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T H E J O U R N A L OF INDC‘STRIAL A N D E,VGIJEERING C H E M I S T R Y
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EDITORIALS SEE OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US
American manufacturers a n d engineers are always keenly interested in t h e opinion of foreign experts regarding our industrial developments. I t is b y a selfanalysis, based upon, or a t least suggested by, such observations, t h a t managers a r e often enabled t o make substantial advances. Even lay suggestions often initiate changes or improvements which had previously been overlooked or considered infeasible. Comments on American industrial and social conditions b y scientists and technologists learned in the industries of our greatest competitive nation will, we believe, amply justify this Journal in devoting t h e major portion of t h e present issue t o such papers. The Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry offered a n unusual opportunity for chemists and chemical engineers from abroad t o s t u d y our industrial systems. Prominent German technologists attended t h e congress as a matter of course and took a n unusual interest in t h e large number of excursions arranged to show t h e industrial resources a n d plants of America. A number of articles by these distinguished German experts who attended t h e Congress have recently appeared i n Germany. F r o m these, we have selected t h e papers by Professor Rassow, by Professor Hoffmann a n d b y Professor Holde, a n d a r e publishing full translations in this issue of the Journal. We are indebted to t h e Zeitschrift f u r angewandte Chemie for t h e original of Professor Rassow’s address, and t o t h e Chemiker Zeitung for the papers b y Professor Hoffmann a n d b y Professor Holde. We believe t h e observations, conclu si0 ns, suggestions and criticisms coming direct from our well informed German guests will be found most interesting a n d instructive reading for American technologists and manuf acturers. THE INDEX TO ABSTRACTS The editors of Chemical Abstracts completed, o n January first, t h e gigantic t a s k of preparing, publishing a n d distributing to every member of t h e American Chemical Society, t h e index to Chemical Literature for t h e year 1913. How m a n y members of this Society have stopped to consider t h e magnitude of this task? How many realize t h e amount of energy and the scope of t h e organization required t o place this completed volume on our desks on t h e first day of t h e new year? The index contains over eighty-two thousand titles, over 800 pages, and required seven a n d one half tons of paper for itsproduction. The collection and arrangement of this material is a stupendous task, to say nothing of t h e problems involved in its production a n d distribution. Both t h e editors a n d printers of this volume should be congratulated a n d deserve the hearty approbation of every member of t h e chemical profession.
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THE BALANCE OF TRADE IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GERMANY The belief is very widespread among the chemists a n d chemical merchants of this country as well as of Germany t h a t t h e value of t h e imports of chemical products into t h e United States from Germany is very much greater t h a n t h e value of t h e exports of chemical products from the United States into Germany. Inspection of t h e tabulations of exports a n d imports of chemical products from a n d into Germany for t h e year 1904 (pp. 38-j6 in “ D i e Chemische Industrie” by Gustav iiIueller, published by Teubner a t Leipzig in 1909) shows t h e balance of trade for t h a t year t o have been in favor of t h e United States t o the extent of $21,201,040; i. e., about $1,8oo,ooo per month or $60,000 per day (the mark a t 23.812). The following table has been compiled from t h e hIueller statistics referred to. I t gives t h e various articles of export a n d import arranged in the order of their 1904 monetary value in round thousands, together with t h e percentage of total export or import of each article from or into Germany. It shows t h e total value of imports of 34 different articles into t h e United States from Germany t o be $16,993,200 or I j per cent of t h e total exportation value of Germany’s chemical products in 1904;also t h a t t h e total value of exports of 2 1 different chemical products from t h e United States into Germany is $38,194,240or 24 per cent of t h e importation value of all t h e chemical products Germany imported in 1904. I n other words, t h e Cnited States takes rj per cent of Germany’s total foreign market in chemical products and i n t u r n t h e United States supplies Germany with 24 per cent of its total imports of chemical products. The two branches of chemical industry which are t h e greatest pride of Germany are t h e coal-tar color industry and t h e potash industry. I n 1904 t h e combined export value of t h e products of these two industries t o t h e United States was .$13,0j2,000 or 76.8 per cent of t h e total chemical exports t o t h e United States; these are made up as follows: Anilin and other d y e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alizarin. , . , , , . . . , , . , . . , , , . , . . . , . . . Anilin oil and s a l t . . . . . . . . . , . . , . . . . . Indigo. . . . . . . . COAL-TAK I N D U S T R Y , ,
904,000
., , . . . . . . , .
Potassium chloride.. , , . . . . , . . . . . . . , “Abraum” s a l t s . , . , . , , , , . , , . . . . . . . . Sulfates of magnesium and potassium. Potassium bicarbonate. . . . . . . . . . . , . .
Si,004,000
2,820,000 1,683,000 1,164,000 381,000
. .
6,048,000
Total.. . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
$13,052,000
POTASH
INDUSTRY. .
.
$4,358,000 9 19,000
This combined value is $1,426,000less t h a n t h e U. S. shipments of refined petroleum t o Germany in 1904. The value of t h e oleomargarine supplied t o Germany in 1904 was 97.6 per cent of t h e value of anilin dyes supplied t h e U. S. a n d 60.7 per cent of t h e value of
