TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY. 445 



vestigator. Among the many important advances due to this use of 

 electricity may be mentioned the manufacture of caustic soda and 

 bleaching powder by the electrolysis of brine. The percentage of the 

 world's supply of these two standard articles which is now made by 

 this process is already a formidable figure and constantly increasing. 

 In the electrolytic production of aluminum we have seen an entirely 

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



What the application of the electricity will do for technical chem- 

 istry 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 ohemist 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 applica- 

 tion of this idea, although to be sure the finely divided platinum used 

 at present plays but the role which the oxides of nitrogen have done 

 so successfully in the past. The reproduction of photographic nega- 

 tives 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 

 the catalysis idea 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. In- 

 stead 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 development of these 

 phenomena can scarcely be foreseen. Even the wildest dreamer might 

 easily do injustice to the possibilities of this wonderful 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 to 

 this question there are two factors, both of which deeply affect the 

 future growth of chemical industry. The first is the attitude of the 



