon revert to their oxides while the hydrogen of the water is set free4 ,the ,french silikol method consists in treating silicon with a #dj per cent4 solution of soda4 ,another source of hydrogen originating with the electric furnace is hydrolith1 which consists of calcium hydride4 ,metallic calcium is prepared from lime in the electric furnace4 ,then pieces of the calcium are spread out in an oven heated by electricity and a current of dry hydrogen passed through4 ,the gas is absorbed by the metal1 forming the hydride 7,ca,h#b74 ,this is packed up in cans and when hydrogen is desired it is simply dropped into water1 when it gives off the gas just as calcium carbide gives off acetylene4 ,this last reaction was also used in ,germany for filling ,zeppelins4 ,for calcium carbide is convenient and portable and acetylene1 when it is once started1 as by an electric shock1 decomposes spontaneously by its own internal heat into hydrogen and carbon4 ,the latter is left as a fine1 pure lampblack1 suitable for printer's ink4 ,napoleon1 who was always on the lookout for new inventions that could be utilized for military purposes1 seized immediately upon the balloon as an observation station4 ,within a few years after the first ascent had been made in ,paris ,napoleon took balloons and apparatus for generating hydrogen with him on his archeological expedition to ,egypt in which he hoped to conquer ,asia4 ,but the ,british fleet in the ,mediterranean put a stop to this experiment by intercepting the ship1 and military aviation waited until the ,great ,war for its full development4 ,this caused a sudden demand for immense quantities of hydrogen and all manner of means was taken to get it4 ,water is easily decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen by passing an electric current through it4 ,in various electrolytical processes hydrogen has been a wasted by-product since the balloon demand was slight and it was more bother than it was worth to collect and purify the hydrogen4 ,another way of getting hydrogen in quantity is by passing steam over red-hot coke4 ,this produces the blue water-gas1 which contains about #ej per cent4 hydrogen1 #dj per cent4 carbon monoxide and the rest nitrogen and carbon dioxide4 ,the last is removed by running the mixed gases through lime4 ,then the nitrogen and carbon monoxide are frozen out in an air-liquefying apparatus and the hydrogen escapes to the storage tank4 ,the liquefied carbon monoxide1 allowed to regain its gaseous form1 is used in an internal combustion engine to run the plant4 ,there are then many ways of producing hydrogen1 but it is so light and bulky that it is difficult to get it where it is wanted4 ,the ,american ,government in the war made use of steel cylinders each holding #afa cubic feet of the gas under a pressure of #bjjj pounds per square inch4 ,even the hydrogen used by the troops in ,france was shipped from ,america in this form4 ,for field use the ferro-silicon and soda process was adopted4 ,a portable generator of this type was capable of producing #aj1jjj cubic feet of the gas per hour4 ,the discovery by a ,kansas chemist of natural sources of helium may make it possible to free ballooning of its great danger1 for helium is non-inflammable and almost as light as hydrogen4 ,other uses of hydrogen besides ballooning have already been referred to in other chapters4 ,it is combined with nitrogen to form synthetic ammonia4 ,it is combined with oxygen in the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe to produce heat4 ,it is combined with vegetable and animal oils to convert them into solid fats4 ,there is also the possibility of using it as a fuel in the internal combustion engine in place of gasoline1 but for this purpose we must find some way of getting hydrogen portable or producible in a compact form4 ,aluminum1 like silicon1 sodium and calcium1 has been rescued by violence from its attachment to oxygen and like these metals it reverts with readiness to its former affinity4 ,dr4 ,goldschmidt made use of this reaction in his thermit process4 ,powdered aluminum is mixed with iron oxide 7rust74 ,if the mixture is heated at any point a furious struggle takes place throughout the whole mass between the iron and the aluminum as to which metal shall get the oxygen1 and the aluminum always comes out ahead4 ,the temperature runs up to some #fjjj degrees ,fahrenheit within thirty seconds and the freed iron1 completely liquefied1 runs down into the bottom of the crucible1 where it may be drawn off by opening a trap door4 ,the newly formed aluminum oxide 7alumina7 floats as slag on top4 ,the applications of the thermit process are innumerable4 ,if1 for instance1 it is desired to mend a broken rail or crank shaft without moving it from its place1 the two ends are brought together or fixed at the proper distance apart4 ,a crucible filled with the thermit mixture is set up above the joint and the thermit ignited with a priming of aluminum and barium peroxide to start it off4 ,the barium peroxide having a superabundance of oxygen gives it up readily and the aluminum thus encouraged attacks the iron oxide and robs it of its oxygen4 ,as soon as the iron is melted it is run off through the bottom of the crucible and fills the space between the rail ends1 being kept from spreading by a mold of refractory material such as magnesite4 ,the two ends of the rail are therefore joined by a section of the same size1 shape1 substance and strength as themselves4 ,the same process can be used for mending a fracture or supplying a missing fragment of a steel casting of any size1 such as a ship's propeller or a cogwheel4 ,illustration3 ,,types ,,of ,,gas ,,mask ,,used ,,by ,,america1 ,,the ,,allies1 ,,and ,,germany ,,during ,,the ,,war ,in the top row are the ,american masks1 chronologically1 from left to right3 ,u4,s4 ,navy mask 7obsolete71 ,u4,s4 ,navy mask 7final type71 ,u4,s4 ,army box respirator 7used throughout the war71 ,u4,s4,r4,f4,k4 respirator1 ,u4,s4,a4,t4 respirator 7an all-rubber mask71 ,u4,s4,k4,t4 respirator 7a sewed fabric mask71 and ,u4,s4 ,model #aiai1 ready for production when the armistice was signed4 ,in the middle row1 left to right1 are3 ,british veil 7the original emergency mask used in ,april1 #aiae71 ,british ,p4,h4 helmet 7the next emergency mask71 ,british box respirator 7standard ,british army type71 ,french ,m#b mask 7original type71 ,french ,tissot artillery mask1 and ,french ,a4,r4,s4 mask 7latest type74 ,in the front row3 the latest ,german mask1 the ,russian mask1 ,italian mask1 ,british motor corps mask1 ,u4,s4 rear area emergency respirator1 and ,u4,s4 ,connell mask ,illustration3 ,,pumping ,,melted ,,white ,,phosphorus ,,into ,,hand ,,grenades ,,filled ,,with ,,water--,,edgewood ,,arsenal ,illustration3 ,,filling ,,shell ,,with ,,mustard ,,gas ,empty shells are being placed on small trucks to be run into the filling chamber4 ,the large truck in the foreground contains loaded shell ,for smaller work thermit has two rivals1 the oxy-acetylene torch and electric welding4 ,the former has been described and the latter is rather out of the range of this volume1 although ,i may mention that in the latter part of #aiah there was launched from a ,british shipyard the first rivotless steel vessel4 ,in this the steel plates forming the shell1 bulkheads and floors are welded instead of being fastened together by rivets4 ,there are three methods of doing this depending upon the thickness of the plates and the sort of strain they are subject to4 ,the plates may be overlapped and tacked together at intervals by pressing the two electrodes on opposite sides of the same point until the spot is sufficiently heated to fuse together the plates here4 ,or roller electrodes may be drawn slowly along the line of the desired weld1 fusing the plates together continuously as they go4 ,or1 thirdly1 the plates may be butt-welded by being pushed together edge to edge without overlapping and the electric current being passed from one plate to the other heats up the joint where the conductivity is interrupted4 ,it will be observed that the thermit process is essentially like the ordinary blast furnace process of smelting iron and other metals except that aluminum is used instead of carbon to take the oxygen away from the metal in the ore4 ,this has an advantage in case carbon-free metals are desired and the process is used for producing manganese1 tungsten1 titanium1 molybdenum1 vanadium and their allows with iron and copper4 ,during the war thermit found a new and terrible employment1 as it was used by the airmen for setting buildings on fire and exploding ammunition dumps4 ,the ,german incendiary bombs consisted of a perforated steel nose-piece1 a tail to keep it falling straight and a cylindrical body which contained a tube of thermit packed around with mineral wax containing potassium perchlorate4 ,the fuse was ignited as the missile was released and the thermit1 as it heated up1 melted the wax and allowed it to flow out together with the liquid iron through the holes in the nose-piece4 ,the ,american incendiary bombs were of a still more malignant type4 ,they weighed about forty pounds apiece and were charged with oil emulsion1 thermit and metallic sodium4 ,sodium decomposes water so that if any attempt were made to put out with a hose a fire started by one of these bombs the stream of water would be instantaneously changed into a jet of blazing hydrogen4 ,besides its use in combining and separating different elements the electric furnace is able to change a single element into its various forms4 ,carbon1 for instance1 is found in three very distinct forms3 in hard1 transparent and colorless crystals as the diamond1 in black1 opaque1 metallic scales as graphite1 and in shapeless masses and powder as charcoal1 coke1 lampblack1 and the like4 ,in the intense heat of the electric arc these forms are convertible one into the other according to the conditions4 ,since the third form is the cheapest the object is to change it into one of the other two4 ,graphite1 plumbago or blacklead1 as it is still sometimes called1 is not found in many places and more rarely found pure4 ,the supply was not equal to the demand until ,acheson worked out the process of making it by packing powdered anthracite between the electrodes of his furnace4 ,in this way graphite can be cheaply produced in any desired quantity and quality4 ,since graphite is infusible and incombustible except at exceedingly high temperatures1 it is extensively used for crucibles and electrodes4 ,these electrodes are made in all sizes for the various forms of electric lamps and furnaces from rods one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter to bars a foot thick and six feet long4 ,it is graphite mixed with fine clay to give it the desired degree of hardness that forms the filling of our lead pencils4 ,finely ground and flocculent graphite treated with tannin may be held in suspension in liquids and even pass through filter-paper4 ,the mixture with water is sold under the name of aquadag1 with oil as oildag and with grease as gredag1 for lubrication4 ,the smooth1 slippery scales of graphite in suspension slide over each other easily and keep the bearings from rubbing against each other4 ,the other and more difficult metamorphosis of carbon1 the transformation of charcoal into diamond1 was successfully accomplished by ,moissan in #ahid4 ,henri ,moissan was a toxicologist1 that is to say1 a ,professor of ,poisoning1 in the ,paris ,school of ,pharmacy1 who took to experimenting with the electric furnace in his leisure hours and did more to demonstrate its possibilities than any other man4 ,with it he isolated fluorine1 most active of the elements1 and he prepared for the first time in their purity many of the rare metals that have since found industrial employment4 ,he also made the carbides of the various metals1 including the now common calcium carbide4 ,among the problems that he undertook and solved was the manufacture of artificial diamonds4 ,he first made pure charcoal by burning sugar4 ,this was packed with iron in the hollow of a block of lime into which extended from opposite sides the carbon rods connected to the dynamo4 ,when the iron had melted and dissolved all the carbon it could1 ,moissan dumped it into water or better into melted lead or into a hole in a copper block1 for this cooled it most rapidly4 ,after a crust was formed it was left to solidify slowly4 ,the sudden cooling of the iron on the outside subjected the carbon1 which was held in solution1 to intense pressure and when the bit of iron was dissolved in acid some of the carbon was found to be crystallized as diamond1 although most of it was graphite4 ,to be sure1 the diamonds were hardly big enough to be seen with the naked eye1 but since ,moissan's aim was to make diamonds1 