AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
A RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT 
THE BASIS FOR FUTURE 
PROGRESS 
HARRISON HALE, Ph.D. 
Head of Department of Chemistry, University of Arkansas 
63 ILLUSTRATIONS 
D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY 
NEW YORK 
Eight Warren Street 
1921 Copyright, 1921 
By 
D. Van Nostrand Company 
Printed in the United States of America TO 
EDGAR FAHS SMITH 
AMERICAN CHEMIST 
WHOSE LOVE OF COUNTRY AND DEVOTION TO 
CHEMISTRY HAVE LONG BEEN AN INSPIRATION PREFACE 
Chemistry is constantly becoming of greater im- 
portance in the life of the American people. The 
realization of its value has been deepened by recent 
events. This situation calls for a simple and clear 
statement of the more outstanding facts of American 
Chemistry, which is the purpose of this book. 
It seeks to be of service both to the general 
reader and to the reader still in school. For the 
student it is intended for use either as collateral 
reading along with a course in General Chemistry, 
or as a short separate course. For both courses 
the author has used this material satisfactorily in 
his classes. 
Two objects have been sought: to call the atten- 
tion of the reader to the fundamental importance of 
chemistry to America as well as to the wonderful 
chemical possibilities in America; second, to en- 
courage in him the habit of reading articles in 
current literature with a bearing on chemistry, to 
which frequent references are given. It is sur- 
prising how many such articles are being printed 
in the newspapers and non-technical magazines. 
That the record of the American chemist is one 
of achievement, and furnishes a very real basis for 
future progress is the firm conviction of the writer. 
In these facts there is an inspiring source of 
patriotism. 
Fayetteville, Ark., 
March 28, 1921. 
HARRISON HALE. 
v The author wishes to express his indebtedness 
to the following American organizations for their 
courtesy and co-operation in furnishing illustrations: 
Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, University 
of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Chemical Warfare Service, United States Army, by 
Brigadier General Amos A. Fries, Chief. 
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Del. 
New York Continental Jewell Filtration Co., Nut- 
ley, N. J. 
American Cyanamid Co., 511 Fifth Ave, New York. 
General Electric Company, Schenectady, N. Y. 
The Battery Company, 17 Battery Place, New York. 
Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., Rochester, N. Y. 
Laclede-Christy Clay Products Co., St. Louis, Mo. 
The Atlas Portland Cement Co., 30 Broad St., New 
York. 
American Bauxite Co., Bauxite, Ark. 
Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, O. 
D. Van Nostrand Co., 8 Warren St., New York. 
(Cuts from Rogers’ Industrial Chemistry.) 
vi CONTENTS 
I Introduction I 
II Recent Rapid Growth—War Chemistry. 9 
111 Water and Sewage. Sanitation and 
Medicine 29 
t VI Food. Fertilizers 43 
V Textiles 66 
VI Coal Tar—Dyes 79 
VII Fuel 100 
VIII Silicate Industries 115 
IX Paints and Varnishes 142 
X Rubber 164 
XI Electrochemistry in Industry 172 
XII Acids 183 
XIII Metals 189 
XIV American Chemistry and the Future .. . 205 
Index 212 
vii CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION 
American Chemistry.—ln discussing what we 
have chosen to call American Chemistry two out- 
standing facts constantly force themselves upon 
our attention: the absolutely fundamental and in- 
creasing value of chemistry in the development of 
the world to-day, and the real importance of the 
United States in modern chemistry. We shall hope 
to see not only the very creditable part America 
has had in the past, and the work now being done, 
but also to obtain some idea of the great possi- 
bilities of the future. In other words, we wish to 
know what chemistry is doing for America and 
what America is doing for chemistry. 
Very Early History.—Though no great attention 
was paid to the achievements of American chemical 
industries until they proved themselves one of the 
most powerful factors in bringing the World War 
to a successful conclusion, yet it is interesting to 
note that the first industries of the earliest American 
colony at Jamestown were those which are now 
considered chemical industries. The following re- 
port is given by Mr. C. A. Browne in the Journal of 
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, January 
1919 (Volume 11, page 16): 
“ The London Company, the year after they 
founded the Jamestown Settlement, sent eight 
1 2 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Poles and Germans to the new colony to make 
pitch, tar, glass, and soap-ashes. No sooner were 
these workmen landed than they began operations. 
. . . From this small beginning in 1608 we must 
date the commencement of chemical industries 
in America. The glass-house used for these trials 
stood in some woods about a mile from James- 
town.” 
Expansion of chemical industry was even then in 
evidence for in 1620, 150 men were sent out to set 
up three iron works. Salt works to supply the 
Atlantic Coast fisheries were started and lead smelt- 
ing was begun. But “ all industrial efforts were 
paralyzed by the Indian massacre of 1622.” 
“ Chemical industries in the New England colonies 
were destined to run very much the same course 
as in Virginia.” 
Chemical Industry.—From these early begin- 
nings chemical industry has grown to its present 
proportions, not by a steady development, but 
hindered or stimulated by harmful or helpful 
economic or industrial conditions. By far the 
greatest advance has been made within the last 
twenty-five years, much of it in the last ten. This 
has been due to the recognition of the fact that 
almost all industries are in basic principle chemical, 
and to the employment of chemists in the control 
and direction of these industries. By the labors 
of the American chemist aluminum and numerous 
other metals have been extracted from their ores, 
cotton seed has given up its oil to form a number of 
valuable food products, water supplies have been INTRODUCTION 
3 
safeguarded and purified, petroleum has by refining 
given its numerous products now considered neces- 
sities. These and many, many other industries 
owe their present commanding and helpful position 
to the efforts and the skill of the chemist (I).* 
It must be clearly kept in mind that the field of 
the chemist is far broader than that of the so-called 
chemical industries. The iron and steel industry, 
as well as that of all the metals, while not a chemical 
industry, so-called, must be carried on under rigid 
chemical control. In fact but a very small fraction 
of the twenty-six billions of dollars of manufactures 
reported in the last (1914) U. S. census is not either 
directly or indirectly dependent upon the work of 
the American chemist (2). 
Chemical Societies.—This splendid development 
of our industries is due in very large measure to the 
interest and the knowledge fostered by the associa- 
tion of chemists and persons of kindred ideals in 
chemical societies. The first society of this kind 
in the world was the Chemical Society of Phila- 
delphia founded by James Woodhouse in 1792 (3). 
Though active only some seventeen years, it had 
a decided influence upon American chemical 
thought of its day and has left us some interesting 
papers. In an address before this society delivered 
April 11, 1798, Thomas P. Smith makes suggestions 
which are as vital and timely to-day as they were a 
century ago. In Smith’s “ Chemistry in America ” 
page 36, he says: 
This number refers to references given at the end of the chapter. 4 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
“ The only true basis on which the independence 
of our country can rest are agriculture and manu- 
factures. To the promotion of these nothing tends 
in a higher degree than chemistry. ... It is to a 
general diffusion of a knowledge of this science, 
next to the virtue of our countrymen, that we are to 
look for the firm establishment of our indepen- 
dence.” 
Joseph Priestley came to make his home in 
Pennsylvania in 1794. His discovery of oxygen 
twenty years earlier and its interpretation by 
Lavoisier is frequently considered as marking the 
beginning of Modern Chemistry. On August 1, 
1874 a group of American chemists gathered at 
Priestley’s grave to celebrate the centennial of the 
discovery of oxygen and to thus pay a tribute of 
respect and appreciation. There the organization 
of a chemical society was suggested by one of the 
ladies present (4). As a result there met in New 
York City, April 6, 1876 a group of thirty-five 
chemists for the purpose of founding the American 
Chemical Society. To-day this society with its 
16,000 members is by far the largest chemical 
society in the world, and exerts an influence which 
cannot be measured. Its three publications have 
been of great value, and its plans for the future 
give promise of still greater usefulness. 
The American Electrochemical Society, the Am- 
erican Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Associa- 
tion of Official Agricultural Chemists and a number 
of other organizations have done much for the 
development of American Chemistry. The Amer- 
ican Chemical Journal, fifty volumes of which were INTRODUCTION 
5 
published by Ira Remsen, before its consolidation 
with the Journal of the American Chemical Society, 
the Journal of Physical Chemistry, the Chemical 
Age, Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering and 
similar publications have been influential and 
valuable. 
Colleges and Universities.—Not the least of the 
influences at work in moulding and directing 
chemical thought has been that of the chemical 
departments of the American colleges and uni- 
versities. Priestley was offered the professorship 
of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and 
even at that date a noteworthy group of men were 
engaged in such work (5). With the growth in 
numbers and material equipment of the universities 
this influence increased and for years it has not 
been necessary to leave the United States to secure 
the best training in chemistry and chemical en- 
gineering (6). 
Co-operation.—As chemical industries developed 
rapidly and educational institutions increased in 
number and in facilities for research, it became in- 
creasingly evident that, to obtain the best results, 
there should be some closer connection between 
the two: to give to industry the spirit of research 
dominant in the university, and to the university 
something of the efficiency and energy of industry. 
This feeling has shown itself in several ways. The 
founding of industrial fellowships at the University 
of Kansas under the direction of Robert Kennedy 
Duncan was followed later by the dedication on 
February 26, 1915 of Mellon Institute at Pittsburgh Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. A Splendid Example of Co-operation INTRODUCTION 
7 
due to his influence (7). The trade courses of the 
University of Cincinnati and the Master’s Course in 
Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology (8) are praiseworthy efforts to 
combine practical experience with university train- 
ing (9). 
Not only is there need for closer co-operation 
between industry and education but the aid of the 
Federal Government in the solution of industrial 
engineering problems, many of which are chemical, 
is vitally necessary and is at present rightly receiv- 
ing much attention. 
The organization of the Chemical Foundation, 
Inc. to purchase from the Alien Property Custodian 
tor the benefit of American industry 4500 patents 
mainly German) applying to chemistry promises 
nvuch for American chemical independence £nd 
for the advancement of chemical and allied 
science and industry in the United States (10).” 
As a result of all of these efforts and of the 
spirit of co-operation which is beginning to dominate 
them we may expect even greater triumphs for 
Chemistry in the United States in the near future 
than those already won, and it is to this record and 
to this promise we wish now to turn our attention. 
L Hesse Contributions of the Chemist to the Industrial Develop- 
ment of the United States—A Record of Achievement. 
J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 7, 293 (Apr. ’l5). 
* Hesse—Our Opportunity. Ibid. 11, 341 (Apr. ’l9). 
Smith, Edgar F.—Chemistry in America, Chap. 11. Appleton 
(1914). 
References 8 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
4. Nichols—A Retrospect and an Application. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 
10, 768 (Oct. ’18). 
5. Smith—Chemistry in Old Philadelphia. Lippincott (1919). 
6. Sibert—Dedication of New Chemistry Hall, University of 
Nebraska. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 671 (July ’l9). 
7. Hamor—The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research and School 
of Specific Industries of the University of Pittsburgh. J. 
Ind. and Eng. Ch. 7, 326 (Apr. ’l5). See also Ibid. 10, 401 
(May ’18). 
8. Walker—A Master’s Course in Chemical Engineering. J. 
Ind. and Eng. Ch. 8, 747 (Aug. ’l6). 
9. Report of the Committee on Co-operation between the Universi- 
ties and Industries. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 417 (May ’l9). 
10. Palmer—Report of Alien Property Custodian on the Chemical 
Industry. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 352 (Apr. ’l9). 
Garvan—Industrial Germany, Her Methods and Their Defeat. 
Ibid. 11, 574 (June ’l9). 
Smith—The American Spirit in Chemistry. Ibid. 11, 405 
(May ’l9). 
Smith—Priestley in America, Blakiston (1921). CHAPTER II 
RECENT RAPID GROWTH-WAR CHEMISTRY 
Explosives. Gas. Chemical Warfare Service. Permanent Gain 
Industrial chemistry, already expanding at a rapid 
rate, received a tremendous impetus from the 
demand of the nations at war in 1915, and even 
the increased production thus resulting was far 
exceeded when the United States had actively 
entered the war. Says an American writer in 
summarizing the year 1918 (1): 
“ Reactions which in the laboratory proceed in 
test tubes, have been put upon a commercial basis 
of quantity of production that would astound the 
chemist of a generation ago.” 
This increased production was by no means 
confined to munitions and other necessities of war, 
though, of course, most noticeable there. For- 
tunately much of the equipment and machinery 
can be turned to the manufacture of articles as 
useful in peaceful pursuits as in war, so that there 
was a real permanent gain in the midst of the 
economic loss which war necessarily brings. We 
shall first consider Explosives and Gases and the 
American Chemical Warfare Service in their rela- 
tion to the War and also on the basis of possible 
permanent gain, and in later chapters other indus- 
tries not so directly related, but which in a large 
Pleasure felt the stimulus which the War brought. 
2 9 10 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Explosives 
In the midst of the resounding din of the present 
day battle one is hardly likely to think of the primi- 
tive bowman of long ago. And yet the idea of 
effectiveness at a distance is the same, only to-day 
man uses the energy of chemical action instead of 
muscular force and the range is increased from 
yards to miles. Moreover by chemical force he 
may not only send his projectile to a desired point 
but he may cause its explosion there, increasing 
its effectiveness. 
An explosion is due to a sudden increase in 
volume and may be initiated either by a mechanical 
shock or by an increase in temperature. The 
element used almost universally in military explo- 
sives is the same element which, uncombined, is 
used as a diluent for the more active oxygen of 
the air. Though compounds of nitrogen are often 
used for the destruction of life in warfare, other 
compounds of the same element are absolutely 
essential for any form of animal or plant life. 
Hence compounds of this element must be present 
in our food and in the soil in which our food grows, 
and yet many of our most violent poisons are com- 
pounds of this same element. 
Compounds of nitrogen are comparatively rare 
and expensive, though over each square mile of 
the earth and the sea as well, it is estimated there 
are approximately 25,000,000 tons of the free 
element. Only recently has it become practically 
possible to combine even a small amount of this RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
11 
Firing 155 Millimeter Howitzer During Argonne Fight 12 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
atmospheric nitrogen into compounds of value, and 
it is asserted on high authority (2) that Germany 
waited before putting her plan of world conquest 
into action until the methods of fixing atmospheric 
nitrogen had been perfected! (See Fertilizers, 
page 53.) 
Classes of Explosives.—Very many substances of 
an explosive nature are known, but not all can be 
sufficiently controlled to be of practical value. 
Those now in common use may be placed in three 
groups: 
1. Black powder, which has been in continuous 
use for military purposes since the fourteenth 
century, though its use for industrial work is con- 
fined to the last two hundred years. The standard 
black powder of the United States Army contains 
the following by weight: 
Chemical Symbol Per Cent. 
Potassium nitrate (saltpetre) KN03 75 
Carbon (as charcoal) , C 15 
Sulfur S 10 
100 
Compared with explosives of more recent discovery 
gunpowder is open to three objections: (a) it is 
a mechanical mixture, not a chemical compound 
and the generation of gas is relatively slow. It 
has been calculated (3) that while the explosion of 
a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of dynamite occupies 
1/50000 of a second, the same weight of ordinary 
black powder requires 1/100 of a second, or five 
hundred times as long, (b) More than half of the 
products of the combustion of black gunpowder are RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
13 
solids, causing large amounts of smoke, (c) In a 
gunpowder explosion the volume of the gas pro- 
duced is less and the temperature is less, thereby 
giving a much less energetic explosion. 
2. Smokeless powder and similar products, are 
explosive chemical compounds or mixtures of such 
compounds. These are made by treating various 
organic materials with a mixture of nitric and 
sulfuric acids, great care being necessary both in the 
selection and purification of materials, as well as in 
the processes of manufacture. These explosives 
may be divided into two classes of which nitro- 
glycerin and tri-nitro-toluol, commonly called TNT 
are the best known representatives. 
Nitro-glycerin, discovered by Sobrero, an Italian 
chemist, in 1847, is prepared by spraying glycerin 
into a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids, which 
must be kept cold. The nitro-glycerin is a heavy, 
pale yellow oil, very poisonous and very easily 
exploded by a shock. Because of these properties 
this glyceryl trinitrate, the really correct name for 
this explosive, was put to little or no practical use, 
nntil Sir Alfred Nobel,* a Swede, in 1866 prepared 
dynamite by the absorption of nitro-glycerin in 
sawdust, infusorial earth, or some similar sub- 
stance. In this form it can be handled with much 
greater safety. 
Nitro-cellulose is formed by treating carefully 
prepared cellulose with a mixture of nitric and 
sulfuric acids. This cellulose is generally obtained 
from cotton of short fibre, purified by special 
Founder of the Nobel Peace Prize. 14 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
processes, though wood cellulose can also be used. 
The material thus obtained, cellulose nitrate, occurs 
in a number of varieties depending upon the chem- 
ical composition and the conditions of manufacture. 
Cellulose nitrate for explosive purposes must be 
made from materials of a high degree of purity 
and by processes, demanding time and extreme 
care. Under the name of guncotton this material 
finds extensive use and is considered one of the 
safest of modern explosives. 
Certain coal tar products when treated with 
nitric and sulfuric acids under proper conditions 
yield powerful and satisfactory explosive com- 
pounds, some of which are often used. They 
differ to some extent in their chemical composition 
from the compounds just described and contain the 
benzene ring found in practically all coal tar pro- 
ducts. Picric acid and TNT are the most im- 
portant. 
3. Primers and detonators, which are used to 
produce the requisite shock for the explosion of the 
main charge. Mercury fulminate made from mer- 
curic nitrate, nitric acid and alcohol is generally 
used. (Latin: fulmen, fulminis, thunder.) 
America’s distinction lies in the tremendous 
output of such explosives in very recent years. 
Permanent Gain.—While the very word, explo- 
sive, is coupled in our minds with the idea of 
disaster and of death, yet on further thought we 
readily recognize that the power wrapped up in an 
explosive can be used for constructive as well as for 
destructive purposes. Clearly the explosive is RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
15 
Road Built with Aid of Explosives, Colorado 16 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
entitled to rank along with steam and electricity 
in the aid it has given to man in his conquest of 
nature. In the manufacture of explosives to be 
used in the building of roads and waterways, 
railways and tunnels, the equipment America has 
Removing Stumps by Explosives—Tamping the Charge 
recently acquired will be of decided value. New 
uses for explosives are possible, most noticeable 
among these being in shattering ground for the 
planting of fruit trees and in other forms of agri- 
cultural work. 
Again, the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, 
carried out in our recently constructed plants upon 
a scale never before dreamed of, can be of the 
greatest practical value in the manufacture of RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
17 
fertilizers. In practically all large explosive plants 
sulfuric acid has been manufactured. This acid 
has countless industrial uses. Greatly to be de- 
sired sources of supply for our newly established 
dyeing industry have already been found in the 
saving of certain crudes in coal tar previously used 
in making explosives. (See Sulfuric Acid Manu- 
facture, p. 183; also Dyes, p. 88.) 
“ All surplus TNT and other explosives owped 
by the War Department, which can be in 
clearing land, building roads, general construction 
work . . . have been turned over tp' the Depart- 
ment of Interior. . . . This material, which at one 
time was considered practically worthless, now has 
an estimated value of $15,000,^00.”(4) 
War Gases 
A description of the jpse of poisonous gases in 
warfare in a book on American Chemistry would 
have been impossible a few years ago. Such use 
had been distinctly forbidden at the Hague with 
the concurrence of many of the leading nations of 
the world, including Germany. While the United 
States did not ratify this agreement, American 
army men and chemists had no plans for this use 
of gases and no attention whatever had been given 
to them. But when the suffocating waves of green- 
ish-yellow chlorine were sent by the Germans over 
the Ypres salient, April 22, 1915, a new phase of 
most hideous warfare was added by Germany’s 
utter disregard of all agreements and her effort 
to terrorize her foes (5). 18 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Forms of Gas Attack.—This first attack and those 
following it for months were gas clouds, or drift 
gas, and depended for their successful use upon 
weather conditions. Cylinders weighing about 
ninety pounds each, containing forty pounds of 
liquefied chlorine were placed along the trench at 
intervals of about a yard and opened when there 
was a moderate wind of four to eight miles velocity 
blowing in the right direction. A few months later 
phosgene, carbonyl chloride (COCI2), was used 
because of its after effect, frequently causing death 
hours after the actual time of gassing, when the 
victim had gone out of the danger zone. 
The use of the hand grenade, containing bromine, 
chlorosulphonic acid, or other corrosive or poisonous 
substance, was a second form of attack found 
exceedingly useful in the clearing out of trenches 
and dugouts, and not dependent upon the direction 
of the wind. 
While not so spectacular, the third and most 
effective form of gas attack was by the use of the 
gas shell. Its use came not many months after 
the first use of drift gas, but its great value was 
shown in the German offensive in the spring of 
1918, for it proved to be one of the most decisive 
factors in making possible that advance. It is 
claimed that in some localities as many as 200,000 
shells per day, each containing five pounds of gas, 
were fired for four successive days. Thus large 
areas could be covered and the strain on the soldiers 
under attack from the long wearing of masks was 
terrific, even when there were few casualties. RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
19 
This was called the neutralization of the infantry. 
The gas shell allowed also the use of a wide variety 
of substances, many of which were in reality not 
gases, but heavy corrosive liquids or solids with 
some high explosive as TNT to cause their proper 
dispersion. 
Classification of “ War Gases.”—According to 
their effects the so-called gases may be classified as 
death-producing or lethal, tear-producing or lacry- 
matory, sneeze-producing or sternutatory, corroding 
or blistering. These classes are not mutually 
exclusive, the same gas falling in several classes, 
depending in part upon the concentration. Some 
individuals were found much more susceptible to a 
certain gas than others. The Germans distin- 
guished some of these shells by marking them with 
a colored cross, thus, blue, green, yellow, and even 
red. This red cross shell contained a mixture of 
both tear-producing and deadly gases, so by its 
use, as by the use of others, Baskerville claims the 
Germans intended that the “ soldiers were to weep 
at their own funerals! ” (6) 
American War Gases.—In November 1917 it 
was decided by the Ordnance Department of the 
Army to establish a small shell-filling plant at 
Gunpowder Neck, Maryland (7), and the next 
month it was decided to erect there such chemical 
plants as would be needed to furnish the materials 
for filling the shell. In January 1918 Colonel Wm. 
H. Walker, then Chief of the Chemical Service 
Section (in times of peace, in charge of the School 
of Chemical Engineering Practice at the Massa- 20 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
chusetts Institute of Technology—see p. 7) was 
placed in charge and it is in large measure due to 
his energy and efficiency that so splendid a record 
of American achievement was made. This plant 
with others where “ gas ” materials were manu- 
factured passed under the care of the Chemical 
Warfare Service when that was organized. 
At this plant were manufactured four “ gases ” 
which may be regarded as typical of a very large 
number of substances that were used in gas war- 
fare. These were either shipped abroad in bulk 
or used to fill hand grenades or gas shells. 
Chlorine, the basis of the other (( gases ,5 pre- 
pared here was manufactured by the electrolysis of 
sodium chloride, or common salt. After drying a 
part was used to make sulfur chloride and phosgene 
and most of the remainder liquefied for shipment 
overseas. (8), Phosgene, or carbonyl chloride, a 
highly poisonous gas, was made by passing carbon 
monoxide and chlorine over a carbon catalyzer. 
It, too, was used either in filling shells or shipped 
in drums. 
Chlorpicrin, a strong lacrymator as well as a 
poison, is a liquid made by the reaction of calcium 
picfate with bleaching powder. Mustard gas, 
which is really not a gas at all, but a liquid with a 
vapor five times as heavy as air, is 88-dichlordi- 
ethylsulfide. It affects the eyes, causing temporary 
blindness, may produce inflammation of the lungs, 
and also make burns like those of phosphorus, very 
painful and difficult to heal. This “ gas ”is pro- 
duced by passing ethylene into sulfur chloride and 
the reaction must be carefully controlled (9). RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
21 
Lewisite, a gas whose composition is still kept 
secret, is claimed to be seventy-two times more 
deadly than any war gas actually used. Its dis- 
covery and production in America came too late 
for it to be used on the battle front (9). 
Gas Defense—The Mask.—It is stated that the 
Allies had been warned that the Germans were 
preparing for a gas attack but were unable to give 
such a report credence. Whether this be true or 
not, it is certain that there was absolutely no 
defence for the gas waves at Ypres. Within a week 
after this attack, thanks to the help of English 
women, hundreds of thousands of gas masks were 
provided for their soldiers. These first masks 
were mainly a heavy cloth saturated with soda and 
sodium thiosulfate to neutralize the acid and the 
oxidizing effect of the chlorine. 
As time went on and other gases were used the 
masks were perfected, the object being mainly to 
neutralize the effect of the gas. Later the idea of 
absorption became the dominant one, and this 
caused an unprecedented demand for carbon, or 
charcoal, made from cocoanut shells and the seed 
of peaches, apricots and other fruits, which pure 
research several years before the war had shown 
best suited for this purpose. This charcoal mixed 
with selected chemicals was placed in canisters, and 
could be renewed. 
The importance of such defence is seen from the 
statement of Colonel Raymond F. Bacon, Chief of 
the Technical Division (in peace times Director of 
Mellon Institute see p. 5), who says: (10) 22 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
“ In proportion to the amount of gas shell used the 
casualties produced thereby have been far in 
excess of those caused by any other form of 
ammunition.” Thirty per cent of all casualties 
among American troops were due to gas (11). 
The extremely toxic effect of the gases used is 
seen in the haste necessary in donning the mask, or, 
as put by a British officer, “ In gas warfare there 
are but two classes, ‘ the quick and the dead ’ ”(12). 
Every effort was made to keep the trenches free 
from poisonous gases, these being removed by 
creating air currents, either by fanning or the 
building of fires, or by the neutralization of the gas 
by some form of chemical spray. 
Permanent Gain.—The chlorine so widely used 
either alone or in the manufacture of other gases 
has also a wide use in times of peace in the steriliza- 
tion of water supplies, in sanitation, in medicine, 
and in the preparation of a large number of chem- 
icals including dyeing materials. 
The use of masks in certain industries has already 
resulted and will doubtless find a wider application. 
The use of their masks by returned soldiers, serving 
as members of city fire departments, was reported 
in a number of instances shortly after their return. 
The knowledge gained as to the toxic effect of 
numerous substances and the best method of 
counteracting them has been a valuable gain to the 
physician (13). 
The record of the American chemist in beating the 
German in twenty months at his own game, in 
which he claimed all the homage due to the super- RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
23 
man and for which he had been preparing for forty 
years, is in reality a permanent gain of no small 
value. For at the close of the war the American 
soldier was better protected from gas attacks and 
the gas offense of the American, though finding 
slight use on account of the steadiness of the 
enemy’s retreat was far more deadly than anything 
the German had devised after his decades of 
preparation. This is not a cause for undue pride, 
and credit in large measure is due to the knowledge 
gained from our allies, but it is a source of added 
confidence as we face the future of American 
Chemistry. 
Chemical Warfare Service 
Those who were fortunate enough to be present 
at the closing banquet of the meeting of the Amer- 
ican Chemical Society in Champaign, 111., in April 
1916 could not but be impressed with the words of 
President Herty, when he said, in substance: 
“ Let us, as we go to our homes, remember the 
responsibilities that rest upon us as American chem- 
ists, ready to serve if our country needs us in the 
momentous days that may lie ahead.” 
Altogether consistent with this attitude was the 
action of his successor, President Stieglitz, early 
in February 1917 in offering without reservation to 
President Wilson the services of the members of 
the Society in any emergency which might arise (14). 
This action was unanimously reaffirmed at the 
spring meeting in Kansas City a few days after a 
state of war had been declared. By June 1917 a 24 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
committee of the Society had presented a report on 
“ War Service of Chemists.” 
Chemical Service Section.—In the early days of 
the war little attention was paid to a man’s qualifica- 
tions as a chemist and so a number of graduate 
chemists were found serving in the army in a non- 
chemical capacity. The first recognition came in 
the formation of the Chemical Service Section, 
National Army, and largely through its influence 
an order was issued May 28, 1918, stating (15), 
“ Owing to the needs of the military service for 
a great many men trained in chemistry, it is con- 
sidered most important that all enlisted men who 
are graduate chemists should be assigned to duty 
where their special knowledge and training can be 
fully utilized. . . . 
“ Enlisted men who are graduate chemists will 
not be sent overseas, unless they are to be employed 
on chemical duties.” 
Under this order hundreds of men were actually 
placed in chemical work. As the insignia of this 
Section crossed alembics, or retorts, surmounted 
by the benzene ring were chosen, and for a hat 
cord, the colors of the American Chemical Society, 
cobalt-blue and gold. 
Census of Chemists.—In February 1917, two 
months before the declaration of a state of war, 
the Bureau of Mines through its Director, Dr. 
