Septembeb 11, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



323 



pounds, and study it as an art in so far as 

 the various analytical and other methods 

 used are applicable through all or most 

 branches of chemical industry. To my 

 mind it is no part of the duty of a uni- 

 versity to turn out trained soap makers, 

 acid makers, paint makers, etc., but it is 

 her duty to turn out men whose knowledge 

 of chemicals and the principles of chem- 

 istry is broad enough so that they can enter 

 any of these industries and make them- 

 selves valuable. 



The moment a man enters any branch of 

 chemical industry then aluminum and 

 lead and iron, we will say, become much 

 more important than indium. This is a 

 situation that will face every chemist; it 

 follows that his training in the science and 

 art should be supplemented by some knowl- 

 edge of commercial chemistry before he 

 leaves the university. Such materials as 

 sulphuric, nitric, hydrochloric and hydro- 

 fluoric acid; ammonia, soda ash, sal soda, 

 glaubers salt, epsom salt, copperas, blue 

 vitriol, caustic soda, caustic potash, and the 

 like, concern such a great variety of in- 

 dustries that the chemist is sure to come in 

 contact with most of them in a commercial 

 way. His employers and associates, often 

 not themselves chemists, will have a certain 

 fund of information regarding such ma- 

 terials; any lack of it on the part of the 

 chemist at once produces the impression 

 that he is only a "theoretical" chemist, 

 which is the polite expression used in 

 the trade to damn a man as absolutely 

 useless. 



The young chemist should know, for 

 instance, the percentages and gravities at 

 which ordinary acids and alkalies are sold, 

 and his disgust for the Beaume and 

 Fahrenheit scales should not prevent his 

 being familiar enough with both so that 

 any figures given in either will convey dis- 

 tinct impressions to his mind. He should 

 know in what packages and quantities these 



common chemicals are shipped and the 

 basis on which settlement is made. 



For instance, he should know that sul- 

 phuric acid is shipped in three different 

 kinds of packages, tank cars, drums and 

 carboys; that it is shipped in three differ- 

 ent strengths of approximately 65, 78, 93 

 per cent, strength, besides some shipped as 

 98 per cent, and as fuming acid or 100 per 

 cent, acid containing free sulphur trioxide. 

 These strengths are known in commerce as 

 50°, 60° and 66°, 98 per cent, and fum- 

 ing. In the same way he should know the 

 character of package, commercial appear- 

 ance and strength of nitric acid, mixed 

 acid, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, 

 aqua ammonia, carbonate of soda and 

 caustic soda. He should know the distinc- 

 tion between nitric acid and aqua fortis, 

 the basis on which soda ash and caustic 

 soda are sold, respectively, one being on 

 the 48 per cent, strength and the other on 

 the 60 per cent, of NajO. He should know 

 that bisulphate of soda is sold by the car- 

 load, while bisulphate of potash is more 

 likely to be sold by the pound. Glaubers, 

 epsom, copperas, blue vitriol, magnesium 

 oxide, magnesium chloride, zinc chloride, 

 chlorides of tin, calcium chloride, barium 

 peroxide, all of these substances should be 

 familiar to him, and .in each ease he should 

 know the kind of package and strength, 

 and the approximate cost of the com- 

 mercial product. In this connection, I 

 think it would be wise in any museum of 

 industrial chemistry to have two sections 

 to which the attention of students is espe- 

 cially called. One section devoted to 

 chemicals which can be produced accord- 

 ing to good processes in large quantities, 

 but which are still hunting for profitable 

 uses, and another section devoted to waste 

 products and by-products of all descrip- 

 tions which it is desirable to convert into 

 marketable goods. The student should 

 also be thoroughly familiar with the phys- 