not big diamonds1 he ceased his efforts at this point4 ,to produce large diamonds the carbon would have to be liquefied in considerable quantity and kept in that state while it slowly crystallized4 ,but that could only be accomplished at a temperature and pressure and duration unattainable as yet4 ,under ordinary atmospheric pressure carbon passes over from the solid to the gaseous phase without passing through the liquid1 just as snow on a cold1 clear day will evaporate without melting4 ,probably some one in the future will take up the problem where ,moissan dropped it and find out how to make diamonds of any size4 ,but it is not a question that greatly interests either the scientist or the industrialist because there is not much to be learned from it and not much to be made out of it4 ,if the inventor of a process for making cheap diamonds could keep his electric furnace secretly in his cellar and market his diamonds cautiously he might get rich out of it1 but he would not dare to turn out very large stones or too many of them1 for if a suspicion got around that he was making them the price would fall to almost nothing even if he did sell another one4 ,for the high price of the diamond is purely fictitious4 ,it is in the first place kept up by limiting the output of the natural stone by the combination of dealers and1 further1 the diamond is valued not for its usefulness or beauty but by its real or supposed rarity4 ,chesterton says3 ,all is gold that glitters1 for the glitter is the gold4 ,this is not so true of gold1 for if gold were as cheap as nickel it would be very valuable1 since we should gold-plate our machinery1 our ships1 our bridges and our roofs4 ,but if diamonds were cheap they would be good for nothing except grindstones and drills4 ,an imitation diamond made of heavy glass 7paste7 cannot be distinguished from the genuine gem except by an expert4 ,it sparkles about as brilliantly1 for its refractive index is nearly as high4 ,the reason why it is not priced so highly is because the natural stone has presumably been obtained through the toil and sweat of hundreds of negroes searching in the blue ground of the ,transvaal for many months4 ,it is valued exclusively by its cost4 ,to wear a diamond necklace is the same as hanging a certified check for #ajj1jjj by a string around the neck4 ,real values are enhanced by reduction in the cost of the price of production4 ,fictitious values are destroyed by it4 ,aluminum at twenty-five cents a pound is immensely more valuable to the world than when it is a curiosity in the chemist's cabinet and priced at #afj a pound4 ,so the scope of the electric furnace reaches from the costly but comparatively valueless diamond to the cheap but indispensable steel4 ,as ,f4,j4 ,tone says1 if the automobile manufacturers were deprived of ,niagara products1 the abrasives1 aluminum1 acetylene for welding and high-speed tool steel1 a factory now turning out five hundred cars a day would be reduced to one hundred4 ,i have here been chiefly concerned with electricity as effecting chemical changes in combining or separating elements1 but ,i must not omit to mention its rapidly extending use as a source of heat1 as in the production and casting of steel4 ,in #aijh there were only fifty-five tons of steel produced by the electric furnace in the ,united ,states1 but by #aiah this had risen to #eaa1cfd tons4 ,and besides ordinary steel the electric furnace has given us alloys of iron with the once rare metals that have created a new science of metallurgy4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,metals1 ,,old ,,and ,,new ,the primitive metallurgist could only make use of such metals as he found free in nature1 that is1 such as had not been attacked and corroded by the ubiquitous oxygen4 ,these were primarily gold or copper1 though possibly some original genius may have happened upon a bit of meteoric iron and pounded it out into a sword4 ,but when man found that the red ocher he had hitherto used only as a cosmetic could be made to yield iron by melting it with charcoal he opened a new era in civilization1 though doubtless the ocher artists of that day denounced him as a utilitarian and deplored the decadence of the times4 ,iron is one of the most timid of metals4 ,it has a great disinclination to be alone4 ,it is also one of the most altruistic of the elements4 ,it likes almost every other element better than itself4 ,it has an especial affection for oxygen1 and1 since this is in both air and water1 and these are everywhere1 iron is not long without a mate4 ,the result of this union goes by various names in the mineralogical and chemical worlds1 but in common language1 which is quite good enough for our purpose1 it is called iron rust4 ,illustration3 ,by courtesy ,mineral ,foote-,notes4 ,from ,agricola's ,de ,re ,metallica #aeej4 ,primitive furnace for smelting iron ore4 ,not many of us have ever seen iron1 the pure metal1 soft1 ductile and white like silver4 ,as soon as it is exposed to the air it veils itself with a thin film of rust and becomes black and then red4 ,for that reason there is practically no iron in the world except what man has made4 ,it is rarer than gold1 than diamonds2 we find in the earth no nuggets or crystals of it the size of the fist as we find of these4 ,but occasionally there fall down upon us out of the clear sky great chunks of it weighing tons4 ,these meteorites are the mavericks of the universe4 ,we do not know where they come from or what sun or planet they belonged to4 ,they are our only visitors from space1 and if all the other spheres are like these fragments we know we are alone in the universe4 ,for they contain rustless iron1 and where iron does not rust man cannot live1 nor can any other animal or any plant4 ,iron rusts for the same reason that a stone rolls down hill1 because it gets rid of its energy that way4 ,all things in the universe are constantly trying to get rid of energy except man1 who is always trying to get more of it4 ,or1 on second thought1 we see that man is the greatest spendthrift of all1 for he wants to expend so much more energy than he has that he borrows from the winds1 the streams and the coal in the rocks4 ,he robs minerals and plants of the energy which they have stored up to spend for their own purposes1 just as he robs the bee of its honey and the silk worm of its cocoon4 ,man's chief business is in reversing the processes of nature4 ,that is the way he gets his living4 ,and one of his greatest triumphs was when he discovered how to undo iron rust and get the metal out of it4 ,in the four thousand years since he first did this he has accomplished more than in the millions of years before4 ,without knowing the value of iron rust man could attain only to the culture of the ,aztecs and ,incas1 the ancient ,egyptians and ,assyrians4 ,the prosperity of modern states is dependent on the amount of iron rust which they possess and utilize4 ,england1 ,united ,states1 ,germany1 all nations are competing to see which can dig the most iron rust out of the ground and make out of it railroads1 bridges1 buildings1 machinery1 battleships and such other tools and toys and then let them relapse into rust again4 ,civilization can be measured by the amount of iron rusted per capita1 or better1 by the amount rescued from rust4 ,but we are devoting so much space to the consideration of the material aspects of iron that we are like to neglect its esthetic and ethical uses4 ,the beauty of nature is very largely dependent upon the fact that iron rust and1 in fact1 all the common compounds of iron are colored4 ,few elements can assume so many tints4 ,look at the paint pot caons of the ,yellowstone4 ,cheap glass bottles turn out brown1 green1 blue1 yellow or black1 according to the amount and kind of iron they contain4 ,we build a house of cream-colored brick1 varied with speckled brick and adorned with terra cotta ornaments of red1 yellow and green1 all due to iron4 ,iron rusts1 therefore it must be painted2 but what is there better to paint it with than iron rust itself8 ,it is cheap and durable1 for it cannot rust any more than a dead man can die4 ,and what is also of importance1 it is a good1 strong1 clean looking1 endurable color4 ,whenever we take a trip on the railroad and see the miles of cars1 the acres of roofing and wall1 the towns full of brick buildings1 we rejoice that iron rust is red1 not white or some leas satisfying color4 ,we do not know why it is so4 ,zinc and aluminum are metals very much like iron in chemical properties1 but all their salts are colorless4 ,why is it that the most useful of the metals forms the most beautiful compounds8 ,some say1 ,providence2 some say1 chance2 some say nothing4 ,but if it had not been so we would have lost most of the beauty of rocks and trees and human beings4 ,for the leaves and the flowers would all be white1 and all the men and women would look like walking corpses4 ,without color in the flower what would the bees and painters do8 ,if all the grass and trees were white1 it would be like winter all the year round4 ,if we had white blood in our veins like some of the insects it would be hard lines for our poets4 ,and what would become of our morality if we could not blush8 ,as for me1 ,i thrill to see ,the bloom a velvet cheek discloses6 ,made of dust6 ,i well believe it1 ,so are lilies1 so are roses4 ,an etiolated earth would be hardly worth living in4 ,the chlorophyll of the leaves and the hemoglobin of the blood are similar in constitution4 ,chlorophyll contains magnesium in place of iron but iron is necessary to its formation4 ,we all know how pale a plant gets if its soil is short of iron4 ,it is the iron in the leaves that enables the plants to store up the energy of the sunshine for their own use and ours4 ,it is the iron in our blood that enables us to get the iron out of iron rust and make it into machines to supplement our feeble hands4 ,iron is for us internally the carrier of energy1 just as in the form of a trolley wire or of a third rail it conveys power to the electric car4 ,withdraw the iron from the blood as indicated by the pallor of the cheeks1 and we become weak1 faint and finally die4 ,if the amount of iron in the blood gets too small the disease germs that are always attacking us are no longer destroyed1 but multiply without check and conquer us4 ,when the iron ceases to work efficiently we are killed by the poison we ourselves generate4 ,counting the number of iron-bearing corpuscles in the blood is now a common method of determining disease4 ,it might also be useful in moral diagnosis4 ,a microscopical and chemical laboratory attached to the courtroom would give information of more value than some of the evidence now obtained4 ,for the anemic and the florid vices need very different treatment4 ,an excess or a deficiency of iron in the body is liable to result in criminality4 ,a chemical system of morals might be developed on this basis4 ,among the ferruginous sins would be placed murder1 violence and licentiousness4 ,among the non-ferruginous1 cowardice1 sloth and lying4 ,the former would be mostly sins of commission1 the latter1 sins of omission4 ,the virtues could1 of course1 be similarly classified2 the ferruginous virtues would include courage1 self-reliance and hopefulness2 the non-ferruginous1 peaceableness1 meekness and chastity4 ,according to this ethical criterion the moral man would be defined as one whose conduct is better than we should expect from the per cent4 of iron in his blood4 ,the reason why iron is able to serve this unique purpose of conveying life-giving air to all parts of the body is because it rusts so readily4 ,oxidation and de-oxidation proceed so quietly that the tenderest cells are fed without injury4 ,the blood changes from red to blue and vice versa with greater ease and rapidity than in the corresponding alternations of social status in a democracy4 ,it is because iron is so rustable that it is so useful4 ,the factories with big scrap-heaps of rusting machinery are making the most money4 ,the pyramids are the most enduring structures raised by the hand of man1 but they have not sheltered so many people in their forty centuries as our skyscrapers that are already rusting4 ,we have to carry on this eternal conflict against rust because oxygen is the most ubiquitous of the elements and iron can only escape its ardent embraces by hiding away in the center of the earth4 ,the united elements1 known to the chemist as iron oxide and to the outside world as rust1 are among the commonest of compounds and their colors1 yellow and red like the ,spanish flag1 are displayed on every mountainside4 ,from the time of ,tubal ,cain man has ceaselessly labored to divorce these elements and1 having once separated them1 to keep them apart so that the iron may be retained in