August 7, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



187 



ically well-advised bankers, but they were 

 helped to the rapid solution of all the side 

 problems by a group of specially selected 

 scientific collaborators, as well as by all the 

 resourcefulness of well-established chem- 

 ical enterprises. 



That such conditions are possible in the 

 United States has been demonstrated by 

 the splendid team-work which led to the 

 development of the modem Tungsten lamp 

 in the research laboratories of the General 

 Electric Company, and to the development 

 of the Tesla polyphase motor, by the group 

 of engineers of the Westinghouse Company. 



True, there are endless subjects of re- 

 search and development which can be 

 brought to success by the efforts of single 

 independent inventors, but there are some 

 problems of applied science which are so 

 vast, so much surrounded with ramifying 

 difficulties, that no one man, nor two men, 

 however exceptional, can either furnish 

 the brains or the money necessary for lead- 

 ing to success within a reasonable time. 

 For such special problems, the rapid co- 

 operation of numerous experts and the 

 financial resources of large establishments 

 are indispensable. 



All these examples of the struggle for 

 efficiency and improvement demonstrate 

 why, in industrial chemistry, the question 

 of dollars and cents has to be taken very 

 much into consideration. 



From this standpoint at least, the "dol- 

 lars and cents" argument can be inter- 

 preted as a sjTuptom of industrial effi- 

 ciency, and thus, the definition sounds 

 no longer as a reproach. With some allow- 

 able degree of accuracy, it formulates one 

 of the economic aspects of any acceptable 

 industrial chemical process. 



Indeed, barring special conditions, as, 

 for instance, incompetent or reckless man- 

 agement, unfair competition, monopolies, 

 or other artificial privileges, the money 



success of a chemical process is the cash 

 plebiscite of approval of the consumers. 

 It is bound, after a time at least, to weed 

 out the inefficient methods. 



Some chemists, who have little or no 

 experience with industrial enterprises, are 

 too much over-inclined to judge a chemical 

 process exclusively from the standpoint of 

 the chemical reactions involved therein, 

 without sufficient regard to engineering 

 difficulties, financial requirements, labor 

 problems, market and trade conditions, 

 rapid development of the art involving fre- 

 quent disturbing improvements in methods 

 and expensive changes in equipment, ad- 

 vantages or disadvantages of the location 

 of the plant, and other conditions so numer- 

 ous and variable that many of them can 

 hardly be foreseen even by men of experi- 

 ence. 



And yet, these seemingly secondary con- 

 siderations most of the time become the 

 deciding factor of success or failure of an 

 otherwise well-conceived chemical process. 



The cost of transportation alone will, 

 frequently, decide whether a certain chem- 

 ical process is economically possible or not. 

 For instance, the big Washoe Smelter, in 

 Montana, wastes enough sulphuric-dioxide 

 gas to make daily 1,800 tons of sulphuric 

 acid, but that smelter is too far distant 

 from any possible market for such a quan- 

 tity of otherwise valuable material. 



Another example of the kind is found in 

 the natural deposits of soda or soda lakes 

 in California. One of these soda lakes con- 

 tains from thirty to forty-two million tons 

 of soda. Here is a natural source of supply 

 which would be ample to satisfy the world's 

 demand for many years to come. Similar 

 deposits exist in other parts of the world, 

 but the cost of transportation to a suffi- 

 ciently large and profitable market is so 

 exorbitant that, ia the meantime, it is 

 cheaper to erect at more convenient points 



