president's address — SECTION B. 21 



Since chemistry includes the study of changes in matter and of the 

 accompanying transformations of energy, there is scarcely any 

 branch of productive activity which does not require some know- 

 ledge of chemical phenomena, and in which, therefore, the progres- 

 sive developments of modern chemistry can safely be ignored. This 

 truth, which is stated at the beginning of most elementary text- 

 books on chemistry, is so familiar to chemists as to' be ccmnion- 

 place. Yet the oft recurring failure of ethers to appreciate it. and 

 to make effective use oi the chemical knowledge and skill available, 

 had, as its inevitable consequence, that many of the British manu- 

 facturing industries, especiall}^ the more particularly chemical in- 

 dustries, were falling behind in the race for world supremacy ; 

 with the further consequence that we nearly lost the war, and with 

 it our existence as a Great Power, possibly even as an independent 

 nation. 



^Fortunately for us, there were notable exceptions to the general 

 rule. For example, in one of the most important branches of 

 applied chemistry in Britain, namely the steel industry, intensive 

 research and scientifie control had been for years the general prac- 

 tice in many of the works, with the result that, when the crisis 

 came, the industry was able tO' respond to the enormous and varied 

 demands which were made upon it. Another instance of the value 

 of chemical research and control is given by the history of Brun- 

 ner, Mond and Co., who, in the words of Professor Donnan, 

 levolutionized the British alkali industry by introducing the 

 delicate' equilibria and reactions of Solvay in place of the rough 

 and tumble heroics of the older* Le Blanc process. The same 

 policy enabled this firm td give invaluable help to the British 

 Grovernment in connexion with the manufacture of high explosives. 

 After many months of war the British War (Office decided to fel- 

 low the German and Austrian lead, by adopting in place of picric 

 acid or pure T.N.T. for the bursting charge of high explosive shells 

 the much cheaper but equally effective mixture known as " ama- 

 tol ", consisting of 80 per cent, by weight cf ammcnium nitrate 

 with only 20 per cent, of T.N.T. The manufacture o-f ammonium 

 nitrate had, therefore, tO' be developed on a very large scale; but, 

 owing to' the great amcnnt oi data and experience on. the applica- 

 tion of the Phase Rule to the phenomena of solubility and crystal- 

 lization in connexion with solutions of mixed salts, which they 

 had been accumulating for many years, the research staff of 

 Brunner. Mond and Co. were able rapidly to work out on a tech- 

 nical scale three extremely neat and efficient methods for this 

 manufacture, starting in the one case fi*om synthetic calcium 

 nitrate, and in the other two from Chili nitre. 



As examples of the estimation in which chemists have been 

 held by Government officials, the following incidents are worth re- 

 calling. Early in 1915, when the demand for a vastly increased 

 output of munitions of all kinds was becoming urgent, the Chieif 



