March 8, 19 17] 



NATURE 



35 



plete investigation of these has not }"et been under- 

 taken, but in the interests of the countr>' at large ant. 

 not merely of the metal industr}' this should be on^ 

 of the first, since iron is the most important necessit} 

 for industrial progress of every kind. The norma 

 \-alue of the iron and steel imports into the country 

 nnually is almost one million pounds, and with ai. 

 xpanding population this must rapidly increase, as 

 there is, practically sf>eaking, no industr}-, operation, 

 or even trade for which it is not necessary in some 

 form or other. One small manufactory is working 

 at Vereeniging, but this is not engaged in the pro- 

 action of cast iron from the raw ore and its sub- 

 jquent conversion into steel of known and definite 

 ompyosition ; and, further, what is being done is not, 

 so far as I am aware, under strict chemical control, 

 by which means alone can proper and definite results 

 be achieved. 

 The function of the chemist in the control of matter 

 ad its energy content is imperfectl}', if at all, under- 

 >LOod, even in industries such as this, where one 

 might at least expect that the methods which have 

 been successful, and hence adopted in their entirety 

 in other countries, would be followed here. 

 The second process mentioned involves the use of 

 I mercurj', which must necessarily be imported at. 

 present. The case, however, is otherwise so far as 

 (dium cyanide and zinc are concerned, the imports 

 f which amount to half a million sterling, and both 

 of which can be manufactured here. The former can 

 be obtained indirectly from atmospheric nitrogen 

 through cyanamide, which would find great use as 

 an artificial manure, and thus stimulate agricultural 

 progress. In point of fact, the Rand may be said to 

 \ be primarily responsible for this great and growing 

 industry, since it w'as the search for a new method of 

 preparing cyanide that first discovered the reaction. 

 Zinc blende is also found native, and the winning of 

 the metal offers no great difficult}'. - 



The mining of gold ore or other mineral deposits 

 would be, practically speaking, impossible without 

 the use of explosives, and to meet this necessity three 

 large explosive factories have been established in the 

 country, all of which are entirely dependent for their 

 \ raw materials on other countries. The value of these 

 imports in 1913, the last completely normal pre-war 

 period, was as follows : — Sulphur, 78,386!. ; nitrates, 

 235,984!.; glycerine, 563,014/.; or a total of 877,384!., 

 iron pyrites not being given. Of these, no large 

 deposits of sulphur or pure pyrites are known to exist 

 in South Africa, but nitric acid and its salts can now 

 be prepared in ?iny quantitv from the nitrogen present 

 in the atmosphere, and glycerine is a by-product in 

 the manufacture of soap, factories for which have 

 recently b°en erected here. 



The production of the oils for the latter purpose 

 would necessitate the provision of artificial fertilisers, 

 an indus^^ry of prime importance for the prof^ress of 

 every branch of agriculture. Happily the problem of 

 the tran<;ference of atmospheric nitro£*en to the 

 requirements of the soil, first stated bv Sir Willif^m 

 Crookes in his classic address to the British .Associa- 

 tion at Bristol in i8'^6. has now been solved in various 

 ways, two of which have been indicated, and 

 would therefore serve, if established, a doub'e 

 function. Unfortunately deposits of potassium splts 

 or mineral phosphates of anv laree extent and denree 

 of piiritv h.ive not hitherto been discoverpd het-e: 

 but in this resn^ct South Africa is in no worcp ca«e 

 than most other rou'^tries. and hence thi<5 nr'^b'ern is 

 bv no means insoluble. The manufarture of cti^er- 

 phosp^>ate. howpv*»r. could and should be und'*rtpk''n. 

 the yi'ie inir)o«-tpd in toi-^ b^inp" oc.a'^'i?. . and of ran' 

 phosnhates onlv rrocl. It should also be mentionM 

 in this connprtJon tV.pt morp than 13J million pounds 



NO. 2471, VOL. 99] 



of basic slag, a by-product of the steel industry, 

 were imported in 1914 — another valid argument for 

 me creation of the latter. With regard to potassium 

 salts there are no deposits ot easy chemical access 

 outside the celebrated Stassfurt beds, but there arc- 

 sources within South Africa which could be realised, 

 it the necessity arose. 



Returning again to the consideration of the exports 

 of the country, we find that copper ore and matte, tin 

 ore, lead ore, and raw asbestos, along with coal and 

 diamonds, form the remainder. It is, indeed, a sad 

 rehection that we must needs export these raw 

 materials, as such, without making even the slightest 

 attempt to extract their valuable contents or work 

 them up in any manner whatsoever, but rather in 

 addition pay freightage on admi.xed dross. A piti- 

 able confession of failure in verj' truth, since the 

 paths are easy and rendered still more so by the value 

 of the prospect ! If the Chinaman and the Malay arc- 

 capable enough to win the tin from its ore, why 

 should we hesitate? 



A successful industry must be founded upon, and 

 controlled b\-, true scientific knowledge, and the trans- 

 formations of matter form the province of tjie chemist, 

 whether it be the manufacture of the food on which 

 we live, the bricks, lime, and cement with which 

 we build our homes, the medicines to cure our in- 

 firmities, the paper and ink to disseminate and pre- 

 serve our ideas, or the explosives we use as weapons 

 of destruction. 



South Africa has been endowed beyond measure 

 with rich stores of useful minerals, and whilst these 

 are being exploited she is dependent entirely on 

 others to supply her most elementarj- wants. Thought- 

 less criticism might saddle me with lack of a due 

 sense of proportion in that the economics of these 

 possible industries have been left wholly out of con- 

 sideration. In this regard I maintain that the dut}- 

 of a country is to its own people, and the pripiar}- 

 necessity is to furnish, so far as it can do so, its own 

 immediate requirements. South -Africa is not nearly 

 at present so self-contained as is possible, and hence 

 the necessity for the establishment of chemical in- 

 dustry in our midst is, in every sense, a vital one. 

 Private enterprise has to some extent made a begin- 

 ning, as illustrated by the success of the soap and 

 cement factories established within the last few years, 

 but the coal industr}- is still confined to the utilisation 

 of the raw material accompanied by the waste and 

 loss of its most valuable by-products. 



There are two points of view which make this par- 

 ticular industry of supreme importance — first, the 

 defence of the country; and, secondly, conservation 

 of its natural resources. Phenol, benzene, and tolu- 

 ene are three of the most important distillates obtained 

 from coal tar, and apart from their own use as motor 

 fuels, when treated with nitric acid these substances 

 yield on one hand the highest explosives at present 

 known, and on the other the mother substances for 

 the preparation of dyes, drugs, and perfumes. 



Lord Beaconsfield once said that the prosperity 

 of a country could be gauged by the extent of its 

 chemical industry, a sta*^ement which was received 

 bv his contemporaries with scorn and derision. The 

 years which hate elapsed since then have proved, as 

 is often the case, that his words were not the accident 

 of an impulsive verbositv. but the reasoned verdict 

 of a deliberative mind. The realisation of this dictum 

 has bpen most profoundly show-n bv the stupendous 

 prorress in chemical industry made bv G'^rmany 

 during the last forty years, especially in the domain- 

 of organic chemistry. 



It may appeal to some to state here that Germany's 

 great chemical factories, each with a capital of from 

 one to two million pounds, paid dividends out of 



