572 



SCIENCE 



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



the nuisance of "cannonading" in blast- 

 ing, which is proof in itself of the use of 

 unnecessarily excessive charges of ex- 

 plosives. 



But in urging the abating of a nuisance 

 or advising the saving of waste or the con- 

 serving of resources, we should not fail to 

 point out that it can usually be accom- 

 plished only with added expense, and that 

 a profit can rarely be realized unless the 

 operations are carried out on a quite con- 

 siderable scale. In fact, it seems to be an 

 economic law that only the rich can really 

 save; that "to him that hath shall be 

 given"; for the poor must pay the price 

 of much subdivision and the consequent 

 cost of mvich handling and a multiplicity 

 of containers. 



In fact, we should make it plain that the 

 advocacy of the saving of waste in manu- 

 facture and of conserving our resources 

 necessarily implies the use of great aggre- 

 gations of capital and the carrying on of 

 large scale operations under a single man- 

 agement. It means the application of 

 methods such as have been applied with 

 great success in the manufacture of hog 

 products or in the refining of petroleum. 

 In dealing with coke at the census of 1905, 

 I found that of the 37,376,251 tons of coal 

 coked in the United States in that census 

 year, only 3,317,585 tons, or 8.9 per cent., 

 were coked in by-product ovens, and I 

 estimated from the yields and values of 

 the by-products which were recovered that 

 had all the coal been coked in by-product 

 ovens there was a possible saving of $37,- 

 492,136.° This is an enormous amount to 

 save in a single industry in a single year, 

 and if the saving could be made an accom- 

 plished fact it would go far toward wiping 

 out that humiliating account against us in 

 our imports of "chemicals, drugs and 



» Bull. 65, U. S. Census of Manufactures, 1905, 

 p. 18. 



dyes." But I have never failed to recog- 

 nize the fact that this could only be accom- 

 plished by those controlling large capital, 

 and that it meant the "killing off" of a 

 large number of minor establishments, and 

 I have further recognized the fact that the 

 apparent savings set forth could not be 

 realized until the charges against the more 

 costly plant had been satisfied, nor until 

 the market had been so readjusted that it 

 could absorb this greatly increased output 

 of by-products. 



As an example of the commercial advan- 

 tage resulting from the abating of a nui- 

 sance, I cite the instance of Ducktown, 

 Tenn., whose smelters have for decades 

 been notorious offenders. I will not repeat 

 to yoti the details by which their devasta- 

 ting sulphurous fumes have been converted 

 into valuable merchandise, since they have 

 been so well set forth in current literature, 

 but will simply note that, by report, this 

 saving has resulted in the suspension of a 

 number of the sulphuric-acid works in the 

 contiguous region, and I am ready to be- 

 lieve this report to be true, for I look upon 

 this result as a natural consequence of the 

 operation of a wholesome law in economies. 



However, all of the endeavors avail but 

 little so long as we remain a dependent 

 nation, which the quantity of manufac- 

 tured "chemicals, drug^ and dyes" im- 

 ported by us indicates that we are, and 

 especially while we import over seven 

 million dollars' worth of coal-tar products 

 and nearly two million dollars' worth of 

 ammonium sulphate as we did in 1908, 

 and yet allow 37,000,000 dollars' worth of 

 the by-products produced in the coking of 

 our coal to be wasted. It is evident that 

 there is still a wide opportunity for the 

 employment of the chemical engineer in 

 developing our chemical industries. 



I find that I have been led to devote my 

 attention to the chemical industries of the 



