THE RELATION OF CHEMISTRY TO NATIONAL DEFENSE* Science is a culture, the most generous culture we possess. There is no "science for science's sake." No matter how remote the "somehow good" of scientific investigation and discovery may appear t o the nearsighted skeptic, its ultimate application exists, to be disclosed in good time and incorporated into our increasingly elaborate plan of living. More than six hundred years have elapsed since Roger Bacon, in an unprecedented manner, burned the works of Aristotle, thus abjuring all traditions held by the great scholastics concerning the nature of things, and set about with hands and brain to discover on his own responsibility something of the world we live in. Science has been learning ever since, and some of the marvelous conjectures of Bacon are only today finding realization a t the hands of modern science. There is all reason to believe that science will go on learning, and our minds are almost overpowered by the contemplation of the golden millenium to which the hopes and visions of presentday scientists may lead. The great secret of science lies in its applicability, its generosity, its power of realization. As science receives. it gives; as it learns, it applies. Science does not hoard its benefits, in the miserly fashion of most cultures, for the edification of its most loyal disciples; nor does it raise itself above the masses with a fine contempt for their inability to appreciate its deeper meanings. With a magnificent generosity, science offers its dearest findings to the world a t large, where they are received, translated into terms of their greatest good, honored with a passing wonder by the most thoughtful, and henceforth accepted as a matter of course. But science is above ingratitude and never falters in its noble magnanimity.
* Prize-winning
college essay, 192S29.
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We have been speaking of science in its largest sense. When we come to consider the separate sciences, we find that the one which has reached its greatest development, the one which has gone far beyond scholarly surmise and has bestowed its material benefits most lavishly on mankind is chemistry. For a long time chemistry has played an increasingly important r61e in raising our plane of living higher and higher. By its discoveries our lives and property are safeguarded, our day to day existence made infinitely more comfortable and enjoyable. There is one field, however, in which chemistry is only just beginning its brilliantly promising career, a field which this great science bids fair to monopolize in time, the field of national defense. The military strength of a country has always been reckoned in terms of its resources and the actual physical strength of its army. Warfare has been the pitting of the strength of men against men. Chemistry is teaching us to pit the strength of atom against atom. Chemistry is offering a place for brain power as a substitute for brute strength in national defense. Chemistry is opening up new resources to the nation and increasing the efficiency of old resources. Chemistry, in short, is revolutionizing warfare and national defense. The term "chemical warfare" did not corn- into use until the late war, when lethal gases were recognized as essentially chemical substances. As a matter of strict truth, warfare has been chemical in a varying degree from the time when the first imperfect mixtures of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal were used in the form of crude hand-grenades to attack the hitherto unassailable old fortresses of Medieval Europe. Gunpowder was first used in Europe during the thirteenth century, and its invention by Roger Bacon, Friar Schwartz, the Chinese or whom you will, marks the first step in the development of explosives. The subsequent steps, the discovery of basic explosive materials, the synthesis of valuable compounds, have probably all been made by chemists, working obscnrely in their laboratories with little thought of revolutionizing warfare or of providing man with a more efficient weapon to use in wiping his enemy from the face of the earth. Gunpowder was first used in grenades, then as a powder, and finally, in a more convenient granular form. The early gunpowder emitted so much smoke that the position of the firer was dangerously advertised to the enemy. In addition, the action of the powder was so uncertain that i t became a question whether one would hit his target or blow himself t o small bits in the attempt. The first marked improvement in gunpowder came in 1860 as a result of the work of General Rodman of the United States Army, who discovered the principle of progressive combustion of powder. He found that, by compressing finely divided powder into large grains and thus increasing its
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density, the pressure resulting from its burning could be controlled. Following this discovery, gunpowder was manufactured in grains suitable for particular guns, and shaped and perforated in such a way as to control the velocity of combustion. The basis for smokeless powder, guncotton, was discovered by Schoenbein in 1845. Guncotton is made by treating wood pulp or cotton with nitric acid in the presence of sulfuric acid. The product looks like common cotton. It is dissolved in ether-alcohol or acetone, molded and cut into grains of the desired size. In 1865 the first smokeless powder was introduced. This powder consisted of wood, nitrated and treated with potassium nitrate. However, smokeless powder was not used for military purposes until 1886 when a French engineer, Vieille, made use of nitro-cotton in making smokeless powder. Later the powder was further improved by the addition of stabilizers. Smokeless powder has almost entirely replaced the old black powder for military purposes. Before going further into the subject of explosives i t might be well to say something of the most important element of all explosives, nitrogen. Nitrogen is known as an "inert" element, from the fact that it is very hard to get into combination with other elements. Its value in explosive materials lies in its eagerness to get out of combination as quickly as