March, 1923
I,VD USTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
that specialize in tropical agriculture. There have been men in the Philippines who could manage such plantations, but one by one they have been offered greater opportunities under foreign governments than could be obtained in America. This is to our everlasting shame. The effect of this bitter lesson may be beneficial. It may serve to emphasize the absolute necessity of preventing the well from running dry, the insurance against such a calamity being scientific research adequately supported over a term of years.
The Silver Lining OW LOKG can we continue to enjoy certain of the H world’s natural resources which have become indispensable t o modern civilization? Attention has been drawn to the feverish haste with which Americans are “tearing from the earth the irreplaceable wealth and using it to maintain a rate of growth utterly without precedent in all human history.” In many instances we are consuming more than we are producing, not only from our own resources but from those of the morld at large. This mould be indeed a black cloud but for the silver lining made possible by scientific investigation. Science is extending our natural resources through a more fundamental knowledge of the ways of matter. The laboratory has synthesized vanillin, without which we should require the resources of fifty Mexicos to furnish vanilla. Synthetic indigo has supplied a need which never could have been met by the indigo plantations. Calcium carbide is replacing hardwood as a source of acetic acid, and waste cellulose products, such as oat hulls and corn cobs, bid fair to take the place of our waning forests in the manufacture of formaldehyde. The cotton fields are contributing fiber to our woodpulp resources, and the hydrogenation of vegetable oils has extended the utility of annual oil-bearing crops, besides fitting some inferior oils for a new and higher service. Artificial silk supplements the work of the silkworm. Synthetic ammonia and its oxidation to nitric acid will save the world from nitrate starvation. The utilization of casinghead gas has added millions of barrels to our gasoline supply, while the chemical engineer, fundamentally trained in physical chemistry, is beginning to show his skill in the cracking of petroleum. Important increases in yields have already been secured. Research on highcompression internnl-combustion engines and antiknock compounds bids fair to increase greatly the efficient use of gasoline. Progress in the use of alcohol to supplement our liquid fuel supply is most encouraging. In other laboratories the chlorination and hydrogenation of naphthalene give ground for the belief that even solid fuel may be liquefied to meet future demands. Progress in the carbonization of coals heretofore thought unfitted for coking, the separation of ash from fuels by flotation, and the production of colloidal fuels means the extension of fuel supplies. Dehydration of foods, the possible preparation of concentrated vitamins on a commercial scale so that foods otherwise unsatisfactory may be wholly acceptable, and progress in phytopathology mean much in increasing our food SUPPIY. Turn where we will, we find scientists a t work endeavoring t o use hitherto unappreciated natural products, to find new uses for waste and by-products, and still more efficient methods for using raw materials, to the end that the exhaustion of our natural resources may be indefinitely postponed. So long as we continue fundamental work and apply its results t o our industrial problems, we shall not devour the earth.
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The Ruhr HE UNCERTAINTY of the outcome of the Ruhr experiment makes futile any attempt to prophesy its ultimate effect upon the chemical industry of either France or Germany. From a study of the list of chemical plants located in the Ruhr district, it is apparent that present maneuvers must interfere with production to such an extent as to affect seriously the industries depending upon the output of these plants. Indeed, it has been openly charged that a part of the French plan is to gain permanent control of the German chemical industry. The plants in the district include leading establishments for the production of dyes and other coal-tar products, intermediates, fertilizers, and the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Further, the claim is made that plants in the unoccupied portions suffer for the lack of that grade of coal which comes only from the Ruhr. These facts might be much more disquieting to the users of coal-tar products but for the splendid growth of the American chemical industry. Notwithstanding the many difficulties which confronted our organic chemical industry and the lack of the encouragement which the industry merited, there has been every disposition to continue development under the conditions imposed, and to-day there seems to be no need to fear any serious inconvenience should imports cease. The story might be quite different if the Chemical Foundation had not, by its unselfish efforts, made product and process patents available to the American manufacturer. American dye consumers have ample reason for gratitude t o that public-spirited group of men who were willing to put into the Chemical Foundation much gratuitous effort and personal fortune. Whatever one may think of the Ruhr situation, it may prove beneficial in affording the American chemical industry a further opportunity to demonstrate its importance and may win over any who still doubt the necessity of its full development on an adequate basis.
Earning Power of Research T HAS cost the industries considerable sums to learn a Ilearned little of the importance of water. One manufacturer that he had been wasting more than $100,000 in a single year on raw materials, purchased without regard to moisture content, whereas this sum might have been saved had he realized the importance of the accurate control of moisture. Large annual dividends are being earned on the investment in research upon boiler-feed waters. One railway finds that a water-treating plant pays for itself each year. Another great system must use a wide variety of waters, each requiring special study and treatment. Before the services of a chemist and chemical engineer were employed, one run of five hundred and sixty-three miles required three or four engines. This run is now made with a single locomotive. I n another district the boiler tubes of switch engines had an average life of seven months. Research is responsible for extending this time to thirty-one months. The life of boiler tubes in the more than one thousand six hundred locomotives of this railway system has been lengthened from two to four times. With replacement costs above $1200 per set of tubes, this has meant a large return on the research and development work. The life of fire boxes, an item approaching $1700 per engine for renewal, has been multiplied by three. The investment has been large, but it has been made under competent direction, and changes have been inaugurated only as research has shown the way,
