PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 367 



closer, with the eifect that the department of our science known as physical 

 chemistry has now assiuned a position of first-rate importance. With the 

 additional light provided by the development and application of physico- 

 chemical theory and methods, w© are beginning to gain some insight into such 

 intricate problems as the relation between physical properties and chemical 

 constitution, the structure of molecules and even of atoms, and the mechanics 

 of chemical change ; our outlook is being widened, and our conceptions rendered 

 jnore precise. Striking advances have also been made in other directions. The 

 extremely difficult problems which confront the bio-chemist are being gradually 

 overcome, thanks to the indefatigable labours of a band of highly skilled 

 observerSj and the department of biological chemistry has been established 

 on a firm footing through the encouraging results obtained within the period 

 under review. Further, within the last few years many of our ideas have been 

 subjected to a revolutionary change through the study of the radio-active 

 elements, these elusive substances which occur in such tantalisingly minute 

 quantities, and of which some appear so reluctant to exist in a free and 

 independent state that they merge their identity in that of another and less 

 retiring relative within an interval of time measured by seconds. In truth, if 

 a Rip Van Winkle among chemists were to awake now after a slumber of thirty 

 years, his amazement on coming into contact with the chemistry of to-day would 

 be beyond words. 



The more purely scientific side of our science can claim no monopoly in 

 progress, for applied chemistry, in every department, has likewise advanced 

 with giant strides, mainly of course through the application of the results of 

 scientific research to industrial purposes. An attempt to sketch in the merest 

 outline the recent development of applied chemistry would, I fear, exhaust your 

 patience, but I maj' indicate in passing some of the main lines of advance. 

 Many of the more striking results in the field of modern chemical industry 

 have been obtained by taking advantage of the powers we now possess to carry 

 out operations economically both at very high and at very low temperatures, 

 and by the emplojanent on the manufacturing scale of electrolytic and catalytic 

 methods of production. Thanks largely to the invention of the dynamo, the 

 technologist is now able to utilise electrical energy both for the production of 

 high temperatures in the different types of electric furnace and for electrolytic 

 processes of the most varied description. Among the operations carried out 

 with the help of the electric furnace may be mentioned the manufacture of 

 graphite, silicon, and phosphorus ; of chromium and other metals ; of carbides, 

 silieides, and nitrides ; and the smelting and refining of iron and steel. Calcium 

 carbide claims a prominent place in the list, in the first place because of the 

 c;us«> with which it yields acetylene, which is not only used as an illuminant. 

 and, in the oxy-acetylene burner, as a means of producing a temperature so 

 high that the cutting and welding of steel is now a comparatively simple 

 matter, but also promises to serve as the starting-point for the industrial 

 synthesis of acetaldehyde and many other valuable organic compounds. More- 

 over, calcium carbide is readily converted in the electric furnace into calcium 

 cyanamide, which is employed as an efficient fertiliser in place of sodium 

 nitrate or ammonium sulphate, and as a source of ammonia and of alkali 

 cyanides. Among the silieides carborvxndum is increasingly used as an abrasive 

 and a refractory material, and calcium silicide, which is now a conunercial 

 product, forms a constituent of some blasting explosives. The Serjoek process 

 for the preparation of alumina and ammonia, by the formation of aluminium 

 nitride from beauxite in the electric furnace and its subsequent decomposition 

 by caustic soda, should also be mentioned. Further, the electric furnace has 

 made possible the manufacture of silica apparatus of all kinds, both for the 

 laboratoiy and the work,<j, and of alundum ware, also used for operations at 

 high temperature. Finally, the first step in the manufacture of nitric acid and 

 of nitrites from air, now in operation on a very large scale, is the combustion 

 of nitrogen in the electric arc. 



In other industrial operations the high temperature which is necessary is 

 obtained by the help of the oxy-hydrogen or the oxy-acetylene flame, the former 

 being used, amongst other purposes, in a small but'l believe profitable industry, 

 the manufacture of synthetic rubies, sapphires, and spinels. Also, within a 

 comparatively recent period, advantage has been taken of the characteristic. 



