i68 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



THE EDUCATION OF CHEMISTS. 



By C. Duisberg of Elberfeld. 



In response to an invitation of the 

 Chairman of the New York Section 

 of the Society of Chemical Industry, 

 I have, with great pleasure, under- 

 taken to read a paper in your society, 

 for I thus obtain an opportunity, as 

 a visitor to your hospitable shores, to 

 thank you for all the interesting and im- 

 pressive matters in trade and traflBc that 

 have been brought under my notice dur- 

 ing my short stay. 



I do not wish to leave America, replete 

 with new impressions and experiences 

 which I have gathered here without 

 showing you, be it in a small way, my 

 gratitude for the hospitality which has 

 been offered me in such abundance. 



The Chemical Industry of America is in the 

 infancy of its development. It has not reached 

 that height of perfection which we observe in 

 England, France, and above all, in my own 

 country, Germany, and what is wanted here 

 principally is the organic chemical industry, 

 which in Germany is so highly developed. 

 The foundation however for the industry of the 

 coal-tar distillation products has been laid here 

 in powerful inorganic industry, and the time 

 cannot be far off when we shall have to deal 

 with American competition in the organic 

 chemical field, in the same way as is already the 

 case with some organic special products, as 

 wood-alcohol, acetic acid, aceton, etc. 



It would appear incomprehensible from a na- 

 tional standpoint if I, interested as I am in Ger- 

 man industry, should attempt to exert my influ- 

 ence for the promotion of the chemical industry 

 in America. This, as you will readily under- 

 stand, I cannot do, and for that reason I regret 

 that I am not in the position to give you to-day 

 a special report on one of the chemical, techni- 

 cal fields of my knowledge. Since, however, 

 the first condition for the growth and develop- 

 ment of each industry is the education of capa- 

 ble men, who can subsequently develop it prop- 

 erly, since before all the chemical industry, in 

 which strange languages and ways of expression 

 hold sway, can only advance from step to step, 

 if clever well-educated chemists can be found, 

 and since chemistry as an international science 

 is not confined by frontiers of countries and 



peoples — the chemical industry of America can 

 obtain capable Germans and the German indus- 

 try capable American chemists and engineers — 

 I can, without damaging our interests or those 

 of our country, explain to you, as representa 

 tives of the chemical industry of the United 

 States, my experience in the education of chem- 

 ists. 



I trust therefore that it will interest you to 



hear on this also here much ventilated question 

 the voice of a co-operator from that country, in 

 which, I am proud to say, the education of 

 chemists and technical chemistry has reached 

 the highest points of development. 



I have at my command rich experience re- 

 garding the value of the education of chemists 

 in all its branches, for I am technical manager 

 of one of the largest chemical manufactories in 

 Germany, the Farbenfabriken, vormals Friedr. 

 Bayer & Co. of Elberfeld, or rather of Leverku- 

 sen near Cologne, wither now the whole works 

 are being transferred in order to reduce ex- 

 penses and to attain a cheaper way of manufac- 

 turing. We not only try to make use of all the 

 derivatives of the tar from wood and coal for 

 the produ::tion of Aniline and Alizarine Dye- 

 stuffs of all possible descriptions, and also phar- 

 maceutical products of the most divers combina- 

 tions such as Phenacetine, Sulphonal, Trional, 

 Salicylic Acid, Somatose, (a new alimentary 

 product) Saccharine, etc., but we produce also 

 the inorganic products necessary for their man- 

 ufacture, as for instance Sulphuric Acid, Hy- 

 drochloric Acid, Nitric Acid, Chlorine, etc., and 

 a large number of intermediate organic pro- 

 ducts. 



In our works are engaged at present about loo 

 chemists that have a university education, and 

 about 25 engineers that have received their 

 training at a technical high school. They are 

 recruited from almost all the universities and 

 technical high schools of Germany, and the 

 greatest number have been engaged by me per- 

 sonally during the last ten years. 



As member of the Commission, formed last 

 year by the German Society of Applied Chemis- 

 try for the introduction of a States examination 

 for German technical chemists, I have often had 

 the opportunity to exchange intimate thoughts 

 regarding the education of chemists with num- 

 erous professors of the German universities and 

 and high schools, and also with a great number 

 of gentlemen interested in chemical industry. I 

 had a statistical table compiled concerning the 

 present education of chemists employed in the 

 German chemical manufactories, of which I 

 shall give you the numbers later on. 



