402 



NATURE 



[August 27, 1903 



absolutely revolutionised by the introduction of the 

 synthetical colouring matters prepared from coal tar. Of 

 these more than 500 are now available — each one a distinct 

 and definite chemical compound with characteristic colour ; 

 each one with properties rendering' it suitable for appli- 

 cation to particular classes of fabrics. Every range of 

 colour, including the deepest black, can be imparted, and 

 every degree of brilliancy or dullness, of fastness to light, 

 to washing and bleaching agents, &c., can be realised as 

 required. The natural dye-stuffs, such as madder, which 

 supplied alizarin for Turkey red ; the cochineal insect, which 

 furnished a red dye ; the lichens and dyewoods, which were 

 used by the old-time dyers, have been displaced, or are on 

 the way to displacement, by the tar products. The most 

 important of all the natural colouring matters, indigo, is, 

 as you know, among the latest of the achievements of in- 

 dustrial synthetical chemistry, and a great industry worth 

 some 3,000,000/. annually to our Indian Empire is 

 threatened with extermination by the German manu- 

 facturers. Not a month passes without the introduction of 

 new colouring matters, and so enterprising are the German 

 colour makers that their pattern-books are issued with 

 full directions in various languages, and trained chemists 

 in their service will give personal instructions to our dyers 

 in the application of new and unfamiliar colouring matters. 

 It is impossible to do more than allude in passing to the 

 enormous influence of this greatest and most refined of all 

 the chemical industries upon every other department of 

 chemical manufacture. It has reacted, and is reacting, 

 vyith ever multiplying ramifications upon the manufacture 

 of the raw materials such as acids and alkalis, it is 

 revolutionising the methods for producing sulphuric acid, 

 it is pressing into its service electrolytic processes, and it 

 has created new branches of engineering for the construc- 

 tion of special plant and machinery. The utilisation of the in- 

 finity of compounds present in the tar is no longer restricted 

 to the production of colouring matters. Valuable medicinal 

 preparations, photographic materials, perfumes, antiseptics, 

 the sweet-tasting saccharin, which is 300 times sweeter than 

 sugar, an artificial musk which exceeds in intensity of odour 

 any natural musk, are among the manufactured products 

 from coal tar. The industry is the direct outcome of scien- 

 tific research ; it has been developed by research, and is 

 being still developed by research. Both methods referred to 

 in this address have been, and are, at work. The by-results 

 of pure scientific investigation are seized upon whenever 

 they show the slightest chance of being industrially useful. 

 S»accharin is such a by-result. The chemical reactions 

 which culminated in the industrial production of indigo 

 were published by their discoverer, the late Dr. Heumann 

 as an academic discovery in the first place, and were del 

 veloped industrially by the " Badische Anilin und Soda 

 habrik of Ludwigshafen. By the other method whole 

 armies of highly trained scientific chemists are constantlv 

 at work in the splendidly equipped research laboratories o'f 

 the German factories investigating new products and pro- 

 cesses ^ylth the direct object of their ultimate industrial 

 application. Nor must it be forgotten that under the 

 term research used in this connection is comprised also 

 theoretical research. A close study of the history of this 

 industry will show how throughout it has been vitalised 

 uJ?\T ,^°"fept'«ns concerning the chemical struc- 

 bv fhf TI'^u^' °^ "'■^''"^'^ compounds, and especially 



fJJr \°-^^"ed benzene ring theory of Kekul6, now so 

 familiar to chemical students. The force of illustration of 

 the connection between science and industry can, perhaps 

 go no further than in this case, where a purely abstract 

 conception based on a knowledge of the properties of the 

 atom of carbon has reacted upon a branch of manufacture 

 to Its lasting benefit. 



