218 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



ships will be built that will accelerate to the 25,000 miles per hour 

 required to escape from the earth's gravity. Moreover, it is still to 

 be determined what will happen to body functions under gravity-free 

 conditions, and how human beings may be protected in an oxygenized, 

 pressurized ship when the body has no weight and one can lift a 

 sledge hammer quite as easily as a pencil. These illusions are no 

 more astounding in our day than those of one hundred years ago 

 when, in John T. Trowbridge's Darius Green and His Flying Machine, 



Darius was clearly of the opinion 

 That the air is also man's dominion, 



and J. H. Yates wrote, 



I have seen so much on my pilgrimages through my three-score years and ten 

 That I wouldn't be surprised to see a railroad in the air, 

 Or a Yankee in a flyin' ship a-goin' most anywhere. 



Predictions of this sort do not fall within the purview of the 

 chemist, but there is a rapidly growing number of science-fiction 

 writers who are creating fanciful plots that may someday come true. 



My remarks will be based on projecting the chemical discoveries of 

 the past to logical achievements in the future. One hundred years 

 ago all materials used by man were derived directly from natural 

 sources — plants, animals, and minerals. The chemist has, through the 

 past six decades, so perfected his knowledge of the intricacies of 

 molecules through physical and chemical methods that he is now 

 able to determine the patterns in which the atoms are combined in 

 nature's substances. Indeed he is able to assemble atoms according to 

 his own design and thus produce many of these same substances by 

 synthesis. Moreover, he has discovered how to create new, better, and 

 cheaper compounds based on a knowledge of natural products. 



One of the first industries transformed by chemistry was dye manu- 

 facturing, an industry that is now 99 percent synthetic. In a second 

 field, drugs and medicinals are over 75 percent of synthetic origin. 

 Natural gums and resins at present account for only 5 percent of the 

 2.3 million pounds of plastics produced in the United States last year. 

 More than half the 500 million gallons of paint used annually are 

 based on synthetic products. Over 50 percent of today's rubber is 

 synthetic, and over 20 percent of the textiles. The field of synthetic 

 detergents has had a phenomenal growth, until more than one bil- 

 lion pounds are produced annually. This figure is still well below 

 the amount of soap consumed. 



During World War I we became conscious of shortages of raw and 

 finished materials, especially chemicals ; of shortages of certain foods 

 and of the necessity for substitutes. During World War II, and now 

 during the rearmament period, the shortages are primarily in raw 

 materials. We normally consider that the United States has abundant 



