404 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VII. No. 1217 



years a^o by Professor Jonathan B. Turner, 

 the father of these Same state universities, 

 the educational prophet of the generation 

 preceding our own and the personal friend 

 of Abraham Lincoln, the weight of whose 

 influence and whose signature to the Morrill 

 bill in 1862 made possible the founding of 

 these universities, may we not say, of the 

 common people. 



Intimately associated with the coal-tar 

 dyes is the subject of munitions. Some 

 months ago in conversation with the chief 

 chemist for one of the largest munition 

 plants of the country, the question was 

 asked if he was able to keep reasonably 

 busy these days, at least so that Satan could 

 not readily find some mischief still for his 

 idle hands to do. His reply was significant 

 and made without note or comment. It 

 did not need any. He said our total out-, 

 put of explosives at the present time 

 amounts to a million pounds per day. 

 Of course a very large part of this output 

 is used in mining and blasting, but the 

 aggregate of high explosives, which before 

 the war was insignificant, now approxi- 

 mates something over two 'billion pounds 

 per year. 



■ The substances from which the three 

 main types of explosives are made are glyc- 

 erine, phenol and toluol, but the greatest 

 of these is toluol. Where are we to get the 

 toluol? The question has been partly an- 

 swered in the great increase of by-product 

 coke ovens. But if twenty million tons of 

 coke are made in these ovens during the 

 current year and the yield of toluol is one 

 half gallon per ton then we only have in 

 sight from this source about ten million gal- 

 lons of toluol, only about one quarter of the 

 amount required for making the munitions 

 needed for our own army. But the call 

 has already gone out for "toluol and more 

 toluol." The first measure to meet the 

 demand, and which is now being inaugu- 



rated, is the stripping of city gas of this 

 material. It can be spared without any 

 great detriment to the gas and amounts to 

 approximately .04 of a gallon per each 

 1,000 feet of gas. Ten of the largest cities 

 of the country where this process is to be 

 first installed are estimated to yield ap- 

 proximately an additional 10,000,000 gal- 

 lons. However, the problem is really in 

 process of solution. It is an extremely 

 vital question, and is causing anxiety in 

 some quarters but it will doubtless be met 

 and answered in good time. 



It may be interesting to note in passing 

 that for each gallon of toluol, there is pro- 

 duced from five to six gallons of benzol. 

 Even now this material is being produced 

 in such quantities that the usual channels 

 for its use are more than satisfied. This 

 primarily has a bearing on the dye industry 

 since it forms the starting point for the 

 largest part of the dyes. But benzol has 

 now come to be the starting point for the 

 manufacture of carbolic acid and carbolic 

 acid, or phenol, is the starting point for 

 picric acid, another explosive, and also for 

 the manufacture of Bakelite, which has 

 almost completely replaced gutta percha in 

 electrical appliances, and then, coming 

 nearer home, it is Bakelite which furnishes 

 the material for the manufacture of phono- 

 graphic records. One more possible ad- 

 aptation of benzol is of interest. It is 

 miscible in all proportions with alcohol and 

 when so mixed furnishes a motor spirit in 

 some respects superior to gasoline. Indeed 

 a well-authenticated report seems to indi- 

 cate that about 70 per cent, of the motor 

 spirit used in Germany at the present time 

 is made up of this material. These va- 

 rious items will serve at least to show the 

 interrelated character of the very large 

 and important group of interests which 

 are associated with and grow out of the 

 coking process. But time would fail me 