Manning, and the American Chemical Society 
through its Secretary, Dr. Parsons, had at the 
request of the Director of the Council of National 
Defense undertaken a census of the chemists of RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
25 
America, which was kept up and revised till the 
close of the War. This list contained some 17,000 
names, classified as to their particular line of work, 
and proved invaluable in the assigning of men. 
Chemical Warfare Service.—The first call for 
chemists came for work on Gas Defense, which at 
the beginning was placed in the hands of the 
Bureau of Mines, for with them was the little 
knowledge then available in regard to gases and the 
protection from them. Almost at the same time 
chemists began active work for the ordnance de- 
partment, the sanitary corps of the medical depart- 
ment, and in countless other fields of chemical 
manufacture and investigation stimulated by the 
war. Naturally there was considerable confusion 
and duplication of work. With the idea of remedy- 
ing this President Wilson in an order dated June 
28, 1918, directed 
“ the gas service of the Army to be organized into a 
Chemical Warfare Service, National Army, to in- 
clude: (a) The Chemical Service Section, National 
rmy, (b) All officers and enlisted men of the 
Ordnance Department and Sanitary Corps of the 
medical Department (9).” 
Major General William L. Sibert was appointed 
director, Chemical Warfare Service, and it is 
Significant that the sentence setting forth his varied 
and wide reaching duties is one of the longest 
sentences on record, containing 574 words (15). 
How successfully the American Chemical War- 
fere Service both at home and overseas carried 
out their part of the world program is now a matter 26 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
How Shells Produce Smoke or Gas Clouds—Two 8-inch Smoke Bombs Twelve Seconds 
After Bursting, Note the Effective Way in which the Vision is Shut off. RECENT RAPID GROWTH 
27 
of history. In an equally splendid manner chemists 
connected with the essential industries gave of 
their energy and their devotion, and to them equal 
credit is due. The measure of their success is 
clearly stated in a sentence from an editorial pub- 
lished in January 1919;(16): 
“ Through the conservation of trained men, re- 
sulting from their sacrifice of personal inclination, 
this country was enabled to assemble and utilize 
efficiently the greatest corps of chemists in any of 
the allied countries, as is abundantly attested by 
foreign official representatives whose timely warn- 
lngs, however, were of the greatest aid in effecting 
this conservation of trained men.” 
And this is to say that thus was assembled the 
greatest corps of chemists in the history of the 
world. Shall we be able to maintain such a position 
Ift times of peace? 
ft Editorial Comment, Scientific American (1-4-19). 
2. Stieglitz—New Chemical Warfare. Yale Review, n.s. 7, 493 
References 
(Apr. ’18). 
Harrow—Scientific Monthly. 
Garvan—lndustrial Germany, Her Methods and their Defeat 
J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 574 (June ’l9). 
3- Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry, p. 470. Macmillan 
(1917). 
4* Note, Ch. and Met. Eng. 20, 455 (5-1-19), 
ft Talbot—Chemistry at the Front. Atl. Monthly 122, 265 (Aug. 
’18). Masks in Gas Warfare. Science, n.s. 48, 495 (11-15 
—18). 
ft Baskerville—Gas in this War. R. of Reviews, 58,273 (Sep. ’18). 
• Editorial Correspondence, Gas Offense in the United States— 
A Record of Achievement. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 5 (Jan. 
’l9). 28 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
8. Green—The United States Government Chlorine-Caustic Soda 
Plant at Edgewood Arsenal, Edgewood, Md. Ch. and Met 
Eng. 21, 30 (7-1-19). 
9. Contributions from Chemical Warfare Service, U. S. A. in J. 
Ind. and Eng. Ch. Vol. 11 (Feb. ’l9 and following numbers). 
Stockbridge—War Inventions that Came Too Late. Harper’s 
Mag. 139, 828 (Nov. ’l9). 
10. Bacon—The Work of the Technical Division, Chemical Warfare 
Service, A.E.F J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 13 (Jan. ’l9). 
11. Sibert Dedication of New Chemistry Hall, University of 
Nebraska. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 671 (July ’l9). 
12. Scientific American (10-5-18). 
Literary Digest (10-26-18). 
13. Fieldner and Katz—Use of Army Gas Masks in Atmospheres 
Containing Sulphur Dioxide. Ch. and Met. PJng. 20, 582 
(6-1-19), The Gas Mask in Industry. Lit. Dig. 121 (10 
-25-19). 
14. Parsons—The American Chemist in Warfare. J. Ind. and Eng 
Ch. 10, 776 (Oct. ’18). 
15. Chemical Warfare Service. Ibid. 11, 3 (Jan. ’l9). 
Sibert—Chemical Warfare, Ibid. 11, 1060 (Nov. ’l9). 
16. Editorial, Fruits of Service. Ibid. 11, 3 (Jan. ’l9), 
Crowell—America’s Munitions 1917-1918. Washington Gov. 
Ptg. Office (1919). 
Marshall—Manufacture and Testing of Military Explosives, 
McGraw-Hill (1919). 
Hearings on House Bill 5227 by the Senate Committee on 
Military Affairs, June 16, 1919. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 
814-816h (Sep. ’l9). CHAPTER 111 
WATER AND SEWAGE. SANITATION AND MEDICINE 
The remains of the old Roman aqueducts, several 
of which were built before the birth of Christ, show 
the importance of the public water supply in the 
minds of the ancients. That this supply must be 
pure is emphasized by Hippocrates writing four 
hundred years B.C. and advising the boiling and 
filtering of a polluted water before drinking (1). 
The recognition of the necessity of purity in a city 
SuPply was slow in crystallizing into a demand in 
America. This has been offset in some degree by 
the rapidity with which efficient methods of purifica- 
tion have been adopted by American cities within 
the last twenty years. 
Testing the Purity of a Water Supply.—In the 
early days of this republic when the land was thinly 
Populated, Nature furnished an abundant supply 
°f pure water. As population multiplied and pollu- 
tion increased, new difficulties arose, not the least 
°f which was to get the public to adapt themselves 
to the changed condition. Again and again the 
Writer has been told while taking a sample of water, 
later tests of which showed frightful contamination, 
that “ we have been using this well for thirty years 
ajid know it is pure and alright.” Perhaps it was 
Pure thirty years ago, but not in the crowded condi- 
tions now often prevalent. 
29 30 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
The three diseases usually considered as water 
borne are typhoid, Asiatic cholera and some forms 
of dysentery. Typhoid has caused by far the chief 
trouble in this country, and is transmitted through 
water by discharges from a typhoid patient, or 
carrier, contaminating the supply. 
The sanitary survey, bacteriological tests and 
chemical analysis are the three general methods in 
use for the determination of the safety of a drinking 
water. In the sanitary survey notice is taken of the 
source of supply, possible causes of contamination 
and their admission into the water. By its use the 
water expert can frequently determine in large 
degree the suitability of a supply. Wherever prac- 
ticable, however, this should be accompanied by 
bacteriological and chemical tests. The bacterio- 
logical examination generally includes a count of 
the total number of bacteria of all kinds that are 
present and a test for the Bacillus coli communis. 
As this bacillus occurs in the intestines of man and 
the warm blooded animals its presence in large 
quantities is usually considered as indicative of 
pollution, and a presumptive test for the typhoid 
bacillus. The presence of coli, however, does not 
necessarily indicate typhoid, and it is now estab- 
lished that there are strains of non-fecal origin. 
In the chemical analysis the amounts of chlorine, 
of nitrogen as ammonia, as nitrate, as nitrite, of 
oxygen consumed, and of various other substances 
are determined to give to the experienced analyst 
an idea of conditions indicative of sewage con- 
tamination and favorable to the growth of disease- WATER AND SEWAGE 
31 
producing bacteria. Unfortunately there is no 
simple test, either bacteriological or chemical, 
which alone can fully determine the purity of water 
for drinking purposes. Chemical tests for hardness 
and for various metals are also made, as those 
substances may affect the suitability of the supply 
for general use. 
Purification— To obtain supplies of water as oc- 
curring in nature in sufficient amount to meet the 
requirements of a city is generally difficult and 
sometimes impossible, if any reasonable standards 
as to purity are maintained. Hence it is usually 
customary to secure the purest available source 
and then safeguard this by purification. This is 
accomplished by filtration, usually through sand fil- 
ters, or by the use of a germicide, more frequently 
by a combination of the two methods. In fact, 
the time has already come when a city without a 
method of safeguarding its water supply is an 
exception and the same standard is rapidly being 
extended to any town large enough to have a public 
supply. 
Filtration.—Originally the English filter-bed sys- 
tem, or slow sand filtration, was in general use in 
which the water filters through some five or six 
feet of fine sand, coarse sand and gravel, arranged 
in layers. There has now been largely substituted 
for this the American, or rapid, system of mechan- 
ical filtration. In such filters the sand and gravel 
layer is not nearly so thick and a coagulant, gen- 
erally aluminum sulfate, is used. This forms with 
the lime, either already in solution in the water, 32 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
or added to it, a thin coating of aluminum hydroxide 
upon the sand, which greatly increases the effi- 
ciency of the filter. These filters may be made of 
Beginning to Clear Muddy Water 
Clarifying Water by Coagulation with Alum 
wood or of iron, but on the large scale are always of 
concrete, and the water is forced through them by 
pressure or drawn through by suction. A sedi- 
mentation basin is always provided where usually 
much more than half of the sediment is deposited 
before the water passes onto the filter. After WATER AND SEWAGE 
33 
Wooden Gravity Filter—Showing sand, gravel and perforated bottom for washing 34 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Interior Filtration Plant Using American System—Penobscot River Water, Bangor, Maine- 
Filter beds on each side; operating floor in center. WATER AND SEWAGE 
35 
filtration the water goes to the clear water reservoir 
and is then ready for delivery to consumers either 
by gravity or by pumping. 
The advantages of the American system, now in 
very general use in this country, are lower con- 
struction cost, greatly lessened requirement of land 
for the buildings and the ease of washing the 
filter, which is generally carried out daily by the 
use of compressed air followed by filtered wash 
water forced up from below and allowed to run 
to waste. 
Sterilization.—The generally accepted use of 
chlorine in some form as a germicidal agent to 
reduce the bacteria in a water supply dates from 
the successful treatment of the Bubbly Creek 
supply at the Chicago stock yards by G. A. Johnson 
in 1908 (2) and in the same year the purification 
of the Boonton supply of Jersey City, N. J. by 
Johnson and Leal (3). Here chloride of lime, or 
“ bleach,” was used. Very rapidly this method 
increased in favorable use, till in 1918 more than 
1000 cities and towns in North America were using 
this process, chlorinating more than 3,000 million 
gallons daily. In recent years liquid chlorine in 
steel cylinders has, on account of the easy control 
in adding it to the water, largely replaced “ bleach ” 
(4). 
In this work of sterilization America has easily 
been the leader, and the method is being adopted 
all over the world. Chlorine in some form, gen- 
erally as chloride of lime was used by all the great 
nations in safeguarding the water supplies at the 36 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
front, and in most of the cantonments and camps in 
America. 
Other forms of chlorine, especially chloramine, 
have been used to a limited extent, but their 
general use has not as yet been clearly established. 
The same may be said in regard to ozone and ultra- 
violet light, which, while efficient as germicides 
under certain conditions, have on account of 
expense and other causes been unable to replace 
the more widely used chlorine. 
Consumption of Water.—The daily per capita 
consumption of water as given by Mason (l) is: 
American cities, Unmetered, average 161 gallons 
American cities, Metered, “ 73 
English cities “ 33 
German cities “ 28 
Did this mean a proportionate cleanliness for 
Americans it would be a credit, but this cannot be 
claimed. It rather shows a wastefulness which is 
not to our credit, which is further emphasized when 
the metered and unmetered consumption is com- 
pared. 
Sewage Disposal,—Sewage may be defined as 
the used water supply of a community contaminated 
by household wastes, and frequently containing 
street washings or industrial wastes (5). In the 
earlier days the disposal of sewage demanded little 
attention and received less. As the amount of 
sewage increased and the germ theory of the trans- 
mission of certain diseases became established, 
some care as to the disposal of sewage became WATER AND SEWAGE 
37 
imperative. This was especially true in the case 
of cities discharging their sewage into rivers from 
which other cities drew their water supply, or its 
discharge into the ocean with the possible con- 
tamination of shell fish. 
For much of the early work we are indebted to 
the Massachusetts State Board of Health, which, 
shortly after its organization in 1886, established 
the experiment station at Lawrence, and has since 
that time made tests of great value in a practical 
and educational way. Largely as a result of such 
work the average annual death rate of 46 per 
100,000 from typhoid in Massachusetts during the 
years 1886-1890 became in the five year period 
twenty years later only 14 (6). Similar investiga- 
tions were begun and are still being carried on in a 
number of other communities with results of great 
value. 
Results Sought.—The disposal of a city’s sewage 
is a separate problem in each case, the several 
factors being 
(1) the nature and amount of the sewage, which is 
largely affected by trade wastes, 
(2) the degree of purity necessary, which is to 
some degree determined by conditions below 
the point of discharge, 
(3) the volume of the stream, or other body of 
water, into which discharge is made. 
In general it is sought to have an effluent which, 
when mixed with the volume of water into which 
it is discharged, will be free from objectional odor, 
will not deposit sludge banks, and will not be too 38 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
highly contaminated with organic sewage matter 
and disease germs. The changing of sewage into 
a s eii e effluent is generally unnecessary as well 
as impractical. 
Treatment of Sewage.~The general methods 
employed in sewage treatment, all of which may 
or may not be used in any given case are 
(a) screening, in which the sewage is passed be- 
tween metal bars or screens to remove the 
arger floating materials which might clog 
pumps or be objectionable later, 
(b) septic tank treatment, in which by the action 
of anaerobic (living without air) bacteria, 
much of the sewage is changed into an un’ 
objectionable sludge, 
(c) Filtration, frequently in trickling filters, made 
out of stones about the size of an egg, upon 
which the sewage is sprayed or allowed to 
run in fine streams at intervals, the object 
being to obtain an abundance of air so that 
organic matter maybe destroyed by the action 
of aerobic (living in air) bacteria. 
(d) sedimentation to increase the clearness of the 
effluent, 
(e) sterilization by some form of chlorine or other 
germicide to decrease the number of bacteria 
m the effluent. 
The mixing of sewage which has already been 
subjected to bacterial action, so-called “ activated 
s u ge with fresh sewage, especially with further 
aeration, has given very satisfactory results in 
sewage purification (7). WATER AND SEWAGE 
39 
Home Sewage Disposal.—Excellent methods for 
the disposal of sewage about the home, where there 
is no public sewerage system, have been devised 
and are carried out with comparatively small 
expense and reasonable efficiency. These depend 
upon the same general principles as those used in 
city disposal. Where there is no water supply 
available, the waste material from barns and other 
outhouses should be carefully screened and either 
buried or better sterilized by suitable antiseptics. 
This is fully described in excellent agricultural 
bulletins (8). 
Medicine and Sanitation 
War brings blessings, because it brings us face 
to face with problems which must be met and 
mastered. The frightful and inexcusable destruc- 
tion of life is in some degree offset by the increased 
efficiency of medical and sanitary knowledge. 
Epidemics.—Formerly epidemics were thought 
to be a necessary accompaniment of war. Our own 
sad experience in our war with Spain in which many 
more died from disease than from wounds made a 
deep impression upon the American mind. The 
brilliant and gratifying work of the army medical 
men in learning successfully to combat and to 
master yellow fever, which for generations had 
held the southern part of our nation in a state of 
constant fear, is one result of the war with Spain. 
It marks in a way the beginning of a period of 
efficiency on the part of the Medical Corps of the 
D. S. Army which may well be a source of pride and 40 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
inspiration to every American. The further effects 
of this work were soon seen in the unparalleled 
sanitary record made at Panama during the con- 
struction of the canal. More recently in the trouble 
with Mexico, both at Vera Cruz and on the border 
this record was maintained. 
With such ideals and such a record the relatively 
few medical men in the service early in 1917 were 
ready to co-operate enthusiastically with thousands 
of their fellows who volunteered from civil life in 
the carrying out of careful and well made plans. 
In the Franco-German War in 1871 there were 
73,000 cases of typhoid in the German army. 
In the Boer War the British had over 50,000 cases. 
In the short Spanish-American War the United 
States had 20,000 cases. So efficient had become 
the work of the army doctors by sanitation and by 
using inoculation first practiced by the British in 
1898, that there were almost no cases in the Amer- 
ican army during the World War. In fact, it was 
the proud boast of the Army Medical Camp for 
instruction at Camp Greenleaf, Georgia, that no 
lectures on the treatment of typhoid were given 
because “We do not treat typhoid; we prevent 
it ” (9). 
Prevention— In recent work the emphasis in the 
treatment of disease has been upon prevention, or 
in other words to use an Irish expression, to stop it 
before it was started. Wholesome food, fresh air 
sunlight and cleanliness of body and of surround- 
ings have been the simple and yet effective meas- 
ures chiefly employed. WATER AND SEWAGE 
41 
As a by-product of this cleanliness of surround- 
ings the collection and sale of garbage, manure, 
tin cans, paper, bottles, etc. at the cantonments of 
the National Army yielded decidedly satisfactory 
financial returns. Are there not many towns and 
cities in America where a similar plan might be 
used to advantage (10)? The annual value of by- 
products from existing garbage reduction plants in 
the United States has been estimated at more than 
$10,000,000 (11). 
In the preparation of antiseptics and disinfectants 
it has been the privilege of the chemist (12) and 
bacteriologist to work with the physician, as seen, 
for example, in the treatment of water supplies and 
of sewage. The recent use by Dr. Alexis Carrel, a 
Frenchman by birth and an American by adoption, 
of a solution of sodium hypochlorite of definite 
strength for the flushing of wounds, thereby return- 
ing the patient to the active duties of life in days 
instead of weeks, is typical both of the remarkable 
work of the surgeon (13) and the efficient help of 
the chemist. 
Other Work of the Chemist.—The chemist has 
aided the physician, also, in the standardization of 
his remedies and the furnishing of medicines of 
known and unvarying strength. Chemical tests 
have become absolutely necessary for correct diag- 
nosis. In the preparation of anesthetics, his work 
has been the means of saving untold hours of agony. 
By the continued co-operation of the physician, 
bacteriologist and chemist, together with an en- 
lightened public, we may hope for a world in a still 42 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
larger measure released from sickness and suffer 
ing. 
1. Mason-Water Supply, 4th edition. Wiley (1916). 
2. Race—Chlorination of Water. Wiley (1918), 
3. Johnson Amer. Jr. Pub. Health 1, 566 (1911). 
4. Ericson—Chlorination of Chicago’s Water Supply. Amer Tr 
Pub. Health 8, 772 (Oct. ’18). ' ' 
5. Fuller—Sewage Disposal. McGraw-Hill (1912), p. 1 
6. Fuller—lbid. p. 185. 
7. Bartow and others—Activated Sludge. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 
, 3!8 (Apr. ’l5). Ibid. 8, 15 (Jan. ’16); 8, 646 (Jul. ’l6) 
Ibid. 9, 845 (Sep. ’l7), 
8. Warren—Sewage Disposal on the Farm. U. S. Agri. Yearbook 
1916, 347. (Separate 712.) 
McArthur—Farm Sanitation. Ark. Ag. Exp. Bui. 127, 1 (1916) 
Frazier—Sewage Disposal for Country Homes. Kas As Ext' 
Bui. 6, 1 (1916). ' 
9. Harlow—The Making of an Army Doctor. Century Nov. 1918. 
10. Ellison—Camp Wastes Yield Large Revenue to the Government' 
Eng. News-Record 79, 731 (1917). 
11. Osborn-Effect of the War on Garbage Production and Dis- 
posal. Eng. News-Record 79, 778 (1917). 
12. Gershenfeld—The Antiseptics and the War. Amer. J. Pharm 
89, 487 (1917). j. -tuiarin. 
13. War and Advance in Surgery. R. of Reviews, May 1918. 
Surgery by Mathematical Formula. Sci. Amei. 6-5-18. 
Kienle—Advance in Chlorination and its Effect on Typhoid 
Fever. Eng. News-Record 82, 1194 (1919). 
Walwan and Enslow—The Chlorination of Water. Sci Am 
Sup. 98, 370 (12-20-19). 
Meckel—Sewage Disposal for Farm Houses. Univ. of Missouri 
Agr. Ext. Serv. Circ. 71, 4 pp. (1919). 
Hale—Chlorine as a Preventive of Influenza. J. Ind. and Ene 
Ch. 12, 806 (Aug. ’2O). 
References CHAPTER IV 
FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
Very few of America’s millions have ever known 
the pangs of extreme hunger. Prior to 1914 this 
generation was said to be the best fed in the world’s 
history, and the Americans fared far better than 
the people of nearly any other country. Hence we 
were not in a position to realize the great value of 
food. The possibility of want due to war and the 
absolute necessity of conserving food have been 
brought home to us in the last few years, as never 
before. 
Foundations for Conservation.—Prior to our 
entrance into the War much work had been done 
as to the nature of various foods, the amount 
needed, and the functions the different foods per- 
formed; and the experience of Herbert Hoover in 
the Belgian relief work had shown that he was able 
to control the supplies of food on hand that they 
might do the most good. 
The Scientific Basis.—A very large amount of 
interesting and valuable work on foods had been 
done by Lusk (1), Chittenden (2), Sherman (3), 
McCollum (4) and others in America on foods as 
related to the body processes. In its simplest terms 
it had been shown that food was needed for a 
threefold purpose: 
(1) To supply the body with heat and energy. 
43 44 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
(2) To rebuild waste tissue. 
(3) To regulate body processes. 
Comparing the body with a steam engine, and the 
comparison is not a bad or unusual one, the food 
has to take the place of the coal used to furnish 
heat and energy, but it is also necessary for food 
to go further and furnish the materials necessary 
to repair the human engine, and in the case of the 
young to provide for constant growth. In addition 
to this certain substances, not all of which are 
clearly understood, are necessary to control and 
regulate body processes. That the body under 
usual conditions finds these in ordinary food is a 
clear evidence of the wise provision of Nature for 
man’s needs. 
Classification.—In the main the organic matter of 
food consists of carbohydrates, fats and proteins; 
these with the mineral matter and water are the 
usual basis of classifying the daily ration. Sugar, 
cellulose and the starch found in wheat, corn and 
other grains are carbohydrates; butter, oils and 
other animal and vegetable fats make up the second 
class; while the proteins are the substances con- 
taining nitrogen and are found in meats and other 
animal foods, especially milk, as well as in the 
legumes, such as peas and beans. Vegetables and 
fruits are rich in needed mineral salts. These 
classes are by no means mutually exclusive, in 
that one food may be rich in several, thus good milk 
though very high in water, contains considerable 
fat, protein, carbohydrates and mineral matter as 
well as certain regulative substances, such as the 
hormones and vitamines. FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
45 
Needs.—Food experts are generally agreed that 
the average man requires each day food equal in 
heat value to approximately 3000 Calories, which 
expressed as mechanical energy would be sufficient 
to lift one ton nearly a mile high (5). This amount 
will be more or less depending upon the degree of 
activity and kind of work done by any individual. 
Further, this number of Calories must be furnished 
by a properly balanced ration, the most important 
item of which is that of protein, due care being 
taken to keep in excess those elements which are 
basic rather than those which are acid (6). The 
American soldier was furnished with a ration of 
4600-5000 Calories, though on an average he could 
consume only about 3900 (7). To prevent waste 
and to insure sufficient satisfactory food the United 
States had food inspection parties made up of food 
experts who constantly checked up this matter, 
visiting camp after camp. 
In the light of all this knowledge it was easily 
possible to suggest the foods which could be most 
advantageously shipped and those which could be 
best substituted. How clearly has been impressed 
upon the minds of every one the urgent request of 
the Food Administrator to 
SAVE Meats! 
Wheat! 
Fats! 
Sugar! 
The Practical Administration.—The splendid re- 
sponse of the people as a whole to the request of the 
Food Administrator made possible a hitherto un- 46 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
dreamed of record in the shipping of food supplies. 
This in no small measure turned the tide of victory. 
But this would not have been possible without a 
man of vision and of practical experience to apply 
with wisdom and efficiency the scientific facts which 
we have been discussing. This splendid combina- 
tion was found in Administrator Hoover. His 
ready grasp of the bigness of the situation and the 
tactful manner in which his decisions were made 
effective supplied the needs of ourselves and of the 
allied world. His statement that 
“ Real conservation lies in the equitable distribu- 
tion of the least necessary amount, and in this 
country we can only hope to obtain it as a voluntary 
service, voluntary self-denial, and voluntary reduc- 
tion of waste, by each and every man, woman and 
child according to his own abilities.” 
and his challenge that 
“ There is a possibility of demonstrating that 
democracy can organize itself without the necessity 
of autocratic direction and control.” 
met a ready and practically unanimous response (8). 
With these principles in view the campaign was 
carried out along three general lines: reduction of 
consumption, stimulation of production, control of 
prices. The results were highly satisfactory in 
securing the needed foodstuffs in the required 
amounts without general trouble or inconvenience, 
and the educational campaign carried out will con- 
tinue to bear fruit for years to come. Even in 1917 
its effect was evident when returns from sixty FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
47 
American cities showed an average decrease of 
fifteen per cent in garbage collected, and a reduc- 
tion of fifteen per cent of grease per ton of this 
garbage. 
Permanent Gain.—We have learned as a nation: 
First, The real value of food; the folly, if not the 
sin, of wastefulness; and the economic balancing 
of the family ration. A summary of the latter is 
given in the advice of Sherman (9) to spend for 
the family food an equal amount for milk (10), for 
meat, and for fruit and vegetables. 
Second, The possibility and in some cases the 
advantage of substitutes. The widely increased 
use of corn meal in several forms will continue to 
give variety to our food. The various forms of war 
bread have shown the possibilities of flours other 
than that from wheat. The use of cotton seed oil 
under a number of trade names, both as an oil and 
as a solid fat, is due to American industry in ob- 
taining a valuable food product from the seed, a 
by-product all but useless before (11). This use 
was necessarily increased by the War, though the 
process fortunately had previously been in success- 
ful operation. More recently by treating cotton 
seed oil with hydrogen in the presence of a cata- 
lyzer, the melting point is raised due to an increase 
in the molecular weight of certain constituents, and 
so a larger amount of solid fat can be obtained. 
Third, New methods of preserving foods, and 
the wider use of the methods already known. 
Perhaps the most interesting of these is the de- 
hydration process of preservation, in which it is 48 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
claimed that with many foods there can be a 
saving of 90 per cent, by weight and 80 per cent, 
y volume. It is stated that eggs bought at six 
cents per dozen in China can be canned rapidly, 
51 yolks making one pound, and that they will 
make a far safer omelet than can be obtained from 
cold-storage eggs! Time will settle the full justice 
of this claim, and of the additional claim that this 
War may cause the general use of dehydration for 
preserving foods as our Civil War brought in the 
use of canned foods (12). 
Certainly the American people caught the spirit 
of these lines in which there is probably fully as 
much truth as poetry: 
“ Can the Kaiser, 
Brine the Brute, 
Pickle the Prussian, 
Tin the Teut!” 
Fertilizers 
According to the figures of Dr. F. W. Clarke 
Chemist of the United States Geological Survey' 
more than 97 per cent, of the earth’s surface, or 
crust, including the ocean and the atmosphere is 
made up of eight elements; the remaining Ele- 
ments, though about 80 in number, containing less 
than 3 per cent. This is nicely shown in the dia- 
gram from Kiett (13) at top of next page. 
Though the elements do not occur in like amounts 
and are not equally distributed, yet in spite of this 
there is so vast a store of most elements contained 
in the soil, in water, or in the air, that their removal FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
49 
Percentage of Elements in Earth’s Surface, including the Ocean 
and the Atmosphere after Keitt. 
by crops need cause us but slight concern. Of 
three elements, however, vitally important in the 
life process of plants, the soil does not furnish a 
complete supply, nor may they be obtained except 
by the addition of substances rich in them. These 
are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The per- 
centage of nitrogen and phosphorus present in the 
soil is very small, phosphorus being about 1/10 of 
1 per cent, on the average and nitrogen not so high 
in most cases, but exceeding this figure in soils of 
unusual richness. 
Large amounts of these elements are found in 
growing crops and are removed with them. With 50 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
the exception of nitrogen these three elements are 
entirely taken from the soil, which has been formed 
almost wholly by the weathering and decomposition 
of rocks. The amounts removed from only one 
acre are shown in the following slightly modified 
table of Van Slyke (14): 
Crop 
Yield 
Nitrogen 
Phosphorus Potassium 
Pentoxide Oxide 
c°rn 50 bu. 
Wheat 25 
Oats. 75 
Cabbage 10 tons 
Beans 25 bu. 
