300 



NATURE 



[July 30, 1903 



chemist not blessed with laboratory facilities has, however, 

 free entrance to this field. He may be only a student, a 

 looker-on at what others are doing, a reader of the newly- 

 discovered and recorded facts, but if he is at the same 

 time a thinker, a compiler, an analyst with the power of 

 collating, dissecting and deducing, he may in the seclusion 

 of his study discover laws which escape the observation of 

 others less studious, and thus render a service of the highest 

 value to the science. 



As soon as facts accumulate and laws are discerned, the 

 man of science inevitably begins to reflect on the why and 

 the wherefore. He commences to search for relations, to 

 imagine connections and dependencies, and to make pic- 

 tures of the mechanism of the phenomena. It was thus 

 that Dalton imagined the atomic theory to account for the 

 fact of chemical combination in simple multiple proportions, 

 that Arrhenius hit upon the dissociation theory to account 

 for the increase of molecular conductivity with increasing 

 dilution, that Nernst worked out the solution-pressure 

 theory to explain the generation of current in the galvanic 

 cell. Thus there are theories and theories, some poor, 

 some good, and some almost perfect in their applicability, 

 since, granting their premises, they give an explanation 

 satisfactory to the mind of all observed phenomena. 



Such theories are not only allowable, but necessary. We 

 must have them, much as an artisan must have a working 

 drawing of the machine he will construct ; the drawing is 

 but paper and ink, which never moves or works, but it 

 guides the workman in putting his ideas into realities. So 

 theories help us to handle mental conceptions as if they 

 were_ concrete things, and thus to imagine and discover 

 relations and genera:lisations which would otherwise be 

 beyond our mental grasp. 



The danger to the development of a science comes when 

 a theory, by being believed too implicitly and by not being 

 open to constant revision, becomes a strait-jacket for 

 the growing science. Like a "creed outworn," it stifles 

 criticism, warps the judgment, engenders blindness and 

 bias in its adherents and undue hostility and acrimony in 

 its opposers. _We should be slow in revising our theories, 

 or in discrediting a theory which has done us good service 

 in its day, just as we are conservative in correcting our 

 " confessions of faith "or indulgent and sympathetic with 

 the weaknesses of a faithful old servant ; but, after all, 

 when a theory has come to be considered so firmly fixed 

 as to be above criticism, or so certainly true as to be above 

 the possibility of revision, or so well-established as to 

 thunder its excommunications on those who dare to think 

 or believe otherwise — such a theory had better be placed at 

 once in the museum of scientific petrifactions, where it 

 properly belongs, and where it can do no further harm. 



li science is progressing, theories must progress too ; they 

 will be outgrown, much light will give way to more light, 

 imperfect pictures of phenomena founded on crude assump- 

 tions must be replaced by better pictures corresponding more 

 accurately to the newer and the larger truth, and then 

 progress begins anew. 



All theories have been of some use in their day ; they 

 have helped men to grasp concretely evanescent immaterial 

 phenomena, they have very often been splendid guides to 

 further experiment and new discoveries, they have at times 

 been so helpful that many have mistakenly thought them 

 infallible, and lastly, they have been stepping-stones to 

 better theories. One great hindrance to scientific progress 

 is the common human weakness of becoming partisans of 

 a theory. Who is not familiar with the well-meaning 

 theoriser whose mental vision is so biased that he refuses 

 or is incompetent to give a fair reception to new facts and 

 theories; or who has not met the egotistical speculator who 

 experiments and makes researches not to discover truth, but 

 to prove his pet theory? Thus the warmest friends of a 

 theory are often its worst enemies, and by their blind 

 partisanship lay obstacles in the path of scientific progress 

 instead of being the leaders which they might be. 



To make a specific application of these remarks, who 

 has not felt that the most eff'ective blows dealt the present 

 theory of electrolytic dissociation have come from the ex- 

 cessive zeal of its warmest adherents? There are scientific 

 zealots as well as religious bigots, and the one does as 

 much harm to the progress of true science as the other does 

 to the development of pure religion. 



