912 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 494. 



mercial value to work upon. It may be, 

 since electrolysis in aqueous solutions ap- 

 pears impracticable, that refining in non- 

 aqueous solutions, or in easily fusible salts, 

 would conquer the difficulty. 



In the field of producing ferro-alloys of 

 the rare metals, for use in making special 

 steels, even the crude electric furnaces in 

 present use have demonstrated their ability 

 to produce these alloys at the minimum 

 cost. Here is a field which has been prac- 

 tically occupied by electric-furnace meth- 

 ods, or by the Goldsehmidt process, using 

 electrolytically produced aluminium, and 

 one does not need to be much of a specialist 

 in chemistry or metallurgy to see the wide 

 vista of commercial opportunities here 

 opening before us. 



While oiir largest electrometallurgical 

 industry is that of copper refining, the 

 largest industrial electrochemical operation 

 is that of producing calcium carbide. Cal- 

 cium carbide, a substance practically un- 

 known to even the skilled chemist a few 

 years ago, and now being produced by 

 thousands of tons annually. Calcium car- 

 bide^ the commercial key to the gateway 

 first pointed out by Wohler, when he made 

 artificial urea. 



But why only calcium carbide? This is 

 only one of the numerous carbides first 

 produced commercially by electrical meth- 

 ods. Silicon carbide is another which has 

 found broad applications and formed a new 

 industrj^, and it is not only possible, but 

 most probable, that other metallic carbides 

 may find large applications. Moissan has 

 shown, for instance, that uranium carbide 

 produces, with Avater, liquid hydrocarbons 

 like petroleum, and the production of arti- 

 ficial petroleum is a scientific possibility, 

 although not at present commercially prac- 

 ticable. Besides the carbides, there are 

 other electric-furnace products — the metal- 

 lic nitrides, which are awaiting further 

 study and utilization. 



One of the most vigorous and industrious 

 electrochemists said to me once, "We are 

 so overwhelmed by new things of possible 

 use to science or industry that we can at 

 most investigate only a small fraction of 

 them. It is a virgin continent of undevel- 

 oped possibilities." 



Of the possibilities of the direct prepara- 

 tion of metallic compounds from the metals, 

 the transformation of metallic salts into 

 other compounds, the fixation of the nitro- 

 gen of the air, the increased application of 

 the simple, direct and elegant methods of 

 electrolytic decomposition, reduction or 

 perduction in organic chemistry, the elec- 

 trification of soils and its influence on agri- 

 culture, the sterilization of water by elec- 

 trically made ozone and the disinfection of 

 sewage and their contribution to sanitary 

 science, and the various other unmentioned 

 possibilities of electrochemistry, time lit- 

 erally fails in a simple endeavor to men- 

 tion, let alone to discuss them. 



The great services which electrochemistry 

 has rendered humanity, and the march of 

 civilization in the past decades which meas- 

 ure its brief but phenomenal advance, are 

 but a fraction and an earnest of what is yet 

 to be accomplished. If in the battle of in- 

 dustrial competition you are summoned by 

 the conservatives of industry to strike 

 your colors, answer with the coiirage and 

 determination of the intrepid Captain John 

 Paul Jones, ' Surrender, sir ! We have only 

 begun to fight.' 



Joseph W. Richards. 

 Lehigh Universitt. 



DISTRIBUTION OF INDIAN TRIBES IN THE 



SOUTHERN SIERRA AND ADJACENT 



PARTS OF TEE SAN JOAQUIN 



VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. 



The distribution of Indian tribes in Cali- 

 fornia has never been completely worked 

 oiit. This is due partly to the difficulty 

 of the undertaking biit mainly to the in- 

 adequate amount of field work thus far 



