556 Professor George Lunge [March 15, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, March 15, 1907. 



Sir William Crookes, D.Sc. F.R.S., Honorary Secretary 

 and Yice-President, in the Chair. 



Professor George Luis^ge, Hon. M.RJ., of Zurich. 



Prohlems of Applied Chemistry. 



It is one of the greatest honours I could covet to stand up in a room 

 hallowed by the shades of some of the heroes of Natural Science, and 

 to be privileged to speak on the theme I have selected. I feel that I 

 ought to justify my claim to do so by the interest and importance of 

 the subject. But I think it right to say at once that the title of 

 this discourse, " Prohlems of Applied Chemistry,'' i^ in effect much too 

 comprehensive, and should not be pressed home. A mere enumera- 

 tion of such problems would be both tedious and useless ; and how 

 could anyone think of treating all of the more important of these 

 problems within the space of sixty minutes ? I shall have to confine 

 myself to merely a few of those matters which might be fairly brought 

 within the compass of the title of this lecture. 



" Applied," in the narrower sense of " Industrial," Chemistry — 

 means the pressing into service of chemical principles for practical 

 purposes, such as the extraction of valuable matters from the three 

 realms of Nature, and the conversion of such matters (if they cannot 

 be put to any direct use) into numerous other useful substances. 

 The science and art of the engineer are intimately interlaced with 

 those of the practical chemist, so that it is difficult to say which of 

 the two has to borrow most from the other in order to carry out his 

 objects in the most efficient manner. So much is certain — an 

 industrial chemist cannot exist, as such, without availing himself of 

 the resources of the constructive arts. Even the laboratory of the 

 purely scientific chemist in these days contains numerous mechanical 

 appliances, without which (to quote only one instance) it would have 

 ])een impossible to effect the glorious discoveries made in the labora- 

 tory of the Royal Institution, in the past generally, and more 

 particularly in quite recent times. But what could the chemical 

 mamifacturer nowadays do without such assistance ? The practical, 

 as distinguished from tlie scientific, chemist possesses, or is supposed 

 to possess, sufficient knowledge and experience to see to the working 

 of machines and to minor repairs without calling in an engineer, save 



