Mat 5, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



635 



the living state of the oak species. "We are 

 much more interested in what is to come 

 than in what has already been accom- 

 plished. 



I realize that I ought to illustrate this 

 appeal for research by concrete examples 

 of things to discover. I know the feeling 

 of the chemist who is mentally compressed 

 by the mass of investigation work which has 

 already been done and by the known facts 

 which seem already to entirely cover all 

 possibilities; but I know, too, that the fu- 

 ture will make use of knowledge for which 

 we now have no vocabulary and no powers 

 for comprehension, and so could not pos- 

 sibly anticipate. If, then, I try to illus- 

 trate the search for new knowledge, you 

 may be sure my illustrations will be inade- 

 quate. 



In the first place, I can not be reckless 

 enough. This I learn from looking back- 

 ward. I would not have dared suggest that 

 a dozen good men should study the little 

 hydrogen generator of the freshman labo- 

 ratory, to see what was in it. If I had, I 

 suppose I should have suggested a research 

 on pipe organs, because of the singing 

 hydrogen flame, or on bombs, because of its 

 explosion. But some one tried synthetic 

 ammonia, others Zeppelins, and others the 

 cutting and welding of iron. When I see in 

 our factory the three score men now using 

 oxhydrogen all day for this latter use, I am 

 impressed with the eternal proximity of 

 new and useful knowledge. A very few 

 years ago, two or three times as many men 

 would have been necessary to do this work 

 in the old more difficult and less satisfactory 

 manner. 



The most natural suggestions for re- 

 search are those simple ones referring to 

 chemical elements. There are still plenty of 

 unknowns among the elements, and of one 

 thing we may be sure, there are certainly 

 no two alike. Any chemist who wants to 



add to chemical knowledge need not go be- 

 yond the list of elements for his subject. 

 The properties he discloses will every one 

 of them be sometime a help to his science 

 and of service to his country. As far as 

 possible, his country will reward him with 

 patents if he asks them. 



We ought to begin at the points where 

 others left off, and continue the research 

 of the chemical elements. One reason why 

 this appeals to me is that I have seen so 

 many recent applications of entirely new 

 knowledge of elements in my own work. 

 I will just mention tungsten, molybdenum, 

 boron, argon, silicon, magnesium, titanium, 

 thallium, vanadium and chromium, which, 

 because of properties not known until re- 

 cently, are nevertheless already doing com- 

 mercial service in our restricted electrical 

 field. Surely we know still far too little 

 about these elements, but we know less 

 about some others. 



If now the chemist, still forgetting the 

 compounds and narrowed in his researches 

 to the elements, and then perhaps to the 

 metals, and finally to a single element, still 

 asks, what shall I do? I would refer him 

 to the isotopes of his element. Our Amer- 

 ican Richards, supporting the researches re- 

 sulting from the studies of radioactivity, 

 has shown that there are two leads. They 

 are somewhat different, but can not be sepa- 

 rated easily. Of course some one ought to 

 separate all isotopes, and then there is 

 plenty of room for research on the single 

 isotope. 



One of the great needs of the country 

 which reflects on us chemists and calls for 

 immediate research is that for American 

 potash. There is no supply in sight which 

 is nearly comparable with the German de- 

 posits, and our fertilizer and other indus- 

 tries will certainly suffer because of this 

 deflciency. We have plenty of feldspar 

 calling for a simple process for removing 