Turnips 10 tons 
Apples (30 trees per acre). 300 bu. 
Peaches (100 trees per 
acre) 400 bu. 
78.4 lbs. 
42.5 
72.0 
60. 
88. 
50. 
16.5 
78.5 
27.6 lbs. 55.2 lbs. 
16.6 21.0 
27.0 61.2 
20. 80. 
24. 57.5 
20. 90. 
4.7 18.8 
21. 90, 
The immense value of our farm crops, which have 
contributed so largely to the wealth and happiness 
of the United States, depends directly upon a 
sufficient supply of these elements for the growing 
crops. Indeed, the American farmer has in many 
cases been accused of being only a miner, who 
draws his wealth from the soil leaving it poorer and 
of less value after each successive crop. The 
boasted greatness of our crops, it is claimed, has 
been due, not to any credit of our own, but to the 
fertility of the soil upon which we find ourselves. 
There is some truth in this statement, and a con- 
tinuous yield of rich harvests without a correspond- 
ing robbing of the soil cannot be had except by 
building up the soil either by proper crop rotation 
or by the addition of fertilizers containing these 
elements. FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
51 
The Agricultural Triad.—One can almost fancy 
Nature to have been in a facetious mood when the 
three elements so essential for the growth of plants 
were chosen. This agricultural triad is made up of 
Nitrogen, a gas so inert under ordinary conditions 
that one of its uses in the air is to dilute the 
more active oxygen, 
Phosphorus, an element which takes fire spon- 
taneously when exposed to the air, and so 
poisonous that its use in one form in matches 
is prohibited, 
Potassium, which when dropped on water causes 
the evolution of a gas which bursts into 
flame. 
But it is not in the form of elements that these three 
are important for plant growth but in their com- 
pounds, so that in speaking of soils we usually 
think of nitrogen as in ammonia or in nitrates, of 
phosphorus as in the pentoxide or in phosphates, 
and of potassium as in the oxide, potassa, or in the 
carbonate, potash. Calcium in the form of lime is 
frequently added to soils with advantage, but it is 
not distinguished by membership in the triad be- 
cause in most cases soils contain sufficient calcium 
for plant growth. The value of lime added to soils 
lies in its correction of acidity, if acid be present, 
and under proper conditions in the increase in the 
supply of available nitrogen or potassium. 
Nitrogen.—There are four sources of nitrogen for 
fertilizers: (1) animal matter, (2) gas works, (3) 
earth deposits, (4) atmosphere. The use of manure 
which contains considerable amounts of all three 52 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
members of the agricultural triad has been prac- 
ticed for centuries, but in no age has its importance 
been more clearly emphasized and its value more 
fully understood than at the present. Other refuse 
animal matter, such as dried blood, fish scraps, 
products of garbage reduction and sewage disposal 
plants, are used. Ammonium salts obtained as a 
by-product in heating coal to manufacture gas and 
coke make an excellent but expensive fertilizer. 
Quite generally in soils of very dry regions there 
are found deposits of sodium nitrate, but usually 
not in sufficient quantity to make their extraction 
and purification profitable. However, on the west- 
ern coast of South America, chiefly in Chile, are 
deposits of great extent (13). Formerly it ’was 
thought this supply would be exhausted during 
the first half of this century, but the discovery of 
more extensive beds has greatly increased the 
amount known to be available. These beds are 
now known to extend along the coast for more than 
200 miles and in some places are two miles in 
breadth. They are supposed to have been formed 
in recent geological time, being due to the nitrifica- 
tion of marine vegetation. 
The atmosphere seems to have been the source 
of practically all of our nitrogen. Only about two 
ten thousandths of 1 per cent, of the nitrogen in 
the world is serving actively either in animal or 
vegetable life (15). That now present in the soil 
has probably been placed there through the slow 
accumulation of ages due to the action of thunder 
storms causing the combination of the oxygen and FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
53 
the nitrogen of the air and through the agency of 
certain plants. It is estimated that over each acre 
of ground there are some 39,000 tons of atmo- 
spheric nitrogen, or in other words, 80 per cent, of 
the fifteen pounds pressure upon every square inch 
of surface is due to the valuable nitrogen. Only 
in comparatively recent years has the fixation of 
atmospheric nitrogen received the great amount of 
attention its fundamental importance merits. 
Of so great moment is the fixation of atmospheric 
nitrogen both for its use in explosives as well as in 
fertilizers for food production that it is stated that 
Germany waited until the problem of fixation of 
atmospheric nitrogen had been solved before be- 
ginning the World War (see p. 12). A single plant 
in Germany in 1918 took approximately 100,000 
tons of nitrogen from the air, an amount equivalent 
to one-fifth of the Chilean output furnished the 
rest of the world, and several times greater than 
the capacity of any American plant (16). 
Fixation by the growth of leguminous plants such 
as peas and beans by the aid of bacterial action has 
been known for a number of years and is increas- 
ingly emphasized and applied in crop rotation. 
Chemical fixation is more recent and had of neces- 
sity to await the perfection of the electric arc and 
the electric furnace and the successful liquefaction 
of air. 
By the use of a powerful electric arc, the action 
of nature during a thunderstorm is imitated, and the 
nitrogen and oxygen of the air by the influence of 
the electric discharges are made to combine to 54 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Carbide Furnace Room in Cyanamid Plant FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
55 
form nitrogen peroxide. This thru treatment with 
water forms nitric and nitrous acids, which by 
further treatment are changed to calcium salts or 
lime nitre. 
Lime and coke heated in an electric furnace 
form calcium carbide. Nitrogen obtained from the 
air by removal of moisture, carbon dioxide and 
oxygen is passed over calcium carbide at a tem- 
perature of 1200° C. and calcium cyanamide is 
formed, which has proven successful as a fertilizer, 
being so produced commercially by an American 
company. 
Nearly four-fifths of the air is nitrogen. When 
air is liquefied by cold and pressure and part of it 
allowed to boil away, the nitrogen having the lower 
boiling point tends to boil away first. If this 
purified nitrogen is heated with hydrogen under 
high pressure (200 atmospheres) in the presence 
of a suitable catalytic agent ammonia is formed. 
This ammonia may be held by any desired acid 
furnishing a valuable fertilizer. Further it has 
become possible to change this ammonia to nitric 
acid on an industrial scale (17). 
Phosphorus.—“ Of all minerals necessary for 
plant growth the compounds containing phosphorus 
are most liable to be deficient” (13). For our 
supply for fertilizers beside the small amount con- 
tained in animal manure and some vegetable 
products such as cotton seed meal, we must depend 
upon the phosphorus in bones and in rocks. 
Guano is a combination of manure and bone 
phosphate found in certain dry regions. Here, 56 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Interior Liquid Air (Nitrogen) Plant, Showing Compressors FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
57 
Interior Liquid Air (Nitrogen) Plant, Showing Columns where Nitrogen is Separated 
from Oxygen 58 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
because of the abundance of fish or for other 
reasons birds have gathered. Thru long ages de- 
posits have been formed by the droppings and the 
bodies of the birds. From Chincha, one small 
island off the coast of Peru, more than a billion 
dollars worth of guano has been taken. 
The bones are composed chiefly of normal cal- 
cium phosphate, showing on analysis 20-25 per 
cent, phosphorus pentoxide and 3-4 per cent, nitro- 
gen as organic matter. As this is insoluble in 
water only a part of this phosphorus is at first 
available for plant use, but more of it gradually 
becomes so. Hence it makes an especially satis- 
factory fertilizer for certain purposes as in the 
growth of fruit trees. 
The phosphate in rocks is also in the form of the 
insoluble normal calcium phosphate, and so is but 
very slowly available as plant food. This rock 
phosphate has been produced in enormous quanti- 
ties in certain southern states, and large deposits, 
not yet worked, are said to exist also in Wyoming 
and neighboring states. To render the phosphate 
available the rock is crushed and treated with 
sulfuric acid which forms the more soluble acid 
phosphates, the primary salt being readily soluble 
in water and the secondary in weak organic acids. 
If this acid or super-phosphate is brought into 
contact with a basic substance such as limestone 
it is changed back to the insoluble form and this 
process is called reversion. Obviously then super- 
phosphates should not be mixed with lime cyana- 
mide or any basic substance. FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
59 
So-called basic slag is an illustration of making 
a material harmful in one substance of real value 
for another purpose. Phosphorus in steel is a 
serious detriment and must be removed from the 
pig iron in steel making. This is done by lining 
the converter in which the pig iron is changed into 
steel with a basic substance containing lime or 
magnesia. Then this basic lining after it has 
removed the phosphorus is crushed and makes a 
good fertilizer, especially valuable on lands con- 
taining much organic matter or deficient in lime. 
For years prior to the Great War the United 
States exported large amounts of phosphate rock 
and imported compounds of potassium and nitrogen, 
the total exports of fertilizers in 1914 being $12,- 
000,000 with imports of $28,000,000. During the 
fifteen months before the armistice 3,600,000 tons 
of nitrates passed thru the Panama Canal. 
Potassium.—Before 1914 the supply of potassium 
found in the Stassfurt deposits in Germany were 
the chief source of the world’s supply. The United 
States alone imported approximately a million tons 
yearly of potassium products equivalent to about 
240,000 tons of potassium oxide (18). Her con- 
fidence in this supposed monopoly was a part of the 
German scheme of world conquest. It will be 
remembered that though nitrogen and phosphorus 
occur in the earth in very small percentages, 
potassium is one of the eight most common ele- 
ments. Why then is it difficult to obtain an 
abundant supply of the compounds of this element? 
The answer is that the element is so tightly locked 60 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
up in the insoluble rocks in which it is found that 
it has been exceedingly difficult to free it and 
obtain soluble compounds except at prohibitive cost. 
A most fascinating story on the “ Quest for Potash ” 
could be written with no drawing on the imagina- 
tion. How the United States met and in large 
degree mastered the situation confronting this 
nation from 1914 to 1918 is worth the telling (19). 
America and War Potash.—In 1915 in the begin- 
ning of the American potash industry the production 
was a little more than 1000 tons of potassium oxide. 
This increased to 9,720 tons in 1916, and to 32,000 
tons in 1917, with a production in 1918 of 52,000 
tons, and a capacity by 1920 of nearly 100,000 tons. 
This is still only one-fourth of the amount normally 
used, but in the sources developed and the methods 
used in securing this there is promise of an 
abundant and permanent supply eventually. The 
sources of this supply have been most varied and 
may be grouped as follows: 
1. Lake brines 
2. Ocean kelp 
3. Dust from cement kilns and from blast furnaces 
4. Wood ashes and various vegetable wastes 
5. Wool scourings 
6. Minerals rich in potash 
More than half of the wartime potash came from 
natural brines mainly from Searles Lake in Cali- 
fornia and the lakes of Western Nebraska. Searles 
Lake is thought to contain ten to twenty millions 
of tons of potassium oxide. The amount in the 
Nebraska lakes has not been definitely estimated. FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
61 
The idea of obtaining potassium from a sea farm 
is at least unique, and seems also to be practical 
since it has been in use for several years and in 
1917 produced more than 10 per cent, of the total 
supply. The giant kelps of the Pacific Coast, 
growing from the Gulf of California to Alaska, 
furnish a vast field for this industry. These kelps 
are cut and dried, furnishing in some cases as much 
as 30 per cent, of potassium chloride in terms of 
their dry weight (20). There are, of course, diffi- 
culties in this work, and the use of this source 
will depend upon the cheapness with which other 
sources are able to supply the demand for potash. 
Both of these sources of supply are unfortunately 
located geographically because of freight costs, as 
more than 90 per cent, of the pre-war potash was 
used east of the Mississippi River. 
To take the dust from any industry is a decided 
advantage, and when this dust can be made of 
economic value it is a still greater benefit. This 
is what the Cottrell method of dust removal has 
done for the cement industry. By passing a cur- 
rent of 50,000 to 100,000 volts thru flues the par- 
ticles of dust charged with electricity fly to the 
sides of the flue oppositely charged, just as a 
comb will attract or repel small particles of 
paper. This problem was worked out by F. G. 
Cottrell now of the National Research Council, 
to whom the 1919 award of the Perkin medal 
was made for his services (21). By investi- 
gation of the Bureau of Soils it has been esti- 
mated that the cement industry could thus be 62 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
made to furnish 100,000 tons of potassium oxide 
annually. The fact that 70 per cent, of the cement 
manufactured is produced east of the Mississippi 
River gives this method a geographic advantage 
and increases its promise of usefulness. At present 
not more than one-fifth of the estimated possible 
Elimination of Dust or Smoke by Cottrell Process 
Current off Current on 
production of potash comes from this source. The 
possible production by applying this method to blast 
furnaces manufacturing pig iron has been placed 
at 300,000 tons of potassium oxide per year, more 
than our total pre-war demand, but not enough has 
actually been produced in this way to speak with 
definiteness. 
The term potash shows at once that ashes are 
rich in the sought-for potassium. There is doubt, FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
63 
however, as to this method competing on a large 
scale with others, though about 500 tons per year 
have been so produced. Dried banana stalks con- 
tain 10 per cent, of potash, while tobacco stems, 
beet sugar wastes, sugar refinery and distillery 
wastes, all contain appreciable amounts. 
That crude wool contains about 4 per cent, of 
potash makes wool scourings a possible source of 
supply which may under favorable conditions be 
worth while. 
Minerals rich in potash include alunite, a hy- 
drated sulfate of aluminum and potassium, and a 
number of silicate minerals. By roasting the 
crushed alunite and leaching with hot water in a 
closed tank under pressure, more than 90 per cent, 
of the potassium was obtained as a sulfate of high 
purity. Some 2400 tons of potassium oxide were 
obtained thus in Utah in 1917. Among the silicate 
potash-rich rocks may be mentioned the green 
sands of New Jersey (22), the Cartersville slates 
of Georgia and the leucite rocks of Wyoming. Any 
one of these sources would furnish an ample 
supply for centuries, if only a cheap commercial 
process could be found to release the potassium 
from its tightly locked compounds. 
Future of American Potash.—“ Germany con- 
trols the market of the world for the metal, potas- 
sium, and its compounds.” This statement from 
an American text (23), the second edition of which 
is dated January 2, 1915, was then entirely correct. 
At present there are the beginnings of an Amer- 
ican potash industry, which gives promise of being 64 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
abundantly able to care for all of our needs. 
Whether it will succeed or fail depends in large 
measure upon whether or not it must meet the Ger- 
man competition under pre-war conditions. 
Nature has furnished the United States with 
abundant supplies of phosphate rock, the fixation 
of atmospheric nitrogen offers several compounds 
of that element in sufficient quantity; potassium 
alone is needed and of the ultimate solution of this 
problem by American chemical ingenuity and per- 
severance there seems no room for doubt. Only 
thus can our independence in regard to the con- 
stantly needed agricultural triad be established. 
1. Lusk—The Science of Nutrition, 3d edition. Saunders (1917), 
2. Chittenden—The Nutrition of Man, Stokes. Physiological 
Economy in Nutrition. 
References 
3. Sherman—Chemistry of Food and Nutrition, 2d edition. Mac- 
millan (1918). Food Products, Macmillan (1915). 
4. McCollum—The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition. Macmillan 
(1919). Supplementary Dietary Relationships among Natu- 
ral Food Materials, Harvey Lectures for 1916-17. 
5. Olsen—Pure Foods. Ginn & Company. 
6. McCann—The Common Sense of a “ Balanced ” Diet. Phys- 
ical Culture (May ’l9). 
7. Wilson—Feeding the American Army. Century (Nov. ’18). 
8. Hoover—Address, Atlantic City, 9-19-17. U. S. Food Adm. 
Bui. No. 7 (1917). 
9. Sherman—Food Chemistry in the Service of Human Nutrition, 
Harvey Lecture. J, Ind. and Eng. Ch. 10, 383 (May ’18). 
10. Crissey—Milk. The Country Gentleman, 84, No. 5 and No. 6 
(2-1-19 and 2-8-19). 
11. Wesson—Chemist and Cottonseed Oil Industry. J. Ind. and 
Eng. Ch. 4, 64 (Jan. ’l2) and 7, 276 (Apr. ’l5). 
12. Elroth—Am. J. Pub. Health 8, 205 (1918). Sci. Am. 7-20-18 
and 11-16-18 and 11-23-18. 
13. Keitt—Chemistry of Farm Practice. Wiley (1917). FOOD. FERTILIZERS 
65 
14. Van Slyke —Fertilizers and Crops. Orange Judd Co. (1917). 
15. Kaempffert—The Chemist and the Food Problem. R. of 
16. White—The Present Status of Nitrogen Fixation. J. Ind. and 
Eng. Ch. 11, 231 (Mar. ’l9). 
Reviews 59, 292 (Mar. ’l9). 
McConnell—The Production of Nitrogenous Compounds Syn- 
thetically in the United States and Germany. Ibid. 11, 837 
(Sep. T9). 
17. Parsons—Commercial Oxidation of Ammonia to Nitric Acid, 
Ibid. 11, 541 (Jun. T9). 
Landis—The Oxidation of Ammonia. Ch. and Met. Eng. 20, 
470 (5-1-19). 
Knox—Fixation of Atmospheric Nitrogen. Van Nostrand (1914). 
Notes and Data on Fixed Nitrogen Plants. Ch. and Met. Eng, 
21, 66 (7-15-19). 
18. Stockett—The Potash Situation. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 10, 918 
(Nov. T8). Potash Symposium. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 10, 
832-44 (Oct. T8). 
19. Article on Potash. Sci. Am. (6-15-18). 
20. Turrentine & Shoaff—Potash from Kelp; The Exp. Plant of the 
U. S. Dept. Agr. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 864. 
21. Perkin Medal Award—Ibid. 11, 148 (Feb. T9). 
22, Charlton—Recovery of Potash from Green Sand. Ibid. 10, 6. 
23. Rogers—lndustrial Chemistry. Van Nostrand (1915), p. 207. 
Talbot—Chemistry Behind the Front. Atl. Monthly, 122, 651 
(Nov. T8). 
Perley—The Commercial Oxidation of Ammonia. J. Ind. and 
Eng. Ch. 12, 5 (Jan. ’2O). 
Perley—The Catalyst for the Oxidation of Ammonia. Ch. and 
Met. Eng. 22, 125 (1-21-20). Editorial, The Alkali Industry 
During the Past Year. Ch. and Met. Eng. 22, 2 (1-7-20). 
Editorial—A Significant Combination. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 
12, 107 (Feb. ’2O). CHAPTER V 
TEXTILES 
The importance of textiles in our modern life is 
seen upon brief reflection. Almost all of our 
clothing and bedding, as well as most table and 
floor coverings are textile products. Not only 
luxuries but the necessities of life come under this 
head. 
Classification.—Fibers may be divided according 
to their source into vegetable, animal and mineral. 
The last consisting of asbestos, mineral wool, glass 
wool, etc. are not so widely used and will not be 
further considered. Of the vegetable fibers cotton 
is by far the most important, with linen next in 
use; while silk and wool are the most commonly 
used animal fibers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). 
Cotton.—The cotton belt of the United States 
has for many years produced the largest part of the 
world’s supply of cotton, the average crop of some 
14,000,000 bales of 500 pounds each being about 
sixty per cent, of the total production. The possi- 
bility of using cotton in large quantities is due to 
the inventive genius of an American, Eli Whitney, 
whose well known discovery of the cotton gin was 
patented in 1794. The fiber in cotton is a seed 
hair composed mainly of cellulose; the length of 
this fiber or staple varies from less than one inch 
in the upland cotton to nearly two inches in the 
66 TEXTILES 
67 
sea island variety. “ Each fiber consists of a 
single long cell, whose cell walls become thinner 
as it grows, finally collapsing to form a flat tube.” 
Cotton Fiber 
This cellulose, named from the plant cells of 
which it is made, is quickly destroyed by con- 
centrated sulfuric or hydrochloric acids, while 
nitric acid forms nitrates used in the preparation 
of a variety of products, such as celluloid, and 
collodion, and in the manufacture of certain explo- 
sives. Long action of strong mineral acids tends 
to the formation of dextrin and glucose. Cold 
concentrated solutions of sodium or potassium 
hydroxide change in a marked degree the character 
of the fiber and give it a translucent appearance. 
This behavior first noticed by John Mercer, an 
Englishman, in 1844 was used by him in making 
“ mercerized cotton ” an artificial substitute for 
silk. 68 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Linen.—The cotton fiber consists of a single cell, 
but in linen the fibers are formed by the grouping 
together of the cells in bundles. The preparation 
of linen from the flax is a fairly complex process, in 
which the plant is “ retted ” by treatment with 
Linen Fiber 
water or exposure to dew to separate the fiber 
from the pith and woody matter, crushed, and 
combed to make the fibers parallel and suitable for 
spinning. 
Linen does not contain so high a percentage of 
cellulose as cotton, is stronger, and has more 
natural luster. Since linen is a better conductor of 
heat than cotton it feels cold to the touch, a char- 
acteristic used to distinguish between cotton and 
linen goods. The action of acids and of alkalies 
upon linen is similar to that upon cotton. 
Bleaching.—Before goods are bleached they 
are washed or scoured to remove interfering sub- TEXTILES 
69 
stances which have come into the material either 
in the natural process of growth or during manu- 
facture. This is followed by the bleaching proper. 
Cotton is usually bleached in the yarn or woven 
piece, and the agent used is almost always a dilute 
solution of bleaching powder (CaOCl2) or “chloride 
of lime,” this solution being called “ chemick.” 
The details of the process vary with the subsequent 
use of the goods. Hydrogen peroxide in a basic 
solution containing soap, or potassium permanga- 
nate in slightly acid solution, bleach satisfactorily, 
but as yet these processes are too costly. The 
excess of permanganate is removed by sulfurous 
acid solution or that of one of its salts. 
The bleaching of linen is similar to that of cotton, 
but because it contains more than 25 per cent, of 
coloring matter and other impurities, the process 
is more difficult and requires much more time. 
It is customary to “ grass ” linen for a week, thereby 
exposing it to the action of the sun and dew. 
Frequent dampening assists the process. It is 
supposed that the ozone in the air is the active 
bleaching agent in this part of the process. As 
linen is easily attacked by acids, alkalies or chlorine 
the bleaching solutions must be dilute and the 
process repeated several times. Linen is said to 
be quarter, half, or three-quarters bleached de- 
pending upon the amount of coloring matter re- 
moved. The whiter the fabric, the less the strength 
of the fiber. 
Bleaching powder as well as permanganate and 
peroxide are used in the various methods of linen 70 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
bleaching. The use of the two latter, though more 
expensive, reduces the time required. 
Silk. Cellulose, which is the chief constituent 
of cotton and linen, is made up of carbon, hydro- 
gen and oxygen, the formula assigned it being 
(C6HioOs)x. Silk, though containing tno cellulose, 
does have carbon, hydrogenTand oxygen, and in 
Silk Fiber 
addition has nitrogen to almost 20 per cent. The 
production of silk by the silk worm, the cocoon 
containing a fine continuous filament sometimes 
nearly three-quarters of a mile in length, is well 
known. After these cocoons are heated to kill the 
worm, the silk is reeled off, and the hanks must 
then be heated in a strong soap solution, which re- 
moves a considerable amount of the silk-glue. 
The power of silk to absorb metallic salts, espe- 
cially tin, from solutions, fixing the metallic oxide 
in the fiber is the basis of silk weighting, by which TEXTILES 
71 
the weight of silk is frequently increased 100 per 
cent. Silk is attacked by alkalies and by con- 
centrated acids. Dilute acids are absorbed by the 
fiber and when dried in it, tend to increase the 
luster and to cause the silk to give a crackling, 
rustling sound, when rubbed or compressed. 
Silk may be bleached by sulfur dioxide, or by 
hydrogen peroxide, or by potassium permanganate 
followed by sulfurous acid. Chlorine rapidly de- 
stroys silk fiber, except in very dilute solutions, and 
hence is not a suitable bleaching agent for silk. 
Wool.—In addition to the four elements, carbon, 
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, which make up the 
Wool Fiber 
silk fiber, wool contains a fifth element sulfur, 
which is characteristic of it. Under the microscope 
the wool fibers are seen to be covered with a layer 
of broad scales arranged somewhat like “ the 
shingles on a roof.” When these fibers are placed 72 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
side by side and moved over each other in the 
process of “milling,” felt is formed. The in- 
sulating effect produced by these scales holding 
small amounts of air is said to be the cause of the 
great warmth of wool. 
Wool in the raw state frequently contains impuri- 
ties which make up more than half of its weight. 
These are wool grease, a fatty substance serving as 
a protective covering to the fibers, suint, or dried 
perspiration, and outside materials, as burrs, straws, 
clay, etc. The suint is chiefly a potassium salt of 
certain fatty acids from which the potassium has 
recently been recovered commercially (see p. 63). 
Test for Wool.—Dilute mineral acids have slight 
effect on wool. This fact is frequently made use 
of in distinguishing between woolen and cotton, oi 
part-cotton, goods. This is done by treating the 
goods with dilute sulfuric or hydrochloric acids, 
and drying at 110° C.; when the cloth is handled 
the cotton crumbles and falls away from the un- 
changed wool. A similar process, called “ carbon- 
izing,” is used in removing impurities from wool. 
Wool Bleaching.—Since chlorine combines with 
the fiber of wool without removing the color, bleach- 
ing powder cannot be used with wool. Wool is 
generally bleached after a treatment to remove the 
tendency to twist and curl by “ stoving.” The 
hanks of wool are suspended on wooden pegs in a 
brick chamber in which sulfur is burned. Some- 
times the same results are accomplished by soaking 
in a solution of sulfurous acid. These processes are 
not entirely satisfactory and the bleaching is only TEXTILES 
73 
temporary, especially when the material is washed 
with soap or alkalies. A permanent bleach may 
be obtained by the use of hydrogen peroxide, but 
this is expensive. 
Wool Substitutes.—The recent shortage of wool 
has made necessary the working over of old woolen 
goods and the intermixture of cotton with short 
fibered wool. There can be no objection to this, 
if the product is sold by its real name, and if the 
old material is thoroughly sterilized. 
Artificial Fibers.—Much ingenuity has been 
shown in preparing substitutes for silk from the 
cellulose of cotton. These have something of the 
luster and appearance of silk. In the Chardonnet 
Process the cellulose is nitrated, though the process 
is not carried so far as in making gun cotton. 
The nitrated cellulose is dissolved in alcohol-ether, 
and the collodion thus formed is forced under heavy 
pressure thru capillary tubes. The alcohol and the 
ether after evaporation by an air current are 
recovered and used again, while the nitro-cellulose 
fibers, after denitration by immersing in a solution 
of ammonium sulfide, are washed, dried, combed 
and spun into yarn. Three other processes in use 
are the cuprammonium, where the cellulose is dis- 
solved in an ammoniacal copper solution; the 
viscose; and the cellulose acetate. 
Artificial Leather.—The manufacture of this ma- 
terial in many grades and imitating all kinds of 
leather, is carried out by coating a cloth or other 
fabric with a thick solution of pyroxylin, a nitrated 
cotton, in proper solvents, usually containing castor 74 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
oil or a similar substance in addition to the alcohol- 
ether. After the solvents have evaporated, the 
surface may be embossed and finished ornamen- 
tally (6). The pre-war production of pyroxylin 
artificial leather in the United States exceeded 
50,000 yards per day. A similar dope is used for 
making patent and enameled leathers, one in 
general use being a mixture of 6-10 per cent, 
pyroxylin, castor oil in wood alcohol, amyl acetate, 
fusel oil and benzine (7). 
Celluloid.—When nitrated cellulose is worked 
together with camphor and alcohol at a suitable 
temperature, a tough pasty mass is formed. This 
is then forced thru fine sieves and passed thru 
rolls to remove all of the solvent, which is recovered. 
These films may be compressed to form blocks of 
practically any thickness, and from these films and 
blocks the many celluloid articles now commonly 
known are made. By suitable dyeing agents and 
other methods numerous colors may be obtained 
as well as imitations of horn, tortoise-shell and 
ivory. This is an American discovery patented in 
1869 by Hyatt (8). On account of its ready im- 
flammability there is some ground for objection to 
celluloid. A less imflammable substitute for it is 
cellulose acetate, made by treating pure cotton 
with acetic anhydride, diluted with acetic acid, until 
it dissolves; the triacetate formed is precipitated 
by pouring into water. 
Photographic Films.—The first patent of a 
flexible photographic film was taken out by H. 
Goodwin in 1887. The nitrated cotton, or pyroxy- TEXTILES 
75 
lin, and camphor in a suitable solvent (such as wood 
alcohol and amyl acetate) is poured on a smooth 
surface, and the solvent evaporates leaving a thin 
film. Because the film must be entirely trans- 
parent and uniform in appearance and thickness, 
great care in its manufacture is necessary. The 
development of moving pictures has tremendously 
increased the demand for this material, the daily 
output of which runs into hundreds of thousands of 
square feet. 
