558 Professor George Lunge [March 15, 



this advantage only lield good in such cases where the chemical 

 reactions, as such, came into play ; whilst in those cases where the 

 mechanical side prevailed, the studied chemist, for the most part, 

 showed less quick insight and resource than the unstudied foreman or 

 manager, with the ultimate result that he wasted quite as much 

 money over failures as the others did. And it is not difficult to 

 understand that such failures happened even to eminent scientific 

 chemists who attempted to carry out their ideas on a large scale. 

 Their ignorance of the proper ways for translating a laboratory 

 method into a manufacturing process was at that time remedied only 

 in exceptional cases by the advice of an engineering expert. If such 

 an expert was actually consulted he often did not succeed in his task, 

 because chemical operations were outside his province, and because 

 he tried to apply certain means, suitable to cases with which he was 

 familiar, in cases of an entirely different nature. On the whole, the 

 chemical manufacturer of those days felt at every turn the pinch of a 

 mere routine experience, gathered piecemeal during the course of his 

 daily work. 



This state of affairs continued until about the middle of last 

 century, or a httle later — to be sure with marked differences in 

 details, both in respect of local conditions and in the nature of the 

 manufacture. To begin with the latter, we perceive that then, as 

 indeed from the very first, several branches of chemical manufacture 

 had their full share in the progress of mechanical engineering. To 

 name only a few of these, we may refer to the vast field of metallurgy, 

 to the manufacture of coal-gas, and to the extraction of sugar from 

 beet-roots. But precisely in these cases we cannot find much proof of 

 co-operation between the chemist and the engineer, for the former 

 had very little to say in these industries at that time, and in most 

 of these establishments his services were dispensed with, whilst all 

 the resources of mechanical engineering were fully applied. The 

 managers of such works did not come from the ranks of the chemists, 

 but from those of the mechanical engineers ; and even now that 

 chemistry has established its proper influence upon those industries, 

 and has produced great revolutions in them, that state of things has 

 remained very much as before. Many other branches of manufac- 

 turing, which undoubtedly have a chemical basis, and in which 

 to-day a large number of chemists are actually employed, were in 

 those days carried on in a purely empirical manner, like any handi- 

 craft. I instance soap-making, tanning, brewing — indeed, all those 

 industries which are connected with food — and above all, dyeing and 

 tissue-printing. But towards the end of the period which we have 

 so far had in view, we perceive the commencement of a scientific 

 treatment of those industries. Even l)efore then, the genius of 

 Chevreul had thrown a flood of light on the chemical behaviour of 

 fatty substances, and Persoz followed in the domain of dyeing fabrics. 

 On the other hand, the more intelligent manufacturer of chemicals 



