however, that real progress is mainly due. He discovers 

 fundamental facts and laws and establishes working hypoth- 

 eses and theories. The industrial chemist simply applies what 

 the pure chemist discovers. To the pure chemist much honor 

 is due. He is doing his duty well. His chief reward will lie 

 in the consciousness of having enlarged the field of knowledge, 

 and his name will be honored by future generations after the 

 industrial chemist has been forgotten. 



Because of the European war and the large decrease of 

 imports, the opportunities of industrial chemists have been 

 wonderfully multiplied. So great is the demand for chemists 

 that the young men are being taken from the universities be- 

 fore they finish their graduate courses and put to work with 

 inadequate training. There has been an increase in almost 

 every line of chemical manufacture, and nearly all manufac- 

 turing is now more or less chemical. The increase in prices 

 has caused an increase of output and an extension of business. 

 Many factories have doubled and quadrupled their capacity. 

 The largest development has been in the manufacture of those 

 substances which were formerly imported from Germany and 

 Austria, such as anilin dyes, synthetic vegetable dyes, coal and 

 coal tar products, potassium and barium salts, nitrates and so 

 forth. Of the 29,000 tons of dye stuffs used annually in the 

 United States, 6,000 tons were home made before the war ; now 

 it is estimated that three-fourths of the dyes used are made 

 in this country. In the same way the separation and refine- 

 ment of the coal tar products has been so developed in the 

 past two years that the demand can now be almost supplied 

 by the home manufacture. The production of nitrogen com- 

 pounds has been greatly increased by saving ammonia as a 

 by-product of the coke and gas industries. In addition to this 

 we have as possibilities synthetic ammonia and the oxidation 

 of atmospheric nitrogen. When the twenty million dollar 

 government plant is finished at Mussel Shoals, our supply of 

 nitrogen compounds will be adequate not only for fertilizing 

 purposes, but to supply the high explosives in case of war. 

 There is so far no sufficient visible supply of potassium com- 

 pounds. This is being partially compensated for by. the use 

 of sodium compounds which in many cases serve as well. The 

 government has taken the matter in hand and is looking for 

 sources of potassium, so far with but little success. 



That the chemists and manufacturers are improving the 

 present opportunities is evidenced by the recent chemical ex- 

 position in New York. There were more than two hundred 

 exhibitors and some three hundred and thirty exhibits. These 

 covered so nearly every field of chemical endeavor that one is 



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