Semi-Centennixil Volume. 45 



tion to the gi'eat usefulness of chemists in connection with the present 

 World War. In this work, it is needless to say, the Kansas chemists have 

 done their share. 



No resume of the chemical work would be complete without reference 

 to the Trego county coal shales, which were exploited many years ago; 

 and while some of our citizens invested in land, to their sorrow, the 

 assays made at the University laboratory showed that the shales were 

 worthless. In connection with the lola mineral water, it is interesting 

 to remember that this well was bored in 1873 to a depth of seven hun- 

 dred and twenty feet, and water and gas were forced up. At this depth 

 the drilling was stopped, yet within a few hundred rods of this well, 

 many years after, the prospectors drilled a well to the depth of eight 

 hundred to nine hundred feet and obtained an abundance of natural gas, 

 which helped to make lola an important manufacturing center. The 

 drillers stopped just short of a great discovery. The water coming 

 from the well was analyzed by Professor Kedzie of Manhattan and by 

 Professor Patrick of the University, and was used locally and shipped 

 for a score of years. 



By being on the ground immediately after the discovery of the Kiowa 

 county meteorite, Dr. F. H. Snow secured a number of very valuable 

 specimens. . These were analyzed in the chemical laboratory at the 

 University, and many of them were afterwards sold to eastern dealers. 

 Some of the best specimens of the Washington county meteorite were 

 also obtained by Doctor Snow and analyzed here. 



The Federal Government experimented with the use of sorghum for 

 making sugar in the early eighties, under the direction of Dr. H. W. 

 Wiley, of the Department of Agriculture. Mills were erected for making 

 sugar from sorghum at Medicine Lodge, Topeka, Ottawa, and Fort Scott. 

 The factory for making syrup at Fort Scott is the only one that re- 

 mains. 



Many of the contributions to chemistry noted have been along lines 

 for the development of the industrial resources of the state. A great 

 impetus to this branch of chemistry was afforded by the establishment 

 of the Department of Chemical Industrial Research, under the late Dr. 

 R. K. Duncan, and many of our successful chemists, graduating in the 

 chemical course, afterward took up lines of investigation, both here and 

 at Pittsburgh, Pa., under that foundation. 



Another school for the education of chemists after they had been 

 started in the colleges was the chemical laboratory of the Santa Fe rail- 

 road at Topeka, and many of our men are still in the employ of that 

 corporation. The zinc and lead mining industries in the southeastern part 

 of the state have absorbed quite a number of men who have since become 

 superintendents of the plants where they entered as chemists. More 

 recently the gas and oil interests are affording opportunities for chemists, 

 as well as geologists, to add their practical contributions to the sum of 

 scientific knowledge. 



The smelters, oil refineries, soap factories, and packing houses of 

 Kansas City, St. Joseph and Omaha have taken many of our chemists, 

 and have begun the training of young men who have afterward come to 

 us for a complete course in chemistry. 



