NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



ment of all kinds was lacking. Steel, nitrates and many neces- 

 sary raw materials were cut off by the blockade, and the nation 

 was thrown upon its own resources. 



In this critical situation the Committee of Public Safety ap- 

 pealed to the members of the Academy and their assistants. A 

 chateau at Meudon was placed at their disposal, together with 

 the adjoining park for experimental purposes. Aided by Van- 

 dermonde and Berthollet, Monge discovered the process of 

 manufacturing steel and making guns. Fourcroy succeeded in 

 separating copper from bell metal. Vandermonde was placed 

 in charge of the manufacture of rifles, swords, and bayonets. 

 Arms were soon available, but powder was so scarce that 

 Hoche, in command of the army of the Sambre and Meuse, 

 was compelled to retreat for lack of sufficient supply. But the 

 chemists were equal to the emergency, and nitrates were pro- 

 duced from many sources, the former slow methods of manu- 

 facturing explosives were replaced by new ones and in a short 

 time a single factory was turning out powder at the then ex- 

 traordinary rate of 30,000 pounds per day. Potash, formerly 

 imported from Spain, was also cut off, but a supply was ob- 

 tained from the ashes of plants. New methods were devised 

 for the rapid tanning of leather, the manufacture of paper, and 

 scores of other products. Even more striking to the popular 

 imagination was the development of the " telegraph " or long 

 distance signaling device of the Abbe Claude Chappe and tht 

 war balloon of Guyton de Morveau. If to the unthinking all 

 these results of science seemed to be creations of the moment, 

 those who paused to reflect saw their origin in the decades of 

 research that preceded the Revolution and reached their height 

 in Lavoisier, who fell a victim to the guillotine. 



In the events thus briefly sketched we have an exact parallel 

 to the experiences of the present war, which once more forced 

 national leaders when confronted by critical problems, to seek 

 at the last moment the aid of science. A much more enlight- 

 ened appreciation of the value of science to the state was shown 

 by Napoleon Bonaparte, whose relations with the Paris Acad- 



