PR-KSIDliN'lIAl. ADDRESS SECTION P.. }J 



for the nitric acid for explosives, and she waited until the 

 magnificent installations were comi)leted hy which she could 

 attain this end. That was not all. The (iermans knew that 

 this war would be a war on an enormous scale, utterly deceived 

 as they were as to the length of time during which it would 

 last, and they looked to the large chemical installations for the 

 manufacture of dyes and other chemical products to be the 

 s(Hirce of the munitions necessary to carry on the war." 



But the fact that the solution of the problem of fixation of 

 atmospheric nitrogen made war possible for the Central Powers 

 must not be allowed undue i)rominence. The problem was not 

 solved with that end in view. Rather let us hope that chemistry 

 will make war altogether impossible before another war-broth has 

 time to brew, and dwell upon the other side of the picture of 

 nitrogen-fixation ; turn our eyes rather to spectacles like that 

 of Saaheim in Norway, which was transformed from a little 

 village of 50 poverty-stricken farmers in 1903 into a prosperous 

 town of six thousand inhabitants in 1913. Britain alone im- 

 ported one and a half million pounds worth of Chili nitrate per 

 annum in times of peace, and used still more nitrogen in other 

 forms — herself producing nearly half a million tons of am- 

 monium sulphate per annum from coal. 



The peaceful operation of fertilising the soil is one of the 

 largest outlets for combined nitrogen, and the significance for 

 the world of the conversion of " air and water-power " into 

 nitrate is incalculable. 



The second illustration we have selected of the importance 

 of " Industrial Chemistry," concerns the future. The labours 

 of the pure organic chemists on the synthesis of rubber are not 

 yet over, as the applications for patents show, but synthetic 

 rubber has been produced by several methods, such as the action 

 of Soditun on the hydrocarbons Isoprene and Butadiene. The 

 starting point for the preparation of Butadiene is Butyl Alcohol 

 which in turn is produced from Starch by the action of a 

 microorganism — another leaf which can be added to the laurel- 

 wreath of Biochemistry. One of the other products of the same 

 fermentation of starch is Acetone, a solvent much used in the 

 making of explosives, and for which Britain was in temporary 

 desperation shortly after the outbreak of war. To the glory 

 of our science that desperation was only temporary. 



But the peaceful production of rubber from " potatoes and 

 salt " is not yet a commercial proposition. The rubber is superior 

 in some respects to natural rubber, but the technical difficulties 

 in the way of the synthetic process are still too great to allow 

 of commercial success, so that the shareholders in rubber plan- 

 tations need have no immediate fear of bankruptcy. Fortu- 

 nately for them, scientific research takes time, and the cheap 

 synthetic rubber which is destined to pave our city streets, is 

 likely to come on to the market so slowly as to give ample time 



