510 Professor Arthur W. Crossley [Feb. 5, 



position of chemistry in this country if all the research departments 

 of our chemical schools, each working in harmony with some industrial 

 chemist, had devoted at least some part of their energies to the pure 

 scientific research work, carried out in the laboratory, which is the 

 •soul of industrial prosperity ! 



This country possesses a small army of efficient research chemists, 

 and if the manufacturers, with whom the initiative must rest, would 

 but say the word, it seems quite certain that the capacities of these 

 research workers would be willingly devoted to helping to overcome 

 difficulties, which may be encountered at the present time, in 

 attempting to perfect methods and processes in use, or in starting 

 new enterprises. 



To apply the discovery of some comparatively simple chemical fact, 

 made with perhaps a gram or even a fraction of a gram of substance, 

 to the founding of an industry, dealing with tons and multiples of tons 

 of the same material, is frequently, if not always, impossible for any 

 one man to accomplish. It requires the organized efforts of many 

 men, from the ranks of physicists, chemists, and last (but by no 

 means least) engineers. We have reason to know at the present time 

 that the word organization has a powerful meanin^^, but nowhere is 

 its meaning more powerful than when used in conjunction with the 

 word research ; it is organized scientific research work which is the 

 soul of industrial prosperity. 



This is the point which I wish to develop somewhat this evening, 

 and I will endeavour to illustrate what is meant by scientific method, 

 and how it is applied to the solution of industrial chemical problems. 

 Not very long ago I had the honour of delivering in this room two 

 lectures on the " Utilization of xitmospheric Nitrogen," or the 

 methods by which nitric acid and ammonia may be made directly 

 from the free nitrogen in the atmosphere. The chemistry of the 

 process as regards nitric acid is simplicity itself, and may be repre- 

 sented by three simple equations : — 



N. + 0., = 2N0 ; 2N0 + 0, = 2NOo ; 



2NO2 + HoO = HNO, + HNO3 



or, stated in words, nitrogen and oxygen are caused to combine 

 forming first nitric oxide, and then nitrogen peroxide, which is 

 absorbed by water, yielding a mixture of nitrous and nitric acids, 

 and this mixture can be separated into its constituents. 



It would be difficult to select a better example of what is meant 

 by organized research than is to be found in the history of the 

 -development of these simple chemical reactions to the founding of a 

 great industry. Though the chemical facts relating to the process 

 have been known for years, it was Lord Rayleigh in 1897 who first 

 demonstrated the possibility of thereby producing nitric acid in 

 proportion to the electric energy expended ; but, as has been the 



