570 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 798 



reported for chemicals and allied products 

 at the census of 1905, and I find that seven 

 states or territories, viz., Arkansas, Idaho, 

 Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, 

 South Dakota and Utah did not at that 

 time possess a single establishment de- 

 voted to any of the large number of indus- 

 tries embraced in chemicals and allied 

 products. Oklahoma, New Hampshire and 

 Wyoming each possessed but one, and the 

 District of Columbia, Nebraska, Nevada, 

 Oregon, Texas and Vermont each less than 

 five. 



In order to bring this matter of the dis- 

 tribution of the industries manufacturing 

 chemicals and allied products more clearly 

 to your attention I have, through the 

 courtesy of the director of the bureau of 

 the census, had prepared a map of the 

 United States showing the location of the 

 establishments, both principal and sub- 

 sidiary, manufacturing sulphuric acid, 

 those making explosives, and those engaged 

 in wood distillation, each being a typical 

 industry, and the sulphuric acid industry 

 being generally- accepted as of fundamental 

 importance. 



From this chart it appears that 13 states 

 and territories, being the seven already 

 named (Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, New 

 Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, 

 Utah) with Iowa, Nebraska, New Hamp- 

 shire, Nevada, Oregon and "Wyoming, con- 

 taining 7,648,000 out of the 76,303,387 in- 

 habitants of the continental United States 

 in 1905, or over 10 per cent, of the whole, 

 did not possess a single establishment de- 

 voted to any one of these industries. 



Considering sulphuric acid only, which 

 is so important an industry that it has fre- 

 quently been referred to as an index of the 

 state of civilization of a people, we find that 

 23 states and territories, namely, the 13 

 just enumerated, together with Delaware, 

 District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maine, 



Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Washing- 

 ton and West Virginia containing 19,562,- 

 200 population, or 25.6 per cent, of the 

 total did not possess a single sulphuric 

 acid plant within their borders. 



Turning now to the east, we find that 11 

 out of the 13 original colonies, viz., Con- 

 necticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachu- 

 setts, New Jersey, New York, North Caro- 

 lina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South 

 Carolina and Virginia, contained 30,695,- 

 000 population, or 40.2 per cent, of the 

 total, and 100 sulphuric acid factories, or 

 67.1 per cent, of the total number existing 

 in the country. Analysis of the statistics 

 of the separate states shows that the num- 

 ber of these establishments does not follow 

 the population, Georgia, for instance, with 

 about one fourth the population of New 

 York, having twice the number of sul- 

 phuric acid factories that New York had. 



I am aware that the number of estab- 

 lishments in an industry is an unsafe 

 criterion as to the magnitude or importance 

 of that industry, but this feature has been 

 chosen as lending itself mo.st easily to 

 graphic demonstration. I have therefore 

 assembled, by geographic divisions, in 

 Table VII., data for the quantity of sul- 

 phuric acid produced, and we find that in- 

 spection of this leads to much the same 

 result as to that which was drawn from the 

 consideration of the distribution of the es- 

 tablishments. 



T.-iBLE VII. QUANTITY OF SULPHURIC ACID PBO- 



DUCED IN THE UNITED STATES BT GEOGRAPHIC 



DIVISIONS, 1905 AND 1900 



