Jl-lv 1,.1':/11. 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



367 



THE DEBT OF THE MANUFACTURER TO THE 

 CHEMIST. 



BY HERVEY J. SKINNER.* 



Presented before the Congress of Technolog>' at the Fiftieth .\nniver- 

 sary of the Granting of the Charter of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology. 



■ I 'HE enormous progress and changes which have taken place 

 ■■• in industry and commerce in the course of the past 

 century may to a large e.xlcnt be justly attributed to the work 

 of chemists. 



Such a statement will undoubtedly be regarded by many as 

 a most extraordinary one and open to question, since the proper 

 relation of the chemist to industrial welfare is not generally 

 appreciated. 



Let us review for a moment some of the achievements of 

 chemistry so that the truth of the above statement may become 

 more apparent. 



The great mechanical developments and the more recent 

 electrical ones depend upon the extraction of the metals from 

 their ores by purely chemical processes. The manufacture of 

 steel, so essential in the construction of our railroads, bridges 

 and large buildings, is a most advanced chemical industry and 

 is under strict chemical control at every step of the process. 

 Alloy and tool steels, which are now finding such extended use 

 in the arts, are the direct result of chemical research. Electrical 

 developments have been almost entirely dependent upon copper, 

 and without the chemical processes of refining this metal it is 

 safe to say that electricity would find very limited application 

 in manufacturing work. 



The history of aluminum is another instance of an important 

 metal being extracted from its ores by chemical means. In 1856 

 aluminum sold for ninety dollars a pound. As a result of im- 

 provements in the processes of manufacture, the price gradually 

 dropped to five dollars in 1886, but was still too high to allow 

 of its general use. About this time, Charles M. Hall, then 

 recently graduated from Oberlin College, made a discovery 

 which forms the basis of the present aluminum industry and 

 which brought the price down to a point where the remarkable 

 characteristics of this metal can be utilized in the arts. 



In the textile industry, almost every step is dependent upon 

 chemical science. The use of aniline colors, made possible by 

 the discovery of Perkin, has given to the manufacturer more 

 brilliant and more permanent colors for his fabrics and at a 

 lower price than the natural colors previously used. This single 

 discovery has led to the manufacture of over two thousand 

 artificial dyestuffs and has become the foundation of an industry 

 in which it has been estimated that seven hundred and fifty 

 million dollars are invested. It has further given to the pro- 

 ducers of coal tar a valuable outlet for a waste product which 

 was not only comparatively useless but difficult of disposal. 



Researches in the chemistry of cellulose have given us, among 

 other things, artificial silk and smokeless powder. The latter 

 has already grown to a huge industry within the inemory of 

 the yoilngest of us, and the development of the former bids fair 

 to become equally extensive. The processes of leather manu- 

 facture, paper making and many others which could be men- 

 tioned, are entirely dependent upon chemical principles. And so 

 we could go on and point out that every manufacturer is de- 

 pendent in some way or another upon chemical science — and 

 wOiy should it not be so when one considered the true basis of 

 manufacturing? 



Manufacturing deals with the modification of material and 

 since all material is subject to chemical laws and its properties 

 are governed by these laws, it becomes apparent that the majority 



•The author of this article is the son of the late Thomas F. Skinner, 

 who for many years was treasurer of the Stoughton Rubber Co., and one 

 of the founders of the New England Rubber Club. 



of the manufacturer's problems are those in applied chemistry. 



Unfortunately, the average manufacturer, especially if his 

 process is a mechanical one, regards chemistry as something 

 which has to do with drugs and chemicals and has no direct 

 bearing upon his own problems. That manufacturers fail to 

 appreciate their indebtedness to the chemist and how he can im- 

 prove the el'ticiency of their processes by studying the chemical 

 properties of their materials, is due largely to the fact that the 

 older generation of manufacturers started as factory hands and 

 have worked themselves up through the various grades of man- 

 agerships and presidencies. Their methods have been rule-of- 

 thumb methods, and science has had no meaning to them. Their 

 aim was to make money, and the efficiency of their processes was 

 a secondary consideration. 



With the growth resulting from the combination of capital 

 and the technically trained men which our universities are turn- 

 ing out, conditions are taking on a new aspect. The larger 

 manufacturers, realizing their debt to the chemist and also that 

 there are still unsolved problems in every factory, are securing 

 the benefits of scientific advice. The smaller manufacturer will 

 soon be forced to the same procedure or he will lose in the 

 struggle for industrial existence. The rule-of-thumb method is 

 passing. Guess work is being replaced by scientific knowledge, 

 and more and more consideration is being given to the under- 

 lying principles of the manufacturing processes. 



Manufacturing operations based upon chemical processes re- 

 quire control at each step to maintain efficiency. Those based 

 upon mechanical processes but still dependent upon "material" 

 demand rigid inspection and control of every material entering 

 into or affecting the cost of the tmished product. 



.\11 this is the work of the chemist or the testing engineer. 

 It should be his duty to see that every material is purchased 

 on a basis of quality and not of brand, that the finished product 

 meets the proper requirements, and that the yields are as near 

 theoretical as possible. 



A laboratory is just as essential to a factory as is an office, 

 and the chemist is just as necessary as the auditor. The records 

 of manufacturing concerns using scientific knowledge will bear 

 out this statement. One mistake common to both the manu- 

 facturer and the chemist themselves should be pointed out. 



Many manufacturers, having been converted to the idea that a 

 chemist can be of assistance in the operation of their plants, 

 oftentimes will employ a recent technical graduate and e.xpect 

 him to solve any question in chemistry. Tliis is an injustice to 

 the young chemist and to the profession itself. 



Alan A. Clafhn in a recent article has said : 



"The employirient of a scientific man does not mean the en- 

 gaging of a recent technical graduate at a salary of fifteen to 

 twenty dollars a week to test raw materials and report results, 

 which are probably erroneous, to a foreman who does not under- 

 stand them, but it means having a man of mature experience as 

 a chemical adviser, with two or three recent graduates as work- 

 ing assistants." 



No words could be truer or better expressed. Tlie manufac- 

 turer does not hire a bookkeeper without actual experience to 

 keep his accounts, neither does he engage a lawyer just out of 

 law school to look after his legal affairs. Then why should he 

 expect the young graduate, with a large amount of theoretical 

 knowledge and with limited experience, to be able to solve 

 effectively the problems whicli have been troubling him for 

 years? 



This condition of affairs is really a serious one and has much 

 to do with the attitude which the average manufacturer takes 

 toward the chemist. It also accounts for the diffidence of the 

 manufacturer in applying chemical science to his problems, and 

 not until the true relation between the chemist and material 

 is more fully realized will the real debt of the manufacturer to 

 the chemist become appreciated. 