Paper 
The influence of paper as the bearer of thought 
thru the printed and written page cannot be esti- 
mated. So wide a variety of uses have paper and 
paper articles come to have recently, that it is not 
surprising that the manufacture of paper now ranks 
among the ten largest industries in the United 
States (9). 
Until a little more than a hundred years ago 
paper was made out of cotton and linen rags. 
To-day rags are used only in the better grades of 
paper, while a very much larger amount is made 
from wood, though other materials, as straw, hemp, 
jute, esparto, are used to some extent. A certain 
amount of mineral matter, usually clay, talc or 
gypsum, is worked in with the paper to give weight 
and smoothness and to fill up the pores. 
Manufacture.—Rags frequently come to the 
paper manufacturer in a dirty condition. After the 
buttons and hooks have been removed and the 
seams ripped by hand, the dust is beaten out and 
the rags are cut into small pieces and boiled under 76 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
pressure with milk of lime for twelve hours or 
longer. After washing they are sent to the beater 
engine, sometimes called the Hollander, because 
of its invention in Holland. Here the material is 
thoroughly cut up and made into pulp, being at the 
same time well cleansed and then bleached, usually 
with bleacing powder. An antichlor is added to 
remove excess of chlorine, and the pulp is then 
weighted by the addition of mineral matter. 
The pulp is run out on an endless belt of wire 
cloth, where it is spread out and loses part of its 
water by drainage and part by passing thru pressing 
and drying rolls. During this process, while the 
paper is wet, a stamp or “ water mark ” may be 
placed upon it by slightly raised letters on the so- 
called “ dandy ” roll. The paper is smoothed or 
polished in the calendar rolls. Paper on which 
ink is to be used must be finished by sizing, a 
process of filling the surface pores with gelatin, 
rosin or casein. 
Wood Pulp.—Practically all newspaper, most of 
our book paper, and a large percentage of writing 
paper are made from wood. Spruce, fir, pine and 
poplar are frequently used for this purpose. Me- 
chanical and chemical pulp are both made from 
wood. 
The mechanical pulp is made by placing blocks of 
wood against a revolving grindstone, a spray of 
water being used to keep the wood from heating to 
the burning point. The pulp is screened twice and 
then is ready to be mixed with chemical wood 
pulp before being used in making paper by the 
process outlined for rags. TEXTILES 
77 
Three processes are in use for the making of 
chemical pulp: the soda, the sulfite and the sulfate. 
In the soda process the wood is chipped into pieces 
less than half an inch thick. These are placed in 
a digester with a 7 per cent, caustic soda solution 
and heated under pressure for about ten hours. 
The non-cellulose materials, such as lignin and 
resin, are decomposed by the caustic soda or com- 
bine with it, leaving a soft grayish-brown mass, 
which must later be bleached by chlorine. In the 
process the caustic soda is changed to sodium 
carbonate, and this after recovery by evaporation, 
is changed back to the hydroxide with slaked lime, 
and used again. About 40 per cent, of the weight 
of the wood is obtained as pulp. 
In the sulfite process the chips are boiled under 
pressure with sulfurous acid or with an acid sulfite 
of calcium and magnesium containing about 4 per 
cent, sulfur dioxide. The sodium sulfate process 
depends upon the action on the non-cellulose 
material in the wood of sodium sulfide made from 
the sulfate by reduction. The organic matter in the 
liquor serves after evaporation to reduce any added 
sulfate. It is claimed that both the sulfite and 
sulfate processes give a stronger fiber than the 
soda process. 
References 
1. Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry, 3d edition, pp. 487-512. 
Macmillan (1917). 
2. Wood—Chemistry of Dyeing, Section I. Van Nostrand (1913). 
3. Tilden—Chemical Discovery and Invention in the Twentieth 
Century, 2d edition, chap. 24. Dutton (1917). 
4. Snell—Elementary Household Chemistry, chap. 40-41. Mac- 
millan (1914). 78 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
5. Matthews—-Textiles, pp. 841-64 in Rogers Industrial Chemistry, 
2d edition. Macmillan (1915). 
6. Crane—Cellulose Industries, pp. 898-916. Ibid. 
7. Worden—Nitrocellulose Industry. Van Nostrand (1911). 
8. Hyatt—Perkin Medal Award. J. Ind. and Eng, Ch. 6, 155-62 
(Feb. ’l4). 
9. Lull—The Paper Industry, pp. 885-97 in Rogers. 
Pilcher and Butler-Jones—What Industry Owes to Chemical 
Science, p. 49. Van Nostrand. 
Von 810n—Binder Twine from the Desert. Sci. Am. 121, 82 
(7-6-19). CHAPTER VI 
COAL TAR—DYES 
Coal tar is a by-product in the destructive distilla- 
tion of bituminous coal. Coal is heated in retorts 
closed from the air for two general purposes: 
either, to manufacture illuminating gas, the coke, 
coal tar and ammonia being by-products in this 
process; or, to prepare metallurgical coke, in which 
case these same by-products may or may not be 
recovered. 
Coke from a retort manufacturing illuminating 
gas is not suitable for metallurgical purposes, such 
as the reduction of iron ore. Until comparatively 
recently by-products have been recovered in only 
a small per cent, of the plants making metallurgical 
coke in England and in the United States. Most 
plants used the beehive ovens which are exceed- 
ingly wasteful, more than one-third of the fuel 
value of the coal being lost as well as the by- 
products. Before the War a realization of the 
great value and importance of the by-products had 
caused an increase of the by-products oven used 
for such recovery. Still in 1914 only about forty 
per cent, of the metallurgical coke in the United 
States was produced in by-product ovens (1). 
While such ovens are somewhat more expensive 
to build than the beehive, they soon pay for them- 
selves. With proper treatment more than enough 
79 80 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Beehive Coke-Ovens 
Charging and Drawing COAL TAR-DYES 
81 
By-Product Coke-Ovens, pusher side. 
Pusher and lorry shown, latter charging oven with coal 82 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
gas to heat the ovens can be produced and the 
excess sold. The yield of coke is increased and 
the by-products, coal tar and ammonia saved. 
Products of Distillation of Coal.—The composi- 
tion and amounts of the products vary with the 
conditions under which the distillation is carried 
out, but in general one ton of dry coal will yield (2) 
11,000-12,000 cubic feet gas 
1,400-1,800 pounds coke 
56-120 pounds coal tar 
20-35 pounds ammonium sulfate 
The Demand for Coal Tar.—At first coal tar 
was considered a very objectionable and certainly 
a most disagreeable by-product. As more became 
known of its uses the demand for it has increased 
and in the years of the World War far exceeded the 
supply. Some of the excess of coal tar in the early 
days was used as a fuel, and from some of it a 
paint was made. A small amount was subjected to 
distillation and the products so obtained used as a 
substitute for turpentine in varnish making and 
also as a solvent for rubber. By this latter method 
in 1825 James Mackintosh began his manufacture 
of the waterproof garments which bore his name. 
In 1838 it was discovered that the dipping of posts 
and other timbers into coal tar or one of its dis- 
tillation products greatly increased the length of 
time they would last, and thereby the demand was 
greatly increased. 
In 1845 A. W. Hofmann of the newly-founded 
Royal College of Chemistry in London began really 
scientific investigations on coal tar, which have led COAL TAR—DYES 
83 
Pusher-Ready to push Coke from By-Product Oven 84 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Fig. 11—Coke being pushed from oven on other side from pusher COAL TAR—DYES 
85 
to its many and valuable uses of to-day with con- 
stantly increasing demand. The systematic dis- 
tillation of coal tar was first carried out by Mans- 
field, who had been a pupil of Hofmann, in 1848. 
How great the demand must be is seen by the 
figures of production some years ago, which have, 
especially in the United States, greatly increased in 
recent years (2): 
United Kingdom—l9lo 1,380,000 tons 
Germany 1912 
United States 1912. 
1,082,197 
564,000 
France 1909 214,800 
Distillation of Tar.—Crude coal tar is by no 
means a simple compound, but a mixture of at 
least 200 different substances. A beginning on the 
separation of these numerous bodies is best ob- 
tained by fractional distillation. The procedure 
varies in different countries and also in different 
plants in the same country. The following will 
give an idea of the process and the products (3); 
First Runnings up to 105° C. Ammonium salts, naphtha 
Light oil 105-210° Benzene, toluene, xylene 
Carbolic oil 210-240° Phenol, naphthalene 
Creosote oil. 
. .240-270° Naphthalene, cresols, 
Anthracene 
. .270- Anthracene 
liquid paraffins 
Pitch residue in still Pitch 
More than 60 per cent, of the weight of the 
original tar is left in the still. Parts of the frac- 
tional distillate for which there is little demand are 
sometimes added to this pitch. Pitch is much 86 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Birdseye View of Tar Stills COAL TAR—DYES 
87 
used in making of roofings and tarred paper, as a 
binder in road building, in the manufacture of 
briquettes and in black varnishes and paints. 
A Corner of a Modern Coal Tar Plant 
The higher boiling fractions of the light oil are 
used largely as solvents, as stated thus (4): 
“In 1911 nearly 2,000,000 gallons of coal-tar 
solvents were produced in the United States, and 
were distributed among the different industries 
approximately as follows (Weiss): 
Paint and varnish 47 per cent. 
Rubber and rubber cements 18 “ 
Imitation leathers 10 “ 
10 “ 
Chemical manufactures 11 “ 
Miscellaneous 14 “ 
Coal tar compounds also find a very extensive use 
in the manufacture of explosives and dyes, many 
of them being classed as “ intermediates.” Car- 
bolic acid and the cresols are active poisons and 88 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
find wide use as antiseptics as in cattle washes and 
sheep dips. The creosote oil is much used in 
“ pickling ” timber, which trebles or quadruples 
the length of its usefulness. In 1913 the United 
States used 90,000,000 gallons of creosote oil for 
timber preservation, importing 62 per cent, of this 
from Europe (5). Somewhat similarly naphthalene 
is used, as in moth balls. 
Thus from the vile smelling nuisance coal tar 
the magic of chemistry has produced valued aids to 
the art of healing, most beautiful colors to satisfy 
the eye, and explosives of tremendous power, in 
addition to hundreds of other equally useful, if not 
so noticeable, substances. 
Dyes 
Though the source of nearly a thousand different 
dyes, coal tar itself does not contain any substance 
that may be used as a dye. The great number of 
dyes of every possible shade and for the greatest 
variety of uses, which are now produced from coal 
tar, require painstaking care and in many cases 
processes of great length, involving as many as 
twenty chemical reactions. Conditions, apparently 
without significance at first, such as the use of a 
copper or of an iron lid, may decide the success or 
failure of a process (6). 
“ Thus, from some eight or nine primary con- 
stituents of coal tar (benzene, toluene, xylene, 
phenol, cresol, naphthalene, anthracene, etc.), there 
are produced, by the action of various chemical 
reagents—nitric acid, sulphuric acid, chlorine, caustic COAL TAR-DYES 
89 
soda, etc.—some two hundred and ninety ‘ intermedi- 
ate compounds, and from these ‘intermediates,’ 
by their mutual combinations and interactions, the 
finished dyes are prepared, of which upwards of 
nine hundred actually find application at the present 
time. 
Constitution.—The wonderful success of the 
color industry has only been made possible by a 
most exacting study of the composition of the com- 
pounds involved, not only of the elements contained, 
but also the positions which these elements hold 
in the molecule. So important a factor has this 
proven, not only in dyes, but in practically every 
branch of organic chemistry, that the insignia of 
the Chemical Warfare Service, it will be recalled, 
contains the hexagon of the benzene ring, fittingly 
suggestive of the importance of constitution in the 
preparation and use of explosives and other war 
chemicals. 
Early History. From the earliest times man has 
delighted in brilliant colorings. Savages in all 
lands have been attracted by colored cloth, glass 
or beads. As civilization has advanced this love 
of color has remained, modified or refined, perhaps, 
but as powerful as ever. Animal, vegetable and 
mineral nature have been persistently searched to 
satisfy this demand. Tyrian purple, Turkey red 
and the blue of indigo are examples of dyes famous 
for generations. 
Coal Tar Colors Appear.—\n 1906 it was the 
writer’s privilege to meet on his visit to America a 
very delightful old gentleman, whom many chem- 90 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
ists and other Americans took pleasure in showing 
every honor and courtesy. This man was Sir 
William Henry Perkin, discoverer of the first coal 
tar dye, who was by special invitation visiting 
America during the semi-centennial celebration by 
the world of his discovery of the dye, mauve. 
At the banquet tendered him by American chemists 
in New York all of the decorations were in this 
shade made famous by his discovery in 1856. 
This discovery of Perkin was made possible by 
two conditions: the one, the founding in 1845 of 
the Royal College of Chemistry in London with 
A. W. Hofmann, a pupil of Liebig as director; 
and the other, the discoveries which produced the 
aniline with which Perkin worked. In 1825 Fara- 
day, an Englishman, discovered benzene, C 6H6, 
which could be obtained from coal tar. In 1834 the 
German, Mitscherlich had prepared nitrobenzene, 
C6H5.N02, by treating benzene with concentrated 
nitric acid; while Bechamp, a Frenchman, in 1854 
reduced this nitrobenzene with nascent hydrogen, 
obtained from iron and acetic acid, to aniline, 
C 6H5.NH2. 
In 1856 Perkin, then eighteen years old, who 
had been a student of Hoffman, in an attempt to 
produce quinine synthetically oxidized a solution 
of commercial aniline in dilute sulfuric acid with 
potassium dichromate. As a result he obtained, 
not quinine, but a dark, resinous mass, from which 
by further treatment he separated a dye, to which 
was given the name of “ aniline purple ” or 
“ mauve.” It is interesting to note that this dis- COAL TAR—DYES 
91 
covery would not have been possible had not the 
commercial aniline contained mixed with it variable 
amounts of the toluidines. In the course of a 
few years the use of this dye became so common 
both in France and in England that “ Punch ” 
referred to it as “ The Mauve Measles.” 
Britain'1 s Early Pre-eminence.—This discovery 
was quickly followed by others and the manufacture 
of dyes on a commercial scale was begun with 
England pre-eminent in this field. How this 
supremacy passed to Germany about 1871 is 
graphically told by Perkin himself, as recorded by 
Pellew (7). That this was possible was due not so 
much to the underhand methods of Germany, 
which were even then in evidence, but more to a 
failure on the part of the British to recognize the 
“ vital importance of persistent chemical research.” 
Sir William A. Tilden states two causes (8), 
“ first, the neglect of organic chemistry in the 
universities and colleges of Great Britain, and then 
the disregard by manufacturers of scientific methods 
and assistance and total indifference to the practice 
of research in connection with their processes and 
products.” 
There is here for the United States a tremen- 
dously impressive lesson of the absolute necessity 
of co-operation between the university and other 
research and educational forces and the forces of 
industry. 
German Dominance in the Dyeing Industry.— 
Thus for more than forty years before the World 
War the Germans had almost complete control 92 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Research Laboratory for One of America’s Newest and Biggest Dye Producing Works, Deep-water 
Point, N. J. COAL TAR—DYES 
93 
over the whole color business. There were some 
twenty German dye factories, some of them very 
large and exceptionally equipped, all thoroughly 
organized and working together. These presented 
a solid front against the relatively small dye firms 
in Switzerland, Great Britain, France and the United 
States, entirely unorganized, and producing all 
together only about ten per cent, of the output of 
their German competitors. While the total value 
of the dyestuffs consumed by the whole world was 
not relatively large, perhaps $70,000,000 per year, 
it was tremendously important, though not then 
generally so recognized, because from the “crudes” 
and “ intermediates ” required by the dyers, ex- 
plosives could readily be made, and the transforma- 
tion of a plant manufacturing these to a supplier 
either of munitions or of munition plants was an 
easy matter, requiring little time or trouble. 
Further, textile and other industries with a 
yearly output in America alone of $3,000,000,000 
worth of goods are dependent upon the dyeing 
industry (9). There was much of truth in the 
boast often made, “ The dyestuff industry is a 
one-nation industry, and that nation is Germany.” 
An American Dyestuff Industry.—Under pre- 
war conditions four or five moderate sized factories 
were operated in the United States, but these were 
forced to depend in large measure upon Germany 
for their “ intermediates,” and were practically put 
out of business with the removal of the tariff protec- 
tion in 1913. With the closing of the German ports 
by the war a number of small factories sprang up, 94 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
and some of these have now become firmly estab- 
lished, manufacturing the standard colors in as 
excellent a quality as, or even better than, those 
formerly “ made in Germany.” In 1914 the United 
States imported 45,841,000 pounds of dyes, but in 
Dye Testing Laboratory of an American Dye Works 
1917 the United States manufactured 45,977,000 
pounds, eight times our pre-war production, while 
the “ intermediates ” produced were 323,000,000 
pounds. And this production has increased till now 
there is more money invested in dye plants in the 
United States than in any other country, in spite 
of the fact that under the stimulus of the War a 
single British plant covers 250 acres (10). COAL TAR—DYES 
95 
With this industry made permanent, which there 
is every reason to believe will be done, there is 
much of promise for the future, not only of dyes, 
but of many allied American industries. Truly 
A. Mitchell Palmer, while U. S. Alien Property 
Custodian, said (11) 
“ In peace, and even more in war, chemistry paints 
the whole picture of progress.” 
Classification of Dyes.—Because of their variety 
and complexity a system of classification of dyes is 
very difficult. One general method of classification 
depends upon whether the dye can be used alone, 
or whether some other substance must be added to 
hold it on the fiber. Dyes which can be used only 
with a mordant (from the Latin word to bite or hold) 
are called adjective dyes, those without a mordant, 
substantive dyes. Mordants are of two general 
classes; mineral, such as salts of iron, aluminum or 
chromium, and vegetable, such as tannin. 
It was early recognized that the properties of a 
dye depended very largely upon its constitution. 
In 1876 it was pointed out by Witt that every dye- 
stuff must contain one or more of certain groups, 
which he called chromophors (color bearers). The 
nitro group, —NO2, and the azo group, —N = N—, 
are two of these chromophor groups. The simplest 
substance containing a chromophor was called a 
chromogen (color producer). The chromogens are 
not generally dyes themselves, but become dyes 
upon the addition of certain salt-forming groups, 
called auxochrome (color helper) groups. Thus 96 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
benzene, C 6H6, is colorless, but the introduction of 
the chromophor (color bearer), —NO2, forms the 
chromogens (color producers): mono-, di-, or tri- 
nitrobenzene. These chromogens, though colored, 
are not dyestuffs, but by taking on an auxochromous 
(color helping) group, as -—OH, the dyeing ma- 
terial, picric acid, or tri-nitro-phenol, C 6H2(N02)3- 
OH is formed from tri-nitro-benzene, C 6H3(N02)3. 
Substances which act as dyestuffs are either acidic 
or basic, and the salts have the more intense color. 
A classification of dyes by Wood gives the follow- 
ing classes with certain typical members of each 
(12): 
I. Basic Dyes Triphenylmethane derivatives as Magenta, 
Methyl Violet, Malachite Green. Certain 
phthaleins, as Rhodamine. 
11. Acid Dyes Sodium salts of sulphonic acids and Nitro- 
phenols. (Dye animal fibers directly.) 
111. Direct Cotton Azo compounds from diamines, as Benzi- 
dine, Tolidine. 
IV. Mordant Dyes . . . .Contain phenolic or carboxyl groups, as 
Alizarin. 
V. Vat Colors Reduction product fixed on fiber and then 
oxidized, as Indigo. 
VI. Developed Dyes. . Form on the fiber by chemical action, or 
within the fiber, as Chrome Yellow or 
Aniline Black. 
Substitution of Coal Tar Colors for Natural.— 
There have been several striking cases in which 
coal tar colors have largely replaced the natural 
product, the most interesting being those of indigo 
and of Turkey red. One of the most widely used 
of all dyes is indigo, at first obtained entirely from 
the indigo-plant grown in India, China and Egypt. COAL TAR-DYES 
97 
In October 1897 after nearly twenty years of study 
and experiment on the part of German chemists 
artificial indigo was placed on the market. In that 
year India had over a million and a half acres under 
cultivation for indigo. In 1913 barely 200,000 acres 
were so in cultivation in India, so great had been 
the success of the artificial product, now made from 
naphthalene. 
It is claimed that Turkey red was used in coloring 
the mummy cloths used ages ago in Eggpt, and 
much land was given a few decades ago to the 
cultivation of the madder plant, from the root of 
which this dye was derived. To-day alizarin, 
made synthetically from anthracene, a coal tar 
product, has practically stopped the cultivation of 
madder. Alizarin is widely used with a mordant 
for dyeing cotton, giving with iron oxide a violet 
color, with chromic oxide a brown, and with alumi- 
num oxide a bright red. 
Natural Dyestuffs Still in Use.—lt would be 
unfair to leave the impression that all natural dye- 
stuffs have been replaced by synthetic products. 
Such is by no means the case. Logwood, sumac, 
and recently Osage orange, as well as other woods 
have been used as a source of natural dyes. Even 
before tne War more than 100,000 tons of dyewoods 
were used annually in the United States, and that 
amount was greatly increased during the war years 
(13). 
Synthetic Drugs, Perfumes, Flavoring Extracts 
and Photographic Developers. A discussion of 
these products made from coal tar is beyond the 98 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
range of this little book, but the naming of some of 
them will give some idea of their importance. 
Drugs Flavoring Extracts 
antipyrin vanillin 
antifebrin oil of wintergreen 
phenacetin oil of bitter almonds 
aspirin oil of cinnamon 
salol pineapple 
salvarsan 
saccharin 
Perfumes Photographic Materials 
musk ortho chromatic plates 
meadowsweet panchromatic plates 
coumarin pyrogallol 
hawthorn hydroquinone 
metol 
References 
1. Findlay—The Treasures of Coal Tar, p. 7. Van Nostrand 
(1917). 
2. Ditto—Ibid. pp. 11-12. 
3. Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry, 3d edition, pp. 328-33. 
Macmillan (1917). 
4. Findlay—See above, p. 24. 
5. Stansfield & Carter—Report to Dept, of Mines, Canada. 
6. Findlay—See above, p. 49. 
7. Pellew—Dyes and Dyeing, pp. 261-265. Van Nostrand (1918). 
8. Tilden—-Chemical Discovery and Invention in the Twentieth 
Century, p. 318. Dutton (1917). 
9. Garvan—Industrial Germany—Her Methods and Their Defeat, 
J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 574 (Jun. ’l9). 
10. Notes from Scientific Amer. (6-15-18). 
11. Palmer—Enemy Property and Its Disposal, Address before New 
York Bar Assn., The Christian Science Monitor, (1-22-19). COAL TAR-DYES 
99 
12. 
13. 
Wood—Chemistry of Dyeing, pp. 13-17. Van Nostrand (1913). 
Chapin—Natural Dyestuffs—An Important Factor in the Dye- 
stuff Situation. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 10, 795 (Oct. ’18). 
Hebden—Dyeing with Khaki in the U. S. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 
10, 640 (Aug. ’18). 
Oldroyd—Coal Tar Industry. J. Text. Inst. 9, 42. 
Jones—The Tariff Commission and the Dye Industry, J. Ind. 
and Eng. Ch. 10, 232 (Mar. ’18). 
Symposium on Dyestuffs, Ibid. 10, 789-805 (Oct. ’18). 
A Permanent American Dyestuff Industry. Met. and Ch. Eng. 
17, 594. 
Parker—Coal-Preface-Mineral Resources of the U. S. 1914, 
p. 587; Why a Dye Dyes, Lit. Dig. (10-11-19). 
Slosson—Creative Chemistry, Coal-Tar Colors, p. 60; Synthetic 
Perfumes and Flavors, p. 93. Century (1919). CHAPTER VII 
FUEL 
With the possible exception of food nothing is so 
great a necessity for man as is fuel. The cheerless- 
ness of a cold home largely disappears when it is 
filled with a comfortable warmth. Important as 
fuel is for domestic use, yet only a small percentage 
of the total production is so used, for fuel is equally 
a necessity in industry. To such an extent is this 
true that the coal production is sometimes called the 
barometer of business, an idea welcome to an 
American, because of the large percentage of the 
world’s coal produced in the United States. 
The world’s production in 1913 given in short 
tons was (1): 
United States 570,000,000 
Great Britain 322,000,000 
Germany 306,000,000 
Austria-Hungary 60,000,000 
France 45,000,000 
Russia 35,000,000 
Belgium 25,000,000 
Japan 24,000,000 
All others 
91,000,000 
Total. 
.1,478,000,000 
In the amount produced and the value, coal is by 
far the most important of our minerals, making 
up about half the value of the non-metal mineral 
100 FUEL 
101 
products. Three states, Pennsylvania, West Vir- 
ginia and Illinois produce nearly three-fourths of the 
total American coal. Together with that of oil and 
natural gas, the value of the coal produced yearly 
now far exceeds a billion dollars (1). 
Curve Showing Relation of Increase in Population in U. S. to 
Coal Production 1870-1921 
The increasing demand of industry is seen in the 
relation of total coal production to population in the 
United States. Being less than one ton per capita 
in 1870 it has now become about six tons per 102 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
capita, and that, too, in spite of the rapid growth in 
population (1) (see curve). The total coal pro- 
duction in 1918 was 678,212,000 tons, which fell 
because of unfavorable industrial conditions to 
544,263,000 in 1919. 
“Stored-up Sunshine.”—The energy which drives 
our industry, pulling our trains and propelling our 
steamships, comes from the sun. This is true, 
whether the source of that energy be the sunshine 
of recent days or weeks which lifts the water to 
later turn the dynamos of a powerful hydroelectric 
plant, or the sunshine of ages long past, now stored 
in the coal and oil and gas ready for use. Should 
wood be used for fuel, then the sunshine of recent 
decades is used. Thus it is interesting to think as 
this page is read, as to whether the source of light 
used by the reader is the direct sunlight of to-day, 
the sunlight of the past weeks transformed by 
water power, that of the past years from wood, or 
that of past ages from coal, oil or gas. 
Classification.—Fuels are usually classified as 
solids, liquids, and gases, and their relative im- 
portance is in this order, though all three classes 
are of decided importance in the United States. 
All solid fuels are derived from the woody ma- 
terials of the trunk, stems or leaves of plants. 
These may be of recent growth, or, as we have seen, 
stored up thru long ages. In this latter case there 
is an increasing loss of volatile elements, as shown 
in hydrogen and oxygen, and an increasing per 
cent, of non-volatile carbon. These transforma- 
tions, beginning with cellulose, the chief constituent FUEL 
103 
of all plants, are well shown in the following table 
after Gebhardt (2): 
Composition of Solid Fuels 
Substance Carbon Percentage Oxygen 
Pure cellulose 44.44 6.17 49.39 
Wood 52.65 5.25 42.16 
Peat 59.57 5.96 34.47 
Lignite 66.04 5.27 28.69 
Brown coal 73.18 5.58 21.14 
Bituminous coal 75.06 5.84 19.10 
Semi-bituminous coal .... 89.29 5.05 6.66 
Anthracite coal 91.58 3.96 4.46 
Graphite 100.00 .... .... 
Wood is widely used for domestic purposes, 
though its use is of necessity decreasing. In 
industry wood as a fuel is seldom used except in 
some special cases. The amount of water in 
freshly cut wood varies from 26 per cent, in the 
willow to 50 per cent, in the poplar. Thoroughly 
seasoned cord wood averages about 20 per cent, 
of moisture. This makes the heating power, or 
calorific value, of such wood greater than that of 
green wood but less than that of kiln-dried wood. 
Ordinary dry wood gives about 5600 British thermal 
units (8.t.u.) per pound, while kiln dried gives 
8000 B.t.u. A cord of seasoned oak wood weighing 
about 3200 pounds nearly equals in heating value 
one ton of soft coal (3). Pound for pound, pine 
wood gives about 10 per cent, more heat units 
than oak; however a cord of pine because of its 
lightness furnishes much less heat than a cord 
of oak. 104 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Coal occurs as hard coal, or anthracite, and soft 
coal or bituminous. Practically all of the anthracite 
coal is produced in Pennsylvania, and in 1917 and 
again in 1918 approximated 100,000,000 tons. The 
1919 production was only 86,200,000 tons. The 
tonnage of bituminous coal is usually about five 
and a half times as great. The larger part of all 
coal mined is used for steaming purposes, the 
railroads alone consuming 150,000,000 tons in 1917. 
Approximately 75,000,000 tons of soft coal (about 
14 per cent, of the total soft coal production) was 
used in 1917 for making coke. Forty per cent, of 
this was from retort or by-product ovens in which 
the coal tar was saved. This is a decided increase 
over the percentage of coke so made ten years ago, 
and will doubtless increase still more, if the demand 
for coal tar products remains steady. The largest 
by-product plant in the world is at Clairton, Pa. 
