708 TECHNICAL CHEMISTRY 



Organic Chemistry (Philadelphia, 1900) gives a very satisfactory survey of the 

 subject with an admirable bibliography. Among the younger men I learn that 

 William Cathcart Day (1857-1905) has succeeded by carrying out operations of 

 distillation at the ordinary atmospheric pressure upon animal and vegetable 

 matter, both separately and mixed, in obtaining three different materials, all of 

 which present in different degrees the properties characteristic of asphalts. 1 



An early worker in the scientific part of this subject was Cyrus More Warren 

 (182491), whose original researches on the volatile hydrocarbons and similar 

 bodies resulted in many practical applications in the use of coal-tar and asphalt, 

 especially for roofing and paving purposes. Clifford Richardson (1856- ) has in 

 recent years devoted much attention to the study of asphalt and is a recognized 

 authority on its value for commercial purposes. 



I cannot claim for the United States the invention of illuminating gas, although 

 as early as 1823 its manufacture was begun in New York City, but the develop- 

 ment of the production of a luminous water-gas was largely accomplished in this 

 country. According to excellent authority, 2 Thaddeus S. C. Lowe (1832- ) built 

 and successfully conducted gas-works in Phoanixville, Pennsylvania, in 1874, 

 producing a water-gas " far superior to that made from coal." According to Dr. 

 Chandler " there are forty or fifty differing forms of apparatus for manufactur- 

 ing [water-gas], but they are almost without exception applications of the 

 invention of Thaddeus Lowe." 3 



Those of us whose memories extend back for a quarter of a century may recall 

 Tessie de Motay (1819-80), whose agreeable personality charmed all of those who 

 were so fortunate as to meet him, and to him is due the production of water-gas in 

 the late seventies of the last century by a process of his own invention in New 

 York City. 4 



A much-needed substitute for ivory and horn that could be produced econom- 

 ically was invented in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt (1837- ) and called by him 

 celluloid. It is so seldom that foreign recognition is unqualifiedly given to our 

 American inventors that I am glad of the opportunity to quote Thorpe, 5 who says, 

 concerning celluloid, that it "is an intimate mixture of pyroxylin (guncotton or 

 collodion) with camphor, first made by Hyatt of Newark, U. S., and obtained by 

 adding the pyroxylin to melted camphor . . . and evaporating to dryness." Its 

 many applications in various industries are so well known as to need no further 

 mention here. 



It should not be forgotten that saccharin, a coal-tar compound with a sweeten- 

 ing power of about five hundred times that of cane-sugar, although now manu- 

 factured chiefly in Germany, was discovered in 1879 in the laboratory of the Johns 

 Hopkins L T niversity by Constantin Fahlberg, a student under Ira Remsen (1846- ) 

 and the Society of Chemical Industry in 1904 crowned Remsen's work by confer- 

 ring upon him the medal of the society, recognizing thus for the first time in its 

 history the discoveries of an American chemist. 



1 Journal of the Franklin Institute, September, 1899, p. 205. 



2 See a Communication on the Lowe Gas Process, New York (May, 1876), and 

 A Communication on the Lowe and Strong Gas Processes of later date (probably 

 1878), and also The Chemistry of Gas-Lighting, by C. F. Chandler (Philadelphia, 

 1876), a reprint from the American Chemist for January and February, 1876. 

 There is also a pamphlet report on the History and Value of Water-Gas Processes 

 (New York, 1864), by John Torrey and Carl Schultz, which gives a brief summary 

 of some sixty patents on the subject. 



3 Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry, vol. xix, p. 613, 1900, where also 

 excellent descriptions of both the Lowe and the Motay processes are to be found. 



4 See sketch of Cyprien M. Tessie de Motay by A. J. Rossi in the Journal of 

 American Chemical Society, vol. n, p. 305, 1880. 



5 Dictionary of Applied Chemistry, vol. i, p. 449, 1891. 



