70 The Ohio Journal of Science [Vol. XVIII, No. 3, 



and time and material for tools and weapons, and applied 

 chemistry, because it is a necessary handmaiden to efficient 

 engineering, and in addition furnishes the source and vehicle 

 for convenient and effective handling of energy in the most 

 concentrated forms. The chemical energy of the modern 

 high explosive is the strong right arm of the fighting force and 

 without it, armies are but chaff. With British control of the 

 seas, German armies with all their numbers, thorough equipment 

 and splendid miiltary power, would have been impotent in a 

 few weeks or months without the chemical ability to get nitric 

 acid from atmospheric nitrogen instead of Chilean nitrate, 

 for without nitric acid high explosives and even smokeless 

 powder are impossible. 



The time at our disposal is too brief to touch on all the 

 divisions of applied chemistry. Much progress, for instance, 

 has been made in the domain of the special branch called 

 engineering chemistry, which involves among other things, the 

 chemical investigation of materials for alloys, shrapnel, aero- 

 planes, submarines and other war supplies. It would be 

 unwise now that we have become involved in the war, to deal 

 publicly with some of the improvements in this field, for they 

 are vital as well as interesting. Some of us have followed 

 the policy during the last three years of not even discussing 

 with our colleagues or students such innovations of military 

 importance in this and the allied countries as have come to 

 our attention, which might by any means percolate into 

 Germany. The branch of applied chemistry known as metal- 

 lurgy, in which this country is perhaps the most highly 

 developed in the world, also renders distinct service in war 

 time because it is vital to engineering and in the production of 

 arms and ammunition. 



We, however, will emphasize more particularly the twin 

 fields of industrial chemistry and chemical engineering, because 

 in the nature of things this field is less popularly known even 

 among chemists. Industrial Chemistry is that branch of 

 chemistry which uses all the rest of chemistry and much 

 engineering, for the furtherance of production of chemical 

 substances, or, the use of chemical means or methods for 

 manufacturing any material of commerce. Chemical engineer- 

 ing is that branch of engineering and industrial chemistry which 

 applies engineering principles and methods to chemical man- 



