Marcu 11, 1915] 
NATURE 47 

THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES 
GERMANY.1 
HE interest and importance of the subject at the 
present time are sufficiently obvious. In  out- 
lining some of the origins of chemical industry in 
Germany, the lecturer pointed out how the royal 
house of Prussia had been frequently associated with 
chemical enterprise. The Markgrave John was 
actually surnamed * the Alchemist,’’ the Great Elector 
was a patron of chemistry and provided a laboratory 
at Potsdam for the celebrated Kunkel, one of the first 
to discover phosphorus, and who also effected great 
advances in the manufacture of glass. Frederick the 
Great established the Royal Berlin porcelain factory, 
which still occupies some of the original premises. 
In the same reign also the chemist Marggraf made 
those classical investigations on the occurrence of 
sugar in the vegetable kingdom which later led to 
the foundation of the beet-sugar industry, which was 
initially subsidised by Frederick William III., the 
founder of the University of Berlin in 1809. (In 1914, 
the Berlin University had 12,585 students, and received 
an annual grant from the State of more than 
200,000l.) 
Great industries have developed out of these early 
steps. From the discovery of phosphorus came the 
match industry. German annual production of 
matches is 4,600,000l.; the British production in 1907 
amounted to 775,000/., whilst the British consumption 
in I910 was estimated at 1,300,000], Again, the 
porcelain and pottery manufacture had attained great 
dimensions in Germany, the exports in 1912 amount- 
ing to 3,556,oool., whilst the glass industry was even 
on a larger scale, the recent annual exports being more 
than 7,000,0001. Great inconvenience in connection 
with all scientific work is at present being experienced 
through the absence of German glass. The important 
cyanide industry may be said to have taken its origin 
from the accidental discovery by Diesbach, of Berlin, 
of Prussian blue in the first decade of the eighteenth 
century. Germany’s annual production of cyanides is 
now estimated at 10,000 tons (650,000), or about one- 
half of the world’s production. 
The present sae of Germany in the sugar 
industry of the world can be appreciated from the 
following figures :— 
OF 
Total Sugar Crop, 1912-13. 
Tons 
Cane-sugar 9 211,755 
Beet-sugar, European (1/3 German) 8,310,000 
a5 United States a eas 624,064 
Total 18,145,819 
The United Kingdom annually imports 1,700,000 
tons of sugar (23,000,000l.). 
& Acres 
Germany annually produces 36,000,000 beet-sugar on 1,300,000 
France ob 13,000,000 65 570,0c0 
All Continental countries 116,000,000 AA 6,000,0c0 
The beet-sugar industry is of particular interest in 
connection with the present crisis because it is an 
example of an industry which received a most im- 
portant impetus through the exclusion of British goods 
(colonial cane-sugar) from Continental ports during 
the Napoleonic wars. 
This industry again exemplifies how 
production can be improved by systematic 
such as has been bestowed on it by Germany, 
agricultural 
research 
thus :— 

1 Abstract of a lecture delivered before the Society of Chemical Industry 
(Birmingham and Midland Section), in the University of Birmingham, on 
March 4, by Prof. Percy Frankland, F.R.S. 
NO, 2367, VOL. 95 | 


In 1840 100 Ib. of beet yielded 5°9 Ib. sugar 
1850 ” ” a3 ” 
1870 » ” 84 
1890 » ” 12355 nes 
1910 58 bi 15°58 e 
Again in 
1871 mean yield of beet per hectare of land was 246 quintals 
1g10 5) . a 300° 85; 
And again in the economy of manufacture 
In 1867 coal used on 100 Ib. beet .., Sad 35 |b. 
1877 ” ” ” od Wy, 24 5 
1890 ” » » sos ne LOW 
1900 ” » » Whee 


As indicating: the great and progr ive attention 
devoted to agriculture, Germany’s artificial manure 
bills for 1888 ‘and I9g12 were highly instructive :— 
1888. 1912. 
2 Tons Tons 
Chile saltpetre 225,000 650,000 
Sulphate of ammonia 50,000 = 500, 000 
Superphosphate 250,000 see 1,500,000 
Basic slag Bee 250,000 2,200,050 
Crude potash salts ... 160,000 3,000,000 
Lime... Ake el 800,000 
Other manures J 500, Se 500,000 
Total value # 30,0C0,000 
The following comparison is also of interest :— 
Use of Artificial Phosphatic Manures (per annum), 
England 48 Ib. per 1 acre cultivated 
France Sh Sun 105 9 ” 
Germany ee eee 105 0 on 
The former supremacy of Great Britain in the 
manufacture of the common chemicals—sulphuric acid 
and soda—was referred to, and compared with the 
production of these materials in IgI0. 

Production in Tons, 
Germany England France  U. States World 
Sulphuric aci.l 1,250,000 1,000,040 500,000 1,200,000 5,c00,coo 
Soda 400,000 700,000 200,000 250,000 2,000,0.0 
IgIo. 
The substitution of the ammonia-soda for the earlier 
Le Blane soda process, and of the contact for the 
time-honoured leaden chamber process of sulphuric 
acid manufacture, had no doubt greatly assisted both 
Germany and America in becoming independent of the 
British manufacture of these chemicals. 
During the past twenty-five years the manufacture 
of chlorine and caustic soda by the electrolysis of 
common salt (sodium chloride) has been realised and 
rapidly extended. This process is carried out on a 
very large scale in Germany, where extensive use is 
made of “liquefied chlorine. The production of electro- 
lytic chlorine is attended with the simultaneous evolu- 
tion of large quantities of hydrogen gas for which 
uses have been found; thus, for filling the dirigible 
balloons upon which such hopes of conquest have been 
based by Germany, whilst in the oxyhydrogen flame 
it has been employed for welding, for the cutting even 
of thiclx iron structures, and for the manufacture of 
artificial gems. The artificial production of gems— 
corundum, ruby, sapphire, ete.—was discovered in 
France by Michaud, Verneuil, and Paquier, and has 
been greatly talken up by the Elektrochemische Werke 
at Bitterfeld, in Germany. More than a ton of these 
gems, which are identical in chemical composition 
with the natural gems, are said to be annually pro- 
duced. Other more important uses for hydrogen haye 
been found for the hardening of fats, and still more 
recently for the synthetic production of ammonia to be 
presently referred to, and which is an_ industrial 
achievement of the first magnitude. Cheaper sources 
of hydrogen than the electrolytic method have been 
