Apr., 1915
T H E J O U R N A L OF I N D U S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERING C H E M I S T R Y
that the process when properly carried out under tension produced luster. F’or more than forty years this process was little used and little appreciated. It was not until about 1895 that the great increase in luster due to mercerizing under tension was appreciated and its commercial advantages realized. Since then the art has gone forward by leaps and bounds, and today the production of mercerized cotton yarns and cloths is enormous, and has had far-reaching effects on cotton textiles. I n many ways it marks the greatest advance in recent years in that branch of the textile industries. Artificial silk is another great contribution chemistry has made t o textiles. This was invented by Count de Chardonnet and was first exhibited in Paris in 1889. Development was slow and a t first, from a financial point, disastrous, but now the annual production of artificial silk is fully 20,000,ooo pounds. There are various processes-collodion, gelatine and viscose. The viscose process now seems to command the field and is developing rapidly in quantity and quality produced. Here is a case where common wood pulp worth a few cents a pound, by a touch of the chemist’s art, is changed to a beautiful silky-appearing yarn worth from ,$z.oo to $3.00 a pound. An entirely new field 0 has been opened up and its development has just begun. Weaves, fabrics and patterns are numberless, but have reached a point where there is little that is really new or unknown. The greatest advances in textiles in the future must be along chemical lines. Coal-tar dyes, mercerizing, artificial silk-these and many others are already accomplished facts. The next steps rest in your hands and it is to the chemists we must look for the future developments. 7 8 CHAUNCY STREET,BOSTON
CONTRIBUTIONS OF T H E CHEMIST TO T H E FERTILIZER INDUSTRY By H. WALKERWALLACE Manager General Sales Department; Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company
I n considering what the chemist has done for the fertilizer industry we are dealing with a subject intimately connected with the culture of the soil, and while valuable services have been rendered in other directions it must be admitted that the most valuable achievements have been those which have had a direct bearing on agriculture, that noble calling which is the foundation, of all industry and the very backbone of the nation itself. Any contribution, therefore, which has advanced the condition of agriculture has indirectly benefited all avenues of trade. The science of chemistry has played a most important part in building up various industrics which are dependent on the products of the soil, but perhaps no service has been of so much value to agriculture as that which has caused the development of the fertilizer industries of the world. The tremendous storehouses of plant food accumulated through the ages have been made useful by the chemist, who has found means of converting them into mixtures which make i t possible to produce the larger crops made necessary by the ever-increasing population. Thus the tremendous accumulations of natural phosphates in this country and elsewhere, the large deposits of potash salts in Germany and the nitrate beds of S0ut.h America have all been converted into useful products The very air we breathe has been utilized in producing nitrogen compounds in suitrtble form for plant nutrition. I n addition to the various supplies of raw materials furnished in nature, large quantities of refuse substances from the various industries have been collected, treated chemically and utilized i? the manufacture of fertilizers. Seventy-five years ago the fertilizer industry was unknown. Liebig was the first to study the chemical composition of the ashes of plants and to point out the necessity of supplying plants with mineral food; he conceived the idea of dissolving bones with
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sulfuric acid and thus rendering the phosphoric acid soluble, in which condition it could be more readily utilized by growing plants. This, then, was the real beginning of the manufacture of superphosphate fertilizers. The treatment of mineral phosphates with sulfuric acid, however, originated with Laws, who took out a patent for the process in 1842 and established a factory, from which time the commercial production really dates. During the first years development was slow, but in the past thirty years there has been a steady growth until a t the present time the manufacture of fertilizers has reached enormous proportions in the eastern part of our country. I n the year 1900 there were produced in the United States alone 2,200,000 tons and in 1913 the production had increased to 6,800,969 tons. I n the building u p of this large industry what then has been the r61e of the chemist? I n a brief statement it is impossible to tell all that the chemist has done, but a few of the important features may be summed up as follows : I--He discovered the necessity of the industry by studying the composition of soils and plants. 2--It was the chemist who first suggested the production of superphosphate and established its manufacture. 