THE CONFERENCE PROPER 



15 



inunity is apt to overlook the extent and 

 diversity of the services rendered by the 

 chemist because of the quiet and unobtrusive 

 way in which the work is carried on ; and yet 

 the statement in the report of the twelfth 

 census of the United States is quite correct 

 wlien it says that : 



"Probably no science has done so much as 

 chemistry in revealing the hidden possibilities 

 of the wastes and byproducts in manufactures. 

 This science has been the most fruitful agent 

 in the conversion of the refuse of manufac- 

 turing operations into products of industrial 

 value. * * * Chemistry is the intelligence 

 department of industry." 



The measure of a country's appreciation of 

 the value of chemistry in its material develop- 

 ment, and the extent to which it utilizes this 

 science in its industries generally measure 

 quite accurately the industrial progress and 

 prosperity of that country. In no other coun- 

 try in the world has the value of chemistry 

 been so thoroughly understood and appre- 

 ciated as in Germany. And in no other coun- 

 try of similar size and natural endowment 

 have such remarkable advances in industrial 

 development been recorded ; and this, too, 

 with steadily increasing economy in the utili- 

 zation of the natural resources. 



That our own Government realizes the 

 importance of chemistry seems evident from 

 the fact that six of our nine Federal Depart- 

 ments already maintain chemical laboratories, 

 where they handle not only their own chemi- 

 cal work, but also that of the Departments of 

 State, Justice and Postoffice, which as yet 

 have no chemical laboratories. 



Coming, then, to our mineral resources, in 

 the first place, let it be kept clearly in mind 

 that metallurgy is a branch of applied chem- 

 istry, as it is founded upon chemistry and 

 engineering. In general, it may be said that 

 the seriousness of our mineral problem lies in 

 the fact that these are resources that cannot 

 be renewed. It may be urged that as matter 

 is indestructible, metals once won from their 

 ores should not waste, but accumulate. And 

 this no doubt is partly true. It is not so 

 with our fuels, however, for when our carbon 

 is once burned to carbonic acid it is no longer 

 available as fuel, until by the slow process of 

 vegetable life some of it is fixed in plants and 

 gradually reduced through peat to coal again. 

 Six times as much of our carbon is now 

 locked up in mineral carbonates unavailable 

 for fuel as we have in the form of coal. 



The life of our mineral resources may be 

 prolonged by the discovery of new supplies 

 or satisfactory substitutes, by avoiding waste 

 in mining and extracting ores and the dis- 

 covery of methods which will render low 

 grade or other ores available by a more com- 

 plete utilization of the latent possibilities of 

 the ore, including the recovery of all by- 

 products, and by preventing loss of life and 

 property from fires and explosions. 



The chemist is helping in many of these 

 lines. It is to him that we must usually turn 

 for the production of satisfactory substitutes. 



for devising new processes, and for the utili- 

 zation of by-products and wastes. It was the 

 pioneer investigations of Bunsen and DeFaure 

 which pointed the way for the use of furnace 

 gases in preheating and in other directions, 

 such, for example, as the recent commercial 

 manufacture of formic and oxalic acids from 

 the carbon monoxide present in generator 

 gas. In smelting operations the chemist tnust 

 analyze the raw materials — ore, coke, lime- 

 stone, etc. ; the intermediate products— pig 

 iron, if steel is to be made — and the final pro- 

 ducts, including the furnace gases and slag. 

 Without the explosives of the chemist, modern 

 mining, as well as most great engineering 

 works, would be impossible. After the prec- 

 ious inetals have been extracted, it is powder 

 which stands guard over them as it does over 

 all the accumulated wealth and prosperity of 

 this and other nations. On the other hand, 

 a chemist. Sir Humphrey Davy, by his inven- 

 tion of the safety lamp, has done more than 

 anyone else to protect the miners from ex- 

 plosions. It is worth noting that the authori- 

 ties did not appeal to a chemist until all 

 suggested engineering meth'bds had proven 

 powerless to avert the terrible "firing" of the 

 mines. The new sodium dioxide compound, 

 "oxone," may prove of value in mine acci- 

 dents, for it absorbs carbonic acid with lib- 

 eration of oxygen. The oxygen upon which 

 rescuers now depend is also the result of the 

 skill of the chemist. 



At one time the waste in the oil business 

 was enormous, as only the kerosene _ was 

 saved. Now, with the exception of occasional 

 fires and the relatively small amount sprayed 

 into the air with escaping natural gas, and 

 those regions where the oil is wasted by 

 seepage from earth pits, there is very much 

 less lost, for chemistry has not only shown 

 how a greater yield of kerosene may be ob- 

 tained, but also how the _ by-products — gas, 

 gasoline, naptha, lubricating oils, paraffin, 

 vaseline, coke and so on — may be saved with 

 considerable financial profit. Certain of these 

 distillates are used for the production of high 

 candle power illumination, as in the Pintsch 

 and Blau gas processes. Rapid development 

 in the use of gasoline engines has developed 

 an enormous demand for this petroleum frac- 

 tion. The most promising substitutes for gas- 

 oline appear to be alcohol and the benzole 

 from by-product coke ovens. The former of 

 these, although giving much higher efficiency 

 as a fuel, is still too expensive to compete 

 with gasoline except in special cases. The 

 latter, as our number of by-product coke 

 ovens increases, is likely to play a more prom- 

 inent part in this field. 



In 1907 over forty million tons of coke, 

 valued at nearly one hundred and twelvemil- 

 lion dollars were produced from about sixty- 

 two million tons of coal. Only five and a half 

 million tons of this, or less than fourteen per 

 cent, was obtained in by-product ovens. About 

 fifty-four and a half million tons of coal were 

 coked in bee-hive ovens. This involved a 

 waste of one hundred and forty-eight billion 



