180 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



organic chemicals was really getting under way. During the 19-year 

 period ending with 1937, we find such approximate average annual 

 increases in production as the following: Coal-tar medicinals, 6 

 percent; total coal-tar finished products, 18 percent; photographic 

 chemicals, 22 percent; flavors and perfume materials, 29 percent/ 

 Bear in mind that these percentages are for average annual increases, 

 not for the increase over the entire 19-year period. It should also 

 be borne in mind that during the same period the average annual 

 increase in population was only about 1.25 percent. 



Organic chemicals of non-coal-tar origin were somewhat slower 

 getting under way, but during the 17-year period 1921-37, production 

 of non-coal-tar organics, including synthetic methanol and other al- 

 cohols, acetic acid, acetone, and various amines, showed an average 

 annual increase of 685 percent. '^ 



The astounding rate of growth indicated by these figures is the more 

 impressive by comparison with corresponding figures for certain other 

 manufactured products, including representative staple inorganic 

 chemicals. The average annual increase in sulfuric acid production, 

 for example, was only about 2.3 percent for the same period; soda 

 ash, 5.3 percent; woven cotton goods, 2.6 percent; pig iron, less than 

 1 percent; steel and cement, each about 2.4 percent; while lumber 

 and newsprint paper each declined about 1.3 percent annually. Auto- 

 mobile production showed an average annual increase of 9.6 percent, 

 and concurrent with this increase in automobile production crude 

 petroleum showed an average annual increase of 12.5 percent. It 

 is significant that while automobile production showed an increase of 

 9.6 percent, automobile casings and tubes showed an increase of only 

 3.2 percent.^ This apparent discrepancy means, of course, that the 

 tires made around 1937 were much superior to those made around 

 1919, a superiority due in part to improved rubber chemicals, includ- 

 ing organic accelerators and antioxidants, which added greatly to 

 the life of tires and tubes. 



Price reductions during this 1919-37 period were equally as phe- 

 nomenal as production increases. The average value of total coal- 

 tar finished products, for example, declined from $1.02 a pound 

 to 41 cents; photographic chemicals from $3.16 to $1.05; flavors and 

 perfume chemicals from $2.27 to $1.02 ; and coal-tar dyes from $1.07 

 to 55 cents a pound.^ Certain inorganic chemicals which find wide 

 application in the manufacture of various organic products likewise 



^ Figures based on data from Census of Dyes and Coal-Tar Chemicals (U. S. Tarifif Com- 

 mission) for years indicated. Average annual increase arrived at by dividing total increase 

 by number of years in period. 



« Figures based on data from Abstract of Fourteenth U. S. Census (1920) and Census 

 of Manufactures (1937), except pig iron and steel figures which are based on data from 

 Mineral Resources of the United States, 1919, pt. 1, and Minerals Yearbook for 1939. 



» Census of Dyes and Other Synthetic Organic Chemicals. 



