SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
and with no organization which could bring all the different works into 
co-operative production upon the new basis; in fact, no single authority, 
whether an individual or a corporate body, existed who had more than 
a vague knowledge of the potentialities for production of the chemical 
works of the United Kingdom. The utmost confusion prevailed for 
a lengthy period, and was only slowly and incompletely dispersed by the 
intense labours of the newly established Ministry of Munitions. 
The task of working up the Explosives Department of the Ministry, 
which was allotted to Lord Moulton, involved the manufacture of some 
2,000 tons per week of propellant explosives, chiefly cordite, 1,000 tons 
per week of picric acid, 2,500 tons of T.N.T. per week, and 3,000 tons 
per week of ammonium nitrate, together with enormous quantities of 
essential auxiliaries, such as nitric and sulphuric acids, alcohol, and 
acetone. The scale of production attained by this Department consti- 
tutes one of the great achievements of the war; it is a remarkable 
‘tribute to the power of co-ordination exerted by its chief and to the 
enthusiasm with which our great chemical firms and the departmental 
staff of chemists and engineers co-operated in its establishment. It is 
true that many mistakes were made, but it is equally true that our 
enemies, in spite of their already existing organization and powers of 
production, fell into more numerous and more disastrous errors. 
In one respect the chemical manufactories of Central Europe still 
retain an important advantage over those of the United Kingdom. The 
German works have been greatly extended during the war, but owing 
to the pre-existence of a highly efficient organization it has been possible 
to carry out the developments called for by increasing military de- 
mands in such a manner that the whole can be effectively utilized on 
demobilization for a much larger peace production. The major portion 
of the new works established in Great Britain were of necessity de- 
_signed purely to meet war requirements, and are now to all intents and 
purposes useless. Whilst many of these works are now entirely: dere- 
lict the corresponding German works are ready to meet far greater 
calls on their peace production of important chemical substances; in 
this respect Germany leaves the war better equipped as a manufacturing 
competitor than when she entered it. 
The maintenance of a kind of census upon the capacities of pro- 
duction of the chemical works of the country, and of a sort of control 
to insure that the country can command under any prevailing external 
conditions the needed quantities and varieties of explosives for military 
use, is essential. This is an Imperial aspect of chemical science 
neglect of which will not be susceptible to remedy in the future as it 
has been in the past. The Empire requires to maintain intact its 
large heavy chemical industry, the manufacture of alkalies and their 
compounds, and of common acids, and all those chemical industries 
concerned with metallurgical products and compounds of the metals, 
and to insure that it is capable of supplying home, colonial, and certain 
foreign needs on a competitive basis under peace conditions, and all 
probable home needs in time of war. <A flourishing fine chemical in- 
dustry capable of producing synthetic dyes, pharmaceutical and photo- 
graphic requisites, and large numbers of other organic compounds for 
which the demand is small but imperative, is also essential to the well- 
being of the Empire in either peace or war. ia 
416 
