December 18, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



875 



THE INDUSTEIAL CHEMISTEY OF TO-DAT 



The picture that technical chemistry- 

 presents to-day is quite different from that 

 of thirty years ago. There is more bril- 

 liancy around the accomplishment of the 

 organic than of the inorganic industries. 

 The replacement of natural dyes by the 

 products of coal tar, the extension of our 

 medical resources by the manufacture of 

 synthetic medicines, has gone far to ex- 

 tend the appreciation of chemical work and 

 to produce the general conviction that 

 chemistry is an inexhaustible field of eco- 

 nomic possibilities. Indeed, one natural 

 product after another falls into the domain 

 of chemical synthesis, and chemistry is be- 

 coming the important factor in the economy 

 of the tropical products which are used for 

 industrial purposes. As soon as the price 

 of such a product exceeds a certain limit, 

 organic chemistry enters the field and syn- 

 thesizes it. Tanning materials are in a 

 struggle with the condensation products 

 of formaldehyde and phenolsulfonic acids. 

 Camphor could maintain its position only 

 by large price reduction, and the prospect 

 of synthetic rubber has held down the 

 would-be inflated prices of the natural 

 product. The basis of this marked develop- 

 ment in organic chemical industries is the 

 combined working of science and technol- 

 ogy. The success of this intermingling is so 

 obvious that I need not dwell on the point. 



In the domain of inorganic technical 

 chemistry things are somewhat different. 

 Here, too, a great change has taken place. 

 The historical sulphuric acid and soda 

 processes have lost much ground to the 

 ammonia-soda and electrolj^tie processes, 

 and to the contact process. New branches 

 of industries have taken root and grown up. 

 In this field, however, the connection be- 

 tween scientific and technical progress is 

 neither so obvious nor so well recognized 

 as in the realm of industrial organic chem- 

 istry. The reason is that the advance in 



inorganic science, during the last decade or 

 two, has resulted less in the discovery of 

 new facts which had direct technical appli- 

 cations, than in the elucidation and working 

 out of new theoretical views. In fact, the 

 introduction of physical laws and physical 

 methods into the working sphere of inor- 

 ganic chemistry has led to the greatest 

 scientific progress. The invasion of physics 

 into chemistry has produced the splendid 

 development of physical chemistry, the 

 basis of which is the second law of thermo- 

 dynamics, the phase rule, and the theory 

 of electrolytic dissociation. The introduc- 

 tion of the electroscope into chemical anal- 

 ysis has opened up the new chemical world 

 of radioactivity. Now inorganic chemical 

 industries can gain almost as much by re- 

 garding their problems from a physical 

 point of view as organic industries do by 

 the application of structural considerations,, 



THE VALUE OP PHYSICO-CHEMICAL EESEARCS^ 



Owing to the progress of physical chem- 

 istry, based largely upon thermodynamics 

 and including the accurate quantitative 

 study of the conditions determining the 

 reactivity of substances and the velocity of 

 chemical change, chemistry has, indeed, 

 undergone revolutionizing changes during 

 the past twenty-five years. The study of 

 the behavior of catalysis comes well within 

 the province of physical chemistry. As 

 examples of industrial processes based upon 

 catalytic action, I shall mention in passing 

 the Deacon chlorine process, the contact 

 sulphuric process, the hydrogenation of un- 

 saturated fatty acids and their esters, the 

 synthesis of ammonia from its elements, 

 the oxidation of naphthalene in the produc- 

 tion of synthetic indigo, and certain meth- 

 ods of surface combustion. 



Fermentation industries and the whole 

 field of agriculture depend upon physical 

 chemistry for their further progress and' 

 development; for enzymes are essentially 



