1 68 Miracles Ahead! 



American chemists took from Germany her leadership in 

 coal-tar dyes and other chemicals. They captured nitrogen 

 from the air and transformed it into compounds suitable for 

 military, agricultural, and industrial uses. We still import some 

 nitrates from Chile, but we no longer are dependent on for- 

 eign sources of supply for this critical material. 



Breaking the Japanese Camphor Monopoly 



For years we depended on natural gum from the Formosan 

 camphor tree, of which Japan had a monopoly, for vital cam- 

 phor used in medicines, photographic film, plastics, explosives, 

 and many other products. Then our chemists produced syn- 

 thetic camphor from Southern turpentine, broke the monop- 

 oly, and gave us a limitless supply of camphor at one-eighth 

 the price Japan had wanted for it a few years before. 



Creating New Wealth in Agriculture 



Scores of foods developed for military use dehydrated, 

 compressed vegetables, meats, and other products will un- 

 doubtedly prove popular after the war. Chemistry also is pre- 

 pared to help the farmer by using more of his products for 

 industrial purposes. Cellulose, from wood and cotton, and 

 furfural, from waste farm products like oat hulls, corncobs, 

 and rice hulls are being used in plastics. The Ford Motor 

 Company uses soybeans to make textile fibers for upholstery 

 and has developed an all-plastic car body from soybeans and 

 other farm products. 



Our neighbor Brazil, with a five-million-bag coffee surplus, 

 is cooperating with a New York firm in the fabrication of 

 plastics from cafelite, a brown molding powder from coffee 

 beans. Cafelite is something like bakelite and lends itself to a 

 variety of uses. It is made wholly from coffee beans, and in 



