252 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION^ 1912. 



SYNTHETIC PERFUMES. 



lu the perfume industry the developments made since the scent of 

 the violet was imitated with jonon, and since the successful synthesis 

 of camphor from turpentme, are not of such nature that we need to 

 deal with them at gi'eat length. The importance of this industry 

 appears from its yearly turnover of 45 to 50 million marks (10 to 12 

 million dollars). Here the efforts of the chemists are directed toward 

 determining the constitution of the complex and simple natural per- 

 fumes, isolatmg the various products of decomposition obtamed dur- 

 ing the mvestigation, and finally reproducing the natural perfumes 

 synthetically. Such results have already been achieved m the case 

 of the odor of the rose, lily of the valley, and violet. Very often 

 certain substances are needed m the compounding of perfumes which 

 like indole possess an3^tliing but a pleasant smell. 



ARTIFICIAL SILK. 



Even if doubt be expressed as to whether artificial sUk (the yearly 

 consumption of which amounts to about 7,000,000 kilograms) still 

 belongs to the chemical industry because it stands m such close rela- 

 tion to the textile mdustry, with its weavmg and spimihig machmes, 

 yet the raw materials needed for its production, sucli as nitrocellu- 

 lose, copper ammonia cellulose, and cellulose-xantogenate, are of such 

 miportance that the chemist and engmeer equally divide the respon- 

 sibility m this branch of manufacture. Viscose sUk from xantogenate 

 of celhdose, the production of which has been recently very much 

 improved, seems to replace nitrocellulose silk and the copper am- 

 monia silk. This viscose silk surpasses all other artificial silks m 

 luster and is the cheapest to manufacture, so that the apparently 

 shnplest process of all, the copper ammonia cellulose silk, can not 

 compete ^^dth it any more. Among the exhibits are fine specimens 

 of this silk from the Vereuiigten Glanzstofffabriken of Elberfeld and 

 their factory in Oberbruch in Drommen near Aix-la-Chapelle, includ- 

 mg the various raw materials, wood, cellulose, alkali cellulose, and the 

 cellulose xantogenates produced by treatment with bisulphide of car- 

 bon and the viscose solution itself. 



ACETYLCELLULOSE CELLIT FILMS. 



From acetylcellulose soluble in aceton, called cellit, the Farben- 

 fabriken vonn. Friedr. Bayer & Co. first produced chiematogi'aph films, 

 but although they have the great advantage over those manufactured 

 from nitrocellulose in. being noninflammable, it has not been possible 

 to hitroducc them gencrtdly. In all their properties the cellit films 

 are equal to the old inflammable ones, yet the proprietors of moving- 

 picture theaters do not take them up because they fear the compe- 



