14 BULLETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



ammonia. The gas had a varying value from a product representing 

 the chief source of revenue in some instances down to one giving 

 returns too small to justify its storage.^ The benzol, a few years 

 back, was not even recovered, so lacking was any demand for it.^ 

 The tar, like the gas, had a considerable though low range in value, 

 but until a few years ago it was scarcely profitable to extract it. 



The consequences of inadequate coal-products development in the 

 United States have been serious, in some respects critical. Here 

 falls entire responsibihty for recent shortages in explosives of certain 

 types, as well as in dyestuffs, and a variety of drugs and chemicals; 

 partial responsibility for the high cost and inadequate supply of 

 nitrogen compounds and gasoline; and even a httle of the blame for 

 the transportation congestion of 1917-18, which industrial coal-gas 

 utiUzation could have alleviated in some measure. These consider- 

 ations are apart from wasted materials and wasted opportunities. 

 The coal-products situation, indeed, represents one of the most com- 

 plex, subtle, and important problems in the whole field of industry 

 to-day; and this is true not only in respect to present conditions, 

 but also as regards the trend of future industrial growth to a degree 

 difficult of full appreciation. The failure of Great Britain to sense 

 its importance before the outbreak of the European war came des- 

 perately near causmg her defeat during the first few months of hos- 

 tilities through a lack of toluol; the situation was only saved by the 

 happy chance that the British gas industry was developed with 

 by-product recovery, and by straining met the emergency. A sim- 

 ilar omission on the part of the United States is responsible for some 

 of our recent embarrassments. A failure to remedy the situation will 

 place this country at an unfortunate disadvantage in the future. It 

 seems remarkable that a single, partly developed imit of industry can 

 have such a vital and far-reaching bearing on the well-being of the 

 entire nation, but such is unequivocally true of coal products. That 

 fact can not be expressed too plainly or in terms too strong. 



To build a proper coal-products industry, even within the limits 

 set by the coke needs of the iron industry, will require the estabUsh- 

 ment of a steady demand for the four by-products — gas, ammonia, 

 benzol, tar — ^which will give thfem a commercial value in keeping with 

 their real worth. This, in turn, will depend upon an enlarged utiUza- 

 tion of gas for fuel purposes, and the growth of a substantial coal-tar 

 industry that to the certain values of the primary products will add 

 indefinite constructive possibihties of increased values in a field 

 already advanced to the point where warfare, textiles, and chemical 

 manufacture are utterly dependent upon it. The whole accom- 



» It is signifleant that in 1915 the average cost of city gas was 91 cents per 1,000 cubic feet, while the average 

 cost of gas from by-product coke ovens was 10 cents. 

 i And benzol contains toluol, upon an adequate supply of which modem warfare is absolutely dependent. 



