July 6, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



have never done before how much chemis- 

 try can contribute to their success. 



At the risk of seeming personal I will 

 give a few illustrations of how chemical re- 

 search in a single laboratory has demon- 

 strated its value under American condi- 

 tions. 



A young man graduated from the course 

 in chemical engineering at the University 

 of Illinois in 1910. Soon after he was em- 

 ployed by a manufacturer of cement in the 

 state of Washington. Something had gone 

 wrong in the factory and hundreds of bar- 

 rels of cement were rejected because the 

 material did not meet the specifications. 

 The yoimg gi'aduate, trained in methods of 

 research, soon found the cause of the diffi- 

 culty and corrected it and the firm has con- 

 tinued in the successful manufacture ever 

 since. 



In 1907 a graduate of Worcester Poly- 

 teelmic Institute who had spent one year at 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

 came to Illinois as a research assistant. He 

 completed his work for the degree of Ph.D. 

 three years later and was continued as an 

 instructor and later became assistant pro- 

 fessor in charge of the division of organic 

 chemistry. In 1916 one of the oldest of the 

 firms manufacturing dyes in America 

 searched the country over to find a man to 

 organize their research laboratory. They 

 selected this man, not because of any ex- 

 perience which he had had in industrial 

 work, but because of his record as a re- 

 search worker in pure organic chemistry 

 and because of his abilitj' to apply the prin- 

 ciples of physical chemistrj^ to this field. 



Another j'oung man, a graduate of Ober- 

 lin College and trained in research by Ed- 

 gar F. Smith, of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, came to Illinois in a subordinate 

 position in 1907. During the eight or nine 

 years following he became one of the lead- 

 ing workers in this country in researches 

 upon the rare earths, and he was gradually 



advanced to the position of professor of in- 

 organic chemistry. Two or three years ago 

 he was asked by a firm in Chicago to assist 

 them in the details of an important applica- 

 tion of tungsten to an industrial use. He 

 solved the problem and the result proved to 

 be of large commercial value. Last year he 

 was asked by the firm to organize a research 

 laboratory to study the application of rare 

 metals to industrial uses. 



Another chemist who graduated at Illi- 

 nois and afterwards took his degree of 

 Ph.D. at Wisconsin is now state food com- 

 missioner of Illinois. There is not a man, 

 woman or child in the state of Illinois who 

 is not directly or indirectly dependent on 

 this chemist for the maintenance of proper 

 standards for the food which he eats. 



Many similar illustrations of the impor- 

 tance of trained chemists might be given by 

 any large university in America. 



Such a laboratory, as this has three im- 

 portant functions to perform. It must 

 give an elementary knowledge of chemistry 

 to many students who will not become 

 chemists, but who yet should study the 

 subject because chemistry touches the life 

 of every one at many points. But this 

 part of the work will be very poorly done 

 if it merely imparts a set of so-called prac- 

 tical facts about every day life. Such 

 facts will be quickly forgotten, but chem- 

 istry, better than almost any other science, 

 furnishes a basis for clear scientific think- 

 ing and for students to acquire the habit 

 of reasoning from one point to another in 

 such a manner as to connect and combine 

 their knowledge into a coherent, logical 

 system. The discipline acquired in this 

 way is of greater value than any set of 

 facts that may be learned. 



In the second, place the laboratory will 

 train a few men who will find their way 

 into chemistry as a profession — it may be 

 into some of the industries to which I have 

 referred, or to become teachers, or to work 



