586 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



found artificial methods for its manufacture, employing domestic raw 

 materials. To-day several German factories have installed plants to 

 produce carbolic acid by the action of sulphuric acid on benzol and sub- 

 sequent treatment with alkali. Whenever the price of coaltar carbolic 

 acid rises beyond a point at which synthetic carbolic can be profitably 

 manufactured, these plants are put into operation. They are promptly 

 shut down when the price decreases. 



German militarism, by initiating and promoting the everlasting 

 battle between armor plates and armor piercing projectiles, also con- 

 ferred great benefits on the industry and on mankind in general. We 

 all know that as soon as an improvement in the manufacture of steel 

 was made which allowed the production of armor plate of great resist- 

 ance, the chemists and engineers evolved a projectile driven by powder, 

 which would pierce such an armor. This fight is still on ! 



Instead of carbon, which originally was added to iron to produce 

 the iron-alloy called steel, we now use nickel, chromium, tungsten, 

 molybdenum, vanadium, manganese and silicon, which enable us to 

 manufacture refined steel possessing varied properties. Most of these 

 additions in order to give the desired results must be in the state of 

 highest purity. These substances which at first seemed of no use in 

 any other industry were produced primarily to fill the requirements of 

 the manufacturers of cannon, projectiles and armor plate, and the 

 largest maker of these elements in the pure state is the firm of Th. 

 Goldschmidt, located in Essen, where it is able to work in close union 

 with the Krupp Works. 



By these modern improvements wonderful materials were placed at 

 the disposal of the industries. The hardness of steel has been so in- 

 creased that for safety vaults and safes an alloy is made which can 

 neither be drilled nor exploded nor cut by the oxy-hydrogen flame. The 

 chemical industries have been supplied with refined steel which is not 

 attacked by acids, not even by boiling " aqua regia," while other modi- 

 fications are not affected by hot caustic soda. Some of them are non- 

 magnetic, others are unaffected by atmospheric influences, or exhibit 

 great resistance to electricity, while some possess high tensile strength. 

 They are thus of specific value in the manufacture of automobiles, of 

 steam turbines, of electric appliances, of rails for electric tramways, of 

 dynamos, motors and transformers. 



Vanadium steel furnishes our modern tools, which are distinguished 

 by extreme hardness, and here a war on a small scale is going on be- 

 tween structural steel and steel for tools with which to work the former. 

 Every improvement in the hardness of structural steel must of necessity 

 bring about the manufacture of a still harder steel for tools, exactly as 

 in the case of armor plates and armor piercing projectiles. 



German militarism has also benefited the industries in a field where 



