Relation of Chemical to Other Industry CI~~RLE M.S A. STINE E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington, Del.
I
N CONSIDERING a subject such as the relation of
ea1 manufacturer of that day made his chemicals and sold chemical industry to other industry, one suffers from a them to industries that knew what to use them for and how to use them. IIe was not often particularly interested in plethora rather than a paucity of material. One of the striking differences between industry of less than his customer's finished products; he simply manufactured fifty years ago and industry as we know it today is the use of certain chemical products and those industries requiring chemistry. Industry of a bygone day followed certain time- such chemical products in their operations and processes honored procedures, largely the result of cut and try, to ob- came to him for their supplies. He did not study the prob taiu certain results. Industry of today, by the use of chemi- lems of his customers with a view to developing-usually cal processes and chemical control, is enabled intelligently to by the route of long and expensive chemical invcstigationseek new processes, 8s well as to control the quality and yie,lds improved methods of using or applying in the consuming in any established lines of manufacture. It is e d e n t that indirstries the chemicals which he manufactured. In other there is a chemical aspect to nearly all industry, since chernical words, the relation of the chemical industry to the industries it served was much the same as, for example, the processes are now a psrt of almost every modern industry, and many industries, while their main relation between the cement and the building industries, the coal mining industry and the railproducts cannot be classed as chemicals, produce roads, the cotton-growing and the textile indusvarious chemical materials as by-products. tries--very important relationships to be sure, but Furthermore, in discussing the relation of the riot particularly complex. chemical industry to other industry, it is nnavoidable that we shall include for our eonsideraSulfur was imported from Sicily, later obtained from the deposits in Louisiana and Texas, and tion the relationship of strictly chemical phases manufactured into sulfuric acid by long-estabof other industries which cannot be regarded as Iklied processes This sulfuric acid was then chemical industries. The steel industry and the manufacture of coke-oven by-prodnet- is an exdistributed to such industries as paint and varC. M. A. S m r . Dish, steel, explosives, textile, fertilizer, petroleum ample. Perhapsone definition of a chemical indusrefining, and many others. Figure 1 shows mmetry might be "an industry of whieh the end product differs materially in chemical composition from the raw thing of the ramifications of the relation of sulfur to modern materials and intermediates employed and in which these industry, of which chemical industry is only a part. The changes are brought about by purely cliemical procesw," following is a list of products in the manufacture of which although this involves us a t once in a new difiicult:r-via., sulfur is required: that of defining a purely chemical process. Aeida
RELATION OF CHEMICAL AND OTHERINDUSTRY 25 YEARSAoo
The relation of the chemical industry to other industry, say twenty-five or more years ago, was extremely important, but withal ordinary and comparatively simple. The chemi-
cementa
.4lum
Chsmioda
Belting sinding medium
EbNk Elastics
'ieaehi"g
Explosives Fabdfs
Aniline
ceiiuioid
+ai
Dyes
Fertilizers Films (moving pictnrs) Fire axti-shera
Fireworks
Fumigation went ti Fungicides
GWdiT.a Gslwnissd iron
INDUSTRIAL AND EKGINEERING CHEMISTRY
488 Glue Glycerol Hose Insecticides Leather Livestock food Lubricating oils
Paper Paints Photographic supplies Plastics (wood pulp) Poison (rat, etc.) Preservative for food Rayon Reagents (laboratory) Refrigerants Rubber products
Matchea Medicine
Soap Shoe polish Sodium thiosulfate Steel (pickling) Storage batteries Sugar Textiles Tires Weed killer
Nitrate, imported from Chile, was manufactured into nitric acid and sold by the manufacturer to various industries requiring nitric acid. The pulp and paper industry required alum, sulfur, lime, and soda ash; the glass and ceramics industry required Glauber’s salt, metallic oxides, and soda ash; the rubber industry required sulfuric acid, zinc oxide, acetic acid, and caustic; agriculture needed fertilizer materials which required sulfuric acid, nitrates, nitric acid, phosphate, and other chemicals for their manufacture. The naval stores industry furnished turpentine, rosin, and pine tar to industries requiring these materials, and the great alkali industry furnished its materials t o numerous established industries. Figures 2 and 3 show the important d a c e which materials Droduced in these two industries OCCUDY _ ” in the industrial life o‘f the country. The world was a t peace and the great scheme of international trade moved along smoothly; we imported and exported goods, including the products of the chemical manufacturer. But during the period of the World War, the absence of any well-established organic chemical industry in this country, including the dye industry, handicapped and temporarily crippled a number of this country’s industries. Had the industries of America become smug in their feeling that if chemical supplies from foreign sources were cut off they could readily supply their needs from sources here?
