COAL-TAR 73 



Carbolic acid, or phenol, is most familiar to us as an 

 antiseptic for it destroys those microscopic enemies of 

 ours that are always hanging around ready to enter 

 any breach in the wall of our bodily citadel. But there 

 is another use of it, not less important but much less 

 familiar: its use in making artificial resins. Phenol 

 unites with formaldehyde, another well-known anti- 

 septic, and by the union of the liquid and the gas there 

 is produced a hard solid insoluble substance, looking 

 like amber or jet. This is called by the various manu- 

 facturers "bakelite," "redmanol," and "condensite," 

 and is extensively used, together with hard rubber, for 

 the insulating parts of electrical apparatus, therefore 

 contributing to electric light and power and to tele- 

 phone and radio. It also is a factor in the phonograph. 



Various kinds of tar, asphalts, and pitch are also em- 

 ployed in the manufacture of phonograph records; each 

 manufacturing house has its own secret recipe. In the 

 Edison record a thin coating of condensite on both sides 

 of the disk receives the imprint of the spiral groove that 

 carries the music. No synthetic phenol was made in 

 this country before the war, and when we entered the 

 conflict there came a sudden demand for an immense 

 amount of it for making picric acid to be used in shells. 

 Of course munitions came before music and the phono- 

 graph was robbed to make explosives. The price of 

 phenol jumped from nine cents a pound to $1.50. 

 Edison with his accustomed energy set up a factory for 

 making phenol artificially and had it running within a 

 month. Others followed suit and before the war was 

 over there was plenty. In 1918, 106,800,000 pounds 