NO. I 76 I, VOL. 68] 



The fundamental conceptions of any and every theory 

 must always be open to correction and revision, and thus, 

 progress will be rendered easy. If new facts appear which, 

 contradict our theories', let us welcome them, like loyal 

 lovers of the truth should. The theory of electrolytic dis- 

 sociation is being saved by being modified and revised, it 

 is being transformed into a more perfect mirror of the 

 truth as we now conceive it, and thus only is it retaining 

 its usefulness and aiding in scientific progress. 



Power alone is apt to be regarded as the first desideratum 

 for the success of electrochemical processes, but knowledge, 

 thinking power and industry are more primary factors. 

 Given these, crude materials to work with will be found 

 on every hand, and power sufficient will be created if it 

 is not to be found. _ 



A few words, however, about this question of the 

 necessary cheap power. This item in manufacturing cost 

 is of variable importance in electrochemical processes ; in. 

 some it may form three-quarters of the total cost of the 

 process, in others perhaps only one-quarter. The former 

 are frequently compelled to move to the cheapest power, in 

 order to exist at all, while such as the latter may take into 

 account many other considerations, and find it cheaper for 

 them to locate at more expensive powers. Niagara Falls 

 is the most accessible of our great water powers, and has 

 therefore drawn into its fold the majority of our electro- 

 chemical industries. But another source of surplus power 

 is distributed over a large part of our country, in a con- 

 dition at present as undeveloped as was Niagara power 

 when Columbus touched our shores. I refer to the surplus 

 power from blast-furnaces, obtainable by using gas-engines. 

 Every blast-furnace burns its gases to heat its blast and to 

 raise steam for its power. The two-thirds of its gases used 

 for the latter purpose generate just about the power needed 

 for the blowing-engines, pumps, hoists, &c., an amount 

 equal on an average to 2500 horse-power for a furnace 

 making 500 tons of iron per day. If the gas thus used was 

 used in gas-engines, there would be an average surplus- 

 power, over and above all the requirements of the furnace 

 itself, of 10,000 horse-power. The gas-engine plant needed 

 to produce this power does not cost more than 50 dollars 

 per horse-power investment, which compares favourably 

 with the cost of developing water-powers, which vary from 

 25 dollars to 100 dollars per horse-power. It is thus de- 

 ducible that there are scattered over the United States, in 

 some of our most flourishing industrial centres, un- 

 developed powers which aggregate more than 1,000,000 

 horse-power, which can be developed at no more cost than 

 the average water-power, can be generated just at the spots^ 

 where they can be most favourably utilised, and without 

 any more drain on our .natural resoui-ces than the harness- 

 ing of a new water-power — for not a pound of coal more 

 would have to be burnt than is used at present. 



Other possible sources of power are the waste surplus- 

 gases from by-product coking ovens, and the utilisation 

 of gas-producers, using cheap, almost waste, coal, in con- 

 nection with gas-engines. Power therefore is available 

 in immense quantities in places and in countries not blessed 

 with Niagaras in their midst, and the industrial develop- 

 ment of such sources will be one of the most marked! 

 industrial movements of the next ten years. 



And now, let us inquire, how is this increasing develop- 

 ment of power and its increasing application to industrial' 

 purposes best promoted by the electrochemists themselves. 

 Undoubtedly, it is by the intimate and cordial cooperation 

 of theoretical with practical electrochemists. This is 

 attained by many agencies, but the most potent are re- 

 search companies and our Electrochemical Society. 



Such organisations as research companies, formed ex- 

 plicitly to combine research with practical application, are- 

 novelties in the industrial world which have originated! 

 with, and are almost peculiar to, electrochemistry. They 

 invent, investigate and develop electrochemical process, and 

 furnish facilities to would-be experimenters whose ideas 

 might otherwise remain still-born. Such companies deserve 

 the hearty support of all electrochemists, for they are in- 

 jecting new life into the industry. May we have more 

 such, scattered all over our land to nurse and develop 

 quickly into active being the many electrochemical processes 

 which are to be. 



The factors which promote increasing applications of 



