THE LATEST ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROBLEMS OF THE 

 CHEMICAL INDUSTRY.^ 



By Prof. Dr. Carl Duisberg, 

 Of Eberfeld, Germany. 



Probably in no domain of liiiman knowledge and endeavor have 

 the combined forces of theory and practice, intimately acting and 

 reacting upon each other, made such im.mense strides and led to the 

 solution of such difhcult i)roblems as in the chemical industry, an 

 industry which, indeed, had its beginnings in the distant past, but 

 in its vast development and international character is essentially a 

 child of modern times. Success has so emboldened this industry that 

 it considers itself capable of solving any problem, provided the men 

 in its service are well trained in theory and practice and ready to 

 devote themselves to the best of then ability, with patience and 

 perseverance, to the object in view. This has been shown b}'^ the 

 struggle between the contact process of producing sulphuric acid and 

 the old "chamber process" ; by the rivalry between the Solvay proc- 

 ess and the Le Blanc method in the manufacture of soda; by the 

 production of nitric acid and its salts by direct oxidation of nitrogen 

 of the an under the influence of the heat of the electric discharge; by 

 the manufacture of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen indhectly 

 via calcium cyanamide, and direcily by combmation with hydrogen; 

 by the replacement of madder by alizarme, and of natural by syn- 

 thetic indigo, as well as by innumerable other instances m the color, 

 perfume, and pharmaceutical industries. 



If, Ijefore an audience not wholly consisting of chemists, I venture, 

 within the brief period of an hour, to describe the latest achievements 

 of the chemical industry and to recount the problems that are engag- 

 ing our attention, I must restrict myself to a great extent both in the 

 choice of the subject matter and its mode of presentation. We can, 

 indeed^ merely touch upon the most important ha])])enings in our 

 mdustry and must, from the very outset, refrain from a thorough 

 discussion of the subject, either from the purely chemical or the 

 technical side. HoAvever, what can not be described for lack of 



» General lecture at Eighth Inlornational Congress of Applied Chemistrj-, College of the City of New 

 York, Sept. 9, 1912. Rcpriuled by permission from author's pamphlet. 



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