The use of coal briquets is desirable and should 
increase. These are made from coal dust, which 
would otherwise be largely wasted, held together 
by coal tar or pitch (5, 6). 
Petroleum.—While the inflammable gas issuing 
from the ground near Baku on the Caspian Sea 
had long been known and had attracted fire- 
worshippers from India centuries before (7), yet 
the practical use of the oil associated with this gas 
was negligible. The petroleum, or rock oil, indus- 
try may be considered as beginning in 1859 in 
which year the American petroleum industry had 
its birth when Drake sunk the first well near 
Titusville, Pa. For 200 years before this petroleum FUEL 
105 
Petroleum Refinery 106 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
had been used by the Indians as an external and 
internal medicine, frequently being sold as Seneca 
oil. 
There has been much discussion as to the origin 
of petroleum. While there is a chemical theory 
that petroleum is the product of the action of water 
upon carbides of certain heavy metals, it is not so 
Oil Stills in Petroleum Refinery 
generally accepted as the theory that petroleum 
is of organic origin. Some evidence seems to 
indicate that it is of vegetable origin, while that 
from other sources is apparently of animal origin. 
It is not impossible that petroleum is formed from 
the remains both of animals and of plants, changed 
by the mighty physical forces to which it has been 
subjected in the earth (8). 
The financial and industrial importance of oil has 
steadily increased with the growing production and FUEL 
107 
the increasing demand for use in gas engines. 
More than a million barrels are now produced 
every day (9). In many ways oil is superior to 
coal as a fuel, occupying only half the space and 
weighing about two-thirds as much as coal required 
to give the same heat. 
Oil Shales.—By investigations carried out by the 
United States Geological Survey it has recently 
been shown that oil shales in Colorado, Utah, 
Wyoming and Nevada contain vast supplies of oil, 
which can be obtained by distillation, usually at 
the rate of forty to fifty gallons per ton. It is 
claimed that this discovery has dispelled any danger 
of an oil shortage for at least several generations 
(10). 
Alcohol.—While there have been repeated pre- 
dictions that alcohol would find extensive use as a 
fuel, being prepared from waste material from the 
farm and elsewhere, and there has been an increase 
in production, still these prophecies have not, as 
yet, been in any large degree fulfilled. By the 
addition of certain substances to ordinary alcohol, 
“ denatured ” alcohol, which can not be used as a 
beverage, is formed and so is exempt from high 
taxation. The extent of the use of alcohol either 
from wood (methyl, CH3OH) or from grain or 
other sources (ethyl, C 2HSOH) will depend in the 
future upon the production and price of gasoline 
(11). 
Fuel Gases.—In oil regions there is generally 
found, ready formed, large quantities of natural 
gas, often under considerable pressure. When this 108 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
gas under pressure is tapped by a well, the gas 
for a time will flow, and this flow can be continued 
by pumping until the supply is exhausted. Natural 
gas, the chief constituent of which is marsh gas, or 
methane (CH4), has a high calorific power and is a 
very satisfactory fuel. The chief difficulty in its 
Furnace for Making Open Hearth Steel, Using Siemens 
Regenerative Principle 
use is in the maintenance of a steady supply. 
This can only be accomplished by continually sink- 
ing new wells to replace those that have become 
exhausted. The production of natural gas in 1917 
was 670 billions of cubic feet with a value in excess 
of one hundred millions of dollars. 
This natural gas sometimes contains helium, the 
lightest known element except hydrogen. On ac- 
count of its lightness and incombustibility helium is FUEL 
109 
useful for filling balloons, and the United States has 
established at Fort Worth, Texas, a large plant to 
utilize this gas found in natural gas occurring there. 
That the gas flame can be so readily controlled 
and that the heat can be placed where it is needed 
are very real advantages in the use of gas as a fuel. 
Further by using the principle of the Siemens re- 
generative furnace, the incoming gas and the air 
required for combustion may be heated by passing 
thru flues containing brick checkerwork, which 
have already been heated by the escaping products 
of combustion. The flues are so arranged that the 
flow of the gases may be reversed from time to 
time, so that a decided saving in heat is effected. 
There are other fuel gases in use, the most im- 
portant of these being coal gas, water gas and 
producer gas. Coal gas formed by the destructive 
distillation of coal, that is heating coal away from 
the air, consists chiefly of hydrogen and methane, 
and finds wide use especially in domestic consump- 
tion. Water gas, made by passing steam over 
heated carbon in the form of coke was invented by 
the American, Lowe (13). It is made of carbon 
monoxide and hydrogen, and is used both in indus- 
try and for cooking. As the coke cools down, the 
process must be interrupted every few minutes 
and air blown over the coke to bring it back to the 
necessary temperature, the carbon dioxide formed 
being allowed to escape in the air. 
Producer gas is sometimes made by passing an 
insufficient supply of air over a poor grade of coal, 
thereby forming a mixture of carbon monoxide with 110 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
much nitrogen. In this way about two-thirds of the 
heat units from the carbon can be obtained in 
burning the monoxide to the dioxide, less, of course, 
the necessary loss in the process. More recently 
producer gas has been made by combining this 
process with that in use for water gas, admitting 
water and sufficient air to keep the coke hot enough. 
The relative heating value of these gases is seen 
in the number of pounds of water evaporated by 
100 cubic feet of each gas (14): 
Ratio 
Natural gas 893 pounds 7.76 
Coal gas 591 “ 5.14 
Water gas 262 “ 2.28 
Producer gas 115 “ i.oo 
Other Products.—By destructive distillation of 
coal and of wood, and by fractional distillation and 
refining of petroleum, many valuable products are 
obtained, some of which are given below: 
From 
illuminating gas some fuel gas naphtha 
ammonia wood alcohol easoline 
Coal Wood Petroleum 
wood alcohol gasoline 
acetic acid kerosene 
acetone lubricating oil 
coal tar wood tar vaseline 
paraffine 
coke charcoal retort carbon 
From this source we obtain practically our entire 
supply of ammonia used for refrigeration, in medi- 
cines, for fertilizers, and for domestic use. The 
value of coal tar has been shown in the preceding FUEL 
111 
chapter. Coke is chiefly used for metallurgical 
purposes as in the reduction of iron ores (see 
Chapter XIII), but large amounts are also used in 
gas producers, and as fuel both in industry and for 
domestic purposes. 
The pyroligneous acid obtained in the destructive 
distillation of wood is neutralized with lime and 
from the calcium acetate so formed, acetic acid is 
made by treatment with sulfuric or hydrochloric 
acid and distilling. Acetic acid finds a wide use in 
the making of white lead, in dyeing, in pharmacy 
and as a solvent in explosive and other industries. 
Acetone is a solvent for resins, fats and nitrated 
cellulose and hence finds use in the manufacture 
of celluloid, smokeless powder, and crude rubber. 
It is used also to manufacture chloroform and to 
denaturize grain alcohol. 
On account of its freedom from sulfur and phos- 
phorus charcoal is sometimes used in the production 
of a high grade of iron. Because of its power of 
taking up coloring matter, it is used for decolorizing 
and clarifying oils and solutions; this is especially 
true of animal charcoal, which is used in sugar 
refining. The use of wood charcoal in making gun- 
powder has already been mentioned. As a fuel it 
is valuable, but its use is not extensive. 
Increased Yield of Gasoline.—Before the per- 
fection of the gas engine every effort was made to 
secure from crude oil as high a percentage as 
possible of illuminating and lubricating oils. With 
the increased demand for gasoline due to the more 
general use of the automobile and airplane, and 112 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
the decreased demand for kerosene due to the use 
of electric lighting, the method of refining petroleum 
has changed, the object now being to secure as 
much gasoline as possible. At higher temperatures 
the heavy oils with the heavier molecule tend to 
break up into oils with a lower boiling point and 
smaller molecular weight. This process is called 
“cracking” (13). Rittman, while in the employ 
of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, succeeded in so 
controlling temperature and pressure that the 
yield of gasoline was largely increased (15). Mc- 
Afee increased the gasoline yield by heating the 
petroleum oil with 3-10 per cent, of anhydrous 
aluminum chloride (16). 
The liquid products from petroleum are washed 
with sulfuric acid to remove tarry impurities, then 
with water, and with caustic soda to remove the 
acid. The water is allowed to settle out and the 
oil is exposed to light and air to give the clear, 
colorless product to which we are accustomed. 
Recently much light gasoline has been obtained 
by condensing it from natural gas (2). 
Fuel Supply in the Future.—The tremendous 
increase in the consumption of fuels of almost 
every kind in recent years has caused alarm to 
some, and should, without doubt, call for a con- 
servation wherever possible and the avoiding of 
wasteful methods. The immediate prospect of a 
fuel famine is by no means alarming. Predictions 
are at best unreliable as they are very likely to be 
upset by an increased consumption, by the dis- 
covery of some new source of energy, or of some 
hitherto unsuspected supply. FUEL 
113 
At any rate we can and should use this “ stored 
up sunshine ” of past ages for our legitimate needs, 
though we clearly have no right in our newly found 
knowledge and power to squander the birthright of 
coming generations. Just because the United 
States is exceptionally fortunate in her supplies of 
coal, of oil and of gas, so far as possible a careful 
use of these resources should be demanded that 
our industrial future may be all the more secure. 
References 
1. Lesher—Coal, Mineral Resources of the U. S., Non-Metals, 
1914, U.S.G.S., pp. 586-746. Preliminary estimate, U.S.G.S., 
1919. 
2. Breckenridge—The Conservation of Fuel in the U. S., U. S. 
Fuel Administration (1918). 
3. Benson—Industrial Chemistry, p. 115. Macmillan (1914). 
4. Olsen—Van Nostrand’s Chemical Annual 1918, p. 609. 
5. Mineral Industry in the U, S., Report for 1917, p. 121. 
6. U. S. Bureau of Mines, Bui. 24. 
7. Tilden—Chemical Discovery and Invention in the Twentieth 
Century, p. 281, Dutton (1917). 
8. U. S. Geological Survey, Eighth Report, Formation of Petroleum. 
9. Atwood—Oil—The New Financial and Industrial Giant. R. of 
Reviews, 60, 153 (Aug. ’l9). 
Smith, Geo. Otis—Where the World Gets Its Oil. Natl. Geog 
Mag., 37, 181 (Feb. ’2O). 
10. Mitchell—Billions of Barrels of Oil Locked up in the Rocks. 
Ibid. 33, 195 (Feb. ’18). Notes on Oil Shale Industry, with 
Particular Reference to the Rocky Mountain District, 
Bureau of Mines, Washington. 
Simpson—Oil Shales, Ch. and Met. Eng. 21, 176 (8-15-19). 
11. Waggaman—Exit Booze—Enter Alcohol. R. of Reviews, 59, 
385 (Apr. ’l9). Wood Alcohol—A New Industrial Monarch. 
Lit. Dig, 121, 462 (11-8-19). 
Tunison—Alcohol as a Necessity to Industrial Progress. Chem. 
Age 1, 20 (1919). 
12. Report in Little Rock, Arkansas, Gazette (2-14-19). 114 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
13. Sadtler—Advances in Industrial Organic Chemistry Since the 
Beginning of the War. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 10, 854 (Oct. ’18). 
14, Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry, 3d edition, p. 45. 
Macmillan (1917). 
15. Rittman—The Rittman Gasoline Process. Nat. Petroleum 
News, 7, 2 (1915). Bui, 114, U. S. Bureau of Mines. 
16. McAfee—The McAfee Gasoline Process. Nat. Petroleum 
News, 7, 20 (1915). 
Showalter—Coal—Ally of American Industry. Nat. Geog. Mag 
34, 407 (Nov. ’18). 
Harvey—Pulverized Coal. Sci. Am. Sup. 2276, 110 (8-16-19). 
Bacon and Hamor—Fuels. Problems in the Utilization of 
Fuels. J. Soc. Ch. Ind. 38, 161 (1919). CHAPTER VIII 
SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
Glass. Clay-Working Industries. Cement. (Lime). 
We have seen (p. 49) that if we represent all 
the material upon the earth, including the atmos- 
phere and the ocean, by a circle, then practically 
one-half of this circle is filled by oxygen; upon 
dividing the remaining half, we find slightly more 
than half of it, or 26 per cent, of the whole to be 
made up of silicon. With this fact as a background 
one is not surprised at the many substances of 
mineral origin which are made up largely of silicon 
and oxygen, and found as silicates. Some of these 
are mica, slate, asbestos, talc and certain building 
stones. Sand is made up of the two elements, 
oxygen and silicon only (SiOa), which are likewise 
the constituents, of course, of sandstones, of quartz, 
and of a number of semi-precious stones. 
Still more important silicates are found in the 
so-called silicate industries, in which may be in- 
cluded glass, clay-working industries and cement. 
These we shall now consider. 
Glass 
The making of glass was practiced in the early 
stages of Egyptian history, thirty centuries before 
the Christian era. In England it was first used for 
windows in the eleventh century (1). In 1608, the 
115 116 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
year after the founding of the first American colony, 
the London Company sent to Jamestown eight men 
to make “ pitch, tar, glass and soap-ashes.” With 
their work some writers date the beginning of 
chemical industries in America (see chapter I). 
Manufacture.—The manufacture of glass may 
be considered in two distinct stages: the selection 
and fusion of the proper ingredients, which is 
essentially chemical, though carried out for ages 
without a thought of science; and the working of 
the glass, including the molding or blowing and 
other manufacturing processes, which are physical. 
Composition.—Glass in ordinary use is generally 
either a lime or a lead glass, the former being a 
double silicate of calcium and of sodium and the 
latter of lead and of potassium. Soda-lime glass is 
given this formula (Na2O.CaO.6SiQ2) and lead glass 
this (K20.Pb0.65i02), though probably the for- 
mulae are more complex (2). Other combinations 
of these elements are possible and more recently 
many varieties of glass using a large number of 
elements in a variety of combinations have been 
made, silica, of course being the basis of the 
product. Zinc oxide and boric acid are frequently 
used. 
Lime glass is usually made by fusing in a specially 
prepared furnace sand and lime together with 
sodium carbonate, or sulfate. When sodium sul- 
fate is used, charcoal or coal is added to reduce a 
part of the sulfate. Scrap glass, or cullet, is also 
frequently added. These minerals must be of a 
high degree of purity, the sand in use usually SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
117 
running more than 99.5 per cent, pure silica. 
Iron is especially objectionable as an impurity. To 
remove the effect of the small amount of this 
element almost invariably present, it is usually 
necessary to add manganese dioxide. This oxidizes 
the green ferrous iron to the less objectionable 
yellow ferric, and further the pink of the manganese 
silicate helps to neutralize the color from the iron. 
The use of phosgene, prepared in large quantities 
as a war gas, has been suggested for this oxidation, 
but such use has not been extensive. 
In making lead glass, litharge (PbO) or red lead 
(Pb3o4) is used. This must be free from copper 
and silver. Alkali carbonates, and not sulfates, 
must be used with these oxides of lead, otherwise 
the sulfide present will darken the glass. 
Fuel.—Coal, wood, oil, and natural gas have all 
been used as fuels in glass furnaces. A long flame 
and freedom from soot are necessary requisites. 
The possibility of using natural gas has frequently 
determined the location of glass plants. Furnaces 
vary greatly in size from pot furnaces holding only 
a few tons of the melt to tank furnaces of nearly a 
thousand tons capacity. These tank furnaces are 
charged from one side and the glass is withdrawn 
as needed from the other side, so that while the 
glass plant is in operation the furnace is kept in 
continuous fusion. 
Glass-Blowing.—An iron tube, about five feet 
long, with a mouthpiece at one end is dipped into 
the molten glass. The workman removes this pipe 
from the furnace and by skillful blowing and turning 118 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
causes the glass to become spherical in shape. 
If window glass is to be made, the large lump of 
glass on the end of the blow-pipe is extended 
changing into a hollow cylinder approximately six 
Blowing Window Glass 
feet long and twelve to fifteen inches in diameter. 
To do this the glass must be reheated thru the 
“ glory hole ” of the furnace from which it was 
withdrawn, and to lengthen the cylinder the work- 
man blows while swinging the glass and his pipe 
in a vertical semi-circle. While doing this he 
stands upon a bridge over a pit. 
This glass cylinder, while still hot, is cut from 
the pipe by shears, and then split down the side. 
These split cylinders are placed in the flattening SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
119 
furnace, and on being heated open out fiat thru 
gravity, and are made smooth by “ ironing ” with 
a block of wood placed on a handle. These sheets 
then go to the annealing furnace and from there 
to the cutting rooms. Twelve pieces of single 
strength glass and eight pieces of double strength 
make an inch in thickness (3). 
Splitting a Cylinder of Window Glass Preparatory to Flattening 
Many forms of glass are blown in molds, which 
are opened to receive the molten lump of glass on 
the end of the blowpipe. After the mold is closed 
the glass is blown until it entirely fills the mold. 
Many bottles and other forms of glass are blown 
by machinery. Much window glass is also machine 
made. Plate glass is a soda-lime glass, similar in 
composition to window glass, but it is poured onto 120 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
a large casting table and is not blown. After cast- 
ing, the plate is ground and polished. 
Optical Glass.—Until April 1917 almost no optical 
glass was made in the United States. The imme- 
diate and urgent demand for such glass, which 
Photograph of Test Type Through Block of Optical Glass Five 
Inches Thick, Showing Remarkable Transparency 
was sorely needed by the government for range 
finders, gun sights, periscopes, measuring instru- 
ments, etc., offered a challenge to American in- 
genuity which was at once accepted. To under- 
stand the difficulty of the situation it is only 
necessary to remember that the modern range 
finder must be efficient at 20,000 yards instead of 
the 5,000 yards required before, and that in the 
periscope of a submarine twenty different pieces 
of glass are required. The immediate demand 
was for sixteen different kinds, totaling 2,000 
pounds a day. SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
121 
Taking Pot of Glass from the Furnace 122 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Optical glass is made from materials of the 
highest purity in pots about 40 inches in diameter 
and 40 inches high. Glasses for special use must 
be of special composition, and various substances, 
Pot of Optical Glass After Cooling Several Days 
such as boric acid, barium and phosphate com- 
pounds must be added to the usual ingredients. 
After fusion the glass is stirred and allowed to cool; 
at first, rapidly, and then slowly. The pot is 
broken and the yield of usable glass generally runs 
from twenty per cent. up. Special research has 
been carried out by the Bureau of Standards on the 
glass pots which must be particularly suited for the 
work in hand and not contaminate the mix (4). 
By the combined efforts of the Bureau of Stan- 
dards and some half dozen manufacturers enough SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
123 
optical glass was produced to enable America to 
meet her own demands and have some left for ex- 
port. Thus we have as a result of this challenge 
Pot of Optical Glass in Process of Being Broken Up 
so quickly and successfully answered, an American 
optical glass industry, which gives every promise of 
permanence and growth. 
Laboratory Glassware.—This material is usually 
a potash-lime glass, frequently containing boric acid. 
Though at the beginning of the War there was much 124 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
more laboratory glass than optical glass manu- 
factured in America, the story of the increase in 
production is similar. It is gratifying to note that 
the recent report of the Bureau of Standards shows 
American made glassware entirely equal and in 
many respects superior to that imported from 
Germany previous to the War (5). The present 
production is greater than the pre-war importations. 
Colored glass is produced by the addition of some 
coloring material, usually a compound of some 
metal. Thus, blue is given by cobalt or copper, 
green by chromium or iron, purple by manganese, 
red by gold or cuprous copper. Frequently a com- 
bination of two or more coloring agents is used to 
produce a certain effect. 
Clay-Working Industries 
Clay suitable for the manufacture of useful 
products is “ one of the most widely distributed of 
our minerals ” (6). Every state in the Union con- 
tains clay-working plants. 
These plants may be placed in two general classes 
upon the basis of their output: first, brick and tile; 
second, pottery in some of its many forms. Manu- 
facturers of articles made from the lower-grade 
clays, such as brick, are usually miners also, while 
makers of high-grade pottery frequently buy their 
clay, sometimes importing. These imports in large 
measure ceased during the War, causing the de- 
velopment of American clays, a development which 
apparently will continue, for most, if not all, of the 
imported clays can be duplicated at home (7). SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
125 
The value of the pottery produced in the United 
States in 1913, the last normal year of production, 
was slightly more than twenty per cent, of the 
total value of clay products, amounting to nearly 
$200,000,000. 
Brick.—Clay is a natural hydrated silicate of 
aluminum. An impure form of clay, containing 
lime and an oxide of iron, is used in making 
common brick. This industry is widely distributed, 
and the value of common brick is more than one- 
fourth that of all clay products. The clay is usually 
weathered after digging, is screened, and put into 
“pug” mill, where water and additional sand or 
other clay is added, if desired. After thorough mix- 
ing by revolving blades which cut up the clay and 
pass it to the discharge end, the clay is ready for 
moulding, which is done either by hand in wooden 
frames dusted with sand to prevent sticking, or it is 
forced out in a rectangular bar and machine cut into 
brick length. The “ green ” bricks are dried in 
the air, and then burnt either in open kilns built 
of the air-dried bricks with frequent openings for 
passage of the flame and the hot gases, or in a 
closed kiln which gives a more uniform product. 
For common brick the temperature does not 
usually exceed 1000° C., but for paving brick it is 
raised several hundred degrees higher to cause 
incipient fusion, which gives a hard surface. The 
heat and the amount of iron present determine to 
a great extent the color of the brick. 
Fire brick are prepared from a coarse clay which 
contains less iron and more silica, the amount of the 126 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
latter varying from 50 per cent, to 70 per cent. 
Sand-lime bricks are made by molding a mixture of 
sand with about 8 per cent, of lime and treating 
with steam at a pressure of 130-150 pounds for 
several hours. 
Making Fire Brick by the Dry Press Process 
Sewer pipe and drain tile are made from materials 
similar to those used in brick making and burned in 
a closed kiln. Tiles for floors, walls, etc., are 
similarly manufactured from purer materials and 
may be vitrified by using a higher temperature, or 
they may be glazed. SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
127 
Making Locomotive Tile 128 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Ceramic Laboratory of a Clay Products Company SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
129 
Pottery.—The purest clay found in nature is 
kaolin, and this kaolin is the basis of pottery 
manufacture. The articles classified under this 
head are quite varied, the following being some of 
those listed in the government report (6): red 
earthenware, stone ware, yellow ware, white ware, 
white granite, semi-porcelain ware, china, bone 
china, sanitary ware, porcelain electrical supplies. 
The manufacture of unglazed pottery began in the 
earliest ages, reference to it being found in ancient 
Egyptian records. The Greeks and Romans cov- 
ered their vessels with wax, tallow or bitumen to 
make them non-porous. While the invention of 
porcelain, a glazed form of pottery, is attributed to 
the Chinese, its manufacture seems to have been 
begun in Japan before the Christian era, and to 
have been carried to Persia, where the material 
was called “ chini.” 
In the manufacture of pottery of all grades the 
same general principles apply. First, the article is 
shaped, either in molds or on the potter’s wheel 
from a plastic mixture, the chief ingredient of 
which is kaolin. This is then dried and burned in 
a closed kiln. Unless a very high temperature 
has been used this leaves a porous body which 
must be glazed. In the case of cheap ware this 
is sometimes done by throwing salt into the kiln 
which forms a glaze on the surface of the ware by 
the fusion of the salt and the material in the ware 
itself. 
In making the better grades the material is 
allowed to cool after burning and then dipped into 130 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
water containing in suspension quartz, feldspar 
and various metallic oxides, and sometimes boric 
oxide. Upon again heating in the kiln after drying 
these materials melt at a fairly low temperature and 
form a glaze on the surface. Sometimes these 
materials are first fused alone, then crushed, mixed 
with water and placed on the article by dipping, 
and the whole fired after drying. Great care must 
be taken that the glaze formed has the same co- 
efficient of expansion that the body of the ware has. 
If the article is to be decorated, the desired 
design may be painted or stenciled on the unglazed 
piece in pigments usually made up of metallic 
oxides, and then fired. In other cases the decorat- 
ing is done after the article has been glazed, using 
colored glasses which on subsequent firing melt 
into the glaze. 
The term ceramics, derived from the Greek 
word meaning potter’s clay, is applied to all such 
work, which offers an exceedingly broad and diver- 
sified field, ranging from the cheap article intended 
for the commonest use to the most exquisitely 
decorated and daintily molded vase. In laboratory 
porcelain a record of recent development like that 
for laboratory glass ware has been established, the 
product of American factories equalling or excelling 
the imported ware (8). 
Cement 
Next to steel and iron cement is our most im- 
portant building material. Its general use is recent, 
for in 1895 the total production was less than SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
131 
9,000,000 barrels, while the present production is 
more than ten times that amount (see curve). 
Production of Cement in U. S. 1891-1920 
Natural Cement.—This material is made by 
burning and then grinding an impure limestone 
containing 13-35 per cent, of clayey matter, some- 
times called cement-rock. Much of such cement 
was used in the construction of the Erie and other 
canals. In 1890 the natural cement produced was 132 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
about 7,500,000 barrels, more than twenty times 
the then production of Portland cement. Now 
much less than a million barrels of natural cement 
are produced yearly, the article having been all 
but driven from the market by the increasing use of 
Portland cement. Natural cements are generally 
yellow or brown in color. 
Puzzolan Cement.—This substance, which is 
now practically off the market, can be made by 
finely grinding volcanic ash or basic slag and mixing 
with slaked lime. Its maximum production of only 
525,000 barrels came in 1903. 
Portland Cement.—This valuable product was 
named by an Englishman, Aspdin, because of its 
supposed resemblance to stone taken from the 
famous quarries at Portland, England. In 1824 
he took out a patent for making cement by burning 
and grinding the dust of roads repaired with lime- 
stone. Some years passed before its manufacture 
in England became important. In 1852 the first 
German plant was built, and the German output 
being carefully and scientifically made soon ac- 
quired a high reputation. The first American out- 
put was in 1875 from the Lehigh District, which is 
still by far the largest producer. The competition 
with the cement imported from England and Ger- 
many was keen and the amount of production 
increased slowly, not reaching a million barrels 
till 1896. Since then the increase has been phe- 
nomenal (see curve) (9). 
According to Meade, a leading authority (10), SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
133 
“ To-day undoubtedly the best Portland cement 
made in the world is turned out in America, . . . 
and it is now recognized as superior to that manu- 
factured in any part of the world.” 
Steps in the Manufacture of Portland Cement 134 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
George Otis Smith, Director of the United States 
Geological Survey, in discussing our mineral re- 
serves states (11): 
“ There is little or no need to import any cement, 
for all parts of the country are now fairly well 
supplied with mills for the manufacture of Portland 
cement, and the supply of raw materials is prac- 
tically inexhaustible.” 
Manufacture of Portland Cement.—This process 
is carried out in three fairly simple steps: (1) 
Rotary Kiln for Making Cement 
mixing limestone or marl with clay or shale; (2) 
heating to incipient fusion; (3) addition of a re- 
tarder and very fine grinding. By this heating 
calcium silicates and aluminates are formed, which 
afterwards harden on treatment with water (12). SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
135 
1. The ingredients, which are usually quarried by 
the manufacturer, must be intimately mixed, which 
is accomplished by grinding. Careful chemical 
Mill for Preliminary Grinding of Cement 
control is necessary to maintain certain ratios, 
as follows: 
7 = 1.9 to 2.1, 
%Sio2 + %F©2 O3 -f- 9CA1203 
%Si = 2.5 to 4. 
%ai2o3 
According to United States Government specifica- 
tions (13) cement must not contain more than 2 
per cent, sulfuric anhydride nor 5 per cent, mag- 
nesium oxide. The grinding may be carried out 136 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
by the dry process, which is an American invention 
and more economical, or it may be by the wet 
process, which varies according to the eco- 
nomic condition of the locality. 
Tube Mill for Final Grinding of Cement 
2. The finely ground mixture, either dry or 
mixed with water sufficient to allow pumping (the 
so-called slurry) is fed into rotary kilns which are 
universally used in this country, because they re- 
quire less labor although using more fuel. These 
are made of steel, lined with firebrick, being 60-150 
feet long and 6-8 feet in diameter. These kilns 
are inclined at a slight angle and are fired at the 
lower end, opposite to that from which the material 
enters. Most American plants (80 per cent.) use 
fine coal for a fuel, blown in by an air blast, about 
25-40 per cent, of the weight of the cement being SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
137 
required. In some places natural gas or oil is 
used. The material in passing down the rotary 
kiln is first dried, then loses its carbon dioxide, and 
finally forms small lumps or balls as it begins to 
fuse. 
