Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
August,  191S.  J 
Solvents  from  Sea  Weed. 
591 
formerly  required,  which  seems  possible  through  this  change,  also 
by  authorizing  the  payment  of  expenses  and  perhaps  a  small  hono- 
raria for  the  actual  time  required  for  the  meetings,  it  is  believed 
that  the  best  workers  could  be  persuaded  to  give  the  necessary  time 
to  the  revision  and  thereby  present  the  U.  S.  P.  X  to  the  country  in 
record  time  and  also  provide  a  standard  for  medicine  and  pharmacy 
superior  to  any  of  its  illustrious  predecessors. 
SOLVENTS  FROM  SEA  WEED.    NEW  SOURCE  OF 
ACETATE  SALTS. 
The  success  which  has  crowned  the  efforts  of  the  Hercules  Pow- 
der Company  in  the  harvesting  and  fermentation  of  kelp  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  bids  fair  to  relieve  the  present  serious  shortage  of 
acetate  of  lime. 
The  story  of  the  venture  is  one  of  solid  achievement,  and  one  of 
which  American  chemical  engineers  may  justly  feel  proud.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  war  the  Hercules  Powder  Company  was  faced  with 
the  necessity  of  developing  an  entirely  new  source  of  supply  for  ace- 
tone in  the  manufacture  of  cordite,  the  British  smokeless  powder. 
The  company  also  needed  potassium  chloride  in  the  manufacture  of 
gunpowder.  It  has  long  been  recognized  that  kelp  contained  potash, 
and  the  industry  of  burning  the  weed  and  obtaining  the  crude  salt 
from  the  ash  has  provided  for  centuries  a  precarious  living  for  the 
crofters  on  the  coast  of  Scotland  and  elsewhere.  It  was  not  widely 
known,  however,  that  the  structure  of  the  kelp  plant  could  be  de- 
stroyed and  the  potash  released  by  simple  fermentation,  and  that 
acetic,  propionic,  butyric  and  acids  of  this  series  are  produced  as  the 
products  of  fermentation. 
From  the  germ  of  this  idea  arose  the  five  million  dollar  plant 
and  marine  equipment  of  kelp  harvesters  which  is  now  operating  on 
a  three-shift,  seven-day-week  basis  near  San  Diego,  in  southern 
California.  Potassium  chloride  of  unique  purity,  acetone,  methyl 
ethyl  ketone,  acetone  oil  and  iodine  are  being  produced  in  increasing 
scale,  while  from  the  propionate  and  butyrate  salts  the  ethyl  esters 
are  prepared,  and  will  shortly  be  on  the  market. 
The  potash  produced  so  far  is  not  nearly  sufficient  to  supply  the 
chemical  trade,  where  its  sole  application  is  being  found  on  account 
