294 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 36. 



different industries is thorougUy con- 

 firmed. 



Thus far no reference has heen made to 

 the iniluence of the industries upon the de- 

 velopment of analytical chemistry, and per- 

 haps for this there is no need. It is gener- 

 ally accepted, or is fast growing to be, that 

 it is an integral part of all technical work 

 involving any kind of chemical reactions. 

 Meyer* saj'S : "The industry practically 

 developed volumetric analysis. It was 

 first used by Decroizelles and Vauquelin in 

 an empirical way in the chemical industries 

 with which they were connected and was 

 finallj' developed rationally by Gay Lussac, 

 who brought it to a state of perfection not 

 greatly impi'oved upon in many respects." 



The industries of the earlier chemical his- 

 tory were controlled by other methods of 

 analysis also, crude, perhaps, but serving a 

 useful purpose and forming the foundation 

 of the beautiful systems in use to-day. 



In this particular the requirements of the 

 industries of the present daj' are most ex- 

 acting. Technical methods as distingiTished 

 from scientific methods have passed away, 

 for with rapidity of operation that many of 

 the processes call for, the utmost accuracj^ 

 must likewise prevail. This is particularly 

 true of the metallurgical industries in which 

 many of the operations must be controlled 

 by analysis from hoiir to hour. So, too, the 

 utmost accuracy is demanded in all work 

 controlling commercial operations, and 

 frequently the investigation required to 

 confirm the value of these so-called com- 

 mercial methods, or the data upon which 

 they are' based, brings forth results both as 

 to quality and quantity that are most grati- 

 fying. In at least two cases that have 

 come to my knowledge the directors of the 

 laboratories of great educational institu- 

 tions made requests to the directors of 

 large chemical works, asking for descrip- 

 tions of the analytical methods in daily use 



* Gesoliiohte der Chemie, 339. 



in the works in question, and the request 

 was of course cordially granted. 



And if the analytical methods of the 

 technical side are recognized as of value, so 

 too are the experimental methods. In the 

 great German chemical works, where large 

 numbers of chemists are employed, the force 

 is divided into ' laboratoriums Chemiker ' 

 and ' betriebs Chemiker,' each class having 

 its appointed work;* the first class devoted 

 to the investigation of new ideas in the 

 smaller way in the laboratory, producing 

 new compounds or investigating new reac- 

 tions, or, still further, controlling by analysis 

 the operations in the works; the second class 

 experimenting in a larger way, with larger 

 apparatus and quantities, and even with the 

 normal factor j^ facilities; with either new 

 principles deduced from the results of fac- 

 tory work, or with processes or products 

 worked out in the laboratory. The results 

 of this combination are extensive and im- 

 portant ; most of them are covered by 

 patents, it is true, but they are neverthe- 

 less offered to the world, soon become pub- 

 lic propertjr and add to the store of knowl- 

 edge. How much this really amounts to is 

 illustrated bj^ the fact that the records show 

 that the works of Fr. Bayer «& Co. patented 

 or described in the first half of 1895 forty- 

 five processes and products, while during 

 the same period there were issued to the 

 house of Meister Lucius and Brunning 

 thirty-seven patents. The number of spec- 

 ifications for chemical patentsf accepted in 

 Germanjr from 1889 to 1893 were respect- 

 ively, 4,406, 4,680, 5,900, 6,430. Of these 

 patents Dr. Freidlander J says: "If one could 

 be certain of the excellence of all these 

 compounds, a new era in the color industry 

 would be imminent. Manifestly, however, 

 even the patentees themselves find it diffi- 



* Caro, Bericlite der Deiitschen Chemischen Gesell- 

 schaft, 25, E. 967. 



fChera. Zeit. 1894, 136. 

 JCliem. Zeit. 1894, 1184. 