his service4 ,but here1 as usual1 man is fighting against nature and his gains1 as always1 are only temporary4 ,sooner or later his vigilance is circumvented and the metal that he has extricated by the fiery furnace returns to its natural affinity4 ,the flint arrowheads1 the bronze spearpoints1 the gold ornaments1 the wooden idols of prehistoric man are still to be seen in our museums1 but his earliest steel swords have long since crumbled into dust4 ,every year the blast furnaces of the world release #gb1jjj1jjj tons of iron from its oxides and every year a large part1 said to be a quarter of that amount1 reverts to its primeval forms4 ,if so1 then man after five thousand years of metallurgical industry has barely got three years ahead of nature1 and should he cease his efforts for a generation there would be little left to show that man had ever learned to extract iron from its ores4 ,the old question1 ,what becomes of all the pins8 may be as well asked of rails1 pipes and threshing machines4 ,the end of all iron is the same4 ,however many may be its metamorphoses while in the service of man it relapses at last into its original state of oxidation4 ,to save a pound of iron from corrosion is then as much a benefit to the world as to produce another pound from the ore4 ,in fact it is of much greater benefit1 for it takes four pounds of coal to produce one pound of steel1 so whenever a piece of iron is allowed to oxidize it means that four times as much coal must be oxidized in order to replace it4 ,and the beds of coal will be exhausted before the beds of iron ore4 ,if we are ever to get ahead1 if we are to gain any respite from this enormous waste of labor and natural resources1 we must find ways of preventing the iron which we have obtained and fashioned into useful tools from being lost through oxidation4 ,now there is only one way of keeping iron and oxygen from uniting and that is to keep them apart4 ,a very thin dividing wall will serve for the purpose1 for instance1 a film of oil4 ,but ordinary oil will rub off1 so it is better to cover the surface with an oil-like linseed which oxidizes to a hard elastic and adhesive coating4 ,if with linseed oil we mix iron oxide or some other pigment we have a paint that will protect iron perfectly so long as it is unbroken4 ,but let the paint wear off or crack so that air can get at the iron1 then rust will form and spread underneath the paint on all sides4 ,the same is true of the porcelain-like enamel with which our kitchen iron ware is nowadays coated4 ,so long as the enamel holds it is all right but once it is broken through at any point it begins to scale off and gets into our food4 ,obviously it would be better for some purposes if we could coat our iron with another and less easily oxidized metal than with such dissimilar substances as paint or porcelain4 ,now the nearest relative to iron is nickel1 and a layer of this of any desired thickness may be easily deposited by electricity upon any surface however irregular4 ,nickel takes a bright polish and keeps it well1 so nickel plating has become the favorite method of protection for small objects where the expense is not prohibitive4 ,copper plating is used for fine wires4 ,a sheet of iron dipped in melted tin comes out coated with a thin adhesive layer of the latter metal4 ,such tinned plate commonly known as tin has become the favorite material for pans and cans4 ,but if the tin is scratched the iron beneath rusts more rapidly than if the tin were not there1 for an electrolytic action is set up and the iron1 being the negative element of the couple1 suffers at the expense of the tin4 ,with zinc it is quite the opposite4 ,zinc is negative toward iron1 so when the two are in contact and exposed to the weather the zinc is oxidized first4 ,a zinc plating affords the protection of a ,swiss ,guard1 it holds out as long as possible and when broken it perishes to the last atom before it lets the oxygen get at the iron4 ,the zinc may be applied in four different ways4 7#a7 ,it may be deposited by electrolysis as in nickel plating1 but the zinc coating is more apt to be porous4 7#b7 ,the sheets or articles may be dipped in a bath of melted zinc4 ,this gives us the familiar galvanized iron1 the most useful and when well done the most effective of rust preventives4 ,besides these older methods of applying zinc there are now two new ones4 7#c7 ,one is the ,schoop process by which a wire of zinc or other metal is fed into an oxy-hydrogen air blast of such heat and power that it is projected as a spray of minute drops with the speed of bullets and any object subjected to the bombardment of this metallic mist receives a coating as thick as desired4 ,the zinc spray is so fine and cool that it may be received on cloth1 lace1 or the bare hand4 ,the ,schoop metallizing process has recently been improved by the use of the electric current instead of the blowpipe for melting the metal4 ,two zinc wires connected with any electric system1 preferably the direct1 are fed into the pistol4 ,where the wires meet an electric arc is set up and the melted zinc is sprayed out by a jet of compressed air4 7#d7 ,in the ,sherardizing process the articles are put into a tight drum with zinc dust and heated to #hjj ,f4 ,the zinc at this temperature attacks the iron and forms a series of alloys ranging from pure zinc on the top to pure iron at the bottom of the coating4 ,even if this cracks in part the iron is more or less protected from corrosion so long as any zinc remains4 ,aluminum is used similarly in the calorizing process for coating iron1 copper or brass4 ,first a surface alloy is formed by heating the metal with aluminum powder4 ,then the temperature is raised to a high degree so as to cause the aluminum on the surface to diffuse into the metal and afterwards it is again baked in contact with aluminum dust which puts upon it a protective plating of the pure aluminum which does not oxidize4 ,illustration3 ,,photomicrographs ,,showing ,,the ,,structure ,,of ,,steel ,,made ,,by ,,professor ,e4,g4 ,,martin ,,of ,,purdue ,,university #a4 ,cold-worked steel showing ferrite and sorbite 7enlarged #ejj times7 #b4 ,steel showing pearlite crystals 7enlarged #ejj times7 #c4 ,structure characteristic of air-cooled steel 7enlarged #ej times7 #d4 ,the triangular structure characteristic of cast steel showing ferrite and pearlite 7enlarged #ej times7 ,illustration3 ,courtesy of ,e4,g4 ,mahin ,,the ,,microscopic ,,structure ,,of ,,metals #a4 ,malleabilized casting2 temper carbon in ferrite 7enlarged #ej times7 #b4 ,type metal2 lead-antimony alloy in matrix of lead 7enlarged #ajj times7 #c4 ,gray cast iron2 carbon as graphite 7enlarged #ejj times7 #d4 ,steel composed of cementite 7white7 and pearlite 7black7 7enlarged #ej times7 ,another way of protecting iron ware from rusting is to rust it4 ,this is a sort of prophylactic method like that adopted by modern medicine where inoculation with a mild culture prevents a serious attack of the disease4 ,the action of air and water on iron forms a series of compounds and mixtures of them4 ,those that contain least oxygen are hard1 black and magnetic like iron itself4 ,those that have most oxygen are red and yellow powders4 ,by putting on a tight coating of the black oxide we can prevent or hinder the oxidation from going on into the pulverulent stage4 ,this is done in several ways4 ,in the ,bower-,barff process the articles to be treated are put into a closed retort and a current of superheated steam passed through for twenty minutes followed by a current of producer gas 7carbon monoxide71 to reduce any higher oxides that may have been formed4 ,in the ,gesner process a current of gasoline vapor is used as the reducing agent4 ,the blueing of watch hands1 buckles and the like may be done by dipping them into an oxidizing bath such as melted saltpeter4 ,but in order to afford complete protection the layer of black oxide must be thickened by repeating the process which adds to the time and expense4 ,this causes a slight enlargement and the high temperature often warps the ware so it is not suitable for nicely adjusted parts of machinery and of course tools would lose their temper by the heat4 ,a new method of rust proofing which is free from these disadvantages is the phosphate process invented by ,thomas ,watts ,coslett1 an ,english chemist1 in #aijg1 and developed in ,america by the ,parker ,company of ,detroit4 ,this consists simply in dipping the sheet iron or articles into a tank filled with a dilute solution of iron phosphate heated nearly to the boiling point by steam pipes4 ,bubbles of hydrogen stream off rapidly at first1 then slower1 and at the end of half an hour or longer the action ceases1 and the process is complete4 ,what has happened is that the iron has been converted into a basic iron phosphate to a depth depending upon the density of articles processed4 ,any one who has studied elementary qualitative analysis will remember that when he added ammonia to his unknown solution1 iron and phosphoric acid1 if present1 were precipitated together1 or in other words1 iron phosphate is insoluble except in acids4 ,therefore a superficial film of such phosphate will protect the iron underneath except from acids4 ,this film is not a coating added on the outside like paint and enamel or tin and nickel plate4 ,it is therefore not apt to scale off and it does not increase the size of the article4 ,no high heat is required as in the ,sherardizing and ,bower-,barff processes1 so steel tools can be treated without losing their temper or edge4 ,the deposit consisting of ferrous and ferric phosphates mixed with black iron oxide may be varied in composition1 texture and color4 ,it is ordinarily a dull gray and oiling gives a soft mat black more in accordance with modern taste than the shiny nickel plating that delighted our fathers4 ,even the military nowadays show more quiet taste than formerly and have abandoned their glittering accoutrements4 ,the phosphate bath is not expensive and can be used continuously for months by adding more of the concentrated solution to keep up the strength and removing the sludge that is precipitated4 ,besides the iron the solution contains the phosphates of other metals such as calcium or strontium1 manganese1 molybdenum1 or tungsten1 according to the particular purpose4 ,since the phosphating solution does not act on nickel it may be used on articles that have been partly nickel-plated so there may be produced1 for instance1 a bright raised design against a dull black background4 ,then1 too1 the surface left by the ,parker process is finely etched so it affords a good attachment for paint or enamel if further protection is needed4 ,even if the enamel does crack1 the iron beneath is not so apt to rust and scale off the coating4 ,these1 then1 are some of the methods which are now being used to combat our eternal enemy1 the rust that doth corrupt4 ,all of them are useful in their several ways4 ,no one of them is best for all purposes4 ,the claim of rust-proof is no more to be taken seriously than fire-proof4 ,we should rather1 if we were finical1 have to speak of rust-resisting coatings as we do of slow-burning buildings4 ,nature is insidious and unceasing in her efforts to bring to ruin the achievements of mankind and we need all the weapons we can find to frustrate her destructive determination4 ,but it is not enough for us to make iron superficially resistant to rust from the atmosphere4 ,we should like also to make it so that it would withstand corrosion by acids1 then it could be used in place of the large and expensive platinum or porcelain evaporating pans and similar utensils employed in chemical works4 ,this requirement also has been met in the non-corrosive forms of iron1 which have come into use within the last five years4 ,one of these1 tantiron1 invented by a ,british metallurgist1 ,robert ,n4 ,lennox1 in #aiab1 contains #ae per cent4 of silicon4 ,similar products are known as duriron and ,buflokast in ,america1 metilure in ,france1 ileanite in ,italy and neutraleisen in ,germany4 ,it is a silvery-white close-grained iron1 very hard and rather brittle1 somewhat like cast iron but with silicon as the main additional ingredient in place of carbon4 ,it is difficult to cut or drill but may be ground into shape by the new abrasives4 ,it is rustproof and is not attacked by sulfuric1 nitric or acetic acid1 hot or cold1 diluted or concentrated4 ,it does not resist so well hydrochloric acid or sulfur dioxide or alkalies4 ,the value of iron lies in its versatility4 ,it is a dozen metals in one4 ,it can be made hard or soft1 brittle or malleable1 tough or weak1 resistant or flexible1 elastic or pliant1 magnetic or non-magnetic1 more or less conductive to electricity1 by slight changes of composition or mere differences of treatment4 ,no wonder that the medieval mind ascribed these mysterious transformations to witchcraft4 ,but the modern micrometallurgist1 by etching the surface of steel and photographing it1 shows it up as composite as a block of granite4 ,he is then able to pick out its component minerals1 ferrite1 austenite1 martensite1 pearlite1 graphite1 cementite1 and to show how their abundance1 shape and arrangement contribute to the strength or weakness of the specimen4 ,the last of these constituents1 cementite1 is a definite chemical compound1 an iron carbide1 ,fe#c;,c1 containing #f4f per cent4 of carbon1 so hard as to scratch glass1 very brittle1 and imparting these properties to hardened steel and cast iron4 ,with this knowledge at his disposal the iron-maker can work with his eyes open and so regulate his melt as to cause these various constituents to crystallize out as he wants them to4 ,besides1 he is no longer confined to the alloys of iron and carbon4 ,he has ransacked the chemical dictionary to find new elements to add to his alloys1 and some of these rarities have proved to possess great practical value4 ,vanadium1 for instance1 used to be put into a fine print paragraph in the back of the chemistry book1 where the class did not get to it until the term closed4 ,yet if it had not been for vanadium steel we should have no ,ford cars4 ,tungsten1 too1 was relegated to the rear1 and if the student remembered it at all it was because it bothered him to understand why its symbol should be ,w instead of ,t4 ,but the student of today studies his lesson in the light of a tungsten wire and relieves his mind by listening to a phonograph record played with a tungs-tone stylus4 ,when ,i was assistant in chemistry an analysis of steel consisted merely in the determination of its percentage of carbon1 and ,i used to take ,saturday for it so ,i could have time enough to complete the combustion4 ,now the chemists of a steel works' laboratory may have to determine also the tungsten1 chromium1 vanadium1 titanium1 nickel1 cobalt1 phosphorus1 molybdenum1 manganese1 silicon and sulfur1 any or all of them1 and be spry about it1 because if they do not get the report out within fifteen minutes while the steel is melting in the electrical furnace the whole batch of #ge tons may go wrong4 ,i'm glad ,i quit the laboratory before they got to speeding up chemists so4 ,the quality of the steel depends upon the presence and the relative proportions of these ingredients1 and a variation of a tenth of #a per cent4 in certain of them will make a different metal out of it4 ,for instance1 the steel becomes stronger and tougher as the proportion of nicked is increased up to about #ae per cent4 ,raising the percentage to #be we get an alloy that does not rust or corrode and is non-magnetic1 although both its component metals1 iron and nickel1 are by themselves attracted by the magnet4 ,with #cf per cent4 nickel and #e per cent4 manganese we get the alloy known as invar1 because it expands and contracts very little with changes of temperature4 ,a bar of the best form of invar will expand less than one-millionth part of its length for a rise of one degree ,centigrade at ordinary atmospheric temperature4 ,for this reason it is used in watches and measuring instruments4 ,the alloy of iron with #df per cent4 nickel is called platinite because its rate of expansion and contraction is the same as platinum and glass1 and so it can be used to replace the platinum wire passing through the glass of an electric light bulb4 ,a manganese steel of #aa to #ad per cent4 is too hard to be machined4 ,it has to be cast or ground into shape and is used for burglar-proof safes and armor plate4 ,chrome steel is also hard and tough and finds use in files1 ball bearings and projectiles4 ,titanium1 which the iron-maker used to regard as his implacable enemy1 has been drafted into service as a deoxidizer1 increasing the strength and elasticity of the steel4 ,it is reported from ,france that the addition of three-tenths of #a per cent4 of zirconium to nickel steel has made it more resistant to the ,german perforating bullets than any steel hitherto known4 ,the new stainless cutlery contains #ab to #ad per cent4 of chromium4 ,with the introduction of harder steels came the need of tougher tools to work them4 ,now the virtue of a good tool steel is the same as of a good man4 ,it must be able to get hot without losing its temper4 ,steel of the old-fashioned sort1 as everybody knows1 gets its temper by being heated to redness and suddenly cooled by quenching or plunging it into water or oil4 ,but when the point gets heated up again1 as it does by friction in a lathe1 it softens and loses its cutting edge4 ,so the necessity of keeping the tool cool limited the speed of the machine4 ,but about #ahfh a ,sheffield metallurgist1 ,robert ,f4 ,mushet1 found that a piece of steel he was working with did not require quenching to harden it4 ,he had it analyzed to discover the meaning of this peculiarity and learned that it contained tungsten1 a rare metal unrecognized in the metallurgy of that day4 ,further investigation showed that steel to which tungsten and manganese or chromium had been added was tougher and retained its temper at high temperature better than ordinary carbon steel4 ,tools made from it could be worked up to a white heat without losing their cutting power4 ,the new tools of this type invented by ,efficiency ,taylor at the ,bethlehem ,steel ,works in the nineties have revolutionized shop practice the world over4 ,a tool of the old sort could not cut at a rate faster than thirty feet a minute without overheating1 but the new tungsten tools will plow through steel ten times as fast and can cut away a ton of the material in an hour4 ,by means of these high-speed tools the ,united ,states was able to turn out five times the munitions that it could otherwise have done in the same time4 ,on the other hand1 if ,germany alone had possessed the secret of the modern steels no power could have withstood her4 ,a slight superiority in metallurgy has been the deciding factor in many a battle4 ,those of my readers who have had the advantages of ,sunday school training will recall the case described in ,i ,samuel #ac3ai-bb4 ,by means of these new metals armor plate has been made invulnerable--except to projectiles pointed with similar material4 ,flying has been made possible through engines weighing no more than two pounds per horse power4 ,the cylinders of combustion engines and the casing of cannon have been made to withstand the unprecedented pressure and corrosive action of the fiery gases evolved within4 ,castings are made so hard that they cannot be cut--save with tools of the same sort4 ,in the high-speed tools now used #bj or #cj per cent1 of the iron is displaced by other ingredients2 for example1 tungsten from #ad to #be per cent41 chromium from #b to #g per cent41 vanadium from #a_/b to #a-a_/b per cent41 carbon from #f to #h per cent41 with perhaps cobalt up to #d per cent4 ,molybdenum or uranium may replace part of the tungsten4 ,some of the newer alloys for high-speed tools contain no iron at all4 ,that which bears the poetic name of star-stone1 stellite1 is composed of chromium1 cobalt and tungsten in varying proportions4 ,stellite keeps a hard cutting edge and gets tougher as it gets hotter4 ,it is very hard and as good for jewelry as platinum except that it is not so expensive4 ,cooperite1 its rival1 is an alloy of nickel and zirconium1 stronger1 lighter and cheaper than stellite4 ,before the war nearly half of the world's supply of tungsten ore 7wolframite7 came from ,burma4 ,but although ,burma had belonged to the ,british for a hundred years they had not developed its mineral resources and the tungsten trade was monopolized by the ,germans4 ,all the ore was shipped to ,germany and the ,british ,admiralty was content to buy from the ,germans what tungsten was needed for armor plate and heavy guns4 ,when the war broke out the ,british had the ore supply1 but were unable at first to work it because they were not familiar with the processes4 ,germany1 being short of tungsten1 had to sneak over a little from ,baltimore in the submarine ,deutschland4 ,in the ,united ,states before the war tungsten ore was selling at #f4ej a unit1 but by the beginning of #aiaf it had jumped to #he a unit4 ,a unit is #a per cent4 of tungsten trioxide to the ton1 that is1 twenty pounds4 ,boulder ,county1 ,colorado1 and ,san ,bernardino1 ,california1 then had mining booms1 reminding one of older times4 ,between ,may and ,december1 #aiah1 there was manufactured in the ,united ,states more than #de1ejj1jjj pounds of tungsten steel containing some #h1jjj1jjj pounds of tungsten4 ,if tungsten ores were more abundant and the metal more easily manipulated1 it would displace steel for many purposes4 ,it is harder than steel or even quartz4 ,it never rusts and is insoluble in acids4 ,its expansion by heat is one-third that of iron4 ,it is more than twice as heavy as iron and its melting point is twice as high4 ,its electrical resistance is half that of iron and its tensile strength is a third greater than the strongest steel4 ,it can be worked into wire 4#jjjb of an inch in diameter1 almost too thin to be seen1 but as strong as copper wire ten times the size4 ,the tungsten wires in the electric lamps are about 4#jc of an inch in diameter1 and they give three times the light for the same consumption of electricity as the old carbon filament4 ,the ,american manufacturers of the tungsten bulb have very appropriately named their lamp ,mazda after the light god of the ,zoroastrians4 ,to get the tungsten into wire form was a problem that long baffled the inventors of the world1 for it was too refractory to be melted in mass and too brittle to be drawn4 ,dr4 ,w4,d4 ,coolidge succeeded in accomplishing the feat in #aiab by reducing the tungstic acid by hydrogen and molding the metallic powder into a bar by pressure4 ,this is raised to a white heat in the electric furnace1 taken out and rolled down1 and the process repeated some fifty times1 until the wire is small enough so it can be drawn at a red heat through diamond dies of successively smaller apertures4 ,the ,german method of making the lamp filaments is to squirt a mixture of tungsten powder and thorium oxide through a perforated diamond of the desired diameter4 ,the filament so produced is drawn through a chamber heated to #bejj ,c4 at a velocity of eight feet an hour1 which crystallizes the tungsten into a continuous thread4 ,the first metallic filament used in the electric light on a commercial scale was made of tantalum1 the metal of ,tantalus4 ,in the period #aije-aiaa over #ajj1jjj1jjj tantalus lamps were sold1 but tungsten displaced them as soon as that metal could be drawn into wire4 ,a recent rival of tungsten both as a filament for lamps and hardener for steel is molybdenum4 ,one pound of this metal will impart more resiliency to steel than three or four pounds of tungsten4 ,the molybdenum steel1 because it does not easily crack1 is said to be serviceable for armor-piercing shells1 gun linings1 air-plane struts1 automobile axles and propeller shafts4 ,in combination with its rival as a tungsten-molybdenum alloy it is capable of taking the place of the intolerably expensive platinum1 for it resists corrosion when used for spark plugs and tooth plugs4 ,european steel men have taken to molybdenum more than ,americans4 ,the salts of this metal can be used in dyeing and photography4 ,calcium1 magnesium and aluminum1 common enough in their compounds1 have only come into use as metals since the invention of the electric furnace4 ,now the photographer uses magnesium powder for his flashlight when he wants to take a picture of his friends inside the house1 and the aviator uses it when he wants to take a picture of his enemies on the open field4 ,the flares prepared by our ,government for the war consist of a sheet iron cylinder1 four feet long and six inches thick1 containing a stick of magnesium attached to a tightly rolled silk parachute twenty feet in diameter when expanded4 ,the whole weighed #cb pounds4 ,on being dropped from the plane by pressing a button1 the rush of air set spinning a pinwheel at the bottom which ignited the magnesium stick and detonated a charge of black powder sufficient to throw off the case and release the parachute4 ,the burning flare gave off a light of #cbj1jjj candle power lasting for ten minutes as the parachute slowly descended4 ,this illuminated the ground on the darkest night sufficiently for the airman to aim his bombs or to take photographs4 ,the addition of #e or #aj per cent4 of magnesium to aluminum gives an alloy 7magnalium7 that is almost as light as aluminum and almost as strong as steel4 ,an alloy of #ij per cent4 aluminum and #aj per cent4 calcium is