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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. SLVII. No. 1210 



substances which previously he had been able 

 to purchase. The manufacturers have had 

 good reason for not undertaking the produc- 

 tion of such substances, because the number 

 of chemicals of considerable commercial value 

 not yet manufactured in this country is still 

 large and it has been impossible for the va- 

 rious concerns to obtain even a sufScient num- 

 ber of chemists for this work. Moreover, the 

 demand for organic chemicals used exclusively 

 for research work or the demand for organic 

 chemical reagents in the United States is 

 small and the methods of preparation often 

 difficult so that no profit could be expected 

 from such a branch of the industry. In fact, 

 a firm would be fortunate not to incur a con- 

 siderable loss in such an undertaking, provided 

 their selling prices were reasonable. 



A number of the university laboratories, in 

 order to overcome the trouble which thus 

 arose, made during the summer months certain 

 chemicals necessary for the winter researches. 

 At the University of Ulinois especially, this 

 manufacturing was taken up extensively. It 

 was started in the summers of both 1915 and 

 1916, a few graduate students working out the 

 processes for, and then preparing, a few kilos 

 of some ten or fifteen substances. Since this 

 plan worked out successfully, it seemed worth 

 while to develop the work further and also 

 to give other institutions, where organic re- 

 search was being done, the benefit of the 

 experience gained in the Illinois laboratories. 

 Consequently, last spring a letter referring to 

 the manufacturing and the possibility of ex- 

 panding the work to fill the demand of other 

 laboratories was sent to the departments of 

 chemistry of over twenty of the leading in- 

 stitutions of the country, as well as to the 

 larger distributing houses that might be inter- 

 ested. Favorable replies came in and several 

 orders for chemicals were received in spite of 

 the fact that at that time no quotations could 

 be given. About ten students were retained 

 for the work during last summer and the 

 manufacturing was carried on from the first 

 of June until the first of September. Shortly 

 after the work had been started, the news of 

 it spread and more and more requests came 



until nearly eighty different chemicals were 

 Ijrepared in amounts ranging from a few 

 grams to over sixty pounds. A business which 

 during the summer it was expected would be 

 about $1,000 tm-ned out in the neighborhood 

 of $5,000 and the only reason it was not 

 larger was on account of the lack of men and 

 laboratory facilities. Especial attention was 

 paid to the development of methods from the 

 laboratory scale to amounts of from one to 

 two poimds and to the elimination of ex- 

 pensive and needless processes which are, al- 

 most without exception, used in the teaching 

 of elementary organic chemistry. This kind 

 of work is of first importance to the chemical 

 industry at present so that in addition to the 

 advantage of saving much time for the stu- 

 dents during the winter, special training such 

 as they could hardly receive in any other way 

 in a university was given to these men. More- 

 over, the men were paid 25 cents to 35 cents 

 an hour, a sum sufficient to cover their living 



The whole undertaking proved to be very 

 satisfactory and great help was given all over 

 the country. More than thirty university 

 laboratories, many technical concerns, and 

 many of the large distributing houses were 

 supplied. Because of the success of the plan, 

 arrangements were made when the university 

 opened last fall to continue the manufacturing. 

 Two men were given so-called manufacturing 

 scholarships and were to devote all their time 

 to this work for one semester, with the ex- 

 ception of a few hours each week spent at 

 lectures. Several other men were hired by the 

 hour from time to time to attempt to keep 

 up with the orders. It has been decided to 

 continue the work and if possible to increase 

 the staff to four or five men doing full-time 

 work. Since last summer, demands for chem- 

 icals have continued to come so rapidly that 

 only a small fraction of the compounds wanted 

 could be furnished. The number of different 

 chemicals already sold outside of this labora- 

 tory has increased to over one hundred twenty 

 and the value of the manufactured substances 

 now amouiits to between $8,000 and $9,000. 

 "Wlien one considers that for the most part 