3. Upon coming from the kiln the material is 
either allowed to cool in piles, or, to hasten the 
process, is placed in the cooler and air is blown over 
it. After air temperature has been reached about 
2 per cent, or 3 per cent, of gypsum, or other form 
of calcium sulfate, is added to prevent too rapid 
setting, and the whole ground so fine that 92 per 
cent, will pass a sieve containing 10,000 openings 
to the square inch and 75 per cent, a sieve contain- 
ing 40,000 openings per square inch. It is then 
packed in 380 pound barrels or 95 pound sacks, 
and is ready for shipment. 
The general process is clearly and graphically 
shown in the accompanying diagram after Meade 
(14). 
The exports of cement from the United States 
have been less than those from several other 
countries, South America before the War obtaining 
cement from Europe. It is probable that our in- 
creased merchant marine will cause a decided 
increase in the amount of these exports, which in 
1913 totalled only about 3,000,000 barrels, or 3.2 
per cent, of the total production (9). 
Lime 
Lime is in no sense a silicate industry, but is 
placed at the close of this chapter solely for con- 138 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
venience. Lime (CaO), sometimes called “ quick 
lime ” (or with the old meaning of the word, “ ac- 
tive lime ”) is made by heating the sedimentary 
rock, limestone (CaCOs), until all of the carbon 
Lime Kiln 
dioxide is driven off. This process is usually 
carried out in vertical kilns, 30-50 feet high and 
6-10 feet in diameter. In the best practice the 
process is continuous, the limestone being fed in 
at the top and the finished oxide drawn off at the 
bottom. SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
139 
Wood is the best fuel as it gives whiter lime. 
When it can not be had, coal, oil or gas may be 
used. The coal may be mixed with the stone, 
though it is more frequently burned separately so 
that the lime will not be contaminated by the ash. 
Limestone with the smallest content of silica, 
alumina and iron oxide is used. If this contains 
less than 5 per cent, of magnesia it is called a high 
calcium lime. Magnesian limes contain more than 
5 per cent, of magnesia and often as much as 30 
per cent. In general these are not considered so 
desirable. A fat or rich lime contains less than 5 
per cent, of impurities other than magnesia (15). 
Hydrated Lime.—When treated with water cal- 
cium oxide is changed to calcium hydroxide and in 
this hydrated form lime is generally used. This 
reaction evolves much heat and must be carefully 
done if the product is to be of good grade. To 
reduce danger from fire in shipping and storage and 
to yield a uniformly satisfactory product, water 
sufficient to form the hydrated lime is frequently 
added at the kiln and the dry hydrated lime shipped 
in barrels or bags. On mixing this with more 
water no heat is evolved. Half a million tons of 
hydrated lime are now so prepared. 
Upon exposure to air lime takes up moisture and 
carbon dioxide and deteriorates rapidly, finally 
forming air slaked lime, which is of the same com- 
position as the original limestone and of no value 
for building purposes. When limestones con- 
taining 10-20 per cent, silica, alumina and iron 
are burned, hydraulic lime is formed, so 140 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
named because the product will harden under 
water. Hydraulic limes in their properties stand 
between ordinary lime and natural cement. 
Production. Uses.—Forty-four states reported 
lime kilns in operation in 1913, the total production 
being 3,600,000 tons (16). The increase in pro- 
duction of lime has been gradual and steady, but 
not at the tremendous rate shown by cement, the 
total production of cement now being nearly five 
times that of lime. 
While the largest single demand for lime is in 
the building industries, its uses are quite varied 
as seen in the following list taken from the report 
of the United States Geological Survey on “ Mineral 
Resources of the United States, 1914 ” (16): 
building lime chemical works paper mills 
sugar factories tanneries fertilizer 
slag cement alkali works sand-lime brick 
smelters steel works glassworks 
disinfectant sheep-dipping manufacture of soap 
cyanide plants glue factories purification of water 
References 
1. Pilcher and Butler-Jones—What Industry Owes to Chemical 
Science, p. 70. Van Nostrand. 
2. Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry, 3d edition, pp. 196- 
211. Macmillan (1917). 
3. Gillinder—Glass, pp. 290-305 in Rogers Industrial Chemistry, 
2d edition. Macmillan (1915). 
LaGorce—Window Glass. Sci. Am. Sup. 2275, 88 (8-19-19). 
Cylinders of Window Glass. Lit. Dig. 8-9-19. 
4. Day—Optical Glass. Man. Rec. in Lit. Dig. 3-8-19. 
Howe—Home Made Optical Glass. Chem. Met. Eng. 19, 479 
(Sep. ’18). 
5. Walker and Smither—Comparative Tests of Chemical Glass- 
ware. Bureau of Standards, Techn. Paper 107. SILICATE INDUSTRIES 
141 
6. Middleton—Clay Working Industries, U.S.G.S. Min. Res. 
1914, Part 11, 455-548. 
7. Ries—Building Stones and Clay Products, Wiley (1918). Clays. 
Occurrence, Properties and Uses. Wiley, 2d edition (1912), 
J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 1, 446 (1918). 
8. Symposium on Ceramics. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 10, 844 (Oct. 
’18). 
9. Burchard—Cement. Min. Res., 1914-17; 1914, 11, pp. 221-59. 
10. Meade—Portland Cement, 2d edition. Chem. Pub. Co. (1911). 
11. Smith—Our Mineral Reserves—How to Make America Indus- 
trially Independent. U.S.G.S. Bui. 599. 
12. Thorp—See above, pp. 181-193. 
13. U. S. Government Specifications for Portland Cement. Circ. 
Bur. Stand. No. 33 (1-1917). 
14. Meade—Lime, Cement and Plaster, pp. 259-82 in Rogers. 
15. Leighou—Chemistry of Materials, pp. 223-32. McGraw-Hill 
16. Loughlin—Lime. Min. Res. 1914, 11, pp. 363-73. 
Hartswick—The Gentle Art of Blowing Bottles, Independent, 
(1917). 
99, 404 (9-20-19). The Age of Glass, Lit. Dig. 121, 440 
(11-1-19). 
Sullivan—Present Status of American Glassware. Ch. and 
Met. Eng. 22, 29 (1-7-20). 
Faber—The Manufacture of Lime. Sci. Am. Sup. 98, 316 
(11-29-19). CHAPTER IX 
PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
Paints usually consist of the mineral pigments 
(the body) ground in oil (the vehicle). They are 
applied as surface coatings for either decorative or 
protective purposes, or both. By painting the sur- 
face of material it is protected from the action of 
oxygen in the air, from moisture and from the 
borings of insects. 
Pigments 
Some authorities distinguish between the body 
or solid material of the paint used for covering and 
the pigment which gives the color. More generally 
both body and pigment are considered together, 
as the pigment frequently has body as well as 
coloring power. Some pigments occur in nature, 
as the ochers and Siennas and umbers, and after 
grinding are ready for use upon mixing with the 
vehicle. More often they are mineral substances 
which are prepared by certain manufacturing proc- 
esses. Occasionally an organic coloring material, 
usually obtained from coal tar, takes the place of 
the mineral coloring matter, though this must be 
added to some mineral material to secure the 
desired body. 
Some of the more commonly used pigments will 
be briefly considered, beginning with the white 
and then with those that are colored. 
142 PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
143 
Setting Lead “ Buckles ” in Pots in Dutch Process for Manufacturing White Lead 144 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
White Pigments.—Practically all of these are 
some form of lead or of zinc compounds. For 
some 2000 years white lead, a basic carbonate of 
lead containing about 85 per cent, of lead oxide 
and 15 per cent, of carbon dioxide and water, was 
the only widely used white pigment. Much less 
than a century ago the other white pigments made 
their appearance. To-day white lead is used as a 
basis for many paints because of the ease with 
which it may be applied, which makes it popular 
with the painter, and its great covering power, 
which brings it into favor with the manufacturer. 
The old Dutch process for manufacturing white 
lead consists in placing lead buckles or grids upon 
supports inside of specially constructed earthen- 
ware pots in the bottom of which is acetic acid. 
These pots are placed in stacks surrounded by 
used tan bark, the carbon dioxide and heat liberated 
by the fermentation of this bark, causing the acetic 
acid to volatilize and changing the lead acetate 
formed to the basic carbonate. The process is 
very slow requiring about 100 days, which is a 
serious objection. The corroded material is ground 
in water, and floated to separate it from the un- 
changed lead, and dried in copper pans. It is sold 
either as a dry powder or ground in oil. 
There are several other shorter processes for the 
manufacture of white lead based upon the same 
general chemical principles. In some cases the 
molten lead is obtained in very small particles by 
spraying. These are treated with acetic acid and 
corroded in revolving drums into which carbon PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
145 
Starting to “ Strip Stack ” Note White Lead Formed 146 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Rake Tubs, through which White Lead is Floated PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
147 
dioxide is passed. In spite of the time consumed 
the old Dutch process is still largely used, the claim 
being made that the product is better from a 
practical viewpoint (1). 
Sublimed white lead, a basic sulfate of lead, the 
analysis of which shows about 75 per cent, lead 
sulfate, 20 per cent, lead oxide and 5 per cent, zinc 
oxide, is made directly by subliming galena or 
lead sulfide, the most common ore of lead. It has 
attained a very rapid prominence in recent years. 
Ozark White is also a lead sulfate product but 
contains besides about 60 per cent, zinc oxide (2). 
The discovery of zinc oxide as a paint by LeClaire 
in France, who made it by subliming the metal 
about the middle of the nineteenth century, and 
by Samuel T. Jones in America, who made it 
directly from certain zinc ores, marks the introduc- 
tion of pigments whose importance is equalled 
only by that of the lead pigments (2, 3). The 
purest zinc oxides made by the sublimation of the 
metal are chosen as the standard of whiteness in 
paints. Zinc oxide is peculiarly adapted for mixing 
with other pigments, especially white lead. Toch, 
a leading American authority on paints, says (2): 
“ The great competitor of white lead is zinc oxide, 
and the weakness of white lead is the strength of 
zinc oxide, and vice versa. White lead, for in- 
stance, is a soft drier and zinc oxide is a hard drier. 
White lead finally becomes powdery; zinc oxide in 
its eventual drying becomes hard, and it is for these 
reasons that a mixture of zinc oxide and white lead 
forms such a good combination.” 148 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
It also retards the rusting of iron. On account of 
its gloss and whiteness zinc oxide is much used for 
enamels. 
When solutions of zinc sulfate and barium sulfide 
of the proper strength are mixed, double de- 
composition occurs and the two insoluble com- 
pounds, both barium sulfate and zinc sulfide, are 
precipitated. This mixture has no value as a 
pigment. When this mass is filtered off, heated to 
about 1000° F., suddenly plunged into water, 
ground to the pulp state, and thoroughly washed 
and dried, a brilliant white pigment of extremely 
fine texture and high covering power is formed. 
The manufacture of this lithopone was begun in 
England in 1880 and has been perfected until 
within the last ten years it has come into quite 
general use, especially for interior work, as it 
darkens on exposure to direct sunlight unless some 
additional material is added to it (4). 
Red Pigments.—Red lead, or minium (Pb3o4), 
is. one of the most commonly used. Metallic lead 
is heated in the presence of air and oxidized to 
litharge (PbO), which is then heated in a muffle fur- 
nace at 600-700° F., forming red lead. Ferric 
oxide is also widely used, either as the natural 
pigment (Indian Red) made by grinding the mineral 
hematite, washing with water and drying, or by 
heating a mixture of ferrous sulfate and quick lime 
(Venetian Red). The latter of necessity contains 
60 80 per cent, of calcium sulfate. 
The use of mercuric sulfide to give the brilliant 
red color, vermilion, has now been replaced by PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
149 
organic color materials, such as para-vermilion. 
This material is soluble in linseed oil and has high 
coloring power, the average pigment containing 
only 5 per cent, of this para-red with 90 per cent, of 
barytes and 5 per cent, of zinc oxide. 
Blue Pigments.—These are usually made of 
Prussian Blue or of ultramarine. The former is 
made by treating ferrous sulfate solution with a 
solution of potassium ferrocyanide, and oxidizing 
the resulting bluish-white precipitate. Ultramarine 
is a complex compound, formed by the fusion in 
crucibles of silica, clay, soda and sulfur. Other 
blues are obtained from compounds of copper or of 
cobalt. 
Green Pigments.—The most satisfactory and 
permanent is chromium oxide (Cr2Ob), made by 
fusing potassium dichromate with boric acid, wash- 
ing in hot water, grinding and drying; also by the 
precipitation of a chromic salt with soda, followed 
by calcination at a red heat. On account of its 
expense its use is restricted to paints of a high 
grade. More brilliant greens are obtained by 
mixing Prussian Blue and chrome yellow, from 
salts of copper, and from aniline compounds. The 
last, being affected by direct light, are used chiefly 
for interior work. 
Yellow Pigments.—Chrome yellows and yellow 
ocher are the most important. The various shades 
to be obtained from lead chromate and other lead 
compounds are seen in this table rearranged from 
Toch (5): 150 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Light Chrome Yellow lead sulfate and lead chromate 
or basic lead carbonate and lead chromate 
or lead citrate, or tartrate, and lead chromate 
Medium Chrome Yellow. .lead chromate 
Orange Chrome Yellow. . .lead oxide and lead chromate 
The yellow of the lead chromate is lightened by the 
white of the lead sulfate or basic carbonate, or 
deepened by the lead oxide in combination. 
Yellow ocher is “ simply clay stained with rust ” 
and usually contains 10-30 per cent, of ferric 
hydroxide. Sienna, named from the Italian town 
where it was first obtained, is darker in color 
because of a higher iron content and the presence 
of some manganese. 
Black Pigments.—Nearly all of these contain 
carbon as a base. Lampblack made from burning 
oily materials with an insufficient supply of air 
contains about 98 per cent, carbon, while carbon 
black of similar composition is made by burning 
gases in like manner and collecting the soot upon 
a rotating plate against which the flame strikes. 
Graphite, the alio tropic form of carbon, formerly 
obtained as a mineral, but now chiefly manufactured 
by the Acheson process (see chapter XI), is much 
used, better results being obtained by mixing it 
with a liberal amount of a lead or of a zinc com- 
pound. 
Ivory, cocoanut shells, soft wood, bones and 
various other vegetable and animal materials have 
been heated to form materials for black paints. 
Reinforcing Pigments.—lt was at first thought 
that a pure white lead or zinc oxide paint was most PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
151 
durable and gave the most satisfactory results. 
The addition of other materials was considered as 
adulteration. Gradually it came to be recognized 
that such addition in reasonable amounts was of 
advantage, the percentage allowed depending en- 
tirely upon the circumstances in each case. Litho- 
pone contains 70 per cent, of barium sulfate and 
the para-red paints used on agricultural implements 
contain 90 per cent, of barytes. The materials 
commonly used as reinforcing pigments, sometimes 
called inert fillers or extenders, are 
Barium sulfate the naturally occurring barytes 
or that prepared by precipitation 
Calcium carbonate natural chalk 
or finely ground marble 
or that prepared by precipitation 
Gypsum natural hydrated calcium sulfate 
Silica ground sand 
or infusorial earth 
Asbestine finely ground asbestos 
Kaolin clay 
These materials are all white in color and, either 
occurring in nature or readily prepared from sub- 
stances so occurring, are inexpensive. Most of 
them are inactive chemically, though the alkalinity 
of the calcium carbonate is at times an advantage 
in neutralizing traces of acid impurities. Alone 
they are of slight value as paints but by mixing these 
coarse pigments with those of finer particles, a 
skeleton of the larger particles is formed, giving 
strength and rigidity. This is filled in by the finer 
particles, making the mass more compact and more 
permanent (4). 152 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Vehicle 
The various materials used to form the body of 
the paints having been discussed, it now remains 
to consider the vehicle, or liquid medium. This is 
always a drying oil or mixture containing drying oil 
or oils. Drying ordinarily means the giving off of 
water and consequent loss of weight. In the case 
of drying oils, however, it means the taking up of 
oxygen from the air and consequently an increase in 
weight. Hence all drying oils are chemically un- 
saturated compounds, that is all of their valency 
bonds are not satisfied, and these bonds are filled 
by the oxygen upon exposure to the air. In doing 
this the oils are changed from a liquid to a solid, 
forming a hard, transparent film. 
Linseed Oil.—This oil possesses the power of 
absorbing oxygen to a greater degree than any 
other oil. It consists of glycerides of isolinolenic, 
linoleic, linolenic and oleic acids, all of which are 
unsaturated. Its name comes from the line, or 
fiber, of the flax stalk, the oil being obtained from 
the seeds of the flax plant. Flax is grown over 
central, northern and western United States, Minne- 
sota and the Dakotas being leading producers of 
seed. Plants when raised for their fiber are pulled 
up before the seeds are ripe. These seeds must 
be allowed to age several months before pressing, 
and then the quality of the oil obtained is not 
nearly so good as that from the ripe seed. How- 
ever, the seed is generally the object of cultivation, 
the fiber not being used. PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
153 
Flaxseed Sifter 154 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
The oil may be separated from the seed after 
crushing, either by subjecting the meal previously 
heated to 80° C. to a hydraulic pressure of two 
tons per square inch, or by a continuous process in 
which the crushed seeds are fed in at one and and 
the pressed meal comes out at the other. The oil 
may also be extracted by naphtha, though there 
are some objections to this process. To remove 
impurities the oil is allowed to stand from four to 
six months, the clear layer resulting being the raw 
linseed oil. 
The drying of oil is made more rapid by heating it 
at about 150° C. with small amounts of lead or 
manganese compounds. As the lead compounds 
tend to cause contraction of the oil upon oxidation 
and the manganese compounds to cause expansion, 
it is customary to use small amounts of both, the 
metallic lead content being about 0.5 per cent, 
and manganese about 0.02 per cent. By such 
treatment the so-called boiled oil will dry in from 
8 to 24 hours while the raw oil requires 72 hours. 
Other Oils.—For twenty years before 1909 the 
price of linseed oil averaged forty cents per gallon. 
In that year a notable advance occurred and by 
September 1910 a price of one dollar was reached. 
The result of this increase in price caused the intro- 
duction of a number of other oils. Among these 
were Chinese wood, fish (such as menhaden), soya 
bean, rosin and mineral oils. The addition of these 
oils is under certain conditions an adulteration, 
the last two being more commonly used because 
cheaper. On the other hand it is claimed that for PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
155 
Flaxseed Crushing Rolls 156 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Hydraulic Press for Extracting Linseed Oil PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
157 
many uses, such as the manufacture of linoleum, 
lithographic inks and patent leathers, the addition 
of given amounts of certain of these oils is a 
decided advantage. 
Driers.—These substances seem to depend for 
their efficiency upon catalysis. They may be con- 
sidered under two classes: oil driers and japan 
driers. The use of oil driers has been previously 
mentioned; litharge, red lead, lead borate or 
acetate and manganese dioxide are the materials 
generally used. The japan driers are liquids, being 
rosinates or linoleates of lead or of manganese, 
dissolved in turpentine. In this state they mix 
readily with oils at ordinary temperature and their 
action is rapid (4). 
Solvents and Diluents.—A number of light, 
volatile liquids which dissolve oils are used to thin 
paints. Of these turpentine for many years was 
practically the only one used. This liquid is a 
product of the long-leaf pine growing in south- 
eastern United States, and is obtained from the 
distillation of the sap, or as wood turpentine by 
distilling the chips (6). Rosin or colophony is left 
in the still when the sap is distilled. Because of its 
long use, the substitution of any other liquid for 
turpentine was considered an adulteration. This 
is clearly an adulteration, if it is claimed to be 
pure turpentine. Though many still claim turpen- 
tine to be entirely superior to all of its substitutes, 
it is stated by others that benzine made by passing 
certain paraffine oils with wood turpentine over 
red-hot coke gives equally satisfactory results. 158 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Petroleum is, of course, the source of paraffine oils. 
Other mineral products such as those obtained by 
the distillation of coal tar are also used as turpentine 
substitutes. 
Varnishes 
The term resin is applied to a variety of products 
obtained from the exudation of trees and these may 
Varnish Stacks and Kettles for Dissolving Resins 
be considered as recent or soft resins, and fossil or 
hard resins. When resins are dissolved in some 
suitable solvent a varnish is formed which may be 
applied to form a hard, lustrous and usually trans- 
parent coating upon wood or other material (7). 
The recent resins are the products of trees now 
living, the most common being rosin from the pine, 
dammar, a product usually obtained from southern 
Asia, and lac. Lac, which is the material from 
which shellac is made, is not the direct exudation of 
the tree, but a resinous excrement of a parasitic PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
159 
insect, a native of India. The name, lac, is an 
Indian term for 100,000, indicative of the number 
of these insects (8). The purified shellac is dis- 
solved in alcohol or other volatile solvent and 
gives a hard and highly elastic coating. 
Lacquers are spirit varnishes made from shellac 
or similar material, dissolved in a volatile liquid. 
They are applied to metals as well as to wood. 
In addition to those made from the resins lacquers 
are also made from pyroxylin, which is a nitrated 
cotton (see p. 73). 
The fossil resins have been formed by the exuda- 
tions of trees of a previous age and are dug from 
the earth frequently at a depth of several feet. 
These include amber and the copals. Amber 
makes the hardest of varnishes, but on account 
of the expense of it and the hard copals, kauri is 
widely used in place of them. This is a soft copal 
from New Zealand and Australia. The fossil re- 
mains are always used as oil varnishes, the oxida- 
tion product of the oil remaining in the coating 
with the resin. If desired, coloring matter may be 
added to varnishes before application. 
Bakelite is an artificial resin-like substance per- 
pared by boiling equimolecular proportions of 
carbolic acid and formaldehyde under carefully 
controlled conditions in the presence of small 
amounts of ammonia or caustic soda. By con- 
densation and the giving off of water a product is 
formed which is soluble in alcohol, acetone and 
other solvents, making possible its use as a varnish. 
This material discovered by Dr. L. H. Baekeland, 160 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
an American, was patented in 1907. Since that 
time this form A and both Bakelite B and Bakelite 
C formed from A by heat, have had a wide variety 
of uses (9). 
Varnish Filtration 
Prepared Paints and the Chemist.—Half a cen- 
tury ago each painter mixed his own colors, fre- 
quently hand ground, with his white lead at a 
great cost in labor and time and with the im- 
possibility of reproducing exactly a given product. 
The growing conviction that the addition of some 
other material to white lead made a better paint, PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
161 
together with the well known difficulties encoun- 
tered in hand mixing, made possible the introduc- 
tion of prepared paint products. At first prepared 
paints were not successful because not mixed with 
brains, that is not carefully or scientifically prepared. 
As stated by Gardner (10): 
These conditions, however, soon changed, and 
with the introduction of laboratories under the 
supervision of trained chemists, the manufacture of 
prepared paints rapidly developed into an industry 
in which the processes were controlled by the 
application of scientific principles and in which the 
raw materials used were most carefully examined 
for their chemical purity and physical properties.” 
According to the Census of Manufacturers in 1914 
the paint and varnish industry totalled nearly 
$150,000,000, three-fourths of which was for paint. 
Paints, stains and varnishes for almost every 
conceivable use are now on the market in a gen- 
erally satisfactory form. Cement, metal, marine, 
bituminous, wall, barn, enamel, automobile, floor 
paints give some idea of the extent and variety 
possible. The use of paint ingredients extends to 
many industries which do not occur to one on first 
thought. Thus, in the manufacture of oil cloth 
and linoleum, of wall paper and window shades, of 
leather and of rubber goods, many of the materials 
used are the same as those used by the paint 
manufacturer. 
Of their use in printing the following list of 
purchases of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 
Washington, for a pre-war year will give an idea: 162 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Black “ 297,500 
Blue “ 52,000 
Green “ 180,000 
Red “ 68,200 
Yellow “ 200,000 
White Pigments 802,200 pounds 
1,599,900 pounds 
Of this Toch says (11): 
“ These pigments are identical in every respect 
with those used for general painting, and yet all 
these pigments are used for the purpose of printing 
the currency and the postage stamps of this Govern- 
ment.” 
The increased use of paint materials has without 
doubt made, not only for improved sanitary condi- 
tions and more beautiful surroundings, but also 
for economy on account of the protection from rot 
and rust resulting from the action of the atmosphere 
and of moisture. 
1. Thompson—White Lead, Rogers Industrial Chemistry, 2d 
edition, pp. 306-16. Van Nostrand (1915). 
References 
2. Toch—Chemistry and Technology of Paints. Van Nostrand 
(1916). 
3. Heckel—Zinc Oxide, Rogers Ind. Chem. pp. 318-26. 
4. Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry, 3d edition, pp. 222 -48. 
Leighou—Chemistry of Materials, chap. XIII. McGraw-Hill 
(1917). 
Macmillan (1917). 
Toch—Chemistry and Technology of Paints, Van Nostrand. 
5. Toch. Ibid. p. 82. 
6. Herty—“ Cupping ” vs. “ Boxing.” Sci. Am. Sup. 2272, 36 
(7-19-19 and 7-26-19). 
7, Sabin—Varnish. Rogers Ind. Chem. 724-34. 
8. Langmuir—Shellac. Rogers Ind. Chem. pp. 696-703. PAINTS AND VARNISHES 
163 
9. Baekeland—Perkin Medal Award. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 8, 177 
(Feb. ’l6). 
10. Gardner—The Manufacture and Use of Prepared Paint Prod- 
ucts, Rogers Ind. Chem. pp. 336-46. 
11. Toch—Pigments and Paint Oils. Rogers Ind. Chem. pp. 327-35. 
Gardner and Schaeffer—-The Analysis of Paints and Painting 
Materials, McGraw-Hill (1911). Lac Cultivation in India. 
Sci. Am. Sup. 98, 280 (11 18- 19). CHAPTER X 
RUBBER 
When first introduced rubber was considered 
largely as a luxury. At present in its wide variety 
of manufactured products, it is a necessity for 
the carrying out of many lines of industry, and at 
the same time adds much to the comfort of life. 
Though known for more than two centuries before, 
its present name was given to it by Joseph Priestley 
in 1770, because it removed pencil marks by rub- 
bing. This was four years before his noted dis- 
covery of oxygen. 
Source.—Certain tropical plants are noted for a 
milky juice or latex (different from the sap), which 
is found in the stems, leaves, bark and roots of 
trees, vines and shrubs. This latex is an emulsion 
somewhat similar to that of our common milkweed. 
Upon analysis of the latex from plants growing in 
the Amazon jungles of Brazil, which furnish the 
best rubber, these results are obtained (1): 
Per Cent. 
Water 55. 
Rubber 38.5 
Proteins 3. 
Resins 3. 
Mineral matter 0.5 
100.0 
This analysis gives an idea of the composition of this 
latex, but there is considerable variation. 
164 RUBBER 
165 
Java-Tapping Rubber Tree 166 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
In Brazil the trees are tapped when twelve to 
fifteen years old, the season being from July to 
November. The yield per tree is about ten pounds 
of milky juice, or three to four pounds of rubber 
daily (2). Rubber plantations are now in existence 
in many tropical countries using plants brought 
from the Amazon. The cultivated plants are tapped 
in the fifth or sixth year. Two-thirds of the world’s 
production of 427,000 pounds in 1916 was plantation 
rubber, though this cultivated rubber does not 
seem to be exactly the same as the product of the 
wild varieties with which most of the plantations 
were originally stocked (3). In addition to the 
2,000,000 acres of rubber plantations in the tropics, 
another possible source of supply is from the 
guayule shrub grown by irrigation in the United 
States (4). This is considered by some as a 
substitute. 
Preparation for Market.—The rubber globules 
must be caused to unite and fermentation of the 
protein material must be prevented before ship- 
ment. This is done in several ways: by heating 
and exposing thin layers to wood smoke, by the 
use of a centrifugal machine, or by the use of 
chemicals. Dilute acetic or formic acid, solutions 
of salt, alum or carbolic acid may be used. Orig- 
inally in the Amazon region, called the Para district 
because of the shipping port, a paddle was dipped 
into the latex and turned in the smoke of a slow 
fire; this was repeated until a considerable ball or 
“ biscuit ” was formed. In the Congo, natives are 
said to drive off the water of the latex by smearing 
it over their naked bodies. RUBBER 
167 
Java—Interior of Treating Plant of an American Rubber Company 168 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
For the removal of bark, twigs and mineral 
matter from the crude rubber, it is sliced and 
macerated between rolls and washed with water. 
This causes considerable loss in weight, especially 
in the poorer and more impure grades. 
Vulcanizing.—Rubber would never have obtained 
its present wide usefulness, except for the marked 
change in its properties when it is treated with 
sulfur. Pure rubber is soft and sticky in hot 
weather, and hard and brittle in very cold weather. 
After being treated with sulfur, or vulcanized, 
it becomes much less sensitive to temperature 
changes, increases in elasticity and tensile strength, 
and becomes much more durable when exposed to 
the weather or to the action of chemical reagents. 