lighter and harder than aluminum and more resistant to corrosion4 ,the latest ,german airplane1 the ,junker1 was made entirely of duralumin4 ,even the wings were formed of corrugated sheets of this alloy instead of the usual doped cotton-cloth4 ,duralumin is composed of about #he per cent4 of aluminum1 #e per cent4 of copper1 #e per cent4 of zinc and #b per cent4 of tin4 ,when platinum was first discovered it was so cheap that ingots of it were gilded and sold as gold bricks to unwary purchasers4 ,the ,russian ,government used it as we use nickel1 for making small coins4 ,but this is an exception to the rule that the demand creates the supply4 ,platinum is really a rare metal1 not merely an unfamiliar one4 ,nowhere except in the ,urals is it found in quantity1 and since it seems indispensable in chemical and electrical appliances1 the price has continually gone up4 ,russia collapsed into chaos just when the war work made the heaviest demand for platinum1 so the governments had to put a stop to its use for jewelry and photography4 ,the gold brick scheme would now have to be reversed1 for gold is used as a cheaper metal to adulterate platinum4 ,all the members of the platinum family1 formerly ignored1 were pressed into service1 palladium1 rhodium1 osmium1 iridium1 and these1 alloyed with gold or silver1 were employed more or less satisfactorily by the dentist1 chemist and electrician as substitutes for the platinum of which they had been deprived4 ,one of these alloys1 composed of #bj per cent4 palladium and #hj per cent4 gold1 and bearing the telescoped name of palau 7palladium au-rum7 makes very acceptable crucibles for the laboratory and only costs half as much as platinum4 ,rhotanium is a similar alloy recently introduced4 ,the points of our gold pens are tipped with an osmium-iridium alloy4 ,it is a pity that this family of noble metals is so restricted1 for they are unsurpassed in tenacity and incorruptibility4 ,they could be of great service to the world in war and peace4 ,as the ,bad ,child says in his ,book of ,beasts3 ,i shoot the hippopotamus with bullets made of platinum1 ,because if ,i use leaden ones1 his hide is sure to flatten 'em4 ,along in the latter half of the last century chemists had begun to perceive certain regularities and relationships among the various elements1 so they conceived the idea that some sort of a pigeon-hole scheme might be devised in which the elements could be filed away in the order of their atomic weights so that one could see just how a certain element1 known or unknown1 would behave from merely observing its position in the series4 ,mendelef1 a ,russian chemist1 devised the most ingenious of such systems called the periodic law and gave proof that there was something in his theory by predicting the properties of three metallic elements1 then unknown but for which his arrangement showed three empty pigeon-holes4 ,sixteen years later all three of these predicted elements had been discovered1 one by a ,frenchman1 one by a ,german and one by a ,scandinavian1 and named from patriotic impulse1 gallium1 germanium and scandium4 ,this was a triumph of scientific prescience as striking as the mathematical proof of the existence of the planet ,neptune by ,leverrier before it had been found by the telescope4 ,but although ,mendelef's law told the truth1 it gradually became evident that it did not tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth1 as the lawyers put it4 ,as usually happens in the history of science the hypothesis was found not to explain things so simply and completely as was at first assumed4 ,the anomalies in the arrangement did not disappear on closer study1 but stuck out more conspicuously4 ,though ,mendelef had pointed out three missing links1 he had failed to make provision for a whole group of elements since discovered1 the inert gases of the helium-argon group4 ,as we now know1 the scheme was built upon the false assumptions that the elements are immutable and that their atomic weights are invariable4 ,the elements that the chemists had most difficulty in sorting out and identifying were the heavy metals found in the rare earths4 ,there were about twenty of them so mixed up together and so much alike as to baffle all ordinary means of separating them4 ,for a hundred years chemists worked over them and quarreled over them before they discovered that they had a commercial value4 ,it was a problem as remote from practicality as any that could be conceived4 ,the man in the street did not see why chemists should care whether there were two didymiums any more than why theologians should care whether there were two ,isaiahs4 ,but all of a sudden1 in #ahhe1 the chemical puzzle became a business proposition4 ,the rare earths became household utensils and it made a big difference with our monthly gas bills whether the ceria and the thoria in the burner mantles were absolutely pure or contained traces of some of the other elements that were so difficult to separate4 ,this sudden change of venue from pure to applied science came about through a ,viennese chemist1 ,dr4 ,carl ,auer1 later and in consequence known as ,baron ,auer von ,welsbach4 ,he was trying to sort out the rare earths by means of the spectroscopic method1 which consists ordinarily in dipping a platinum wire into a solution of the unknown substance and holding it in a colorless gas flame4 ,as it burns off1 each element gives a characteristic color to the flame1 which is seen as a series of lines when looked at through the spectroscope4 ,but the flash of the flame from the platinum wire was too brief to be studied1 so ,dr4 ,auer hit upon the plan of soaking a thread in the liquid and putting this in the gas jet4 ,the cotton of course burned off at once1 but the earths held together and when heated gave off a brilliant white light1 very much like the calcium or limelight which is produced by heating a stick of quicklime in the oxy-hydrogen flame4 ,but these rare earths do not require any such intense heat as that1 for they will glow in an ordinary gas jet4 ,so the ,welsbach mantle burner came into use everywhere and rescued the coal gas business from the destruction threatened by the electric light4 ,it was no longer necessary to enrich the gas with oil to make its flame luminous1 for a cheaper fuel gas such as is used for a gas stove will give1 with a mantle1 a fine white light of much higher candle power than the ordinary gas jet4 ,the mantles are knit in narrow cylinders on machines1 cut off at suitable lengths1 soaked in a solution of the salts of the rare earths and dried4 ,artificial silk 7viscose7 has been found better than cotton thread for the mantles1 for it is solid1 not hollow1 more uniform in quality and continuous instead of being broken up into one-inch fibers4 ,there is a great deal of difference in the quality of these mantles1 as every one who has used them knows4 ,some that give a bright glow at first with the gas-cock only half open will soon break up or grow dull and require more gas to get any kind of a light out of them4 ,others will last long and grow better to the last4 ,slight impurities in the earths or the gas will speedily spoil the light4 ,the best results are obtained from a mixture of #ii parts thoria and #a part ceria4 ,it is the ceria that gives the light1 yet a little more of it will lower the luminosity4 ,the non-chemical reader is apt to be confused by the strange names and their varied terminations1 but he need not be when he learns that the new metals are given names ending in -um1 such as sodium1 cerium1 thorium1 and that their oxides 7compounds with oxygen1 the earths7 are given the termination -a1 like soda1 ceria1 thoria4 ,so when he sees a name ending in -um let him picture to himself a metal1 any metal since they mostly look alike1 lead or silver1 for example4 ,and when he comes across a name ending in -a he may imagine a white powder like lime4 ,thorium1 for instance1 is1 as its name implies1 a metal named after the thunder god ,thor1 to whom we dedicate one day in each week1 ,thursday4 ,cerium gets its name from the ,roman goddess of agriculture by way of the asteroid4 ,the chief sources of the material for the ,welsbach burners is monazite1 a glittering yellow sand composed of phosphate of cerium with some #e per cent4 of thorium4 ,in #aiaf the ,united ,states imported #b1ejj1jjj pounds of monazite from ,brazil and ,india1 most of which used to go to ,germany4 ,in #ahie we got over a million and a half pounds from the ,carolinas1 but the foreign sand is richer and cheaper4 ,the price of the salts of the rare metals fluctuates wildly4 ,in #ahie thorium nitrate sold at #bjj a pound2 in #aiac it fell to #b4fj1 and in #aiaf it rose to #h4 ,since the monazite contains more cerium than thorium and the mantles made from it contain more thorium than cerium1 there is a superfluity of cerium4 ,the manufacturers give away a pound of cerium salts with every purchase of a hundred pounds of thorium salts4 ,it annoyed ,welsbach to see the cerium residues thrown away and accumulating around his mantle factory1 so he set out to find some use for it4 ,he reduced the mixed earths to a metallic form and found that it gave off a shower of sparks when scratched4 ,an alloy of cerium with #cj or #ce per cent4 of iron proved the best and was put on the market in the form of automatic lighters4 ,a big business was soon built up in ,austria on the basis of this obscure chemical element rescued from the dump-heap4 ,the sale of the cerite lighters in ,france threatened to upset the finances of the republic1 which derived large revenue from its monopoly of match-making1 so the ,french ,government imposed a tax upon every man who carried one4 ,american tourists who bought these lighters in ,germany used to be much annoyed at being held up on the ,french frontier and compelled to take out a license4 ,during the war the cerium sparklers were much used in the trenches for lighting cigarettes1 but--as those who have seen ,the ,better ',ole will know--they sometimes fail to strike fire4 ,auer-metal or cerium-iron alloy was used in munitions to ignite hand grenades and to blazon the flight of trailer shells4 ,there are many other pyrophoric 7light-producing7 alloys1 including steel1 which our ancestors used with flint before matches and percussion caps were invented4 ,there are more than fifty metals known and not half of them have come into common use1 so there is still plenty of room for the expansion of the science of metallurgy4 ,if the reader has not forgotten his arithmetic of permutations he can calculate how many different alloys may be formed by varying the combinations and proportions of these fifty4 ,we have seen how quickly elements formerly known only to chemists--and to some of them known only by name--have become indispensable in our daily life4 ,any one of those still unutilized may be found to have peculiar properties that fit it for filling a long unfelt want in modern civilization4 ,who1 for instance1 will find a use for gallium1 the metal of ,france8 ,it was described in #ahfi by ,mendelef in advance of its advent and has been known in person since #ahge1 but has not yet been set to work4 ,it is such a remarkable metal that it must be good for something4 ,if you saw it in a museum case on a cold day you might take it to be a piece of aluminum1 but if the curator let you hold it in your hand--which he won't--it would melt and run over the floor like mercury4 ,the melting point is #hg ,fahr4 ,it might be used in thermometers for measuring temperatures above the boiling point of mercury were it not for the peculiar fact that gallium wets glass so it sticks to the side of the tube instead of forming a clear convex curve on top like mercury4 ,then there is columbium1 the ,american metal4 ,it is strange that an element named after ,columbia should prove so impractical4 ,columbium is a metal closely resembling tantalum and tantalum found a use as electric light filaments4 ,a columbium lamp should appeal to our patriotism4 ,the so-called rare elements are really abundant enough considering the earth's crust as a whole1 though they are so thinly scattered that they are usually overlooked and hard to extract4 ,but whenever one of them is found valuable it is soon found available4 ,a systematic search generally reveals it somewhere in sufficient quantity to be worked4 ,who1 then1 will be the first to discover a use for indium1 germanium1 terbium1 thulium1 lanthanum1 neodymium1 scandium1 samarium and others as unknown to us as tungsten was to our fathers8 ,as evidence of the statement that it does not matter how rare an element may be it will come into common use if it is found to be commonly useful1 we may refer to radium4 ,a good rich specimen of radium ore1 pitchblende1 may contain as much1 as one part in #d1jjj1jjj4 ,madame ,curie1 the brilliant ,polish ,parisian1 had to work for years before she could prove to the world that such an element existed and for years afterwards before she could get the metal out4 ,yet now we can all afford a bit of radium to light up our watch dials in the dark4 ,the amount needed for this is infinitesimal4 ,if it were more it would scorch our skins1 for radium is an element in eruption4 ,the atom throws off corpuscles at intervals as a ,roman candle throws off blazing balls4 ,some of these particles1 the alpha rays1 are atoms of another element1 helium1 charged with positive electricity and are ejected with a velocity of #ah1jjj miles a second4 ,some of them1 the beta rays1 are negative electrons1 only about one seven-thousandth the size of the others1 but are ejected with almost the speed of light1 #ahf1jjj miles a second4 ,if one of the alpha projectiles strikes a slice of zinc sulfide it makes a splash of light big enough to be seen with a microscope1 so we can now follow the flight of a single atom4 ,the luminous watch dials consist of a coating of zinc sulfide under continual bombardment by the radium projectiles4 ,sir ,william ,crookes invented this radium light apparatus and called it a spinthariscope1 which is ,greek for spark-seer4 ,evidently if radium is so wasteful of its substance it cannot last forever nor could it have forever existed4 ,the elements then ate not necessarily eternal and immutable1 as used to be supposed4 ,they have a natural length of life2 they are born and die and propagate1 at least some of them do4 ,radium1 for instance1 is the offspring of ionium1 which is the great-great-grandson of uranium1 the heaviest of known elements4 ,putting this chemical genealogy into biblical language we might say3 ,uranium lived #e1jjj1jjj1jjj years and begot ,uranium ,x#a1 which lived #bd4f days and begot ,uranium ,x#b1 which lived #fi seconds and begot ,uranium #b1 which lived #b1jjj1jjj years and begot ,ionium1 which lived #bjj1jjj years and begot ,radium1 which lived #ahej years and begot ,niton1 which lived #c4he days and begot ,radium ,a1 which lived #c minutes and begot ,radium ,b1 which lived #bf4h minutes and begot ,radium ,c1 which lived #ai4e minutes and begot ,radium ,d1 which lived #ab years and begot ,radium ,e1 which lived #e days and begot ,polonium1 which lived #acf days and begot ,lead4 ,the figures ,i have given are the times when half the parent substance has gone over into the next generation4 ,it will be seen that the chemist is even more liberal in his allowance of longevity than was ,moses with the patriarchs4 ,it appears from the above that half of the radium in any given specimen will be transformed in about #bjjj years4 ,half of what is left will disappear in the next #bjjj years1 half of that in the next #bjjj and so on4 ,the reader can figure out for himself when it will all be gone4 ,he will then have the answer to the old ,eleatic conundrum of when ,achilles will overtake the tortoise4 ,but we may say that after #ajj1jjj years there would not be left any radium worth mentioning1 or in other words practically all the radium now in existence is younger than the human race4 ,the lead that is found in uranium and has presumably descended from uranium1 behaves like other lead but is lighter4 ,its atomic weight is only #bjf1 while ordinary lead weighs #bjg4 ,it appears then that the same chemical element may have different atomic weights according to its ancestry1 while on the other hand different chemical elements may have the same atomic weight4 ,this would have seemed shocking heresy to the chemists of the last century1 who prided themselves on the immutability of the elements and did not take into consideration their past life or heredity4 ,the study of these radioactive elements has led to a new atomic theory4 ,i suppose most of us in our youth used to imagine the atom as a little round hard ball1 but now it is conceived as a sort of solar system with an electropositive nucleus acting as the sun and negative electrons revolving around it like the planets4 ,the number of free positive electrons in the nucleus varies from one in hydrogen to #ib in uranium4 ,this leaves room for #ib possible elements and of these all but six are more or less certainly known and definitely placed in the scheme4 ,the atom of uranium1 weighing #bch times the atom of hydrogen1 is the heaviest known and therefore the ultimate limit of the elements1 though it is possible that elements may be found beyond it just as the planet ,neptune was discovered outside the orbit of ,uranus4 ,considering the position of uranium and its numerous progeny as mentioned above1 it is quite appropriate that this element should bear the name of the father of all the gods4 ,in these radioactive elements we have come upon sources of energy such as was never dreamed of in our philosophy4 ,the most striking peculiarity of radium is that it is always a little warmer than its surroundings1 no matter how warm these may be4 ,slowly1 spontaneously and continuously1 it decomposes and we know no way of hastening or of checking it4 ,whether it is cooled in liquefied air or heated to its melting point the change goes on just the same4 ,an ounce of radium salt will give out enough heat in one hour to melt an ounce of ice and in the next hour will raise this water to the boiling point1 and so on again and again without cessation for years1 a fire without fuel1 a realization of the philosopher's lamp that the alchemists sought in vain4 ,the total energy so emitted is millions of times greater than that produced by any chemical combination such as the union of oxygen and hydrogen to form water4 ,from the heavy white salt there is continually rising a faint fire-mist like the will-o'-the-wisp over a swamp4 ,this gas is known as the emanation or niton1 the shining one4 ,a pound of niton would give off energy at the rate of #bc1jjj horsepower2 fine stuff to run a steamer1 one would think1 but we must remember that it does not last4 ,by the sixth day the power would have fallen off by half4 ,besides1 no one would dare to serve as engineer1 for the radiation will rot away the flesh of a living man who comes near it1 causing gnawing ulcers or curing them4 ,it will not only break down the complex and delicate molecules of organic matter but will attack the atom itself1 changing1 it is believed1 one element into another1 again the fulfilment of a dream of the alchemists4 ,and its rays1 unseen and unfelt by us1 are yet strong enough to penetrate an armorplate and photograph what is behind it4 ,but radium is not the most mysterious of the elements but the least so4 ,it is giving out the secret that the other elements have kept4 ,it suggests to us that all the other elements in proportion to their weight have concealed within them similar stores of energy4 ,astronomers have long dazzled our imaginations by calculating the horsepower of the world1 making us feel cheap in talking about our steam engines and dynamos when a minutest fraction of the waste dynamic energy of the solar system would make us all as rich as millionaires4 ,but the heavenly bodies are too big for us to utilize in this practical fashion4 ,and now the chemists have become as exasperating as the astronomers1 for they give us a glimpse of incalculable wealth in the meanest substance4 ,for wealth is measured by the available energy of the world1 and if a few ounces of anything would drive an engine or manufacture nitrogenous fertilizer from the air all our troubles would be over4 ,kipling in his sketch1 ,with the ,night ,mail1 and ,wells in his novel1 ,the ,world ,set ,free1 stretched their imaginations in trying to tell us what it would mean to have command of this power1 but they are a little hazy in their descriptions of the machinery by which it is utilized4 ,the atom is as much beyond our reach as the moon4 ,we cannot rob its vault of the treasure4 ,,reading ,,references ,the foregoing pages will not have achieved their aim unless their readers have become sufficiently interested in the developments of industrial chemistry to desire to pursue the subject further in some of its branches4 ,assuming such interest has been aroused1 ,i am giving below a few references to books and articles which may serve to set the reader upon the right track for additional information4 ,to follow the rapid progress of applied science it is necessary to read continuously such periodicals as the ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry 7,new ,york71 ,metallurgical and ,chemical ,engineering 7,new ,york71 ,journal of the ,society of ,chemical ,industry 7,london71 ,chemical ,abstracts 7published by the ,american ,chemical ,society1 ,easton1 ,pa471 and the various journals devoted to special trades4 ,the reader may need to be reminded that the ,united ,states ,government publishes for free distribution or at low price annual volumes or special reports dealing with science and industry4 ,among these may be mentioned ,yearbook of the ,department of ,agriculture2 ,mineral ,resources of the ,united ,states1 published by the ,united ,states ,geological ,survey in two annual volumes1 ,vol4 ,i on the metals and ,vol4 ,,ii on the non-metals2 the ,annual ,report of the ,smithsonian ,institution1 containing selected articles on pure and applied science2 the daily ,commerce ,reports and special bulletins of ,department of ,commerce4 ,write for lists of publications of these departments4 ,the following books on industrial chemistry in general are recommended for reading and reference3 ,the ,chemistry of ,commerce and ,some ,chemical ,problems of ,to-,day by ,robert ,kennedy ,duncan 7,harpers1 ,n4,y471 ,modern ,chemistry and ,its ,wonders by ,martin 7,van ,nostrand71 ,chemical ,discovery and ,invention in the ,twentieth ,century by ,sir ,william ,a4 ,tilden 7,dutton1 ,n4,y471 ,discoveries and ,inventions of the ,twentieth ,century by ,edward ,cressy 7,dutton71 ,industrial ,chemistry by ,allen ,rogers 7,van ,nostrand74 ,everyman's ,chemistry by ,ellwood ,hendrick 7,harpers1 ,modern ,science ,series7 is written in a lively style and assumes no previous knowledge of chemistry from the reader4 ,the chapters on cellulose1 gums1 sugars and oils are particularly interesting4 ,chemistry of ,familiar ,things by ,s4,s4 ,sadtler 7,lippincott7 is both comprehensive and comprehensible4 ,the following are intended for young readers but are not to be despised by their elders who may wish to start in on an easy up-grade3 ,chemistry of ,common ,things 7,allyn ,bacon1 ,boston7 is a popular high school text-book but differing from most text-books in being readable and attractive4 ,its descriptions of industrial processes are brief but clear4 ,the ,achievements of ,chemical ,science by ,james ,c4 ,philip 7,macmillan7 is a handy little book1 easy reading for pupils4 ,introduction to the ,study of ,science by ,w4,p4 ,smith and ,e4,g4 ,jewett 7,macmillan7 touches upon chemical topics in a simple way4 ,on the history of commerce and the effect of inventions on society the following titles may be suggested3 ,outlines of ,industrial ,history by ,e4 ,cressy 7,macmillan72 ,the ,origin of ,invention1 a study of primitive industry1 by ,o4,t4 ,mason 7,scribner72 ,the ,romance of ,commerce by ,gordon ,selbridge 7,lane72 ,industrial and ,commercial ,geography or ,commerce and ,industry by ,j4 ,russell ,smith 7,holt72 ,handbook of ,commercial ,geography by ,g4,g4 ,chisholm 7,longmans74 ,the newer theories of chemistry and the constitution of the atom are explained in ,the ,realities of ,modern ,science by ,john ,mills 7,macmillan71 and ,the ,electron by ,r4,a4 ,millikan 7,university of ,chicago ,press71 but both require a knowledge of mathematics4 ,the little book on ,matter and ,energy by ,frederick ,soddy 7,holt7 is better adapted to the general reader4 ,the most recent text-book is the ,introduction to ,general ,chemistry by ,h4,n4 ,mc,coy and ,e4,m4 ,terry4 7,chicago1 #aiai47 ,,chapter ,,ii ,the reader who may be interested in following up this subject will find references to all the literature in the summary by ,helen ,r4 ,hosmer1 of the ,research ,laboratory of the ,general ,electric ,company1 in the ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry1 ,new ,york1 for ,april1 #aiag4 ,bucher's paper may be found in the same journal for ,march1 and the issue for ,september contains a full report of the action of ,u4,s4 ,government and a comparison of the various processes4 ,send fifteen cents to the ,u4,s4 ,department of ,commerce 7or to the nearest custom house7 for ,bulletin ,no4 #eb1 ,special ,agents ,series on ,utilization of ,atmospheric ,nitrogen by ,t4,h4 ,norton4 ,the ,smithsonian ,institution of ,washington has issued a pamphlet on ,sources of ,nitrogen ,compounds in the ,united ,states4 ,in the #aiac report of the ,smithsonian ,institution there are two fine articles on this subject3 ,the ,manufacture of ,nitrates from the ,atmosphere and ,the ,distribution of ,mankind1 which discusses ,sir ,william ,crookes' prediction of the exhaustion of wheat land4 ,the ,d4 ,van ,nostrand ,co41 ,new ,york1 publishes a monograph on ,fixation of ,atmospheric ,nitrogen by ,j4 ,knox1 also ,,tnt and ,other ,nitrotoluenes by ,g4,c4 ,smith4 ,the ,american ,cyanamid ,company1 ,new ,york1 gives out some attractive literature on their process4 ,american ,munitions #aiag-aiah1 the report of ,benedict ,crowell1 ,director of ,munitions1 to the ,secretary of ,war1 gives a fully illustrated account of the manufacture of arms1 explosives and toxic gases4 ,our war experience in the ,oxidation of ,ammonia is told by ,c4,l4 ,parsons in ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry1 ,june1 #aiai1 and various other articles on the government munition work appeared in the same journal in the first half of #aiai4 ,the ,muscle ,shoals ,nitrate ,plant in ,chemical and ,metallurgical ,engineering1 ,january1 #aiai4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,the ,department of ,agriculture or your congressman will send you literature on the production and use of fertilizers4 ,from your state agricultural experiment station you can procure information as to local needs and products4 ,consult the articles on potash salts and phosphate rock in the latest volume of ,mineral ,resources of the ,united ,states1 ,part ,,ii ,non-,metals 7published free by the ,u4,s4 ,geological ,survey74 ,also consult the latest ,yearbook of the ,department of ,agriculture4 ,for self-instruction1 problems and experiments get ,extension ,course in ,soils1 ,bulletin ,no4 #cee1 ,u4,s4 ,dept4 of ,agric4 ,a list of all government publications on ,soil and ,fertilizers is sent free by ,superintendent of ,documents1 ,washington4 ,the ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry for ,july1 #aiag1 publishes an article by ,w4,c4 ,ebaugh on ,potash and a ,world ,emergency1 and various articles on ,american sources of potash appeared in the same ,journal ,october1 #aiah1 and ,february1 #aiah4 ,bulletin #ajb1 ,part #b1 of the ,united ,states ,national ,museum contains an interpretation of the fertilizer situation in #aiag by ,j4,e4 ,poque4 ,on new potash deposits in ,alsace and elsewhere see ,scientific ,american ,supplement1 ,september #ad1 #aiah4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,send ten cents to the ,department of ,commerce1 ,washington1 for ,dyestuffs for ,american ,textile and ,other ,industries1 by ,thomas ,h4 ,norton1 ,special ,agents' ,series1 ,no4 #if4 ,a more technical bulletin by the same author is ,artificial ,dyestuffs ,used in the ,united ,states1 ,special ,agents' ,series1 ,no4 #aba1 thirty cents4 ,dyestuff ,situation in ,u4,s41 ,special ,agents' ,series1 ,no4 #aaa1 five cents4 ,coal-,tar ,products1 by ,h4,g4 ,porter1 ,technical ,paper #hi1 ,bureau of ,mines1 ,department of the ,interior1 five cents4 ,wealth in ,waste1 by ,waldemar ,kaempfert1 ,mc,clure's1 ,april1 #aiag4 ,the ,evolution of ,artificial ,dyestuffs1 by ,thomas ,h4 ,norton1 ,scientific ,american1 ,july #ba1 #aiag4 ,germany's ,commercial ,preparedness for ,peace1 by ,james ,armstrong1 ,scientific ,american1 ,january #bi1 #aiaf4 ,the ,conquest of ,commerce and ,american ,made1 by ,edwin ,e4 ,slosson in ,the ,independent of ,september #f and ,october #aa1 #aiae4 ,the ,h4 ,koppers ,company1 ,pittsburgh1 give out an illustrated pamphlet on their ,by-,product ,coke and ,gas ,ovens4 ,the addresses delivered during the war on ,the ,aniline ,color1 ,dyestuff and ,chemical ,conditions1 by ,i4,f4 ,stone1 president of the ,national ,aniline and ,chemical ,company1 have been collected in a volume by the author4 ,for ,dyestuffs as ,medicinal ,agents by ,g4 ,heyl1 see ,color ,trade ,journal1 vol4 #d1 p4 #gc1 #aiai4 ,the ,chemistry of ,synthetic ,drugs by ,percy ,may1 and ,color in ,relation to ,chemical ,constitution by ,e4,r4 ,watson are published in ,longmans' ,monographs on ,industrial ,chemistry4 ,enemy ,property in the ,united ,states by ,a4 ,mitchell ,palmer in ,saturday ,evening ,post1 ,july #ai1 #aiai1 tells of how ,germany monopolized chemical industry4 ,the ,carbonization of ,coal by ,v4,b4 ,lewis 7,van ,nostrand1 #aiab74 ,research in the ,tar ,dye ,industry by ,b4,c4 ,hesse in ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry1 ,september1 #aiaf4 ,kekul tells how he discovered the constitution of benzene in the ,berichte der ,deutschen chemischen ,gesellschaft1 ,v4 ,,xxiii1 ,i1 p4 #acjf4 ,i have quoted it with some other instances of dream discoveries in ,the ,independent of ,jan4 #bf1 #aiah4 ,even this innocent scientific vision has not escaped the foul touch of the ,freudians4 ,dr4 ,alfred ,robitsek in ,symbolisches ,denken in der chemischen ,forschung1 ,imago1 ,v4 ,i1 p4 #hc1 has deduced from it that ,kekul was morally guilty of the crime of ,o,edipus as well as minor misdemeanors4 ,,chapter ,v ,read up on the methods of extracting perfumes from flowers in any encyclopedia or in ,duncan's ,chemistry of ,commerce or ,tilden's ,chemical ,discovery in the ,twentieth ,century or ,rogers' ,industrial ,chemistry4 ,the pamphlet containing a synopsis of the lectures by the late ,alois von ,isakovics on ,synthetic ,perfumes and ,flavors1 published by the ,synfleur ,scientific ,laboratories1 ,monticello1 ,new ,york1 is immensely interesting4 ,van ,dyk ,co41 ,new ,york1 issue a pamphlet on the composition of oil of rose4 ,gildemeister's ,the ,volatile ,oils is excellent on the history of the subject4 ,walter's ,manual for the ,essence ,industry 7,wiley7 gives methods and recipes4 ,parry's ,chemistry of ,essential ,oils and ,artificial ,perfumes1 #aiah edition4 ,chemistry and ,odoriferous ,bodies ,since #aiad by ,g4 ,satie in ,chemie et ,industrie1 vol4 ,,ii1 p4 #bga1 #cic4 ,odor and ,chemical ,constitution1 ,chemical ,abstracts1 #aiag1 p4 #caga and ,journal of ,society for ,chemical ,industry1 v4 #cf1 p4 #idb4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,the bulletin on ,by-,products of the ,lumber ,industry by ,h4,k4 ,benson 7published by ,department of ,commerce1 ,washington1 #aj cents7 contains a description of paper-making and wood distillation4 ,there is a good article on cellulose products by ,h4,s4 ,mork in ,journal of the ,franklin ,institute1 ,september1 #aiag1 and in ,paper1 ,september #bf1 #aiag4 ,the ,government ,forest ,products ,laboratory at ,madison1 ,wisconsin1 publishes technical papers on distillation of wood1 etc4 ,the ,forest ,service of the ,u4,s4 ,department of ,agriculture is the chief source of information on forestry4 ,the standard authority is ,cross and ,bevans' ,cellulose4 ,for the acetates see the eighth volume of ,worden's ,technology of the ,cellulose ,esters4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,the speeches made when ,hyatt was awarded the ,perkin medal by the ,american ,chemical ,society for the discovery of celluloid may be found in the ,journal of the ,society of ,chemical ,industry for #aiad1 p4 #bbe4 ,in #aiaf ,baekeland received the same medal1 and the proceedings are reported in the same ,journal1 v4 #ce1 p4 #bhe4 ,a comprehensive technical paper with bibliography on ,synthetic ,resins by ,l4,v4 ,redman appeared in the ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry1 ,january1 #aiad4 ,the controversy over patent rights may be followed in the same ,journal1 v4 #h 7#aiae71 p4 #aaga1 and v4 #i 7#aiaf71 p4 #bjg4 ,the ,effects of ,heat on ,celluloid have been examined by the ,bureau of ,standards1 ,washington 7,technological ,paper ,no4 #ih71 abstract in ,scientific ,american ,supplement1 ,june #bi1 #aiah4 ,for casein see ,tague's article in ,rogers' ,industrial ,chemistry 7,van ,nostrand74 ,see also ,worden's ,nitrocellulose ,industry and ,technology of the ,cellulose ,esters 7,van ,nostrand72 ,hodgson's ,celluloid and ,cross and ,bevan's ,cellulose4 ,for references to recent research and new patent specifications on artificial plastics1 resins1 rubber1 leather1 wood1 etc41 see the current numbers of ,chemical ,abstracts 7,easton1 ,pa47 and such journals as the ,india ,rubber ,journal1 ,paper1 ,textile ,world1 ,leather ,world and ,journal of ,american ,leather ,chemical ,association4 ,the ,general ,bakelite ,company1 ,new ,york1 the ,redmanol ,products ,company1 ,chicago1 the ,condensite ,company1 ,bloomfield1 ,n4,j41 the ,arlington ,company1 ,new ,york 7handling pyralin71 give out advertising literature regarding their respective products4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,sir ,william ,tilden's ,chemical ,discovery and ,invention in the ,twentieth ,century 7,e4,p4 ,dutton ,co47 contains a readable chapter on rubber with references to his own discovery4 ,the ,wonder ,book of ,rubber1 issued by the ,b4,f4 ,goodrich ,rubber ,company1 ,akron1 ,ohio1 gives an interesting account of their industry4 ,iles3 ,leading ,american ,inventors 7,henry ,holt ,co47 contains a life of ,goodyear1 the discoverer of vulcanization4 ,potts3 ,chemistry of the ,rubber ,industry1 #aiab4 ,the ,rubber ,industry3 ,report of the ,international ,rubber ,congress1 #aiad4 ,pond3 ,review of ,pioneer ,work in ,rubber ,synthesis in ,journal of the ,american ,chemical ,society1 #aiad4 ,bang3 ,synthetic ,rubber in ,metallurgical and ,chemical ,engineering1 ,may #a1 #aiag4 ,castellan3 ,l',industrie caoutchoucire1 doctor's thesis1 ,university of ,paris1 #aiae4 ,the ,india ,rubber ,world1 ,new ,york1 all numbers1 especially ,what ,i ,saw in the ,philippines1 by the ,editor1 #aiag4 ,pearson3 ,production of ,guayule ,rubber1 ,commerce ,reports1 #aiah1 and ,india ,rubber ,world1 #aiai4 ,historical ,sketch of ,chemistry of ,rubber by ,s4,c4 ,bradford in ,science ,progress1 v4 ,,ii1 p4 #a4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,the ,cane ,sugar ,industry 7,bulletin ,no4 #ec1 ,miscellaneous ,series1 ,department of ,commerce1 #ej cents7 gives agricultural and manufacturing costs in ,hawaii1 ,porto ,rico1 ,louisiana and ,cuba4 ,sugar and ,its ,value as ,food1 by ,mary ,hinman ,abel4 7,farmer's ,bulletin ,no4 #ece1 ,department of ,agriculture1 free47 ,production of ,sugar in the ,united ,states and ,foreign ,countries1 by ,perry ,elliott4 7,department of ,agriculture1 #aj cents47 ,conditions in the ,sugar ,market ,january to ,october1 #aiag1 a pamphlet published by the ,american ,sugar ,refining ,company1 #aag ,wall ,street1 ,new ,york1 gives an admirable survey of the present situation as seen by the refiners4 ,cuban ,cane ,sugar1 by ,robert ,wiles1 #aiaf 7,indianapolis3 ,bobbs-,merrill ,co41 #ge cents71 an attractive little book in simple language4 ,the ,world's ,cane ,sugar ,industry1 ,past and ,present1 by ,h4,c4,p4 ,geering4 ,the ,story of ,sugar1 by ,prof4 ,g4,t4 ,surface of ,yale 7,appleton1 #aiaj74 ,a very interesting and reliable book4 ,the ,digestibility of ,glucose is discussed in ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry1 ,august1 #aiag4 ,utilization of ,beet ,molasses in ,metallurgical and ,chemical ,engineering1 ,april #e1 #aiag4 ,,chapter ,x ,maize1 by ,edward ,alber 7,bulletin of the ,pan-,american ,union1 ,january1 #aiae74 ,glucose1 by ,geo4 ,w4 ,rolfe 7,scientific ,american ,supplement1 ,may #ae or ,november #f1 #aiae1 and in ,boger's ,industrial ,chemistry74 ,on making ethyl alcohol from wood1 see ,bulletin ,no4 #aaj1 ,special ,agents' ,series1 ,department of ,commerce 7#aj cents71 and an article by ,f4,w4 ,kressmann in ,metallurgical and ,chemical ,engineering1 ,july #ae1 #aiaf4 ,on the manufacture and uses of industrial alcohol the ,department of ,agriculture has issued for free distribution ,farmer's ,bulletin #bfi and #dbd1 and ,department ,bulletin #ahb4 ,on the ,utilization of ,corn ,cobs1 see ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry1 ,nov41 #aiah4 ,for ,john ,winthrop's experiment1 see the same ,journal1 ,jan41 #aiai4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,president ,scherer's ,cotton as a ,world ,power 7,stokes1 #aiaf7 is a fascinating volume that combines the history1 science and politics of the plant and does not ignore the poetry and legend4 ,in the ,yearbook of the ,department of ,agriculture for #aiaf will be found an interesting article by ,h4,s4 ,bailey on ,some ,american ,vegetable ,oils 7sold separate for five cents71 also ,the ,peanut3 ,a ,great ,american ,food by same author in the ,yearbook of #aiag4 ,the ,soy ,bean ,industry is discussed in the same volume4 ,see also3 ,thompson's ,cottonseed ,products and ,their ,competitors in ,northern ,europe 7,part ,i1 ,cake and ,meal2 ,part ,,ii1 ,edible ,oils4 ,department of ,commerce1 #aj cents each74 ,production and ,conservation of ,fats and ,oils in the ,united ,states 7,bulletin ,no4 #gfi1 #aiai1 ,u4,s4 ,dept4 of ,agriculture74 ,cottonseed ,meal for ,feeding ,cattle 7,u4,s4 ,department of ,agriculture1 ,farmer's ,bulletin #fee1 free74 ,cottonseed ,industry in ,foreign ,countries1 by ,t4,h4 ,norton1 #aiae 7,department of ,commerce1 #aj cents74 ,cottonseed ,products in ,journal of the ,society of ,chemical ,industry1 ,july #af1 #aiag1 and ,baskerville's article in the same journal 7#aiae1 vol4 #g1 p4 #bgg74 ,dunstan's ,oil ,seeds and ,feeding ,cakes1 a volume on ,british problems since the war4 ,ellis's ,the ,hydrogenation of ,oils 7,van ,nostrand1 #aiad74 ,copeland's ,the ,coconut 7,macmillan74 ,barrett's ,the ,philippine ,coconut ,industry 7,bulletin ,no4 #be1 ,philippine ,bureau of ,agriculture74 ,coconuts1 the ,consols of the ,east by ,smith and ,pope 7,london74 ,all ,about ,coconuts by ,belfort and ,hoyer 7,london74 ,numerous articles on copra and other oils appear in ,u4,s4 ,commerce ,reports and ,philippine ,journal of ,science4 ,the ,world ,wide ,search for ,oils in ,the ,americas 7,national ,city ,bank1 ,n4,y474 ,modern ,margarine ,technology by ,w4 ,clayton in ,journal ,society of ,chemical ,industry1 ,dec4 #e1 #aiag2 also see ,scientific ,american ,supplement1 ,sept4 #ba1 #aiah4 ,a court decision on the patent rights of hydrogenation is given in ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry for ,december1 #aiag4 ,the standard work on the whole subject is ,lewkowitsch's ,chemical ,technology of ,oils1 ,fats and ,waxes 7#c vols41 ,macmillan1 #aiae74 ,,chapter ,,xii ,a full account of the development of the ,american ,warfare ,service has been published in the ,journal of ,industrial and ,engineering ,chemistry in the monthly issues from ,january to ,august1 #aiai1 and an article on the ,british service in the issue of ,april1 #aiah4 ,see also ,crowell's ,report on ,america's ,munitions1 published by ,war ,department4 ,scientific ,american1 ,march #bi1 #aiai1 contains several articles4 ,a4 ,russell ,bond's ,inventions of the ,great ,war 7,century7 contains chapters on poison gas and explosives4 ,lieutenant ,colonel ,s4,j4,m4 ,auld1 ,chief ,gas ,officer of ,sir ,julian ,byng's army and a member of the ,british ,military ,mission to the ,united ,states1 has published a volume on ,gas and ,flame in ,modern ,warfare 7,george ,h4 ,doran ,co474 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,see chapter in ,cressy's ,discoveries and ,inventions of ,twentieth ,century4 ,oxy-,acetylene ,welders1 ,bulletin ,no4 #aa1 ,federal ,board of ,vocational ,education1 ,washington1 ,june1 #aiah1 gives practical directions for welding4 ,reactions1 a quarterly published by ,goldschmidt ,thermit ,company1 ,n4,y41 reports latest achievements of aluminothermics4 ,provost ,smith's ,chemistry in ,america 7,appleton7 tells of the experiments of ,robert ,hare and other pioneers4 ,applications of ,electrolysis in ,chemical ,industry by ,a4,f4 ,hall 7,longmans74 ,for recent work on artificial diamonds see ,scientific ,american ,supplement1 ,dec4 #h1 #aiag1 and ,august #bd1 #aiah4 ,on acetylene see ,a ,storehouse of ,sleeping ,energy by ,j4,m4 ,morehead in ,scientific ,american1 ,january #bg1 #aiag4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,spring's ,non-,technical ,talks on ,iron and ,steel 7,stokes7 is a model of popular science writing1 clear1 comprehensive and abundantly illustrated4 ,tilden's ,chemical ,discovery in the ,twentieth ,century must here again be referred to4 ,the ,encyclopedia ,britannica is convenient for reference on the various metals mentioned2 see the article on ,lighting for the ,welsbach burner4 ,the annual ,mineral ,resources of the ,united ,states1 ,part ,i1 contains articles on the newer metals by ,frank ,w4 ,hess2 see ,tungsten in the volume for #aiad1 also ,bulletin ,no4 #feb1 ,u4,s4 ,geological ,survey1 by same author4 ,foote-,notes1 the house organ of the ,foote ,mineral ,company1 ,philadelphia1 gives information on the rare elements4 ,interesting advertising literature may be obtained from the ,titantium ,alloy ,manufacturing ,company1 ,niagara ,falls1 ,n4,y42 ,duriron ,castings ,company1 ,dayton1 ,o42 ,buffalo ,foundry and ,machine ,company1 ,buffalo1 ,n4,y41 manufacturers of ,buflokast acid-proof apparatus1 and similar concerns4 ,the following additional references may be useful3 ,stellite alloys in ,jour4 ,ind4 ,eng4 ,chem41 v4 #i1 p4 #igd2 ,rossi's work on titantium in same journal1 ,feb41 #aiah2 ,welsbach mantles in ,journal ,franklin ,institute1 v4 #ad1 p4 #dja1 #ehe2 pure alloys in ,trans4 ,amer4 ,electro-,chemical ,society1 v4 #cb1 p4 #bfi2 molybdenum in ,engineering1 #aiag1 or ,scientific ,american ,supplement1 ,oct4 #bj1 #aiag2 acid-resisting iron in ,sc4 ,amer4 ,sup41 ,may #ca1 #aiai2 ferro-alloys in ,jour4 ,ind4 ,eng4 ,chem41 v4 #aj1 p4 #hca2 influence of vanadium1 etc41 on iron1 in ,met4 ,chem4 ,eng41 v4 #ae1 p4 #ecj2 tungsten in ,engineering1 v4 #ajd1 p4 #bad4 ,,index ,abrasives1 #bdi-bea ,acetanilid1 #hg ,acetone1 #abe1 #aed1 #bdc1 #bde ,acetylene1 #cj1 #aed1 #bdj-bdh1 #beg1 #cjg1 #cjh ,acheson1 #bdi ,air1 liquefied1 #cc ,alcohol1 ethyl1 #aja1 #ajb1 #abg1 #agd1 #aij-aid1 #bdb-bdd1 #cje methyl1 #aja1 #ajb1 #abg1 #aia ,aluminum1 #ca1 #bdf-bdh1 #bee1 #bgb1 #bhd ,ammonia1 #bg1 #bi1 #ca1 #cc1 #ef1 #fd1 #bej ,american dye industry1 #hb ,aniline dyes1 #fj-ib ,antiseptics1 #hf1 #hg ,argon1 #af ,art and nature1 #h1 #i1 #agj1 #agc ,artificial silk1 #aaf1 #aah1 #aai ,aspirin1 #hd ,atomic theory1 #bic-bif1 #bii ,aylesworth1 #adj ,baekeland1 #acg ,baeyer1 ,adolf von1 #gg ,bakelite1 #ach1 #cjc ,balata1 #aei ,bauxite1 #ca ,beet sugar1 #afe1 #afi1 #cje ,benzene formula1 #fg1 #cja1 #aja ,berkeley1 #fa ,berthelot1 #g1 #id ,birkeland-,eyde process1 #bf ,bucher process1 #cb ,butter1 #bja1 #bjh ,calcium1 #bdf1 #bec ,calcium carbide1 #cj1 #cci ,camphor1 #ajj1 #aca ,cane sugar1 #afd1 #afg1 #agg1 #ahj1 #cje ,carbolic acid1 #ah1 #fd1 #hd1 #aja1 #ajb1 #acg ,carborundum1 #bdi-bea ,caro and ,frank process1 #cj ,casein1 #adb ,castner1 #bdf ,catalyst1 #bh1 #bjd ,celluloid1 #abh-ace1 #cjb ,cellulose1 #aaj-abg1 #abi1 #acg1 #cjb ,cellulose acetate1 #aah1 #abj1 #cjb ,cerium1 #bhh-bij ,chemical warfare1 #bah-bce1 #cjg ,chlorin1 #bbd1 #bbf1 #bej ,chlorophyll1 #bfg ,chlorpicrin1 #bbd1 #bbf ,chromicum1 #bgh1 #bhj ,coal1 distillation of1 #fj1 #fd1 #gj1 #hd1 #cja ,coal tar colors1 #fj-ib ,cochineal1 #gi ,coconut oil1 #bjc1 #baa-bae1 #cjf ,collodion1 #aag1 #abc1 #acj ,cologne1 eau de1 #ajg ,copra1 #bjc1 #baa-bae1 #cjf ,corn oil1 #ahc1 #cje ,cotton1 #aab1 #abj1 #abi1 #aig ,cocain1 #hh ,condensite1 #ada ,cordite1 #ah1 #ai ,corn products1 #aha-aie1 #cje ,coslett process1 #bgc ,cottonseed oil1 #bja ,cowles1 #bdh ,creative chemistry1 #g ,crookes1 ,sir ,william1 #bib1 #bii ,curie1 ,madame1 #bib ,cyanamid1 #cj1 #ce1 #bii ,cyanides1 #cb ,diamond1 #bei-bfa1 #cjh ,doyle1 ,sir ,arthur ,conan1 #bba ,drugs1 synthetic1 #f1 #hd1 #cja ,duisberg1 #aea ,dyestuffs1 #fj-ib ,edison1 #hd1 #ada ,ehrlich1 #hf1 #hg ,electric furnace1 #bcf-bfb1 #cjg ,fats1 #aif-bag1 #cjf ,fertilizers1 #cg1 #da1 #dc1 #df1 #cjj ,flavors1 synthetic1 #ic-aji ,food1 synthetic1 #id ,formaldehyde1 #acf1 #adb ,fruit flavors1 synthetic1 #ii1 #aja ,galalith1 #adb ,gas masks1 #bbc1 #bbf1 #bcj1 #bca ,gerhardt1 #f1 #g ,glucose1 #acg1 #ahd-ahi1 #aid1 #cje ,glycerin1 #aid1 #bjc ,goldschmidt1 #bef ,goodyear1 #afa ,graphite1 #beh ,guayule1 #aei1 #cjd ,guncotton1 #ag1 #aag1 #abe1 #acj ,gunpowder1 #ad1 #ae1 #bb1 #bcd ,gutta percha1 #aei ,haber process1 #bg1 #bh ,hall1 ,c4,h41 #bdg ,hare1 ,robert1 #bcg1 #bde1 #cjg ,harries1 #adi ,helium1 #bcf ,hesse1 #gj1 #gb1 #ij ,hofmann1 #gb1 #hj ,huxley1 #aj ,hyatt1 #abh1 #abi1 #cjc ,hydrogen1 #bec-bee ,hydrogenation of oils1 #bjb-bje1 #cjf ,indigo1 #gf1 #gi ,iron1 #bcf1 #bec1 #bfb-bgj1 #cjh ,isoprene1 #acf1 #adf1 #adi1 #aej1 #aed ,kelp products1 #ec1 #adb ,kekul's dream1 #ff1 #cja ,lard substitutes1 #bji ,lavoisier1 #f ,leather substitutes1 #abd ,leucite1 #ec ,liebig1 #ch ,linseed oil1 #bjb1 #bje1 #bgj ,magnesium1 #bhc ,maize products1 #aha-aif1 #cje ,manganese1 #bgh ,margarin1 #bjg-bab1 #cjg ,mauve1 discovery of1 #gd ,mendelef1 #bhe1 #bia ,mercerized cotton1 #aae ,moissan1 #bei ,molybdenum1 #bhc1 #cjh ,munition manufacture in ,u4,s41 #cc1 #bbd1 #bii1 #cjg ,mushet1 #bgi ,musk1 synthetic1 #if1 #ig1 #ajf ,mustard gas1 #bbd1 #bbg-bbi ,naphthalene1 #d1 #adb1 #aed ,nature and art1 #h-ac1 #aah1 #abb1 #acc ,nitrates1 ,chilean1 #bb1 #bd1 #cj1 #cf ,nitric acid derivatives1 #bj ,nitrocellulose1 #ag1 #aag ,nitrogen1 in explosives1 #ad1 #af1 #aag1 #bii fixation1 #bd1 #be1 #bi1 #bii ,nitro-glycerin1 #ah1 #aag1 #bad ,nobel1 #ah1 #aag ,oils1 #aif-bag1 #cjf ,oleomargarin1 #bjg-bab1 #cjg ,orange blossoms1 #ii1 #ajj ,osmium1 #bh ,ostwald1 #bi1 #ee ,oxy-hydrogen blowpipe1 #bdf ,paper1 #aaa1 #acb ,parker process1 #bgc ,peanut oil1 #bjf1 #baa1 #bad1 #cjf ,perfumery1 ,art of1 #ajc-ajh ,perfumes1 synthetic1 #ic-aji1 #cjb ,perkin1 ,w4,h41 #adh ,perkin1 ,sir ,william1 #gb1 #hj1 #ajb ,pharmaceutical chemistry1 #f1 #he-hh ,phenol1 #ah1 #fd1 #hd1 #aja1 #ajb1 #acg ,phonograph records1 #hd1 #ada ,phosphates1 #ef-ei ,phosgene1 #bbd1 #bbe ,photographic developers1 #hh ,picric acid1 #ah1 #hd1 #he1 #bbf ,platinum1 #bh1 #bgh1 #bhj1 #bhd1 #bhf ,plastics1 synthetic1 #abh-adc ,pneumatic tires1 #afb ,poisonous gases in warfare1 #bah-bce1 #cjg ,potash1 #cg1 #de-ef1 #cjj ,priestley1 #aej1 #afj ,purple1 royal1 #ge1 #gi ,pyralin1 #acb1 #acc ,pyrophoric alloys1 #bij ,pyroxylin1 #ag1 #abg1 #abe1 #acj ,radium1 #bia1 #bie ,rare earths1 #bhf-bhh1 #cjh ,redmanol1 #adj ,remsen1 ,ira1 #agh ,refractories1 #bea-beb ,resins1 synthetic1 #ace-adc ,rose perfume1 #ic1 #if1 #ig1 #ii1 #aje ,rubber1 natural1 #aee-afa1 #cjd synthetic1 #acf1 #ade-afc1 #cjd ,rumford1 ,count1 #afj ,rust1 protection from1 #bfb-bge ,saccharin1 #agh1 #agi ,salicylic acid1 #hh1 #aja ,saltpeter1 ,chilean1 #bb1 #cj1 #cf1 #db ,schoop process1 #bgb ,serpek process1 #ca ,silicon1 #bdi1 #bec ,smell1 sense of1 #ig1 #ih1 #ajc1 #aji ,smith1 ,provost1 #bcg1 #bde1 #cjg ,smokeless powder1 #ae ,sodium1 #adh1 #bch1 #bdg ,soil chemistry1 #ch1 #ci ,soy bean1 #adb1 #baa1 #bag1 #cjf ,starch1 #acg1 #ahd1 #ahi1 #aij ,stassfort salts1 #dg1 #di1 #ee ,stellites1 #bhj1 #cjh ,sugar1 #afd-ahj1 #cjd ,sulfuric acid1 #eg ,tantalum1 #bhb ,terpenes1 #ajj1 #aed ,textile industry1 #e1 #aab1 #aba1 #cjj ,thermit1 #bef ,thermodynamics1 ,second law of1 #ade ,three periods of progress1 #c ,tin plating1 #bga ,tilden1 #adf1 #bih ,titanium1 #bgh1 #cjh ,,tnt1 #ai1 #ba1 #hd1 #bii ,trinitrotoluol1 #ai1 #ba1 #hd1 #bii ,tropics1 value of1 #if1 #aef1 #afe1 #aif1 #bjf1 #bac1 #baf ,tungsten1 #beg1 #bgg1 #bha1 #cjh ,uranium1 #bh ,vanadium1 #bgg1 #bhj1 #cjh ,vanillin1 #ajc ,violet perfume1 #ajj ,viscose1 #aaf ,vitamines1 #baa ,vulcanization1 #afa ,welding1 #bef ,welsbach burner1 #bhg-bhi1 #cjh ,wheat problem1 #dc1 #bii ,wood1 distillation of1 #abf1 #abg ,wood pulp1 #aab1 #abj1 #cjc ,ypres1 ,use of gases at1 #bba ,zinc plating1 #bga ,once a ,slosson ,reader ,always a ,slosson ,fan ,,just ,,published ,,chats ,,on ,,science ,by ,e4,e4 ,,slosson ,author of ,creative ,chemistry1 etc4 ,dr4 ,slosson is nothing short of a prodigy4 ,he is a triple-starred scientist man who can bring down the highest flying scientific fact and tame it so that any of us can live with it and sometimes even love it4 ,he can make a fairy tale out of coal-tar dyes and a laboratory into a joyful playhouse while it continues functioning gloriously as a laboratory4 ,but to readers of ,creative ,chemistry it is wasting time to talk about ,dr4 ,slosson's style4 ,chats ,on ,science1 which has just been published1 is made up of eighty-five brief chapters or sections or periods1 each complete in itself1 dealing with a gorgeous variety of subjects4 ,they go from ,popover ,stars to ,soda ,water1 from ,how ,old ,is ,disease to ,einstein in ,words of ,one ,syllable4 ,the reader can begin anywhere1 but when he begins he will ultimately read the entire series4 ,it is good science and good reading4 ,it contains some of the best writing ,dr4 ,slosson has ever done4 ,the ,boston ,transcript says3 ,these ',chats' are even more fascinating1 were that possible1 than ',creative ,chemistry4' ,they are more marvelous than the most marvelous of fairy tales 444 ,even an adequate review could give little idea of the treasures of modern scientific knowledge ',chats on ,science' contains 444 ,dr4 ,slosson has1 besides rare scientific knowledge1 that gift of the gods--imagination4 99 99 99 99 99 7,chats on ,science by ,e4,e4 ,slosson is published by ,the ,century ,company1 #cec ,fourth ,avenue1 ,new ,york ,city4 ,it is sold for #b4jj at all bookstores1 or it may be ordered from the publisher47 ,,footnotes3 #a ,i am quoting mostly ,unstead's figures from the ,geographical ,journal of #aiac4 ,see also ,dickson's ,the ,distribution of ,mankind1 in ,smithsonian ,report1 #aiac4 #b ,united ,states ,abstract of ,census of ,manufactures1 #aiad1 p4 #cd4 #c ,united ,states ,department of ,agriculture1 ,bulletin ,no4 #eje4