Vol. 23, No. 5
other industry has assumed a new aspect. The manufacturer of chemicals now not only sells his products to the consumer, but also in many instances he undertakes to assist in the solution of the many complex problems connected with the application of his chemical products to his customer’s needs. I n other words, he assists in solving or occasionally actually solves his customer’s chemical problems. The relation of the chemical industry to the other industries which it serves is, therefore, today veri intimate and complex. This intimacy is inherent in the underlying interdependence of chemical and other industry, and has been further developed by the chemical manufacturer because of the nature of his products, for it is a fact that an expert knowledge of chemistry is oftentimes a necessity in the application of the chemical manufacturer’s products to the manufacturing operations of his customers. This close relationship has resulted in the establishment of technical sales service laboratories by some chemical manufacturers. These laboratories are maintained primarily for solving, not the manufacturing problems of the chemical manufacturer, but the chemical problems of his customers in connection with the use of chemical products in various other branches of industry. DYE MAMJFACTURINQ INDUSTRY The newly developed American dye industry was probably a pioneer in establishing such a technical sales service. T o illustrate, tedious and extended organic chemical research may result in the development of a valuable new dye by the dyestuffs manufacturer. This new dye may represent quite an improvement over present dye products for certain purposes and it would seem that the dye manufacturer should be able simply to announce this new dye and immediately add it to his list of products for sale. Such is not the case,
SOURCE TEXAS AND LOUISIANA
I
I SULPHUR DlOXlM I I
I
I* FERTlLlZlRS
OIL
REFINING
EXPLOSIVES
SULPHUNC
ACIDS AND HiAVY CHlMlOl
TEXTILES
I
\
IRON A8D STEEL
DYE5 ANDCOALTAR PRODUCTS
LLAIHER
PAINTS
TANNING
AND PIGMEND
LACOUiRS AND
PLASTICS
PlilALS AHD
REF1Nl NG
DlSULPHlOE
AND
SlORAGt lATTlR10
The problem was not as simple as this, and, when the war did shut off our supplies of dyes, organic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and medicinals, this fact was bitterly realized.
PRESENT RELATIONBETWEEN CHEMICAL AND OTHER INDUSTRY Whatever lack of foresight or conjunction of circumstances withheld the intensive development of the organic chemical industry in the United States previous to our being forced into it, it is just as happily true that with this intensive development during the World War, there began a new era in the whole realm of American industry through its relation to chemical industry, and particularly to this newly developed portion of chemical industry. Since then, its relation to
and it is at this point that the relation of the chemical dye manufacturer to the consumer of his products becomes more than that of merely seller and purchaser. The dye manufacturer actually takes various materials from the textile manufacturers into his own laboratory and there carries on experiments to develop processes to be used by the consumer of his dyes. The textile industry and other industries directly dependent on dyestuffs in this country a t the outbreak of the World War represented an investment of $2,538,207,000and had an annual output of 82,631,390,000 worth of products. They employed 1,071,650 people in 11,037 different establishments. Table I shows the industries directly dependent on dyestuffs, together with employment, investment, and production figures for 1914.
489
i n d iis tries directly and indirectlydepcnde n t I l j r o n dyest.uffs, in 1931 of 56,3Fl est ti 11 li 5 Ii iiien ts , ernploy i ng 2,186;28i people to p r o d u c e pr(irliicts valiied at $1 1,20i,!344,502. Siriety-six per cent of the vnlue of the prtidiict. givw tlie capital iiivr~strrient for iiirectly dop~~ir~lent inrlost,riw- $4,5XIJiJ4,000. Fifl.y-riiiic per ceot of t.tie r:iluc us tile pn~dor,tgives the
If we eoiiaidcr t.lie industries indirectly d e p e n d e n t on dyestuffs in 1914, RCfind t.liat tliese represented :an additioiial eapit,el invcst.nieiitof Sl,83ii,006,000 wit11 n , n aiin1ia1 o u t p u t (If prOdllCtS vallled ut ~3,O(i!1,24~i,O00 a n d e m p l o y i n g over a million people. Tlie tot,nI a~noiints,tlrerrfore, for inrliistricx which were NNm! or less serioiwly affecied by t.l,e cessatioii of dye iiriports during the wiir arc: capital invested. S3.3i4.23 3.-
i:~iiployed in the illdiistrics iridircet,lyder~cnrlcnton the dves t u f f s industry-.. S3,iOi,155,000. The
total of capital invested iri indimtry direetlp a i d indirectly r1i:peirdent ori dyestofi:. in 1931 is $8,3i8,359,000. ('