Vulcanization is usually carried out by heating the 
rubber with sulfur. When more highly heated 100 
pounds of rubber will take up as much as 30 pounds 
of sulfur, which is the amount used in the making 
of hard rubber or ebonite. For ordinary vulcaniza- 
tion, however, much less is used, soft rubber fre- 
quently containing not more than two per cent, of 
sulfur. After proper vulcanization rubber material 
containing 40 per cent, pure rubber should stretch 
seven times its length and return to its original 
shape. The vulcanizing of rubber was first discov- 
ered by Charles Goodyear of New Haven, Conn., 
in 1839 (5). 
Added Materials.—Many materials of both min- 
eral and organic origin are added in the manufacture 
of rubber products. Some of these are of real 
value in making a product better suited for a V 
a 
w 
w 
w 
w 
169 
Mill Room Showing Mix Mills and Bins Containing Rubber and its Compounds 
of an American Rubber Company 170 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
special use, while others are mere fillers. In the 
former class may be placed certain metallic oxides 
or sulfides, such as those of lead, zinc or antimony, 
while powdered chalk and barytes are frequently 
used as fillers. Manufactured goods containing 
textiles make up a very large and important part 
of the rubber industry. 
Synthetic Rubber.—Rubber, or caoutchouc, is a 
polymer (many parts) of polyprene (CioHi6), that 
is, it contains a number of molecules of polyprene 
which are in some way combined, the formula for 
rubber being (CioHi6)x; in other words a molecule 
of rubber contains x molecules of polyprene. The 
power of taking up sulfur in vulcanization seems to 
be due to the presence of unsaturated valency 
bonds (6). 
When subjected to destructive distillation rubber 
yields among other products the compound, isoprene 
(C6HB), which can be caused to polymerize with 
the formation of rubber. Erythrene (C4H6) under 
proper treatment can be changed to rubber. If, 
therefore, these substances can be produced in 
sufficient quantities and at a low enough cost, the 
preparation of synthetic rubber would seem to be 
assured. Isoprene has been made from turpentine, 
from fusel alcohol, and from starch, sugar, and 
sawdust. Erythrene has also been made from 
acetone and other materials. Based on this and 
similar principles, several processes for the manu- 
facture of synthetic rubber have appeared. Whether 
or not it will be done on an extensive scale is 
largely an economic question depending upon the RUBBER 
171 
cost of the materials required and of the process of 
manufacture, as compared with that of producing 
the natural rubber. 
Synthetic rubber was produced on a large scale 
at Leverkusen in Germany during the War, though 
the process was very expensive (7). 
Reclaimed Rubber.-—After removing as much of 
the fiber as possible by mechanical means the old 
rubber products are treated with warm dilute 
sulfuric acid to destroy the vegetable fiber remain- 
ing. This is followed by heating with dilute caustic 
soda solution under pressure, which removes the 
remainder of the fabric and the uncombined sulfur. 
This process devised by Mitchell of Philadelphia 
does not devulcanize the rubber, but does give a 
product which is preferred by manufacturers to 
other organic fillers. In fact it is considered 
superior to some of the poorer grades of crude 
rubber. 
References 
1. Dannerth—Rubber and Allied Gums. Rogers Ind. Chem., p. 704. 
2, Thorp—Outlines of Ind. Chem., 3d ed., p. 586. 
3. Editorial Sci. Am.—The World’s Rubber, 118, 358 (4-20-18). 
4. Editorial The India Rubber World—Machine Made Rubber. 
Lit. Dig. 12-14-18. 
5. Leighou—-Chemistry of Materials, p. 373. McGraw-Hill (1917). 
Bradford—Chemistry of Rubber. Sci. Am. Sup. 2275, 82 (8-9 
6. Pond—A Review of the Pioneer Work on the Synthesis of Rubber. 
-19). 
7. Still—The Dyestuff Plants and Their War Activities. J. Ind. 
Jr. Am. Ch. Soc. 36, 165 (1914). 
Testing of Mechanical Rubber Goods. U. S. Bureau of Stand- 
and Eng. Ch. 11, 509 (June ’l9). 
ards, Circ. 38 (1915). 
German Synthetic Rubber. Sci. Am. Sup. 98, 323 (11-29-19). CHAPTER XI 
ELECTROCHEMISTRY IN INDUSTRY 
Although Davy more than a hundred years ago 
used the electric current for the discovery of the 
alkalies and the alkaline earth metals, and his 
assistant and pupil, Faraday, made most valuable 
contributions to the field of electro-chemistry, yet 
any extensive use of the current in industry must of 
necessity date from its production upon a commer- 
cial scale. Hence practically all of the applications 
of electro-chemistry to industry are confined to the 
present generation. 
In this development America has played a most 
important part. The magnificent electro-chemical 
industries at Niagara Falls continually testify to 
the genius and perseverance of such chemists as 
Hall, Castner, Acheson, Willson and Baekeland, 
as well as to the energy and business ability of 
many other Americans (1). 
The electric current has two distinct uses in 
chemical work: its use upon substances in the 
liquid form, either in solution or in a fused state; 
and its use as a source of heat. We shall briefly 
review first this electrolytic use and then the 
electrothermal. 
The electrolytic action of the current may be 
considered under three heads: (1) metals, (2) 
Electrolytic 
172 ELECTROCHEMISTRY IN INDUSTRY 173 
Hydro-Electric Plant and Development—Power From one of the Greatest Natural Resources 174 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
products of electrolysis of salt, (3) oxidizing and 
reducing effect. 
Metals. The first use of the current commer- 
cially was in the electroplating of metals, and this 
method is still widely employed for a number of 
metals, such as copper, silver, gold, zinc and nickel 
and even in the plating with an alloy, such as brass 
from a cyanide solution of both copper and zinc. 
The electro-refining of copper surpasses any 
other process for the production of pure copper, a 
purity of 99.9 per cent, being obtained. Lead, 
silver, gold, nickel, bismuth and antimony can also 
be so refined. 
Davy’s principle of obtaining sodium, potassium 
and calcium is applied to-day upon a commercial 
scale by using the current upon fused salts of these 
metals. 
Probably the most important metal prepared by 
electrolysis is aluminum, in the preparation of which 
the method proposed by Chas. M. Hall, while a 
student at Oberlin College, is commonly used. 
Aluminum oxide obtained from bauxite is dissolved 
in melted cryolite, which is a double fluoride of 
sodium and aluminum. To set free the aluminum 
a high power current is required and 25,000 kilo- 
watt-hours per ton of metal are consumed. Con- 
sequently it is cheaper to bring the purified ore to 
a point where electricity can be cheaply obtained 
as at Niagara Falls. In 1883 shortly before the 
announcement of the American college boy’s dis- 
covery, the yearly production of aluminum in the 
United States was 83 pounds. Now it is more than ELECTROCHEMISTRY IN INDUSTRY 175 
Mining Aluminum Ore, Bauxite, Arkansas 176 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
a million times as much. Silicon is also prepared 
by the electrolytic use of the current. 
Electrolysis of Salt.—The electrolysis of a salt 
solution is by no means so simple as it may appear, 
and to meet the difficulties that have arisen in the 
commercial process much ingenuity has been 
shown. The sodium liberated at the negative pole 
at once tends to form sodium hydroxide with the 
evolution of hydrogen. The chlorine liberated at 
the positive pole forms with the sodium hydroxide 
sodium hypochlorite in the cold and the chlorate 
if heated. By combining hydrogen with chlorine 
by properly controlled explosions hydrochloric acid 
is produced. 
To prepare metallic sodium fused salt and a 
mercury cathode are used. With both the fused 
electrolytes and with solutions diaphragms are used 
to prevent premature mixing of the products of 
electrolysis. From common salt and the electric 
current as a beginning, metallic sodium, chlorine, 
hypochlorites, chlorates, perchlorates and hydro- 
chloric acid may be prepared, the hydrogen and 
oxygen when needed being furnished by the water 
(2). For this process we are largely indebted to 
the labors and discoveries of Castner in the early 
nineties. Baekeland later did valuable work along 
the same line (1). 
Oxidation and Reduction.—Upon the electrolysis 
of water containing a small amount of sulfuric acid, 
hydrogen and oxygen are liberated. These gases 
are now collected and put on the market on a com- 
mercial scale. The oxidizing effect produced at ELECTROCHEMISTRY IN INDUSTRY 
177 
the anode and the reducing effect at the cathode 
are used in the production of a number of organic 
compounds, only a few of which have as yet been 
produced upon a large commercial scale. Thus a 
20 per cent, salt solution to which acetone has been 
added gives chloroform upon the passage of the 
current (3). 
Much might be said of the use of the current in 
electroanalysis, in the development of which Amer- 
icans have been leaders. Thousands of rapid 
determinations accurately and easily made by its 
aid assist the chemist in his control of industry (4). 
Other electrical laboratory appliances are of the 
greatest convenience and help. 
Electrothermal 
The successful use of the electric furnace by 
Messrs. Cowles of Cleveland in 1883 showed possi- 
bilities before unknown, for by this use of the cur- 
rent the highest known temperatures at the exact 
point desired can be secured with accuracy of 
control. This may be done under special condi- 
tions, if desired, as for example, in a reducing 
atmosphere. Of all the applications of the electro- 
thermal effect of the current it is impossible to 
write, but some of its products may be thus classi- 
fied: (1) carbon compounds, (2) nitrogen com- 
pounds, (3) iron and steel alloys, (4) a variety of 
products, such as phosphorus, ozone, alundum, 
etc. (5). 
Carbon Compounds.—The commercial produc- 
tion of calcium carbide about 1899 by “ Carbide ” 178 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Willson at Spray, N. C. by heating a mixture of 
coke and lime in an electric furnace, not only 
furnished a valuable product, which later became 
an efficient source of acetylene, and still later of the 
fertilizer, calcium cyanamid, but under the stress 
Electric Furnace, Making Carborundum 
of the recent war this acetylene was transformed 
into acetone, acetic anhydride and cellulose acetate, 
materials much needed in the manufacture of 
explosives and airplane “ dope.” 
Silicon carbide, or carborundum, is formed when 
silica in contact with an excess of carbon is heated 
to the high temperature obtained in an electric ELECTROCHEMISTRY IN INDUSTRY 
179 
furnace. This artificial abrasive has very largely 
replaced the natural corundum, or emery, being in 
almost universal use except in glass grinding. 
The overheating of a carborundum furnace led to 
the discovery of artificial graphite, which is in 
many ways far superior to the natural product. 
Pure carbon alone does not change into graphite on 
heating, as it must first be changed to a carbide of 
some metal. To accomplish this anthracite coal 
with 8-10 per cent, of ash evenly distributed thru 
it is used. This material may be molded into the 
desired shape and made into graphite, or it may be 
graphitized and then molded, the product being 
quite pure, running 99.5 per cent, graphite. This 
purity is due to the volatilization of other material 
at the high temperature of the furnace. The use 
of this graphite for electrodes has been so perfected 
that it is now possible to screw a new electrode 
onto the end of the old without interrupting the 
process. Electrodes with a diameter greater than 
17 inches are now made. The processes for both 
carborundum and graphite were invented by E. G. 
Acheson of Niagara Falls, the one in 1892, and the 
other in 1895 (6). 
Carbon disulfide is made by heating a mixture of 
sulfur and charcoal in an electric furnace in which 
the sulfur vapor combines with the heated charcoal. 
The process is practically an automatic one. 
Nitrogen Compounds.—The use of electricity in 
the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen has already 
been discussed, as has the use of the electric 
furnace in the making of calcium carbide to be 180 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
changed into calcium cyanamide. (See chapter 
IV.) 
Iron and Steel. Alloys.—For a number of years 
electricity has been used for heating iron and steel 
furnaces, more especially the latter, in which steel 
was purified at a very high temperature after having 
been treated by the Bessemer or open hearth 
process. On account of freedom from dissolved 
gases and oxides as well as from phosphorus and 
sulfur, this duplex process gives a superior steel. 
In the preparation of alloys which were formerly 
made in crucibles of imported clay, the electric 
furnace has in recent years been particularly useful. 
In 1913 there were 19 furnaces in use in the United 
States for this work, while in 1917 233 furnaces thus 
made 750,000 tons of alloy steels. The metals 
used with the iron are chromium, manganese, 
molybdenum, nickel, silicon, titanium, tungsten, 
uranium and vanadium, adding when properly 
used, toughness, hardness, strength and elasticity. 
For example ferrochrome is used in making armor 
plate, ferro-tungsten in giving a tool which holds its 
cutting edge at a high temperature (7). In his 
address before the American Electrochemical So- 
ciety, April 3, 1919, President Tone said (8) ; 
“No one now doubts that we shall soon attain 
to supersteel and it is no less clearly indicated that 
this will be accomplished by the electric steel 
furnace and electrically produced alloys. . . . Such 
steel produces rails which do not break and plates 
which do not fracture. . . . The alloy steels have 
made possible the modern automobile, the aero- 
plane engine and the farm motor tractor.” ELECTROCHEMISTRY IN INDUSTRY 
181 
Quantity output of quality steel by means of the 
electric furnace is to be expected. The largest 
plant of this kind in the world is at South Chicago 
(9). 
Varied Products.—Phosphorus is obtained from 
the calcium orthophosphate of either rocks or bones 
by heating it with sand and carbon. Ozone is 
formed from the oxygen of the air upon passing air 
between the terminals of a high-tension alternating 
circuit. Alundum is an abrasive made by the 
electrical treatment of a mineral containing alumi- 
num oxide. 
These materials differing so greatly are indica- 
tive of the very wide field of usefulness open to 
electrochemistry. There are many processes now 
in the laboratory stage which are not mentioned 
here, but some of these are certain to become of 
commercial importance. 
During the War our Government invested a 
billion dollars in electro-chemical plants. This 
large production and application of electric power 
is bound to have an increasing effect upon industry. 
1. Tone—America’s Supremacy in Electrochemistry. Chem. and 
Met. Eng. 19, 357 (Sep. ’18). 
References 
Chandler—Address. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 8, 178 (Feb. ’l6). 
2. Doerflinger—Chlorine and Allied Products. Rogers Ind. Chem. 
pp. 222-243. 
3. Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry. Macmillan (1917). 
4. Smith—Electro-Analysis. Blakiston. 
5. Landis—Electrochemical Industries. Rogers Ind. Chem. pp. 
244-58. 
6. Acheson—Researches on Electric Furnace Products. Trans. 
Faraday Soc. 7, 217 (1912). 182 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Baekeland—Address, Perkin Medal Award, 1910. J. Ind. and 
Eng. Ch. 2, 102 (Mar. ’10). 
7. Richards—The Ferro-Alloys. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 10, 851 
(Oct. ’18). 
Howe—Electrochemistry in War, Sci. Am. 119, 312 (10-19-18). 
Coyle—Alloy Steels for Helmets and Armor. Ch. and Met. Eng. 
20, 618 (6-15-19). 
8. Tone—Electrochemistry in its Human Relations. Ch. and Met. 
Eng. 20, 413 (4-15-19). 
9. Symposium on Electric Furnaces. Boston Meeting Am. Elec. Ch. 
Soc., Ch. and Met. Eng. 21, 6 (7-1-19). 
Williamson—Electricity in the Cement Industry, Elect. Rev. 
West. Elec. 73, 813 (1918). 
Moulton—Cottrell Electric Precipitation. Sci. Am. 119, 50 
(7-20-18). CHAPTER XII 
ACIDS 
In the consideration of acids the chief emphasis 
will be laid upon the three common mineral acids, 
sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric, or muriatic, not 
only because of the larger amounts of these acids 
manufactured, but also because of their use in the 
manufacture of other acids. 
Sulfuric Acid the Most Important.—lt has been 
often stated that the consumption of sulfuric acid 
is an indication of the degree of civilization a 
nation has attained. This far-reaching statement 
can be justified by thinking of the use of this acid 
in the preparation of fertilizers, in the refining of 
petroleum, in the reclaiming of rubber, in the manu- 
facture of dyes, and in the preparation of very many 
chemicals. Hundreds of industries which con- 
tribute largely to man’s progress, prosperity and 
happiness depend either directly or indirectly upon 
this acid. Not only is the amount of its production 
indicative of the progress of a nation in times of 
peace, but because of its use in the manufacture 
of explosives it is even more exactly a measure of 
the war activities of any people. 
This acid has been long known, the earliest 
record being that of the Arabians in the eighth 
century. As early as 1740 its manufacture on a 
commercial scale was carried out by an English- 
183 184 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
man, Ward, who burned sulfur and nitre together, 
condensing the vapors in glass vessels containing 
small amounts of water. The largest plants to-day 
are in the United States (1). 
In principle sulfuric acid making is exceedingly 
simple. Sulfur burned in air, or a sulfide roasted, 
that is, heated in air, forms sulfur dioxide. If this 
sulfur dioxide can be made to combine with another 
atom of oxygen forming sulfur trioxide, and water 
is added to the trioxide, sulfuric acid is formed. 
But sulfur dioxide does not easily take up an 
additional oxygen atom, and to cause it to do this 
cheaply and readily is the problem of the sulfuric 
acid manufacturer. 
Two methods are in use for the manufacture of 
this acid; the lead chamber and the contact. The 
one is carried out in lead lined chambers, where 
oxides of nitrogen cause the increased oxidation of 
the sulfur dioxide and form the acid in a rather 
complicated series of reactions; in the other sulfur 
dioxide and oxygen are passed over heated platinum 
black (asbestos covered with a thin coating of 
platinum) or other catalytic agent, contact with 
which causes the formation of sulfur trioxide. In 
recent years lead chambers of very large size have 
been built, one in use at the plant of the Tennessee 
Copper Co. being 59 x 236 x 40 feet, enclosing more 
than half a million cubic feet. The total chamber 
space in use at this plant is over 6,000,000 cubic 
feet, and the daily capacity is 900 tons of sulfuric 
acid (60° B.) (2). 
The sulfur dioxide used in this country was ACIDS 
185 
largely obtained before the War by burning or 
roasting pyrites, or iron sulfide, brought from Spain. 
In many plants by-product sulfur dioxide, obtained 
from copper, zinc or other metal smelters, is used, 
thus making valuable a very objectionable by- 
product, hitherto wasted. 
Acid made by the lead chamber process is not 
concentrated and its concentration is difficult. 
The contact process, however, gives a concentrated 
acid of any desired strength and of a greater degree 
of purity than that readily obtained from the 
chamber process. On the other hand, the contact 
process requires greater care in operation, as the 
reaction is reversible, and the presence of certain 
impurities in the sulfur dioxide will “ poison ” the 
catalyzer and make it inactive. 
sumed in the same plant, so that an exact statement 
of the total production is difficult. The approxi- 
mate production of sulfuric acid in 1913 is given in 
the table below. The present production is con- 
siderably higher, while the production of the United 
States while engaged in the World War was fully 
Much sulfuric acid is manufactured and con- 
twice the figure here given (3) 
United States 3,500,000 long tons 
Germany 1,650,000 “ 
Great Britain 1,150,000 “ 
Italy 640,000 “ 
France 550,000 “ 
Belgium 350,000 “ 
Russia 260,000 “ 
Nitric Acid.—This acid, also long known, was 
called by the ancients aqua fortis, or strong water. 
13 186 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
It is usually made by treating sodium nitrate, or 
Chile saltpeter, which is brought from South 
America, with concentrated sulfuric acid. The 
production in 1914 calculated from figures given in 
the U. S. Census of Manufacturers was an equiva- 
lent of 89,000 tons of 100 per cent, nitric acid made 
from some 160,000 tons of nitrate. As actually 
used this amounted to 78,589 tons of acid of average 
strength and 112,124 tons of mixed acid (sulfuric 
and nitric). During the War the tremendous de- 
mand for nitric acid needed in the manufacture of 
explosives caused an estimated yearly production of 
650,000 tons of 100 per cent, nitric made from 
1,000,000 tons of nitrate (4). 
The increased ratio of nitric acid produced to 
nitrate consumed shows that during the war period 
the efficiency of the process was increased. This 
was due to many improvements. High silica iron, 
which is acid proof, was used to largely replace 
other kinds of apparatus. Economy in operation 
was practiced, so far as possible. 
The preparation of nitric acid by sparking the 
air has not thus far been successfully carried out 
on a large scale in the United States. However, 
nitric acid formed by the oxidation of ammonia, 
has been made on a commercial scale, and at the 
time the armistice was signed a number of plants 
for this purpose were under construction. It is 
claimed that this process will be the chief one in 
use in this country (5). Whether this is correct, 
or not, will depend entirely upon economic condi- 
tions, in which our enlarged merchant marine may 
be a decisive factor. (See chapter IV.) ACIDS 
187 
Hydrochloric Acid.—Originally this acid was a 
very troublesome by-product in the Leblanc process 
of manufacturing soda. It is still manufactured, as 
in that process, by treating common salt with con- 
centrated sulfuric acid and heating, the hydro- 
chloric acid passing off as a gas. This gas is cooled 
and dissolved in water, in which it is very soluble, 
either by passing it thru tall towers filled with coke 
over which the water trickles, or thru several large 
wash bottles containing water. The sodium sul- 
fate, or salt cake, is in considerable demand, being 
used by glass makers, in dyeing, and to some extent 
in medicine. The normal sulfate is called Glau- 
ber’s salt after purification and recrystallization, in 
which process it takes up ten molecules of water of 
crystallization (6). 
Muriatic acid is the commercial name given to 
this acid, being derived from the Latin word for 
brine. Though frequently used in the chemical 
laboratory and in some industries, this acid has 
not the importance of sulfuric acid. This is seen 
in the fact that its production in 1914 was 168,000 
tons, less than one-twentieth of that of sulfuric acid. 
Acetic Acid.—This organic acid is obtained in an 
impure state in the destructive distillation of wood. 
To purify it calcium acetate is formed by neutraliza- 
tion with lime followed by evaporation. Upon dis- 
tillation of the calcium acetate with sulfuric acid 
pure acetic acid is obtained. It is used in the 
making of acetates, some of which are of value in 
medicine, in the preparation of white lead, and in 
the manufacture of dyes and explosives. It is 188 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
found in a dilute form in vinegar, being formed by 
the oxidation of the alcohol present in the cider. 
The 1914 production of 37,000 tons was greatly 
increased during the War. 
Other Acids.—Oleic and stearic acids, obtained 
from animal fats, rank next in the amount produced. 
These are followed by phosphoric, boric, hydro- 
fluoric and citric acids, the production of each being 
less than 10,000 tons annually. 
References 
1. Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry, 3d edition, p. 63. 
Macmillan (1917). 
2. Fairlie—Large Scale Sulfuric Acid Manufacture. Ch. and Met. 
Eng. 19, 404 (9-25-18). 
3. Clawson—The Economic Importance of Our Chemical Industries. 
Ibid. 19, 362 (9-24-18). 
4. Pranke—Development in Nitric Acid Manufacture in the United 
States since 1914. Ibid. 19, 395 (9-25-18); also in Con- 
ference on Acids and Chemicals, J. Ind. and Eng, Ch. 10, 
830 (Oct. ’18). 
5. Landis—The Oxidation of Ammonia. Ch. and Met. Eng. 20, 470 
(5-1-19), 
6. Thorp—Industrial Chemistry, p. 83. CHAPTER XIII 
METALS 
Importance.—The total value of all mineral 
products in the United States in 1913, the last 
normal year, because the last before the World 
War, was approximately two and a half billion 
dollars. Of this a little more than one-third, or 
$883,000,000 was for metallic products (1). 
Occurrence.—Some metals occur in the native 
or free state, as is frequently the case with gold. 
In most cases, however, the important ores are the 
oxides and sulfides, with the carbonates and sili- 
cates being of less importance. The term mineral 
is sometimes used to designate any substance 
which comes from the ground, being derived from 
the same root word as mine. An ore is a mineral 
containing a metal which may be extracted with 
profit. Thus ordinary sandstone is a mineral con- 
taining some iron, but it could not be called an 
ore of iron. 
Metallurgy.—The science of extracting metals 
from their ores is called metallurgy. Due to in- 
creased application of chemical principles and to the 
use of the electric furnace this science has ad- 
vanced very rapidly in recent years. Mainly be- 
cause of this has the increased use of metals been 
made possible. During the 33 years preceding the 
outbreak of the War in Europe the population of the 
189 190 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
United States approximately doubled. Comparing 
this ratio in population with that of the value of the 
metals produced in 1880 with the production in 
1913 we have calculated these ratios (1): 
1880 1913 
Population 1 ; (nearly) 2 
Silver 1 ; 1.2 
Gold 1 ; 2.5 
Lead 1 : 3.7 
Iron 1 . 5.2 
Copper 1 : 16.5 
Zinc 1 : 16.6 
All metals 1 : (nearly) 6 
It will be noticed that while the population has 
doubled, the production of metals has increased in 
value six times. In other words the increase in 
value in metallic production has been three times 
as great as increase in population; and this, too, 
before the high level of war prices. 
The two methods in general use for the extraction 
of metals from their ores are: the reduction of the 
oxide with carbon in the form of coke, and in some 
cases coal; and by electrolysis. Iron and zinc 
are metals produced by the first of these methods 
and aluminum by the electric current. The use of 
one metal to set free another from its compounds, 
as the liberation of antimony from its sulfide by 
heating with iron can obviously be used only in the 
case of the more valuable metals. The use of 
hydrogen to reduce oxides is too expensive except 
in unusual cases. Crude petroleum for the reduc- 
tion of zinc ores has been suggested, but thus far 
has not proven practical on a large scale (2). METALS 
191 
Iron 
Of the total value of metals mentioned at the 
beginning of this chapter almost exactly one-half is 
due to pig iron (1). The United States produces 
far more iron and steel than any other nation, her 
total output being fully forty per cent, of the world’s 
production. 
In the production of iron ore Minnesota, Michigan 
and Alabama are the leading states. The first two 
states furnished more than four-fifths of the entire 
output of the United States in 1914. In 1917 the 
iron ore mined in this country was 75,000,000 tons, 
more than four times the 17,000,000 produced in 
1897, twenty years before (3). 
Supreme Importance.—Iron is undoubtedly the 
most important of the metals. Were all the gold 
of the world destroyed by magic, after the financial 
convulsion had adjusted itself to the loss of this 
measure of value and some new standard had 
been agreed upon, industry would move on at its 
usual speed. With iron similarly removed, indus- 
try would be pitifully helpless. There would be 
practically no tools or machines with which to 
work, and worse still nothing to make them with 
and little from which they could be made. The 
abundance of iron, the comparative ease with which 
it may be obtained from its ore, its strength and its 
adaptability are the chief reasons for the wonder- 
fully important part it plays in human affairs. Of 
its adaptability Bradley Stoughton says (4): 
“ Iron can be made either the strongest or one of 
the weakest of metals; either the most magnetic or 192 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
one of the non-magnetic metals; one of the hardest 
or one of the softest; one of the toughest or one of 
the most brittle; it may have a coefficient of expan- 
sion with changes in atmospheric temperature vary- 
ing from almost zero to a maximum, and it may be 
given a combination of some of these different 
properties at will, according to the purpose for 
which it is to be fitted in service. And most of 
these variations are brought about by changing 
the amount of foreign elements by less than 5 
per cent, of the mass, or by giving it a different heat 
treatment, or by both together.” 
Ores.—The important ores of iron are all oxides: 
Hematite, sometiines called red hematite Fe2o3 
Limonite, sometimes called brown hematite, 
which is a hydrated form. .. .2Fe203.3H20 
Magnetite, a ferrous-ferric oxide, 
usually written Fe304... ,Fe203.FeO 
Hematite is by far the most important of these, 
making up more than 90 per cent, of the iron ore 
mined in the United States. 
Reduction. Cast or Pig Iron.—If necessary to 
remove moisture the ore is heated. But usually 
together with coke and a flux, limestone for most 
ores, it is placed in a cylindrical blast furnace, 
generally 12-14 feet wide and 90-100 feet high. 
Under the influence of the blast of air the carbon 
reduces the iron oxide, either directly or more 
generally by the reducing action of carbon monox- 
ide. The molten iron is drawn off at the bottom 
in the form of pig iron. The process is continuous, 
ore, coke and the flux being fed in at the top, and 
the slag and iron drawn off separately from the METALS 
193 
Pig Iron Casting 194 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
bottom. Throughout the entire process there are 
two streams flowing through the furnace: the one 
of melted iron and flux moving slowly downward 
as the coke is consumed and the ore reduced, 
and the other the swiftly moving stream of heated 
reducing gases and nitrogen from the air moving 
upward and out into a special pipe at the top. 
