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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1023 



many in this branch of science, ahead of all 

 other nations. 



Money and effort had to be spent freely 

 for further research. The best scholars in 

 chemistry were called into action. Some 

 men, who were preparing themselves to 

 become professors, were induced to take a 

 leading part as directors in one or an- 

 other of the new chemical enterprises. 

 Others, who refused to forsake their 

 teachers' career, were retained as advisers 

 or guides, and, in several instances, the 

 honor of being the discoverers of new proc- 

 esses, or a new dye, was made more sub- 

 stantial by financial rewards. The modest 

 German university professor, who hereto- 

 fore had lived within a rather narrow 

 academic sphere, went through a process 

 of evolution, where the rapidly growing 

 chemical industry made him realize his 

 latent powers and greater importance, and 

 broadened his influence far beyond the 

 confines of his lecture-room. Even if he 

 were altruistic enough to remain indiffer- 

 ent to fame or money, he felt stimulated 

 by the very thought that he was helping, 

 in a direct manner, to build up the nation 

 and the world through the immediate appli- 

 cation of the principles of science. 



In the beginning, science did all the 

 giving and chemical industry got most of 

 the rewards; but soon the roles began to 

 change to the point where frequently they 

 became entirely inverted. The universities 

 did not furnish knowledge fast enough to 

 keep pace with the requirements of the 

 rapidly developing new industries. Modem 

 research laboratories were organized by 

 some large chemical factories on a scale 

 never conceived before, with a lavishness 

 which made the best equipped university 

 laboratory appear like a timid attempt. 

 Germany, so long behind France and Eng- 

 land, had become the recognized leader in 

 organic manufacturing processes, and 



developed a new industrial chemistry based 

 more on the thorough knowledge of organic 

 chemistry than on engineering skill. 



In this relation, it is worth while to point 

 out that the early organic industrial chem- 

 istry, through which Germany was soon to 

 become so important, at first counted its 

 output not in tons, but in pounds — not in 

 size nor in quantity, but in variety and 

 quality. 



Now let us see how Germany won her 

 spurs in chemical engineering as well: 



At the beginning, the manufacturing 

 problems in organic chemistry involved 

 few, if any, serious engineering difficulties, 

 but required, most of all, a sound theoret- 

 ical knowledge of the subject; this put a 

 premium on the scientist, and could afford, 

 for awhile at least, to ignore the engineer. 

 But when growing developments began to 

 claim the help of good engineers, there 

 was no difficulty whatsoever in supplying 

 them, nor in making them cooperate with 

 the scientists. In fact, since then, Germany 

 has solved, just as successfully, some of the 

 most extraordinary chemical engineering 

 problems ever undertaken, although the 

 development of such processes was entered 

 upon at first from the purely scientific side. 



In almost every ease, it was only after 

 the underlying scientific facts had been 

 well established, that any attempt was 

 made to develop them commercially. 



Healthy commercial development of new 

 scientific processes does not build its hope 

 of success upon the cooperation of that 

 class of "promoters" which are always 

 eager to find any available pretext for 

 making "quick money," and whose scien- 

 tific ignorance contributes conveniently to 

 their comfort by not interfering too much 

 with their self-assurance and their voluble 

 assertions. The history of most of the suc- 

 cessful recent chemical processes abounds 

 in examples where, even after the under- 



