1907.] on Problems of Applied Chemistry. 557 



in difficult or complicated cases, or where the work is carried out on 

 such a scale that the services of a specialist are required, and that it 

 pays to employ one. If a chemist lacks such knowledge, or possesses 

 it in too limited a degree, he will have to be content to remain in the 

 laboratory and to do the ordinary " testing," which is both a tedious 

 and a ])adly-paid occupation. I am told that in this country this is 

 far more frequently the case than either in America or on the 

 Continent ; but I must refrain from pronouncing an opinion as to 

 how far this is due to the ordinary training of the chemists, and how far 

 to the jealous reluctance of many unstudied managers to afford the 

 chemist access to the real factory work, lest he acquire sufficient 

 routine in that work to supplant themselves. 



Well, granting the opportunity, how can a chemist gain experi- 

 ence in conducting operations on a large scale ? Various ways are 

 open for this purpose. In former times the chemical manufacturer 

 (who only in very exceptional cases deserved to be called a real 

 chemist) learned his trade, both on the chemical and the engineering 

 side, as far as it was indispensable ; but he learned it simply "by rote," 

 as the saying goes. He would enter a factory as apprentice or 

 volunteer, and there he had an opportunity of witnessing, not merely 

 all the chemical operations, but also the building of sheds, the setting 

 of pans, and of steam boilers, the erection of the simple machinery of 

 those days, the construction of furnaces for chemical pui-poses, and 

 similar matters, and he was expected to use his hands Hke any ordinary 

 workman. If he was clever and industrious, he learned in the course 

 of years, not merely to direct the various operations at the works, but 

 also to make improvements in details and, perhaps, if all went well, in 

 more important matters. To be sure, it is notorious that this never 

 took place without large sums of money being thrown away, either in 

 the form of misshapen or faulty apparatus and machinery, or of 

 spoilt chemicals, and so on. And this happened to the unstudied 

 " practical man," who, through family connexions or by mere chance, 

 had stumbled into chemical manufacturing, as well as to men who 

 had studied the science of chemistry, and who desired to apply the 

 knowledge thus gained to the execution of some well-known process, 

 or to the working of some laboratory invention on a large scale. 

 Those men who possessed a scientific foundation, were, in their turn, 

 compelled to learn the technical side of their profession by dint of 

 practice, just as the tailor has to learn the art of making clothes and 

 the barber the art of shaving. A man of scientific attainments 

 had certainly, even in the olden times, a clear advantage over the 

 mere " practical man." He was able to make a chemical examination 

 of his first materials, of the intermediate products, and of the finished 

 merchandise. Sometimes, although by no means invariably, he could 

 more easily manage to ascertain the causes of disturbances in the 

 manufacturing processes, and to put these right again ; and often he 

 was able to effect savings and improvements in these processes. But 



