VOL.2, No. 8
C A T A L Y S I ~NEW A FACTOR IN INDUSTRY
639
more smoke or cinders, no more worry about the waning supply of petroleum. And no more coal bins. Chemistry hasn't more than begun to do its proper work for the people yet. Catalysis, we repeat, is the sporty end of chemistry. The "reasons why" are not clear, the theories are not developed, and, because we know so little of the subject as yet, procedure goes principally by way of trial and error. Sometimes discoveries are made by accident. In the Badische Works in Germany, when they were working on the synthesis of indigo, they needed phthalic acid as an intermediate material. I t was expensive, but they reasoned out that they should be able to obtain i t by treating naphthalene (which is the white tar product used for making moth balls) with fuming sulfuric acid or oleum. The theory was all right, there was every known reason why it should work, but all the same it didn't. Neither heat nor pressure nor any other strategem could be made to bring about the desired result. Of course there was no reason to give up the effort, but it was disheartening to meet failure after failure with every attempt to accomplish that transition from naphthalene to phthalic acid. One day, while one of these experiments was in progress, a laboratory boy was told t o take a reading from a thermometer. He was a clumsy lad, and he broke the instrument so that a few drops of the mercury fell into the mass. Straightway something happened. The stuff began to seethe and labor, and within a little while there wasn't any naphthalene left; the container was full of the desired phthalic acid. Mercury proved to be the c catalyst. So we might go on filling page after page with catalytic stories and stories of enzymes, which are organic catalysts, and effect remarkable changes in the processes of life. The field is immense, amazing, bewildering, romantic, exciting-and we have uncovered only a tiny little edge of the great pall of the unknown, which covers i t all.
General Organic Chemistry Symposium. Arrangements are being made for a general symposium on organic chemistry t o be held a t Rochester, N. Y. on Dec. 29.30, and 31, 1925. The symposium will be held under the auspices of the Organic Division of the A. C. S, with the Rochester Section acting as host. It is not the intention to limit the papers presented t o absolutely new subject matter. Many contributions will undoubtedly take the form of resum& of the particular fields treated. This meeting is in accordance with the idea that it would be an excellent thing for the organic chemists of the country to assemble once a year and discuss topics of general interest. The present meeting place has been selected with a view to accessibility to organic industrial enterprises. I t has been suggested that the papers presented might profitably be assembled in a monograph similar to that which has followed each of the Colloid Symposiums. No definite arrangements for this publication have been made as yet, however.