3--The process of manufacture has been gradually improved so that the insoluble phosphoric acid has been reduced from two or three per cent to a fraction of one per cent. 4--He was responsible for the manufacture of sulfuric acid, which is necessary for the production of superphosphate. 5--He has produced a double superphosphate containing from 45 to 50 per cent available phosphoric acid. 6--His researches have made it possible to convert many waste products into valuable plant food constituents, which are utilized in fertilizers. 7--The nitrogen of the air has been combined and converted into forms suitable for plant nutrition. %-The chemist has worked out processes for saving the nitrogen in flue gases and coke ovens and converting i t into sulfate of ammonia. 9--He has worked out formulas and blended the various fertilizer constituents into the compounds best suited for different soils and crops. Not only has the chemist been of great assistance in working out the initial problems of plant nutrition and the production of suitable fertilizers, but his services are indispensable in the regulations of the operations of the factory. In these days of close competition and rigid government inspection, profits may be easily turned into losses or goods confiscated by the state inspectors because of unsatisfactory analyses. The manufacturer must, therefore, have able and competent chemists to do his work or serious consequences will result. I n fact, the whole manufacture of fertilizers is intimately associated with chemistry and largely dependent on it for its existence. Notwithstanding the large measure of success obtained in the past, there are still new problems to be worked out and the chemist will not have done his part until the science of fertilization is thoroughly understood and he has made “ two blades of grass grow where but one grew before.” RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE CHEMIST TO THE SODA INDUSTRY By F. R. HAZARD President The Solvay Process Company
The r6le of the chemist in industrial operations is to answer the question “Why?” Why did the ancient Egyptians use straw in making brick? Until very recently the true answer to this question remained unknown, but with the true spirit of
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THE J O U R N A L OF INDCSTRIAL A X D ENGISEERISG CHEMISTRY
investigation of the trained scientist, MI-. Acheson has quite recently determined that the action of vegetable acids upon the clay creates a change, probably both physical and chemical, which adds enormously to its tensile strength. Thus one of the secrets of possibly the most ancient of all industries has been finally brought to light and the production of Egyptianized clay has been made possible with as yet unknown benefits. This instance is but typical of the questions which arise in constantly increasing numbers in the complex industrial operations of our time. The chemist is the enemy of the rule-ofthumb methods. H e is not content to accept the superstitions and prejudices which have been handed down in all industry, but seeks to ascertain the causes underlying the effects which, in some cases a t least, are produced with a considerable degree of regularity by these rule-of-thumb practices. He is willing, in a truly scientific spirit, to take the known effects and to carefully examine them, seeking constantly the answer to the eternal question “Why?” It is only within the past twenty-five or thirty years that the chemist has been admitted as an important member to the manufacturing staff in our modern industrial life. It is well within the memory OF many of us that the master teaser in a glass factory had many strange and useless additions to the batch, and sometimes even murmured incantations while mixing it, or chose the dark of the moon, or had a rabbit’s foot in his pocket, thinking that by these precautions he would obtain good results. At that time too often the managers and ovners of the business knew very little about the practical operation. They relied absolutely upon the secret formula brought to their plant by the master teaser, and, in fact, a capable man in this position not infrequently made capital out of his formula and so obtained for himself a more important position a t some other plant. I n many other industries similar conditions existed; in other words, the manufacture of most of our products was then carried on by the rule-of-thumb method, and the question “Why? ” remained unanswered. Under these circumstances i t is easy to see that the advent of the chemist was attended with great difficulties. He was regarded as their natural enemy by superintendents, and was looked upon with distrust by workmen. His experiments were ridiculed and not infrequently were purposely interfered with, so that their results would be without value. Thus, early in his introduction into the industrial field, it became absolutely necessary for the chemist to tell the workmen, the superintendent, the manager or owner, that none of them really knew their business, which unfortunately was the fact, but it is casy to see that it required the greatest amount of tact and diplomacy to make such a statement without giving so violent offense as t o make his own position untenable and thereby practically destroy his usefulness