Jan., 1918] The Relation of IVar to Chemistry 81 



three times per twenty-four hours. The alloy is somewhat 

 brittle, but very much less so than chemical stoneware. It is 

 easy to see these silicon-iron alloys are a boon to the acid 

 industries and thousands of tons of castings are in use and new 

 chemical processes are possible and now in operation, too, 

 which could not exist before, because of lack of suitable material 

 of which to construct apparatus. Some of these new processes 

 are having a decided value in the Allies' campaigns. No 

 single development in many decades has had as much influence 

 as this one has, and will have, for it is only in its infancy. 



I need not weary you with other illustrations of progress 

 though much has been accomplished in many lines and radically 

 new chemical processes developed. The most wonderful and 

 greatest chemical works I have ever seen have been erected in this 

 country since the war began and the best of them were coal-tar 

 dye and synthetic organic chemical works. Reasonable progress 

 has been made in American laboratory glass and porcelain. 

 After the war we are going to be independent of importation in 

 gross coal-tar products and practically if not entirely, in 

 ammonia for fertilizers. We are also weeding out the unneces- 

 sary use of potash where it replaces soda due to our own careless 

 teaching of chemistry in speaking of and using potassium 

 compounds where sodium serves as well. German potash 

 exporters and others, such as for Saxony manganese, after 

 the war will have an expensive campaign to win us back to 

 these former unwarranted uses of their product. 



The relation of chemistry to national defense has been rendered 

 clear by the war, a service of no mean magnitude. 



Explosives and asphyxiating gas manufacture are dependent 

 upon labyrinthian chemical engineering operations. It is 

 obviously necessary for adequate preparedness that this country 

 should be self-contained and not dependent upon importation 

 for such supplies as nitric acid, toluol and sulfuric acid for 

 defense. We have the sulfur and pyrites for sulfuric acid. 

 The toluol and other coal-tar products we have ample for our 

 usual needs, but in time of war toluol becomes the basis of 

 "T. N. T." or trinitrotoluol, one of the most effective high 

 power military explosives. The erection of new coke oven 

 plants has but partially met the demand for toluol in the last 

 two years. In defending ourselves this would be too slow, 

 for such installations are difficult to get under successful opera- 



