178 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 40 



only contributed to our eventual independence in respect to certain 

 natural fibers and in respect to rubber, but also have placed at our 

 disposal methods for the manufacture of almost unlimited quantities 

 of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons from the vast natural resources 

 of coal with which nature has endowed us. Economic factors, of 

 course, have a large bearing upon fixing the date of a complete in- 

 dependence of natural sources of supply of oil, rubber, or some types 

 of natural fibers. 



So it is not so much my task to demonstrate that a great pro- 

 ductive organic chemical industry has developed in the United States 

 over the last two decades, but rather it is my task to trace a few 

 of the more important lines which the industry has followed in its 

 development and, perhaps, to reinforce the observations with a few 

 figures, if I may do so without becoming tiresomely statistical. 



Contrary to popular belief, America had a substantial chemical 

 industry prior to the World War. As early as 1865, American chem- 

 ical production had a valuation of some $60,000,000.^ In 1910 tlie 

 United States produced three times as much sulfuric acid as Ger- 

 many, and our production of alkalies was double that of England.* 

 The value of our chemical and allied products in 1914 was in excess 

 of 2 billion dollars." 



Although America experienced a more or less steady growth of 

 chemical manufactuie from early colonial days down to the World 

 War, this 300-year i:)eriod was characterized for the most part by 

 developments in inorganic chemistry. I should emphasize the differ- 

 entiation between inorganic and organic chemistry. The fateful 

 World War period served to disclose our woeful lack of manufactur- 

 ing facilities for many essential materials of an organic chemical 

 nature. This intolerable situation gave impetus to the research which 

 has characterized the quarter of a century since 1914 — research which 

 has culminated in the greatest organic chemical industry in the world. 



This new industry is a substantially 100 percent American develop- 

 ment. It was neither bori-owed nor transplanted from Europe. It 

 was conceived by American men and financed by American money. 



The brains which directed the lesearch wei-e American brains, and 

 the methods employed in building up the industry were American 

 methods. This does not mean that we have not profited from foreign 

 developments and foreign experience. We have, and we gratefully 

 acknowledge such assistance. 



Without an unwavering faith in research, the organic chemical 

 industry would not exist today. A clear vision of the possibilities 

 of such an industry was also essential, and likewise "patient money," 



* Haynes, Williams, Men, money and molecules, pp. 71 and 57, 1936. 

 » Abstract of the U. S. Census of Manufactures, 1914, p. 168. 