possible. When an explosive compound is disturbed violently enough the shock spreads throughout the mass, the hydrogen and carbon atoms undergo very rapid combustion, and in a flash all the atoms are rushing this way and that. The result is a violent explosion, sometimes sufficientto move a heavy cannon ball many miles. In 1846, a year after the discovery of guncotton, nitroglycerin was discovered by an Italian chemist, Sobrero. Dynamite is made by mixing the liquid nitroglycerin with something which will soak i t up, and then molding the mixture into sticks. Guncotton must be molded by mixing i t with some liquid. In 1888 Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, thought of combining the two, of soaking up nitroglycerin with guncotton to form a double explosive which possessed many times the violence of explosives formerly used. Nobel's invention is called "cordite," and is composed of nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose with a little mineral jelly. Besides cordite there are several other high explosives, the newest and probably best known being trinitrotoluol, or TNT. TNT is, in many ways, the best high explosive. It does not react with the metal of the containers and is not sensitive to ordinary shocks. It melts a t a low temperature, and can be poured easily into shells. When i t is detonated by a rather violent shock i t explodes with temfic force. The use of high explosives has destroyed the usefulness of elaborately strengthened fortresses and given birth to a new type of fighting, trench warfare. During the World War, the Allies did not succeed in breaking
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the German line until they were able to blow the enemy out of their entrenchments with great shells loaded with high explosives. The World War witnessed the introduction of a weapon capable of penetrating entrenchments where shot and shell do not go; a weapon swift, sure, and deadly-lethal or "poison" gases. The first attack with poison gas was made by the Germans a t Ypres in 1915, an attack which produced a wave of horror throughout the whole world. Tales were told of a horrible death, of writhing agony, purpled faces, of hideous gasping and choking. But if chemistry was a t fault in supplying men with so deadly a weapon, i t was redeemingly swift in providing a defense against lethal gas. Gas masks were made and perfected to their present form. The modern gas mask is provided with materials to filter out any smoke, no matter how fine its state of subdivision. The compartments of the cannister are filled with charcoal for absorption of gases and chemicals which undergo reaction with the poison, reducing i t to a quite harmless state. There are other gases, less deadly, which cause only temporary disablement. Tear gases, or lachrymators, produce a copious flow of tears, blinding the victim and rendering him uniit for milit~ryservice for several hours. The same effect is created with sneeze gases, or sternutators, which cause violent fits of sneezing or laughing. These gases do not leave permanent ill effects. Another gas whose value in national defense has not yet been tested to the fullest extent is non-toxic smoke. This is produced in three ways: by smoke candles, which produce dense black clouds, by the ejection of titanium tetrachloride under pressure, or by the use of white phosphorus bombs. A smoke screen thrown up by one of these means destroys visibility entirely. Troops 'of soldiers may proceed protected by such a screen. Battleships may be completely hidden. The greatest possibilities of smoke screens remain to be seen. Chemistry has made many important contributions to air service by providing chemically controlled fuels which will undergo combustion in spite of altitude; by producing strong-light alloys for the construction of airships; by formulating "dopes" which will keep airplane wings taut under all conditions. Chemistry has produced the gases used in balloons and dirigibles-helium and hydrogen-and reduced their cost to a reasonable point. Aircraft is not strictly an exponent of chemical research, but i t owes much of its rapid progress to chemistry. The contributions of chemistry to health and sanitation are incalculable and can only receive the barest mention in an article such as this. By a correct application of chemical knowledge, the purity of all food and water supplies can be assured. Synthetic organic chemistry has made possible adequate care for the wounded. Chemistry has supplied anesthetics, antiseptics, and germicides in large quantities and of the high-
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est quality. Painless surgery owes much of its present efficiency to chemistry. Not only does chemistry assure the purity of food but i t also makes the food supply sufficient. In time of war, food production must be increased, unnecessary waste eliminated and industry conducted on a more efficient and economical plane. Substitutes must be found for any commodity which is scarce, and the whole nation must learn to practice economy. In such cases chemistry becomes of the highest importance, showing the way to increase resources and to use them to the greatest possible advantage. Even from so superficial a survey as this, it is clear that chemistry is a vital factor in national defense, and that its importance as such is rapidly increasing. The chemist's knowledge of the nature and action of matter is becoming the great principle underlying our methods of attack and defense. When we consider that chemistry is only just beginning its work in the field of national defense, we catch a vision of the great future which lies before it as the protector of nations. Bibliography Fries and West, "Chemical Warfare," McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., Inc., New York City. F. S. Harris and N. I. Burtt, "Scientific Research and Human WeIfare." H. E. Howe, "Chemistry in the World's Work," D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., New York City, 1926. H. E. Howe, "Chemistry in Industry," D. Van Nostrand Co., New York City. hrdutrial and Engineering Chemistry, 18, 905-7 (1926). E. E. Slosson, "Creative Chemistry," The Century Co., New York City.
