WHAT ELECTROCHEMISTRY IS ACCOMPLISHING. 1 



By Joseph W. Richards, 

 Professor of Metallurgy, Lehigh University. 



My theme is to depict for you, as clearly as I may be able, the part 

 which electrochemistry is playing in modern industrial processes. 

 I have no exhaustive catalogue of electrochemical processes to present, 

 nor columns of statistics of these industries; but my object will be 

 to classify the various activities of electrochemists and to analyze 

 the scope of the electrochemical industries. 



SCOPE OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY AND ELECTROMETALLURGY. 



Chemistry is the science winch investigates the composition of 

 substances and studies changes of composition and reactions of 

 substances upon each other. As an applied science, it deals chiefly 

 with the working over of crude natural material, and its conversion 

 into more valuable and more useful substances. 



Some common examples, to illustrate this statement, are the 

 conversion of native sulphur into sulphuric acid, the manufacture of 

 soda and hydrochloric acid from common salt, the conversion of 

 phosphate rock into superphosphate fertilizer, etc. Several pages 

 would not suffice to merely catalogue the great variety of chemical 

 industries; immense amounts of capital are invested in them and 

 they are some of the most fundamental industries in their relation to 

 supplying the needs of a rapidly advancing civilization. 



Metallurgy is the art of extracting metals from their ores, and of 

 purifying or refining them to the quality required by the metal- 

 working industries. It is a branch of applied chemistry. The 

 metallurgical industries form a highly important part of our national 

 resources; on them we depend for iron, steel, copper, brass, gold, 

 silver, lead, zinc, aluminum, etc., in fact for all the supply of metals 

 used in arts and industry. 



Electrochemistry is the art of applying electrical energy to facilitat- 

 ing the work of the chemist. It is chemistry helped by electricity. 

 It is the use of a new agency in accomplishing chemical operations, 

 and it has not only succeeded in f acilitating many of the most difficult 



1 An address delivered at the seventeenth general meeting of the American Electrochemical Society, in 

 Pittsburgh, Pa., May 7, 1910, President L. H. Baekeland in the chair. Reprinted by permission from the 

 Transactions of the American Electrochemical Society, vol. 17, 1910, being the transactions of the seventeenth 

 general meeting, at Pittsburgh, Pa., May 4-7, 1910. In the presentation of this paper Prof. Richards 

 showed a large number of lantern slides illustrating electrochemical works in operation. 



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