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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 681 



law, medicine and civil engineering, as 

 exemplified by their most successful prac- 

 titioners and representatives, since it is not 

 too much to hope that it may, in the near 

 future, be elevated to a place of due honor 

 and prominence and given proper recogni- 

 tion in our national life, and that, eventu- 

 ally, the chemical engineer may fill many 

 of the executive and administrative offices 

 of our largest and most important indus- 

 tries. 



That our industrial progress within the 

 last half century has been phenomenal is 

 too evident to require mention. Much of 

 it has been based, however, on a very waste- 

 ful use of our natural resources, and, with 

 their approaching exhaustion, reforms must 

 be instituted and economies practised. 

 There is a marked demand for an improve- 

 ment in the quality of the output of some 

 of our industries. The field for invention 

 of new processes and new products is large. 

 That the chemical engineer will play a 

 large part in the development and regula- 

 tion of the industries of the country along 

 these lines can not be denied. It is already 

 evident in what he has done in connection 

 with the use of the electric current avail- 

 able at Niagara Palls and elsewhere. He 

 has become, and will remain, the mainstay 

 in certain particulars of the regulation and 

 development of our many industries. 



President Stone, of Purdue University, 

 has said: 



True industrial progress consists in utilizing 

 with ever-increasing economy and accuracy, nat- 

 ural forces and materials by more scientific meth- 

 ods of operation and management, in securing 

 better conditions of life for industrial workers, in 

 furnishing products of better quality at lower 

 cost, and narrowing the gap between the em- 

 ployer and the employee. 



There comes a time inevitably when the mine 

 is empty, the forest destroyed, the virgin soil 

 exhausted. Then will arise the real question of 

 industrial ability which can only be met by edu- 

 cation and training. 



As the chemical engineer will have a 

 large part in solving this problem and as 

 the demand for his services must increase 

 to a great extent, it becomes an important 

 question as to how he shall be selected, 

 educated and trained to fill the role which 

 he will have to play. It is this question 

 which I wish to discuss to-day in the light 

 of the opinions which have been ex- 

 pressed by others, and in that of my own 

 experience, the latter being that the gradu- 

 ate of our technical and scientific schools 

 who proposes to adopt the career of chem- 

 ical engineer is the product of a too narrow 

 training, being at the best an expert chem- 

 ist, and in no sense fitted to deal with af- 

 fairs or impress himself upon others. My 

 plea will be for a broader education for the 

 young man who proposes to become a chem- =■ 

 ical engineer, and for avoiding the making 

 of the intense specialist with his narrow 

 point of view and lack of culture. My 

 remarks will be addressed as well to the 

 young man who is contemplating entering 

 upon such a career, or is already in prepa- 

 ration for it, as to those who wiU be re- 

 sponsible for his training, or, as indus- 

 trialists, look forward to the advantages 

 to be derived from having available broad- 

 minded, liberally educated and cultivated 

 men who are, at the same time, chemists 

 and men of affairs, and, as such, fitted to 

 take part in the development of our indus- 

 tries. 



We must formulate our idea of what 

 constitutes a chemical engineer. In my 

 opinion, a chemical engineer is, primarily, 

 a chemist, but essentially a man of affairs 

 and executive ability who is engaged in the 

 application of the principles of chemistry 

 in the arts and industries, with special ref- 

 erence to the commercial development of 

 the industries and establishment of new 

 ones, to perfecting the arts, and by his 

 advice and cooperation, assisting other en- 

 gineers in the practise of their professions. 



