August 25, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



271 



of a congress on the progress made since the 

 outbreak of war in British chemical industry. 

 The following papers were read and discussed : 

 (1) Fuel. — Fuel economy: a national policy 

 required, Professor H. E. Armstrong; Some 

 recent improvements in coke works practise, 

 Dr. 6. P. Lishman; Waste in coal production, 

 Professor H. Louis. (2) Shale Oil— The 

 shale oil industry, D. E. Steuart. (3) Tar 

 Distilling. — A short review of the influence ex- 

 erted by the war on the tar distilling indus- 

 try, W. H. Coleman; The extraction of tar fog 

 from hot gas, G. T. Purves. (4) Dyes. — The 

 difficulties of coal-tar color-making in war- 

 time, C. M. Whittaker (British Dyes, Ltd.). 

 (5) Fine Chemicals. — Notes on the production 

 of alkaloids as affected by the war, D. B. 

 Dott; The manufacture of synthetic organic 

 drugs as affected by the war, F. H. Carr; The 

 manufacture of fine chemicals in relation to 

 British chemical industry, C. A. Hill and T. 

 D. Morson. (6) Paper-making. — The paper- 

 mill chemist in war-time, J. F. Briggs. (7) 

 Patent Law. — The overhauling of our Pat- 

 ent Law, J. W. Gordon; The influence of the 

 Patent Laws upon industry, W. F. Keid; Pro- 

 posed amendments to English Patent Law, W. 

 P. Thompson. (8) Rare Earths.- — The prog- 

 ress of British rare-earth industry during the 

 war, S. J. Johnstone. To illustrate the prog- 

 ress that has been made, an exhibition was 

 held, at the same time, of specimens of British- 

 made coal-tar dyes, glass, porcelain and filter 

 paper, along with several other interesting 

 substances now made in Edinburgh. Among 

 these may be mentioned cobalt-blue — a sub- 

 stance never before manufactured in this 

 country — now made by the Beaverhall Color 

 Co.; trinitrotoluene by the Lothian Chemical 

 Co.; erasers, etc., manufactured by the North 

 British Rubber Co., the supply of which form- 

 erly was entirely imported from Germany. 



The recovery of the valuable by-products 

 from American coke manufacture made big 

 advances in 1915 and has now attained the pro- 

 portions of an important industry. The value 

 of these by-products last year was nearly $30,- 

 000,000, a large increase over the previous 

 high-water mark of $17,500,000 in 1914. Al- 



though there were material increases in the 

 output and value of gas, tar and ammonia, 

 which was to be expected with a greater output 

 of by-product coke, the increase in benzol pro- 

 ducts was remarkable and presented the most 

 interesting feature of the year in the coke in- 

 dustry. The value of these products rose from 

 less than $1,000,000 in 1914 to more than $7,- 

 760,000 in 1915, according to C. E. Lesher, of 

 the United States Geological Survey, Depart- 

 ment of the Interior. Benzol has been recov- 

 ered in this country from coke-oven gas for a 

 number of years, but prior to 1915 the market 

 was small and the prices low. The awakening 

 of the American people to the need for a dye 

 industry and to a realization that such an in- 

 dustry can not spring full-grown from nothing 

 but must be fostered and developed is now a 

 well-known story. Few are aware, however, 

 of the progress that has been made within a 

 year in laying the foundations for future 

 progress in that industry. Under the spur of 

 almost fabulous prices for benzol products, re- 

 tort coke-oven plants throughout the country 

 quickly installed elaborate benzol-recovery 

 systems and now save the valuable oils that 

 not very long ago were being buried or wasted, 

 or, if saved, were begging for a market. The 

 benzol products obtained in 1915 amounted to 

 16,600,657 gallons. More than 13,000,000 gal- 

 lons of the total output was reported as crude 

 light oil and had an average value of 33 cents. 

 Some of the plants have their own stills and 

 refineries, and the pure benzol reported from 

 those sources amounted to 2,516,483 gallons, 

 with an average value of nearly 57 cents, at 

 least three times the value of crude benzol be- 

 fore the war, and 623,506 gallons of toluol, 

 with an average value of $2.45 a gallon. Crude 

 benzol, which in 1914 was used to some extent 

 for motor fuel, contained the toluol, which is 

 now separated out and sold at fancy prices. 

 More than 138,000,000 gallons of tar was ob- 

 tained from coke ovens and sold for $3,568,384 

 in 1915. The ammonia, of which nearly 100,- 

 000 tons was reported as sulphate and the re- 

 mainder as liquor (10,626,612 gallons) and 

 anhydrous ammonia (30,002,196) pounds), 

 brought a total of $9,867,475 to the producers. 



