THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 13 
most incomprehensible, and so closely are some of the branches 
interwoven that many of the names require to be bracketed or 
written with hyphens in order to intelligently express our sub- 
jects. The application of science to arts has kept pace with the 
discoveries, and many industries have advanced by leaps and 
bounds that are simply astonishing. 
The utilization of waste material and bye products has com- 
manded much attention, and great results have been the out- 
come. 
When this Association was founded the chimneys of chemi- 
cal factories belched forth noxious gases to such an extent that 
the adjacent country was rendered barren, not a blade of grass 
o1 green leaf could be found within a radius of miles. Laws 
compelling an abatement of this nuisance were considered great 
hardships until science rose superior to the requirements, and 
to-day these once waste gases supply the sole profits of many 
enterprises. Heaps of lime and sulphur compounds were like- 
wise thrown out to decompose and pollute the watercourses with 
every fall of rain; now, by new processes their valuable constit- 
uents are recovered and made to enter again upon rounds of 
duty for the further benefit of mankind. Coal tar and gas 
liquors have been investigated, producing the brilliant dyes of 
commerce, sweet flavors to please the palate, medicines to heal 
the sick, explosives to annihilate enemies at a range of many 
miles, and valuable fertilizers which make “two blades of grass 
to grow where only one grew before.” 
Research laboratories have been instituted, and many pro 
ducts hitherto produced only by plant life have been built up by 
synthesis, and in keen competition the artificial products have 
almost driven the natural from the fields of commerce. 
The production and consumption of steel have become so 
enormous that we may be said to live in the steel age. 
Electricity, with increased knowledge of its production and 
application, has entered as a strong factor into chemical work, 
and we have, within a few miles of us, large works for the 
direct conversion of common salt into alkali, a commercial suc 
cess rendered practicable by the dissociating current, while an- 
