696 TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY 



up when subjected to the passage of an electric current. It is only in 

 recent years, however, that the cost of electrical energy has made it 

 possible to apply the knowledge thus furnished by this great investi- 

 gator. Among the many important advances due to this use of elec- 

 tricity may be mentioned the manufacture of caustic soda and bleach- 

 ing powder by the electrolysis of brine. The percentage of the world's 

 supply of these two standard articles, which is now made by this pro- 

 cess is already a formidable figure, and constantly increasing. In the 

 electrolytic production of aluminium we have seen an entirely new 

 industry develop, until it is now one of magnificent proportions. 



What the application of electricity will do for technical chemistry 

 in the future can be predicted only by estimating the results of the 

 past. In many fields it is practically virgin soil over which only the 

 pioneers have trod, and which is still waiting to be tilled. 



Under the name of catalysis or contact action is included the other 

 force that we can mention this afternoon, the usefulness of which the 

 technical chemist is only beginning to appreciate. 



These substances which are capable of so wonderfully increasing 

 or decreasing the speed of a reaction without themselves appearing 

 in its final products vary in their nature from such simple ones as 

 metallic platinum or ferric oxide to the most delicately constituted 

 ferments or enzymes. The manufacture of concentrated sulphuric- 

 acid by such a process is perhaps the most striking example of the 

 application of this idea, although, to be sure, the finely divided 

 platinum used at present plays but the role which the oxides of nitro- 

 gen have done so successfully in the past. The reproduction of 

 photographic negatives by substituting for the action of light on 

 sensitized paper the contact action of certain chemical compounds, 

 is a process worthy of its distinguished discoverer, Professor Ostwald. 

 For this application of catalysis even the most pessimistic must 

 prophesy a great future. Still another phase of this question is found 

 in the hydrolysis of fats by the enzyme found in the seeds of the 

 castor-oil plant. Instead of the application of acid, heat, and pressure 

 the same result is obtained at room temperature by the quiet action 

 of this catalytic body. The advantages to be reaped by the develop- 

 ment of these phenomena can scarcely be foreseen. Even the wildest 

 dreamer might easily do injustice to the possibilities of this wonder- 

 ful agent when intelligently used by the technical chemist. 



We probably should not invite criticism were we to state that 

 wherever we find a manufacturing establishment based upon chemical 

 processes, there also exist problems in technical chemistry. That one 

 factor which is so apparent that it scarcely needs mentioning, namely, 

 the increase in the yield of processes now in operation, is enough to 

 substantiate this assertion. The paramount question before us is 

 therefore how can these problems best be solved. In any answer 



