June 24, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



35: 



ciated. Notwithstanding our abundant supplies of crude 

 materials, with cheap fuel in unlimited quantities and a 

 ready market with an increasing demand, we continue to pay 

 enormous sums for imported products that should be pro- 

 duced at home. The causes of this condition of affairs should 

 not be far to seek. That it is not from lack of enterprise is 

 evident from the readiness with which novel schemes are 

 able to secure financial support. It is generally understood 

 that the principal hindrance to home production is the high 

 cost of labor as compared with prices paid in Europe, and it 

 is sometimes hinted that it is in part due to a lack of thor- 

 oughly trained scientific specialists. As regards the higher 

 cost of manual labor here, it would seem that the difference 

 must be less than the cost of importation, which includes the 

 tariff. If this state of affairs is in any degree due to a dearth 

 of scientific men capable of conducting manufacturing opera- 

 tions, and the scientific schools cannot produce such men, 

 truly the schools are not taking advantage of their opportu- 

 nities. That such a feeling exists with some manufacturers 

 is evident from the fact that they send abroad for their 

 chemists. Whether better talent is secured than can be ob- 

 tained at home may well be regarded as an open question. 

 Perhaps a still broader view of the situation is necessary; it 

 may be that our invested capital is too busy in securing 

 lucrative returns from business enterprises connected with the 

 development of our natural resources to undertake operations 

 that require skilful management to yield even a fair profit, 

 and that we are therefore better content at present to pay 

 importers' prices than to manufacture ourselves. If this be 

 true, we must wait with patience for a change that will 

 surely come. 



Altogether the outlook for the immediate future is en- 

 couraging. In several directions the manufacture of chemi- 

 ■cal products has begun, and others will follow. There are 

 ■certain lines along which rapid development may evidently 

 soon be expected, and one of the most promising is sal-soda. 

 Until quite recently the Le Blanc process, which was in- 

 vented in France to manufacture soda-ash when the supply 

 from natural sources was largely cut off during the French 

 devolution, has supplied the world since early in the present 

 «entury. In utilizing all bye-products the great Le Blanc 

 works of Europe have been able to produce soda ash at a 

 trifiing cost. A Le Blanc plant has never been established 

 here, and probably one never will be. Such a plant requires 

 an immense capital, and, besides, a combination of coal, salt, 

 and limestone, that can be found close at hand in but fe\y 

 localities. Within a few years another method, known as 

 the ammonia-soda process, has been put into operation in 

 Europe. The first-cost of a plant for this process is not 

 large, and since it furnishes a purer product than the Le 

 Blanc method, it will probably supply a considerable portion 

 of the sal-soda of the future, especially in this country. The 

 newer method has the especial advantage that it forms bi- 

 ■carbonate of soda direct and very pure. Two plants for this 

 process have been erected here, one of which has been in 

 operation at Syracuse, N.Y., for several years, and the other 

 has recently been erected in Cleveland. 



As another illustration of the possibilities in store for us, 

 I will ask your attention to this lump of porcelain clay that 

 ■came from a large deposit in Maryland, and there are large 

 deposits in other localities. This clay is quite as pure and 

 quite as well adapted for the manufacture of the finest por- 

 <;elain as any in use in France or Germany. Of the other 

 materials necessary in this industry, this quartz and this 

 feldspar are just as pure, and we have extensive deposits of 



both. We have also cheap fuel, and yet we pay a tariff of 

 forty-five per cent ad valorem for English, French, and 

 German porcelain, besides paying the potter a fair price for 

 his labor. All such porcelain as we have before us is made 

 at the Royal Berlin Porcelain Factory, where it has been 

 shaped, baked, and decorated by father and son for one hun- 

 dred and thirty years. Who will venture to predict the 

 possible developments in our own country during an equal 

 period in the future ? At present we make certain kinds of 

 ware, but no one needs to be told the difference between it 

 and the elegant Dresden, Sevres, or Royal Worcester. 



A single additional example will doubtless suffice to show 

 what we may reasonably expect in the future. The produc- 

 tion of artificial dyes and colors from coal-tar has assumed 

 enormous proportions since it was begun thirty years ago. 

 Graebe and Liebermann invented the process for the prepa- 

 ration of artificial alizarine in 1869, and in 1880 it was esti- 

 mated that this invention had saved |30,000,000, the addi- 

 tional cost if the same quantity of this dye-stuff had been 

 obtained from natural madder. At present there are twelve 

 large alizarine factories in Germany and England, but not 

 one in the United States. The annual production of anthra- 

 cene paste, the source of alizarine, is three thousand tons; 

 but not a single pound is manufactured here. Of the total 

 output of alizarine, 2,154,930 pounds, valued at §358,882, are 

 consumed in this country. The estimated daily production of 

 aniline and similar dyes, in England, France, and Germany, 

 is estimated at 35,000 pounds, and in 1890 importations into 

 the United States were valued at $1,787,558. Naphthalene, 

 another constituent of coal-tar, until quite recently was 

 pi-actically a waste product; but thorough study of the 

 naphtols, their sulphonic acids and other derivatives, has re- 

 vealed the beauty and permanency of the numerous colors 

 that may be derived from them, and they are now produced 

 in considerable quantities. One factory in this country 

 holds patents for the preparation of colors from naph to! -sul- 

 phonic acids. Yet with this condition of our manufactures 

 we have the largest deposits of coal in the world, and the 

 products of its distillation are collected in immense quantities. 

 These products have even been sent abroad to be manufac- 

 tered into colors and returned to us for consumption at a 

 very high cost. 



A clearer insight into the extent of our importations of 

 pi-oducts that might be produced at home may be given by a 

 review of quantities and values selected from the Annual 

 Report of the Bureau of Statistics on Foreign Comrfierce and 

 Navigation for the year ending June 20, 1890: — 



PouQda. Values. 



Potaaslc chlorate 2,442,775 



" dichromate 1,166,00) 



" ferrocyauide 849,070 



Total soda, luoludlng ash, salt-cake, bicar- ( $5,099,327) 



bonate 334,531,n50 iDuty $l,6SS,07li" 



Sodlc hydrate 79,481,923 



Kaolin (tous) 87,136 



Total clays (tous) 336.488 



China and Pottery $4,791,474 



Glassware $7,351,570 



Glucose 911,573 



Iron, steel, and manufactures ot the J &43, 493,074) 



same JDuty $18,334,175) 



Carbolic acid 532,237 



Oxalic acid 1,973.050 



Alizarine, artlflclal and natural 2,155,020 



Manganese blnoside 22,587,848 



MUk-3Ugar 339,684 



Alum 6,882,035 



Ammonium salts 6,911,323 



Coal-tar colors not enumerated $1,813,771 



Dextrine 9,183,566 



Glycerine (Crude) 11,811,308 



" (Refined) 210,545 



Lead acetate 19,000 



