OTHER CHEMURGIC PROJECTS 



trees and shrubs in the South that contain more or less 

 tannin, but it is senseless to try to study all these rare 

 specimens. Present supply is inadequate for industrial 

 use, and they are rare because they propagate slowly, 

 so the hope of future wild stocks or of successful cultiva- 

 tion is dim." 



Such a practical statement seems to belie his com- 

 mercial indifference, but then, I found Alfred Russell a 

 most delightfully contradictory man. Maybe that is the 

 result of his background: born in Belfast, educated at 

 Queen's College, Ireland, taught at Glasgow, research 

 at the University of Illinois, more research in Philadel- 

 phia, professor at North Carolina; a kaleidoscopic 

 career that would naturally make for diversity. We 

 spent an afternoon together and he showed me his 

 stockroom of samples, a miniature lumberyard in the 

 cellar of the Chemistry Building, and his laboratory, a 

 miniature tannery where two revolving glass drums 

 were sloshing hides in new tan liquors. In his little office 

 with a big table piled high with a collection of test- 

 tanned leathers in the corner, he summarized the results 

 of his prodigious tannin hunt. 



"The best chance for a new tannin supply in the 

 South," he said, "appears to be in southern Florida. 

 Here we found two exceptionally likely woods, the 

 Darling plum and the buttonwood. Growing conditions 

 are most favorable, and slow-growing mahogany makes 

 a diameter of twelve inches in ten years. But lumbering 



191 



