230 



National Resources Planning Board 



of cellulose in them constitutes an advantage difficult 

 to equal. 



There have recently come upon the market products 

 from the waste sulfite liquor of the pulp industry. 

 The material of principal value in tliis liquor is lignin, 

 and foundry core binders and materials for highway 

 construction have been two products from it. More 

 recently, one mill has devised a method for the pro- 

 duction of a low-cost plastic from sulfite liquor, and of 

 synthetic vanillin wliich successfully competes in the 

 market with that derived from coal tar. The re- 

 covery of sulfur dioxide and trioxide from smelter 

 fumes from power plants has been successful. Sulfuric 

 acid is the principal product, but if all fumes were so 

 used so much acid would be made that it would become 

 something of a nuisance. Elemental sulfur is also 

 recovered from such sources. 



The carbon dioxide formerly wasted from fermenta- 

 tion operations now finds sale as solid carbon dioxide 

 or dry ice for refrigeration. The city of Milwaukee 

 for some years has been able so to treat its sewage as to 

 produce a fertilizer, the sale of which has materially 

 lessened the cost of sewage disposal. The sugar in- 

 dustry finds a steady market for its waste molasses 

 wliich is used for the growth of yeast and the production 

 of alcohol. One of the great distilleries has devised a 

 process for treating its waste, which must be kept out 

 of local streams, so that the resulting feedstuff pays 

 the overhead for the entire plant. Furfural, which 

 fmds extensive application in the purification of rosin 

 and the manufacture of lubricating oils, to mention 

 but two uses, is the result of waste product utilization, 

 since it is derived from oat hulls. 



Cost Reduction 



The reduction of costs is always important in manu- 

 facturing. Two examples should suffice. In the 

 slightly more than 50 years that aluminum has been a 

 commercial metal, the price to the consumer has been 

 reduced from 10 to 12 dollars per pound to the point 

 where the metal in foil form competes with paper for 

 making milk bottle caps and to provide individual 

 cases for cigars. "Cellophane" cellulose film was intro- 

 duced in 1926 and since then its price has been reduced 

 voluntarily 20 times. Indeed, it has come to be rec- 

 ognized that the philosophy of the chemical industry 

 is constantly to reduce the price to the ultimate con- 

 sumer, for each reduction tends to broaden the market, 

 increase the demand, and make possible a greater 

 volume of production, by means of wliich manufactur- 

 ing costs may be lowered further and sellmg prices 

 reduced again. This is also true in the pharmaceutical 

 industry and many examples could be cited to show 

 how, through the procedure we are discussing, the 

 ultimate consumer has reaped monetary benefit. This 



was accomplished not only without lowering standards, 

 but generally with improved quality. 



New Raw Materials 



Industries are sometimes forced to find new raw 

 materials and always benefit when they are found, if 

 for no other reason than because they have a wider 

 choice of materials and cannot be so easily subjected 

 to price control. The development of deli5^drated 

 castor oil, mentioned earlier, will serve as an example. 

 Its importance has greatly increased since difficulties 

 in the Far East have interfered with the importation 

 of tung oil. Wliile the production of tung oil in the 

 United States is increasing rapidly, the vast quantities 

 required in the varnish industry still make necessary 

 large imports. The dehydrated castor oil replaces much 

 of this tung oil and thereby relieves that pressure. The 

 castor beans for the production of this oil are normally 

 imported — • coming in greater part from South America, 

 with some from India. Wliether they can be produced 

 on a commercial basis in the United States in competi- 

 tion with excellent growing conditions for perennial 

 plants and cheap labor for harvesting the beans re- 

 mains to be seen. A paper mill in New England has 

 developed a satisfactory method for the production of 

 pulp from hardwood, and by so doing has brought into 

 the field of its raw materials great stands of satis- 

 factory woods which, coming as they do from varieties 

 not heretofore so utilized, add enormously to raw 

 material supply. The work that has been done in 

 the South looking to the use of southern pines, par- 

 ticularly for the production of pulp satisfactor}^ to the 

 rayon industry, for the manufacture of kraft, and now 

 for newsprint, is a similar example. 



One of the most conspicuous instances of finding a 

 new source concerns the separation of bromine from 

 sea water. This became imperative when the greatly 

 increased demands for bromine arose with the use of 

 tetraethyl lead. Until this development, our bromine 

 was derived from the brines of northern Michigan. 

 But this source was thought to be insufficient and, fol- 

 lowing pioneering research on the part of several groups, 

 it is now recovered from the sea. Subsequent develop- 

 ment has been very rapid. 



New Uses 



Another service to industry consists in the search 

 for new uses that will increase the market demand for 

 products. The diverse applications of synthetic resins 

 offers one of the best examples. It has been found that 

 urea, originally produced for fertilizer, later used as a 

 raw material for a resin, promotes healing of wounds, 

 and that pectin is efficacious in preventing bleeding at 

 bodily surfaces. Liver, once a waste in the packing 

 industry, has become the raw material for medicinal 



