June 16, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



839 



have already mentioned, not to talk of the 

 new materials and procedures which have 

 been incorporated into many of them, 

 makes for greatly enlarged experience in 

 chemical engineering designing, construc- 

 tion and operation. It is easy to see the 

 pressure these things are going to exert 

 upon the future development of American 

 chemical industries. The American chem- 

 ist's experience is becoming greatly ex- 

 panded and the significance of this is ap- 

 parent when we consider that engineering 

 progress is a function of demand, and skill 

 or experience in solving problems. The 

 demand increment is ever expanding with 

 the development of the country. In addi- 

 tion the skill acquired in the production 

 of munitions is a valuable potential asset 

 for defense should such a necessity ever 

 arise. Such preparedness is highly to be 

 desired. Then too at the close of the war 

 when the output of these plants is no longer 

 needed for that purpose, their equipment 

 and intelligence will be directed into what- 

 ever field promises most. Already some of 

 these concerns are assured that some of 

 their products will find a continuous de- 

 mand after munitions manufacturing 

 ceases, which will be some little time after 

 actual hostilities are at an end. The field 

 of dye production is already attracting 

 some of them. Without doubt the indus- 

 trial rearrangements to follow the war will 

 leave us much better situated in our ability 

 to cope with the problems of chemical pro- 

 duction. At any rate, powerful financial 

 interests will attack these problems as they 

 never have been attacked before. These in- 

 terests will constitute another great force, 

 which will be particularly effective after the 

 war. When they seek new outlets for mate- 

 rials such as alcohol, benzol and acids, 

 whose production they are greatly accele- 

 rating at the present the gasoline and other 

 problems will be greatly affected. These 



interests will be found after the war lined 

 up behind the industrial chemists who have 

 been struggling for years against all kinds 

 of unfair competition and disreputable de- 

 preciation. Then again, any change in 

 process, be it ever so time-worn chemistry 

 or transient in its nature, if it actually is 

 put into successful operation under the then 

 existing conditions, must of necessity push 

 out the boundaries of experience to greater 

 and greater distances and make us better 

 able to meet the problems of the future. 

 Chemical engineering is like any other divi- 

 sion of engineering, it grows by what it 

 accomplishes. In this proof of ability to 

 meet a transient emergency the American 

 chemist is certainly reaping a hundred- 

 fold, from his unadvertised care in the 

 meeting of his industrial problems of the 

 years which have gone before. Individual 

 cases of progress and development which 

 I have mentioned, it is easily seen, are 

 rarely of great importance in themselves. 

 We have not been revolutionizing on a 

 great scale nor have we been jumping at 

 once into great new national industries, but 

 we are rather directing the normal steady 

 gait of our progressive industrial develop- 

 ment with keener perception toward more 

 complete self-containedness, and thorough 

 industrial preparedness. Some of the in- 

 dustries mentioned which receive much 

 public attention are of relatively little im- 

 portance compared with many other items 

 aifected. The dyestuff shortage appears to 

 annoy many, but the complaint is out of all 

 proportion to the facts and the damage 

 done, compared with that of other com- 

 modities. We import normally, for in- 

 stance, $9,000,000 in coal-tar dyes per 

 annum and if we should make them all our- 

 selves — which we shall only gradually ap- 

 proximate — we should only increase our 

 chemical manufactures two per cent, and 



