June 17, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



909 



methods have either superseded ordinary 

 non-electric methods, or else have created 

 new industries, form a catalogue sufficiently 

 long to arrest the attention of the most 

 superficial observer., and altogether too 

 long to be mentioned in detail within the 

 limits of this address. Suffice it to men- 

 tion in passing the millions of dollars' 

 worth of copper electrolytically refined, 

 not annually, but monthly; the 100,000 

 horse-power consumed in producing cal- 

 cium carbide; the reduction of the cost of 

 aluminium from $5 a pound to 30 cents; 

 of sodium in almost azi identical ratio ; the 

 revolution being wrought in one of the 

 largest chemical industries by the produc- 

 tion of electrolytic alkali and bleach; the 

 capturing of the potassium chlorate in- 

 dustry and the manufacture of phosphorus. 



The whole story, if related at length, 

 would be the old story of homo sapieiis hav- 

 ing discovered a new tool, a new instru- 

 ment wherewith to torture mother nature; 

 a new means of reaching old or of creating 

 new results, and he is necessarily immersed 

 in enthusiasm for this ' genius of the lamp, ' 

 which has performed so many wonders and 

 promises so many more. For the use of 

 electricity puts at our disposal tempera- 

 tures never before industrially attained; 

 gives us a decomposing agent at whose bid- 

 ding the most powerful chemical com- 

 pounds resolve into their constituents; en- 

 ables us to attack and solve chemical prob- 

 lems in a manner before unthought of; 

 opens up a world of possibilities whose 

 scope we even yet but dimly comprehend. 

 This is the fascination of the subject, the 

 attractive force, the absorbing interest 

 which is reflected- in the enthusiasm of the 

 electroehemist for his profession and in the 

 gratifying success which has attended the 

 formation and growth of this electrochem- 

 ical society. 



It remains to speak, with as much def- 

 initeness as the subject permits, of the pos- 



sible enlargement and extension of these 

 industrial applications. 'Whither' is a 

 more important question than 'whence' 

 when the present prosperity and future 

 progress of the art are concerned. 



Basing our remarks upon present devel- 

 opments, it may be perceived, to start with, 

 that the electrical methods in chemistry 

 and metallurgy which are most successful 

 are either, first, those applied to the more 

 powerful chemical compounds, whose de- 

 composition by non-electric methods is 

 highly difficult and expensive, or else im- 

 possible; or, second, those applied to new 

 fields of very high temperature reactions 

 impossible of attainment by other means, 

 or, third, those applied to ordinary chem- 

 ical processes, in which the directness of 

 the electrical influence, be it decomposing, 

 reducing or perdueing, can not be dupli- 

 cated or competed with by known non- 

 electric methods. 



Primitive man took his first lesson in 

 metallurgy by learning to make iron; to 

 this the ancients added lead, copper, silver, 

 gold and even the volatile mercury. Many 

 centuries later zinc was distilled, and only 

 in the most recent times have sodium, 

 aluminium and magnesium been possi- 

 bilities. Painfully and slowly alchemy and 

 modern chemistry toiled up the heights of 

 the electrochemical series, from the easy 

 conquest of the noble metals to the power- 

 ful mastery of the strong metals, and the 

 steepest part of the ascent has been light- 

 ened by the aid of electricity, which has in 

 many cases furnished the easy path to the 

 conquest of the most difficult chemical 

 problems. 



It is related of our renowned geologist, 

 Clarence King, that he was an enthusiastic 

 mountain climber, and having from a dis- 

 tance spied a steep mountain, he conceived 

 the ambition of conquering it. Taking a 

 respite from surveying, he equipped him- 

 self for difficult climbing, and after several 



