Aoct£;  i9ia5rm'}  Contributions  to  Industrial  Chemistry.  471 
factured  in  this  country  as  early  as  1848,  at  Oswego,  N.  Y.,  but 
until  about  1881  little  but  the  starch  itself  was  recovered  or  sought 
to  be  recovered.  To-day,  besides  recovering  the  starch  in  a  high 
state  of  purity,  the  germ  is  made  to  yield  the  valuable  corn  oil  and 
an  oil-cake  for  cattle  feeding;  the  gluten  is  recovered  in  a  dry  state 
and,  mixed  with  the  ground  hulls,  makes  a  nitrogenous  cattle  food. 
The  extractive  matter  (or  corn-solubles)  from  the  steep  water  is 
now  also  saved  and  incorporated  with  the  gluten  feed.  The  starch 
may  be  marketed  as  dry  starch  of  various  grades  and  prepared  for 
a  variety  of  uses,  as  dextrines  of  various  colors  and  qualities,  or  as 
more  or  less  hydrolyzed  products,  known  as  corn  sugar  and  corn 
syrup.  The  oil  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of  soap,  soap  powders,  in 
the  tanning  industry  and  in  paint,  and,  what  is  of  interest,  affords, 
when  vulcanized,  an  excellent  rubber  auxiliary  or  rubber  imitation. 
It  is  also  a  source  of  glycerin,  while  the  free  fatty  acids  find  ready 
use  by  the  soapmaker.  In  fact,  this  industry,  in  its  present-day 
development,  is  one  of  the  best  illustrations  of  a  scientific  American 
chemical  industry,  working  up  a  distinctive  American  raw  material 
in  the  most  complete  way. 
Without  looking  around  for  further  individual  illustrations  of 
American-developed  chemical  industries,  we  now  turn  to  a  group  of 
industries  of  American  founding  and  developing  which  have  taken 
a  great  lead  in  the  world's  industrial  progress.  I  refer  to  the  part 
which  America  has  played  in  the  electro-chemical  and  electro-metal- 
lurgical industries,  several  of  the  most  important  of  which  are  based 
upon  the  discoveries  of  American  chemists  and  have  been  brought 
to  a  high  state  of  development  by  their  continued  effort. 
The  first  of  these  American  inventions  was  the  Hall  aluminum 
process,  dating  back  to  1886,  the  date  of  his  patent  application.  This 
fundamental  discovery  of  the  method  of  electrolyzing  alumina  dis- 
solved in  a  bath  of  fused  cryolite  has  now  supplanted  all  other 
methods,  and  the  manufacture  of  metallic  aluminum  everywhere 
throughout  the  world  is  practically  based  upon  it.  What  is  of  more 
importance  for  our  present  argument  is  that  a  great  American  in- 
dustry has  developed  from  it  and  we  have  become  the  leaders  in  the 
manufacture  of  this  important  metal  because  of  it.  The  history  of 
this  discovery  has  been  repeatedly  told  and  the  importance  of  alumi- 
num in  the  arts  has  been  pointed  out,  so  I  will  not  dwell  upon  that 
side  of  the  subject. 
We  have  next  two  important  industries,  both  based  upon  the 