I have thought it best to limit my treatment to the record 

 of bare fact^ in order to bring home, to you in a concrete 

 way how chemical industry and chemical research are inter- 

 dependent. Four groups of industries have been dealt with ; 

 • It would have been easy to subdivide the subject and to 

 deal with four dozen. I must confess that I am getting 

 rather tired of what may be called the platform treatment 

 of education in applied science, which consists in general 

 of the purely clerical or office-boy work of compiling in- 

 NO. 1765, VOL. 68] 



formation — doubtless very valuable in its way — concerning 

 the number of schools in foreign countries, the acreage of 

 land which they cover, their cubic contents, cost of erection 

 and maintenance, the number of professors and staff, and 

 the number of students which they turn out annually. The 

 reason why this kind of information is getting stale and 

 wearisome is because it produced at first no effect at all in 

 this country, and then it led to a reckless expenditure in 

 bricks and mortar, and the starting of institutions which 

 are inadequately endowed, insufficiently maintained, and 

 altogether lower in their working capabilities than the 

 continental institutions which prompted their foundation. 

 I thought, therefore, that it might be more acceptable it, 

 instead of dealing with the usual generalities of the 

 statistical order, 1 sketched the history of a few specihc 

 industries. If it appears that Germany has played a very 

 prominent part in these histories, all I can say is that there 

 has been no intentional selection on my part, but it is 

 entirely due to the circumstance that it is to that country 

 more than to any other that industry owes its advancement 

 by scientific method. The preeminence of Germany in 

 chemical industry is sufficiently notorious, as our own 

 manufacturers know to their cost. The most striking 

 feature of the exhibition at Paris in 1900, when, as a 

 member of the International Jury for Chemical Products, 

 Ihad occasion to examine the exhibits of all countries was 

 the collective exhibit of chemical products displayed by 

 some ninety German firms. This splendid collection, which 

 revealed more than anything the enormous advances niade 

 in chemical industry by Germany, is "ow deposited in a 

 special building in the grounds of the Technical High 

 School at Charlottenburg. ^ , ^u ^ «f 



So much has been said and written about the causes ot 

 this wonderful development of German chemical manu- 

 factures that I hesitate to add anything more to the dis- 

 cussion. Certainly it is not possible to add anything new. 

 Those who, like Prof. Michael Sadler and Dr. Rose, have 

 made a special study of German educational systems have 

 placed before the public valuable reports in which these 

 causes are fully discussed from the educational point ot 

 view ' In the Official report to the French Government on 

 the products of Class 87, Prof. Haller, the secretary to our 

 iury and author of the report, has devoted a whole section 

 to the " Causes de la Prosp^rit^ de I'lndustne chimique 

 AUemande." The general conclusion to which we have 

 all come concerning this remarkable industrial development 

 is that it is mainly due to the higher educational level in 

 Germany with respect more especially to the highest scien- 

 tific instruction in the universities and technical hig:h 

 schools. It is perhaps permissible to go one stage 

 further back, and to say that this advanced scientific educa- 

 tion is in itself the expression of the public faith in such 

 education, and the recognition by the State of the in- 

 dustrial value of such training. It has been well pointed 

 out that the money invested by the German nation in found- 

 ing and maintaining the chemfcal chairs at the universities 

 and technical high schools is now worth some 50,000,000/. 

 annually to the country in this branch of industry alone. 

 More especially, also, it may be claimed that the recog- 

 nition of the value— the indispensable value— of scientific 

 research to industry by the manufacturers themselves has 

 been one of the most potent factors in developing German 

 chemical industry, and the lack of such appreciation on the 

 part of our own manufacturers has been one of the chief 

 causes of their decadence. 



In so far as the subject under consideration is an 

 educational one, it comes within the province of a gathering 

 of students held under the auspices of the most ancient 

 seats of' learning in this country. At any rate, the topic 

 is one of such supreme importance to the welfare of this 

 nation that I could not resist the invitation to take part 

 in your proceedings, because the question is one which has 

 been for years undergoing the most serious consideration 

 by those who have, like myself, been connected on the one 



1 See especially vol. ix. of the special reports issued by the Board of 

 Education, entitled "Education in Germany," by Prof. Sadler. Also Dr. 

 Rose's diplomatic and Consular reports, issued by the Foreign Office, 

 No. 561, "Chemical Instruction and Chemical Industries in Germany"; 

 No. 551, "German Technical High Schools"; No. 594, "Agricultural 

 Instruction in Germany and the Development of German Agriculture and 

 Agricultural Industries." 