Air is fed into the blast at the rate of 40,000 
cubic feet per minute. The moisture is removed 
from this air blast by artificial cooling, since cold 
air does not hold nearly so much moisture as warm 
air, a fact illustrated by bringing a glass of cold 
water into a warm room. This invention by the 
American, Gayley (5), put into operation in 1904 
gives a uniformity of product, regardless of the 
daily and seasonal moisture variation, and reduces 
the fuel cost more than 10 per cent. It is claimed 
that this process reduces the cost of production of 
iron from 50 cents to $l.OO per ton, so that with an 
annual production of 40,000,000 tons the saving 
would amount to a clear gain of twenty to forty 
millions of dollars. 
To attain the requisite temperature the air, after 
the removal of the moisture, is heated in so-called 
stoves before being turned into the blast. 
Composition.—The pig iron from the blast fur- 
nace contains approximately 93 per cent, of iron, 
the other materials present being carbon, sulfur, 
phosphorus, manganese and silicon. Its relation 
to wrought iron and steel is seen in the following 
analyses given by Newth (6); METALS 
195 
Blast Furnace and its Hot Blast Stoves 196 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Per Cent 
Cast Iron Steel Wrought Iron 
Carbon 3.81 0.65 0.10 
Silicon 1.68 0.07 0.05 
Phosphorus 0.70 0.03 0 15 
Sulfur 0.60 0.02 o!o5 
Manganese 0.41 0.40 0.07 
7.20 1.17 0.42 
Iron 92.80 98.83 99.58 
100.00 100.00 100.00 
Wrought Iron.—To form wrought iron or steel 
from pig iron, most of the impurities must be 
removed. When this process is carried out in the 
puddling furnace, which is lined with hematite to 
furnish oxygen, the flame from a fire at the side 
Puddling Furnace 
being led over the charge, the product is called 
wrought iron, for the iron is wrought or worked METALS 
197 
during the process and finally hammered or rolled 
to remove the slag. Wrought iron is a term now 
little used for it has in a large measure been 
replaced by soft steel, but there is still a demand 
for it for certain special purposes. 
Steel.—Steel may be made either in the Besse- 
mer converter, the open hearth, or the crucible 
process, though the latter has recently been largely 
replaced by the electric furnace. In the Bessemer 
process the molten cast iron is placed in an iron 
converter lined with some difficultly fusible ma- 
terial and a current of air turned on. This blast 
burns out the impurities of the iron within a few 
minutes, no other fuel being required. As chem- 
ically pure iron has little practical use, pig iron con- 
taining known amounts of carbon and manganese 
is added to give the proper amount of these two 
elements required for steel. In this barrel shaped 
converter ten to twenty tons of steel can be made 
in as many minutes. 
In 1907 practically the same amount of steel was 
produced by the Bessemer converter and in the 
open hearth process; in 1917, however, the pro- 
duction of the Bessemer converter was somewhat 
less than that of ten years before while the open 
hearth production had trebled (3). The principle 
of removal of impurities from the pig iron by oxida- 
tion is the same for both processes. But in the 
open hearth the pig iron, to which some scrap steel 
or iron ore is generally added, is placed in a rever- 
beratory furnace, the hot gases passing over it to 
burn out the impurities. Fuel in the form of gas 198 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
A Bessemer Blow METALS 
199 
or sprayed oil is used, being burned with air 
previously heated by the regenerative system. 
When an acid (siliceous) hearth is used phosphorus 
and sulfur are not removed. But if the hearth is 
lined with lime or burned dolomite the acid ele- 
ments unite with the basic lining and are removed 
in the slag. This process can be used with a num- 
ber of ores containing phosphorus, which would not 
be available otherwise. 
Section Bessemer Furnace 
Factor in Locating Cities.—The location of cer- 
tain American cities because of their ready access 
to iron ore, coal and the needed flux is significant. 
Thus the location of Birmingham was largely 
determined during the geological ages in which 200 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
these materials were deposited. Chicago’s im- 
portance as an iron center is due not so much to 
the nearness of mineral deposits as to the ready 
transportation by both rail and water of the ma- 
terials required in the reduction of iron ore and of 
the products made from it. 
Non-Ferrous Metals 
Copper. While the United States produces 40 
per cent, of the world’s iron and steel, it furnishes 
70 per cent, of the copper (7). The mines in the 
Lake Superior region furnish free or native copper, 
while Arizona, Montana, Utah and other western 
states obtain their product from sulfide and car- 
bonate ore. Much copper is obtained from ores 
giving other metals such as zinc, lead, silver and 
gold. Besides Michigan, Tennessee is the only 
state outside of the west producing any considerable 
amount of copper. 
While good iron ore will frequently run more 
than 50 per cent, iron, the average of copper ores 
mined is often less than 2 per cent, and in some 
cases less than 1 per cent. The fact that copper 
ores of low grade could be worked with profit was 
demonstrated by Jacklin (8), and recent production 
has been largely from low grade ores. Only in 
unusual cases does the percentage of metal in 
copper ores run as high as 10 per cent. 
Copper is obtained from its ores by smelting, 
which produces a matte, containing 35-50 per cent, 
of the metal mixed with heavy other metals and 
containing much sulfur. For fine ores this is done METALS 
201 
in a reverberatory furnace and for coarse ores in 
blast-furnaces. These are similar to those in use 
for iron, but are specially adapted for copper ores. 
The crude copper obtained by either of these 
processes must be refined by casting into thin 
plates, which are used as anodes. By this electro- 
lytic refining the impurities are either dropped into 
a sludge which collects at the bottom of the con- 
taining vessel or remain in solution, while the 
copper separating out on the cathodes has a purity 
of 99.9 per cent. (9). 
Lead and Zinc.—In the production of both of 
these metals the United States leads all other 
countries, the production in each being about one- 
third of the world’s supply. Missouri is the ranking 
state in the production of the ores of each, the other 
leading lead producers being found in the West, 
where gold and silver are frequently found in lead 
ores, while New Jersey and Wisconsin are leading 
producers of zinc, as well as Montana, Oklahoma 
and Colorado (10). 
Both metals occur most commonly as the sulfide 
and the principle of roasting and then reducing the 
oxide formed is carried out for each, though the 
method in which the process is carried on varies 
widely (2). Both metals form compounds widely 
used as pigments and these are frequently made 
directly from the ores (11). (See chapter IX.) 
Gold and Silvet.—Eoth of these metals occur 
native, that is in the metallic state, most of the gold 
being so found. The greater amount of silver pro- 
duced, however, is obtained in the smelting of 202 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
other ores, especially lead and copper. In the 
world’s production of gold the United States ranks 
second, first place having been held since 1905 by 
South Africa, though the margin of lead recently 
has become quite small. In the United States 
western states lead as gold producers, California 
being first. In silver production Nevada, Idaho 
and Montana lead (12). 
More than three-fourths of the silver but less 
than one-fourth of the gold produced in the United 
States comes from the smelters. For the re- 
mainder of the silver cyanidation is the process 
now in use. In this process the metal is dissolved 
from the gangue by a solution of sodium cyanide, 
of about 1 per cent, strength, the silver being 
recovered from this solution either by precipitation 
with metallic aluminum or zinc, or by electricity. 
The same process is in more general use for the 
recovery of gold from low grade ores, the cyanide 
solution being weaker than that used for silver. 
Considerable gold is obtained from its ores, when 
high grade, by placers, in which process the gold 
because of its greater density (specific gravity 
15.6-19.5) is separated in water from the crushed 
ore, the lighter materials being carried away by the 
force of the stream. Almost as much gold is 
recovered by amalgamation, in which process the 
gold is taken up by mercury which is generally 
held as an amalgam on copper strips. A summary 
of the output of gold and silver by these methods is 
shown in this table adapted from Mineral Resources 
of the United States, 1914 (12): METALS 
203 
Gold Silver 
Placers 25.3 0.2 
Gold and silver mills: 
By amalgamation 20.9 0.4 
cyanidation 31.4 22.1 
chlorination 0.2 0.0 
Total Milling 52,5 22.5 
Smelting—crude ore and con- 
centrates 22.2 77.3 
Per cent 
100.0 100.0 
Gold and silver are separated, or parted, by dis- 
solving out the silver in sulfuric or in nitric acid 
and by other methods, including chlorination and 
certain electrical processes. In the acid methods 
there must be two or three times as much silver 
as gold, or silver must be added to make this 
proportion, if the method is to work satisfactorily. 
Other Metals.—Of most of these in common use 
the United States either does produce or could 
produce a reasonable amount, the possibility of 
domestic production being emphasized during the 
War. For economic reasons several of these 
metals are imported; thus nickel is imported from 
Canada and after refining is exported (13). 
In the case of some metals it has not yet been 
possible to indicate a total production equal to the 
demand for the metal. Thus the United States is 
the largest consumer of tin and of platinum, much of 
the tin being imported from Banca in the Malay pe- 
ninsula, and the Ural Mountains being the chief pro- 
ducer of platinum prior to the disturbance in Russia. 
Certainly it is true, that with few exceptions, the 204 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
United States could, if necessary, be independent 
in the matter of metals, and in the case of the most 
important metals our production far exceeds that 
of other countries (14). 
References 
!• McCaskey—Mineral Production of United States—A Summary. 
U.S.G.S. Min. Res. of U. S. 1914, Metals p. *l. 
2. Hughes and Hale—Crude Petroleum as a Reducing Agent for 
Zinc Ores. J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 1, 788 (Dec. ’O9). 
3. Burchard—Iron Ore, Pig Iron and Steel. Min. Res. of U. S. 
1914, Metals and 1917 separate. 
4. Stoughton—The Metallurgy of Iron and Steel. Rogers Ind. 
Chem., pp. 347-62. 
5. Gayley—Perkin Medal Award, J. Ind. and Eng. Ch. 5, 241 
(Mar. ’l3). 
6. Newth—Inorganic Chemistry, p. 628. Longmans, Green & Co. 
7. Little—Developing the Estate. Atl. Monthly 123, 381 (Mar. 
8. Butler—Copper. Min. Res. of U. S. 1914, Metals, pp. 541-96. 
Jacklin—An Account in American Magazine (1916). 
9. Landis—Electrochemical Industries. Rogers Ind. Chem., p, 
254. 
Howe—Electrochemistry in War, Sci. Am. 119, 312 (10-19-18). 
10. Siebenthal—Lead, Min. Res. of U. S. 1914, Metals, pp. 709-827. 
Zinc, Ibid., pp. 867-916. 
11. Thorp—Outlines of Industrial Chemistry, 3d edition. Mac- 
millan (1917). 
12. McCaskey—Gold and Silver. Min. Res. of U. S. 1914, Metals, 
pp. 928-865; 862. 
Statement on Gold, Sci. Amer. (8-16-19). 
13. Williams—Monel Metal. Sci. Amer. Sup. 2276, 98 (8-16-19). 
14. Smith—Our Mineral Reserves—How to Make America Indus- 
trially Independent, U. S. G. S. Bui. 599. 
Williams—Minerals and Power, Sci. Monthly 7, 457 (Nov. ’18). 
Spencer—lron and Its Associates in The Strategy of Minerals, 
p. 104, Appleton (1919). 
Nicholson—The Microscopic Analysis of Iron and Metal. 
Lit. Dig. 121, 460 (11-8-19). 
Williams—Principles of Metallography. McGraw-Hill (1919). 
Butler—Copper in The Strategy of Minerals, p. 136. Appleton 
(1919). CHAPTER XIV 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY AND THE FUTURE 
The preceding pages have given some idea of the 
achievements of the American chemist. Even 
before the World War there was practically no 
industry of consequence in the United States that 
did not depend directly or indirectly upon his 
industry and insight. Then we not only produced 
more chlorine and more sulfuric acid than any 
other nation, but we also led the world in petroleum 
refining and furnished 90 per cent, of its supply of 
aluminum (1). 
War Development.—We have seen that the 
development during the War was unprecedented 
and astounding. The sulfuric acid produced in a 
single year was greater than that of the combined 
weight of the more than a hundred millions of the 
country’s inhabitants. In 1913 there were 19 elec- 
tric steel furnaces in the United States; in 1917, 
233 , while other electrochemical industries in- 
creased in like manner (2). 
Not only were old industries developed but new 
ones were created. The optical glass industry, 
as Minerva of old, sprang into being full grown. 
One American company produced 144 pieces of 
porcelain ware in 1914 and 1,347,235 pieces in 1918. 
In a single year the production of dyes and synthetic 
medicines increased 5000 per cent. 
205 AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Growth under such conditions can not all be 
permanent. Only by readjustments accompanied 
by heavy loss can any of the hundred millions of 
dollars invested in war gas plants be saved. 
In the light of this development should we not 
by a survey of our country’s resources be able to 
learn something of the promise of the future, and 
of how that promise is to be best made a reality? 
Resources.—Looking back over the resources of 
the United States, as we have had occasion to 
recount them, we find no ground for empty boasting, 
but a very real occasion for realization of the 
responsibility that rests upon this nation and the 
limitless opportunity that opens before us. Already 
the United States produces 
25 per cent, of the world’s wheat 
60 per cent. “ “ “ cotton 
75 per cent. “ “ “ corn. 
From our mines and wells come 
40 per cent, of all the iron and steel. 
66 per cent. “ “ “ oil 
70 per cent. “ “ “ copper. 
One little state, West Virginia, has greater stores 
of coal than Great Britain and Germany combined 
(3). 
Power.—Looking out over America’s vast re- 
sources of fertile field and rich mine, and remem- 
bering that civilized man is by the help of science 
just beginning to make adequate and full use of 
the forces of nature, we gain some conception of 
the possibilities ahead and how great, how tre- 
mendous power rests in America’s hands! Writing 
several years ago Harrington Emerson states (4): THE FUTURE 
207 
Costs, per Horse Power Year of 7,500 Hours 
At $2.00 per day man power costs $54,000 
Gasoline in a small engine costs 300 
Steam, for large power installations | f 20 
Gas “ « “ “ [ ] to 
Electricity “ “ “ J i 200 
“ One hundred and sixty years ago the use of 
coal had not been begun on a commercial scale; 
all the work was done by man and beast. Sixty 
years ago in the United States the consumption of 
coal, used most wastefully, was one-quarter ton 
per adult male, each ton able to do the work of 
five men.” 
To-day there are consumed annually between five 
and six tons, not “ per adult male,” but for every 
man, woman and child in the entire country. 
“ And the energy from oil, from gas, from distant 
waterfalls, is not included.” 
Waste.—Though blessed with mammoth coal 
supplies, we allowed valuable by-products to escape 
and bought our dyes from Germany till war’s 
necessity forced a change. For every board foot 
of lumber cut during the past few years we have 
wasted in the forests and at the mills nearly two 
feet 'more. Because of lack of application of 
general scientific principles to our agriculture our 
crop yields per acre are far below those possible. 
Thus, we produce only 14 bushels of wheat on the 
average, while Germany grows 28 and England 32. 
If forced to do so, it is claimed that the United 
States could double her acreage of cultivated land 
and quadruple her agricultural production.* Thru 
unsanitary conditions and impure water supplies, 
* Already America’s agricultural production per man employed 
is much higher than that of other countries. 208 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
tolerated still in certain communities, we waste 
life by typhoid and other preventable diseases in a 
manner altogether without excuse. Arthur D. 
Little from whose excellent article many of these 
facts are taken, says: (3) 
“We are indeed a prodigal people, prospering 
for a time by methods, which would end European 
civilization within a generation.” 
Spirit of America.—li has always been possible 
to depend upon the American people to eventually 
do the right thing. Mistakes innumerable may be 
made, hasty actions may be taken, strikes and 
lockouts may come, but in the main the American 
ideal of fairness and the square deal has always 
finally dominated. This is why it is America. 
And so, facing squarely the situation as it is, with 
the wonderful resources and undreamed of power, 
not forgetting the all but criminal waste, we are 
forced to these conclusions: 
1. That with all our development we have only 
touched the border of the promised land; that we 
have but seen the dawning and the sunrise of 
America’s chemical development and that the glory 
of the noon lies ahead. 
2. That the future will demand of the American 
chemist and of all of his fellow Americans these 
things: 
(a) Efficiency 
(b) Alertness 
(c) Co-operation 
Efficiency.—There will be small place in the 
day that is coming for the man or woman who is not THE FUTURE 
209 
thoroughly trained and thus capable to readily 
meet the issues that must arise and to efficiently 
deal with them. Business men and the public 
generally must recognize the fundamental im- 
portance of chemistry in the life of the nation and 
it must be given the support it deserves. That 
this is assuredly coming, events of recent years 
clearly show. 
Alertness.—Always must the chemist be ready 
to sense the reality of the time in which he lives 
and alert to meet the future. Even now, Ger- 
many’s chemical factories stand intact; her force 
of trained chemists, because busy behind the lines, 
has been little impaired by the War; and denied 
world domination thru military power, undoubtedly 
she will seek it thru a combination of trade and 
science. Unrepentant, as she clearly is, Germany’s 
methods now will be as unprincipled and merciless 
as they were before and during the War. 
A number of new American industries can not 
yet meet German competition. Will all of us have 
the patriotism, even at some financial sacrifice, 
equal to that of the more than one hundred leading 
textile and other manufacturers, all consumers of 
dyes, who petitioned President Wilson to use his 
influence to place a high protective tariff on dyes? 
At the head of every request for quotation for 
college or university laboratory supplies should be 
the slogan 
“ American chemicals and apparatus preferred ” 
till these American industries can readjust them- 
selves to new conditions. 210 
AMERICAN CHEMISTRY 
Co-operation.—lf the farmer insists on buying 
his fertilizer in Germany and that tariff shall not 
interfere, then he must be prepared, at best, for 
the increase in German prices when German 
monopoly has been reestablished by the destruction 
of the American potash industry. Possibly he 
may he called upon to see his sons and his grand- 
sons face a foe thrice-armed by chemistry, while 
they lack the safeguards the chemist could have 
given them. Producer and consumer, capitalist 
and laborer, banker and business man, must all be 
willing to co-operate each with the other and with 
the chemist in the day that lies ahead. 
American Chemical Independence will thus 
come, not in the narrow sense of using only Amer- 
ican goods under all circumstances, but in the far 
more real sense of carefully surveying, planning 
and developing our resources, so that we may be 
ready should the day of need ever come. 
In the early history of chemistry we learn that 
the alchemist strove to turn other metals into gold. 
Later the goal of the medical chemist was the elixir 
of life, which would keep him who drank it always 
young and ever free from pain. 
Already the American chemist has, in part, 
achieved the objects of each, bringing wealth and 
health to many by the application of his science. 
Far more in the future in co-operation with Amer- 
ican business genius and energy, he will give to the 
United States a security and a production that will 
bless not only our own country but all mankind. 
May every American, young or old, realize the THE FUTURE 
211 
wonderful development ahead, and place himself 
in line with the mighty onward sweep of this 
resistless current. 
1. Baskerville—Our Chemical Industries After the War. R. of 
Reviews, 59, 618 (Jun. ’l9). 
References 
2. Howe—Electrochemistry in War. Sci. Am. 119, 312 (10-19-18). 
3. Little—Developing the Estate. Atl. Monthly 123, 381 (Mar. ’l9). 
4. Emerson—The Twelve Principles of Efficiency, 4th edition, pp. 
vii-viii. The Engineering Magazine Co. (1916). 
Hibbert—Future of Industrial Organic Chemistry. Chem. and 
Met. Eng. 20, 335 (4-1-19). 
Redfield—Reconstruction. Sci. Am. 119, 410 (11-25-18). 
Nichols—The Future of the American Dyestuff Industry. J. 
Ind. and Eng. Ch. 11, 53 (Jan. ’l9). 
Hesse—Addresses and Articles, published in J. Ind. and Eng. 
Ch. 
Herty—Editorials and Addresses, ditto. 
Houston—How the Government Works with the Farmer. R. of 
Reviews, 60, 502 (Nov. ’l9). 
Smith, Geo. Otis—A Look Ahead in The Strategy of Minerals, 
p. 314. Appleton (1919). 
McMahon—Will Germany Come Back? The Country Gentle- 
man, 85, 6 (1-3-20). INDEX 
Abrasives, 178-179, 181 
Carbon Disulfide, 179 
Carborundum, 178-179 
Carrel, Alexis, 41 
Acheson, E. G., 150, 172, 179 
Acids, 183-188 
Acetic, 187-188 
Hydrochloric, 187 
Nitric, 185, 186 
Production, 185-188 
Sulfuric, 183-185 
Castner, 172 
Celluloid, 74 
Cellulose, 67, 70 
Cement, 130-137 
Chemical Age, 5 
Agricultural Triad, 51 
Alcohol, Industrial, 107 
Alloys, 180 
Chemical Foundation, 7 
Chemical Independence, 210 
Chemical Service Section, Na- 
Alundum, 181 
Amber, 158-159 
tional Army, 24 
American Association of Official 
Agricultural Chemists, 4 
Chemical Society of Philadel- 
phia, 3 
American Chemical Journal, 4, 5 
American Chemical Society, 4, 
Chemical Warfare Service, 9, 25 
Insignia, 89 
23, 24 
Chemical and Metallurgical En- 
gineering, 5 
American Electrochemical So- 
ciety, 4, 180 
Chittenden, R. H., 43 
American Institute of Chemical 
Engineers, 4 
Chlorine, 17, 18, 20, 35, 41, 68, 
69, 176 
Antiseptics, 41 
Citric Acid, 188 
Clarke, F. W., 48 
Coal, 100-104 
Bacon, R. F., 21 
Destructive Distillation, 82, 
110-111 
Baekeland, L. H., 159, 172 
Bakelite, 159 
Gas, 109-110 
Baskerville, Chas., 19 
Bleaching, 68-71 
Production, 100-102 
Coal Tar, 79-88 
Bleaching Powder, 176 
Boric Acid, 188 
Demand, 82, 85 
Distillation, 85-88 
Production, 85 
Brick, 125 
Browne, C, A., 1 
Coke, 79-84 
Ovens, Beehive, 79-80 
By-Product, 79-81, 83, 84 
Calcium Carbide, 177-178 
Calcium Cyanamid, 55, 178 
Co-operation, General,7, 208,210 
212 INDEX 
213 
Industrial and University, 5 
Copal, 158, 159 
Copper, 200-201 
Cotton, 66-67 
Glassware, Laboratory, 123-124 
Gold, 201-203 
Goodwin, H., 74 
Goodyear, Charles, 168 
Graphite, 150, 179 
Cottrell, F. G., 61-62 
Cowles, E. H. and A. H., 177 
Hall, Charles M., 172-175 
Hand Grenade, 18 
Detonators, 14 
Dyes, 88-98 
Helium, 108 
Classification, 95 
Crudes, 88 
Herty, Chas, H., 23, 27 
History, Early Chemical, 1 
Hoover, Herbert, 43, 45-46 
Hydrochloric Acid, 187 
Hydrofluoric Acid, 188 
Duncan, R. K., 5 
Intermediates, 89 
Electrochemistry, 172-182 
Electrolysis of Salt, 176 
Electrorefining, 174 
Independence, Chemical, 210 
Industrial Alcohol, 107 
Emerson, Harrington, 206-207 
Epidemics, 39—41 
Industrial Fellowships, 5 
Iro'n, 190-200 
Explosives, 9-17 
Cast, 194-198 
Ores, 192 
Farm Crops, 50 
Fertilizers, 48-65 
Steel, 197-199 
Wrought, 196-197 
Fibers, Artificial, 67, 73 
Films, 74-75 
Jacklin, D. C., 200 
Jamestown, 1 
Food, 43—48 
Preservation, 47, 48 
Substitutes, 47 
Jones, Samuel T., 147 
Fuel, 100-113 
Journal of the American Chemi- 
cal Society, 5 
Classification, 102-103 
Future Supply, 112-113 
Journal of Physical Chemistry, 5 
Keitt, T. E., 48, 49 
Garbage, 41, 47 
Gardner, H. A,, 161 
Gas, Fuel, 107-110 
Gas Masks, 21 
Kelp, 60-61 
Laboratory Glassware, 123 
Lacquers, 159-160 
Lead, 2,201 
Gases, War, 17-23 
Gayley, James, 194 
Glass, 2, 115-124 
Leather, Artificial, 73-74 
Patent, 157 
Blowing, 117-118 
Lewisite, 21 
Lime, 137-140 
Composition, 116-117 
Optical, 120-123 
Hydrated, 139-140 
Hydraulic, 140 214 
INDEX 
Production, 140 Oil Shales, 107 
Quick, 138-139 Optical Glass, 120-123 
Linen, 66, 68 0zark White> 147 
Linoleum, 157 Ozone, m 
Linseed Oil, 152-156 
Lithopone, 148 Paints, 142_158 
Lusk, Graham, 43 Driers, ,w 
tvit • T, T_ Pigments, 142-151 
anmng, V. H 24 Biack, 150 
Manufactures, 3 ’ 
Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, 7 Green> 149 
McAfee, A. McD., 112 ‘ 148-149 
McCollum, E. V., 43 Reinforcing, 150-151 
Meade, R. K., 132-133 White, 144-148 
Medical Corps, U. S. Army, Yellow, 149-150 
3 Prepared, 160-162 
Mellon Institute, 5-6 Vehicle, 152-158 
Mercerized Cotton, 67 Linseed Oil, 152-156 
Metallurgy, 189 Palmer, A. M., 95 
Metals, 189-204 Paper, 75-77 
Copper, 200-201 Parsons, Chas. L., 24 
Gold, 201-203 Perkin, Sir. Wm. H., 90-91 
Iron, 190-200 Petroleum, 104-106, 190 
Lead, 201 Distillation, 110-112 
Silver, 201-203 Phosgene, 18, 20 
Zinc, 201 Phosphate, 57-59 
Mitchell, 170 Phosphoric Acid, 188 
Moth Balls, 88 Phosphorus, 49, 50, 55, 181 
Muriatic Acid, 187 Photographic Films, 24 
Picric Acid, 14 
Natural Cement, 131-132 Porcelain, 205 
Natural Gas, 107-110 Portland Cement, 132-137 
Nitric Acid, 185-186 Potassium, 49, 50, 59-64 
Nitro-cellulose, 13 Minerals, 63 
Nitrogen, 10, 49-57, 179 Powder, Black, 12 
Fixation, 16, 52-57, 179 Smokeless, 13 
Nitro-glycerin, 13 Priestley, Joseph, 4, 5, 164 
Nobel, Sir Alfred, 13 Primers, 14 
Producer Gas, 109-110 
Oil, Linseed, 152-156 Puzzolan Cement, 132 
Oil, Rock, or Petroleum, 104-106 Pyroxylin, 74, 159 215 
INDEX 
Red Lead, 148 
Remsen, Ira, 5 
Rittman, W. F., 112 
Rogers, Allen, 63 
Rubber, 164-171 
Synthetic Photographic Mater- 
ials, 98 
Synthetic Rubber, 170 
Textiles, 66 
Tile, 126-127 
Composition, 164 
Fillers, 168 
Timber Preservation, 88 
TNT, 13, 14, 19 
Manufacture 166-170 
Reclaimed, 171 
Toch, M., 147, 149, 162 
Tone, F. J., 180 
Source, 162-163 
Synthetic, 170-171 
Vulcanizing, 168 
Tri-Nitro-Toluol, 13, 14, 19 
Typhoid Fever, 30 
Sewage Disposal, 36-39 
Sewer Pipe, 126 
University of Cincinnati, 7 
Kansas, 5 
Sherman, H. C., 43, 47 
Sibert, Gen. Wm. L., 25 
Pennsylvania, 4 
Pittsburgh, 5, 6 
Varnishes, 158 
Siemen’s Regenerative Furnace, 
108 
Walker, Wm. H., 19 
Silicate Industries, 115-137 
Brick and Tile, 124-126 
Cement, 130-137 
War Development, 9, 205 
War Gases, 17-23 
Water, 29-36 
Glass, 115-124 
Pottery, 129-130 
Borne Diseases, 30 
Consumption, 36 
Filtration, 31-34 
Purification, 31-35 
Silk, 66, 70-71 
Silk Substitutes, 67 
Silver, 201-203 
Smith, Edgar F., 3 
Geo. Otis, 134 
White Lead, 143-147 
Willson, 172 
Thos. P., 3 
Wilson, Woodrow, 23, 25 
Societies, Chemical, 3, 4 
Steel, 197-199 
Wood, 103 
Destructive Distillation, 110- 
111 
Steel Alloys, 180 
Stieglitz, Julius, 23 
Woodhouse, James, 3 
“ Stored-up Sunshine,” 102 
Sulfur Dioxide, 71-73, 77, 184 
Sulfuric acid, 17, 183-185, 205, 
Synthetic Drugs and Perfumes, 
98 
Wool, 66, 71-73 
Bleaching, 72 
Substitutes, 73 
Test for, 72 
Zinc, 201 
Synthetic Flavoring Extracts, 98 
Zinc Oxide, 147-148 LITERATURE OF THE 
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