December i6, 1915] 



NATURE 



429 



Irom the point of view of the price of the raw 

 laterials if the success of the hardening process 

 lad not made the softer, unsaturated oils also 

 ivailable. 

 Few, if any, developments of recent years have 

 yi>een more remarkable and more truly chemical 

 jan that connected with the so-called hardening 

 fats — the realisation on an industrial scale of 

 lat very simple exercise in organic chemistry, the 

 [reduction of an unsaturated double bond by means 

 hydrogen. How simple it seems, and yet the 

 iding expert on the chemistry of fats said not 

 lany years ago that it could not be done. Even 

 Jabatier, the discoverer of the efficacy of metallic 

 IjCatalysts in the hydrogenation of vapours, ex- 

 pressly stated that his process failed with liquids. 

 Formann's first patent for the hydrogenation of 

 iquid fats was based, as all experimental work 

 lust be, on work done in the laboratory ; there 

 was successful, and though his patent was 

 crudely drawn — and who would have done better? 

 -the great idea was there. Yet the successful 

 Ipplication on the large scale took many years of 

 rduous work and much capital expenditure. The 

 ;rman firm, Leprince and Sievke, who first 

 )ught Nermann's process, made little of it, and 

 parted with it to Joseph Crosfield and Sons, of 

 '^arrington, in whose hands it has been brought 

 its present success. The innumerable patents 

 to the subject are little more than variations of 

 le original idea of Normann — acts of piracy, for 

 le most part, arising out of the present unsatis- 

 ictory condition of the patent laws. Yet a 

 ;rusal of the most recent book on hydrogenation 

 iaves the reader almost ignorant of the existence 

 the Warrington firm. 

 Not so many years ago glycerine was an almost 

 worthless bye-product of the soap industry, and 

 le spent lyes from the soap-pan were originally 

 )ncentrated for the sake of the salt they con- 

 lined. To-jday the lyes are purified with the 

 Itmost care, and the glycerine is concentrated, 

 listilled, and refined until the article sold is of 

 iuite remarkable purity considering its low price. 

 le practical problem — one of chemical engineer- 

 ig — is to evaporate water from the dilute lyes 

 itil a crude glycerine is obtained at the cheapest 

 )ssible cost. The contrast between the original 

 lallow open pans heated by a fire and the ela- 

 )rate muJtiple-effect vacuum evaporators with 

 ilting arrangements which are used to-day is a 

 triking one. It is typical of the advances made 

 chemical engineering, a branch of the chemical 

 >rofession which is as important industrially as 

 »at of the laboratory worker. 

 The stearine candle industry has lost ground 

 ang to the powerful competition of gas and 

 :tricity in towns and the development in the 

 of cheaper paraffin, but it is still of import- 

 ice both in England and abroad. The old em- 

 jirical methods of preparing and blending the raw 

 laterials have given way to modern processes 

 ised on the knowledge of the chemical proper- 

 ies of the substances concerned. 

 Equally important as chemical achievements 

 lust rank the great developments in the processes 

 NO. 2407, VOL. 96] 



I of refining oils so as to render vegetable oils in par- 

 j ticular available for edible purposes. This branch 

 I of the subject was described at somfe length in 

 i Nature of April 8 (vol. xcv., p. 145). 



Space forbids more than brief reference to the 

 industries concerned with lubricating oils or with 

 boiled oils for making varnishes and paints. The 

 latter are almost wholly concerned with linseed 

 oil, and their problems are connected with oxidis- 

 ing and changing the oils. 



The outlook for the future in these industries 

 in Britain may be faced with confidence. The 

 tendency to aggregate the production in large fac- 

 tories enables a competent staff of chemists to be 

 employed, and avoids the pitfalls consequent in 

 the practice of rule-of-thumb methods in small 

 concerns. Competition ensures the constant 

 striving to invent and develop new and cheaper 

 processes, and at the same time safeguards the 

 public interests by providing them with a cheap 

 article, the low price at which fat and oil products 

 are retailed at the present day being one of the 

 most remarkable testimonies to the development 

 of the industry. 



THE DYE FAMINE IN AMERICA AND 

 THE PROPOSED REMEDY. 



RECENT issues of the Scientific American 

 (November 6 and 13) contain articles by 

 Prof. T. H. Norton, of the Bureau of Foreign 

 and Domestic Commerce, Washington, dealing 

 with the prevailing shortage of dyes in the United 

 States. For some months after the outbreak of 

 the European war, American importers were able 

 to secure an almost normal supply of synthetic 

 dyes, but during the last seven months, owing to 

 the embargo on the shipment of German dyes to 

 neutral countries, only 50 tons of such colouring 

 matters have reached America, together with 

 small amounts of dyes of Swiss origin. 



Before the war, American dye factories em- 

 ployed not more than 400 workmen and produced 

 annually 3000 tons of dyes, these colours being 

 prepared chiefly from intermediate coal-tar pro- 

 ducts made in Germany. 



After a systematic examination of the dye 

 problem by the Department of Commerce, the 

 Secretary of Commerce, on September 30, out- 

 lined the policy of the present administration in 

 regard to the protection to be afforded to 

 American chemical enterprise against unfair 

 attacks by foreign rivals. In the meantime, 

 prompt and resolute decisions had been made by 

 the industrialists, and considerable investments 

 were made in new plant, two new companies 

 having an authorised capital of 400,000/. and 

 3,ooo,oooZ. respectively. The output of American 

 coal-tar colours has been doubled and will soon 

 be trebled, while the production of benzene and 

 toluene has increased fivefold. Owing to the ex- 

 tensive manufacture of explosives, it is difficult 

 at present to secure large quantities of these 

 hydrocarbons for colour production. But twelve 

 firms have nevertheless embarked on the manu- 

 facture of aniline, the Edison Company now turn- 



