June 15, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



599 



highly developed in the world also renders 

 distinct service in war time because it is 

 vital to engineering and in the production 

 of arms and ammunition. We, however, 

 will emphasize more particularly the twin 

 fields of industrial chemistry and chemical 

 engineering, because in the nature of 

 things this field is less popularly known 

 even among chemists. Industrial chemis- 

 try is that branch of chemistry which uses 

 all the rest of chemistry and much engi- 

 neering, for the furtherance of production 

 of chemical substances, or, the use of chem- 

 ical means or methods for manufacturing 

 any material of commerce. Chemical engi- 

 neering is that branch of engineering and 

 industrial chemistry which applies engi- 

 neering principles and methods to chemical 

 manufacturing or production. Because 

 their aim is production these two fields have 

 been largely dominated by war conditions 

 for the past three years. On them the war 

 has had two mutually antagonistic effects, 

 the one retarding or injuring and the other 

 developing and benefiting. 



war's damage to chemical industet 

 The main factors vital to success in any 

 chemical industry are 



I. Thorough knowledge of an assured 

 market. 



II. Possession of at least one well stud- 

 ied and workable chemical process and 

 cliemical ability to handle it economically 

 under varying raw material and finished 

 product markets. 



III. Possession of engineering ability to 

 carry out and maintain in operation the 

 chemistry involved in the process. 



IV. Sufficient margin of profit to at- 

 tract capital and business confidence in 

 chemical and engineering ability in meet- 

 ing the problems of the field. 



Any thing or any one who weakens or 

 strikes at any of these four factors is an 



enemy of chemical industry and does dam- 

 age to it. 



When war was declared in Europe stag- 

 nation set in at once in the chemical indus- 

 tries and indications of disaster were the 

 rule in many of them. Petroleum refining, 

 turpentine, rosin and wood products among 

 others, were hard hit because we are strong 

 exporters and such industries as mixed fer- 

 tilizer manufacture also, because we im- 

 port heavily of potash. This stagnation 

 could not last long since the chemical in- 

 dustries underlie the whole fabric of mod- 

 ern industrial development and civiliza- 

 tion, and production is necessary to life. 

 Eventually, therefore, the chemical indus- 

 tries were forced to resume operations but 

 great uncertainty as to markets rendered 

 operations difficult and held back many 

 changes in processes and equipment rend- 

 ered necessary by changes in source or kind 

 of raw materials. The nature of these in- 

 dustries is often such that the failure of 

 supply of one chemical raw material even 

 if used in but limited amounts may prove 

 fatal by rendering the product unsatisfac- 

 tory to the market if indeed it is not en- 

 tirely valueless. A good illustration of the 

 vital importance of accurate knowledge of 

 the market in these chemical industries is 

 furnished by the dye situation, where we 

 had recently the anomalous condition of 

 bitter complaint of shortage by consumers 

 simultaneously with utter inability of some 

 producers to market their product, and still 

 other producers with large contracts for 

 product and inability to produce due to 

 poor deliveries or failure of equipment. 

 These difficulties do much harm since they 

 tend to discourage capital and it must not 

 be forgotten that industrial chemical de- 

 velopment is impossible without capital. 

 German chemical manufacturers under- 

 stood this clearly when they organized 

 American branches of their color works, 

 eliminating American employees to conceal 