in t h a t particular work. It does, in fact, require unusual gifts outside of the scientific field to enter a manufacturing establishment and tell those who are conducting its operations that they do not know their own business, yet this is substantially the fact, even today, in many lines of work. The chemist must, therefore, exercise the patience of Job, he must have the wisdom of the serpent and the gentleness of the dove; he must be persevering and constantly alert t o see the first signs which will lead him toward the answer to his question. What has been accomplished by the chemist in industry during the last few years would require too great a space to catalogue. There is not a single field of industrial enterprise in which he has not made a notable mark. The synthetic production of indigo, followed by all the other developments in the color industry, is only one of the great achievements of the age. Metallurgical chemistry has absolutely revolutionized the manufacture of iron and steel. The cyanide process has made available ores of the precious metals which could not otherwise be economically tvorked. The chemistry of the animal
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fats and acids has made possible the production of enormous quantities of glycerine in connection with the manufacture of soap. The so-called chemical industry, including the production of alkalies of all kinds, acids, bleaching powder and the allied products and by-products, has built up an enormous industry which, in fact, lies a t the basis of practically all other industries. The field of the industrial chemist, though already broad and comprehensive, is constantly growing in all directions, just as the ripple on the surface of a pool created by throwing in a stone rapidly spreads over the entire surface. The opportunities before him are by no means exhausted. Every one OF the interrelated industries of our modern life has its chemical problems. I n each one of them the investigating mind finds many questions, correct answers to which will add much to the profitable operation of each one. As an illustration of the delicate position of the chemist toward the manufacturer, the following is taken from our own experience : About twenty-five years ago a soap-maker complained that 58 per cent alkali purchased from us was not as good lor his purposes as 48 per cent alkali imported from England. After considerable correspondence it developed that his method of ascertaining this peculiar fact was to take, say, 100 lbs. of each quality of alkali, dissolve each by itself in about a barrel of water and then determine the specific gravity of the solution by means of a Twaddle hydrometer. The 48 per cent alkali gave a somewhat greater specific gravity, and he thereupon concluded that it was a superior article. As he was one of our important customers and a somewhat difficult man t o deal with, it became necessary to convince him by his own methods that his conclusions were not correct. We prepared samples of several different kinds of alkali, also of common salt and of sulfate of soda, and, using the same hydrometer, we determined the density of each, whereupon it was found that on his theory i t was a n absolute waste of money for him to purchase alkali of any kind as ordinary commercial sulfate of soda showed a considerably greater specific gravity than any of the other solutions. When confronted with this actual test, made on the same scale and using the same instrument as he had been accustomed to employ, our customer acknowledged himself convinced, and continued for many years thereafter to make his soap by the use of our 58 per cent alkali. Only last year, to show that the knowledge which a chemist can contribute is still of value, a complaint was made by a glassmaker t h a t the 58 per cent alkali furnished to one of his works was inferior to that furnished a t another. Correspondence developed the fact that the workmen a t one plant were also employed in handling lime and t h a t the ventilation of the plaqt was not very good, while the conditions a t the other plant were much better. The chief complaint was that the men in the one plant suffered seriously from sores; in fact, some of them wcre quite disabled. A personal investigation by one of our representatives showed that the unfortunate men were employed first in handling lime and then in unloading alkali, which was in bulk. The weather being quite warm and the exertion by no means easy, these men mere establishing upon their own persons miniature caustic soda plants, and the resulting soreness and tenderness of the skin, if neglected, as was too often the case, led to rather serious conditions which required a long time to heal. An elementary knowledge of chemistry would have been sufficient to ascertain the cause of the difficulty Although much has been accomplished during the past fifty years, although the chemist has now found his proper place in practically all industrial operations, there still remains an enormous amount OF ignorance to be overcome, a fund of ancient superstition to be vanquished, and a field of almost unlimited possibilities to be explored, in which the chemist of the future will find answers without number to the question “Why?” SYRACUSE, N.
Y.
