Apeil 15, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



571 



All investigations show that there is an 

 enormous extent of fairly well populated 

 area in this country yet awaiting develop- 

 ment by the chemical engineer, and I com- 

 mend this field of service to your attention. 



As a field in which costs may be dimin- 

 ished, attention may be called to the saving 

 of waste. So much has been said on this 

 subject that I hesitate to dwell upon it lest 

 I weary you. But I venture to suggest that 

 one remedy for waste, which has not been 

 so markedly dwelt upon as it deserves, is 

 by a change in location, and I take as an 

 example of this the gas industry. 



I have long looked upon our present 

 custom of transporting coal long distances 

 to be converted into gas as uneconomic, for 

 a not inconsiderable quantity of coal is 

 burned to provide the energy with which 

 to haul this coal. Not only that but, since 

 the gas constitutes but a very small per- 

 centage by weight of the coal, there is a 

 considerable waste in hauling the coke, with 

 its ash, and the by-products. Further, to 

 provide for emergencies, large stocks of 

 coal must be accumulated in advance at 

 the gas works, and as coal, particularly gas 

 coal, begins to deteriorate as soon as it is 

 removed from the mine, there is a very con- 

 siderable loss going on all the time from 

 this cause. Further, as the by-products or 

 residuals are now purchased in the crude 

 state in relatively small quantities at the 

 different gas works, a large part of their 

 value is consumed in collecting and trans- 

 porting them to central refineries. 



By producing the gas at the mine and 

 shipping it by pipe line the cost of haulage 

 on the coke, with its ash, and crude by- 

 products, is saved. The wastage of coal by 

 weathering is saved. The cost of collection 

 and transportation of the crude residuals 

 is saved. Such coke as is not needed for 

 industrial purposes can be converted in 

 producers into gas which, by means of in- 



ternal combustion engines, can be used in 

 generating electricity for distribution, and 

 the ash from this coal can be put into the 

 mine for use as a filler in place of coal. 



It is evident that gas can, under these 

 circumstances, be made and delivered at a 

 much less cost than is the case at present, 

 though it may be necessary after long 

 travel to enrich it near the point of con- 

 sumption. Furthermore, the valuable areas 

 now occupied by gas plants in our cities 

 can be given up to more concentrated in- 

 dustries and cheap country lands be substi- 

 tuted for them. 



I venture further to suggest that fre- 

 quently an urgent reason for saving waste 

 is to suppress a nuisance, for I do not 

 hesitate to assert that the existence of a 

 public nuisance is evidence of the existence 

 of an economic waste. 



Almost at the outset of my professional 

 life, in 1872, I became involved in the 

 famous Miller's Eiver Nuisance case and 

 it fell to my lot to examine, on behalf of 

 the citizens of Cambridge, Mass., the large 

 slaughtering houses which were believed to 

 be the cause of the nuisance, and to study 

 the operations going on within them. The 

 conditions were very complex and there 

 were a variety of causes which led to the 

 creation and maintenance of this most hor- 

 rible and most extensive nuisance, but 

 among other causes I found that the 

 slaughtering houses had permitted much 

 valuable blood and offal to escape into the 

 stream and that at that time one establish- 

 ment alone was pouring into the river, in 

 the water in which it had steamed its hogs, 

 over five tons of gelatinous matter per 

 week, and this was done in ignorance of 

 the existence of this matter in the tank 

 waters. 



What I have found to be true regarding 

 matter, I have also found to be true as 

 regards energy, and I cite as an example 



