STATE GEOLOGIST. 157 
market. The most important position around a cement plant is often 
filled by a poorly paid man, who is not capable of doing the best work 
which can be done in his line. The works, however, are in charge of a 
well paid mechanical engineer, often entirely ignorant of the chemical 
principles underlying cement manufacture. The chemist is relegated to 
his laboratory where he has little voice in the management of mill affairs, 
although on him rests the chief responsibility for the quality of the ce- 
ment. This state of affairs is partly the fault of the chemist and 
largely the fault of his college training. The usual academic course in 
a college, with a little elective work in chemistry, does not fit a man for a 
responsible industrial position, nor does even a good course in pure chem- 
istry. The training of an industrial chemist should be stronger along 
engineering lines that it is now, with enough work in chemistry to give 
him clear conceptions of the entire field of chemistry. This can be done 
in four years, although five years’ training would be much more desirable, 
in spite of what has been said by prominent teachers in chemistry who 
seem to think that all the time should be spent in studying pure chem- 
istry. Practical experience has shown the writer that the pedagogical 
value of the study of chemistry is greatly enhanced if supplemented by 
the study of engineering subjects in an elaborate course of industrial 
chemistry. Greater mental accuracy is attained and broader conceptions. 
The subject of industrial chemistry cannot be properly taught except by 
men who have had at least several vears of practical experience in the 
industries. ‘The teaching of purely college men will invariably lack force 
and life in industrial topics. As a rule, the average course in industrial 
chemistry 1s more or less of a farce, and does not bring out the main 
principles of combustion, ignition, drying, crushing, grinding, screening, 
and separating, filtration, etc., with sufficient clearness. But even though 
the chemical part of the work is unsatisfactory, if the course as a whole 
contains sufficient general engineering, it will tend to produce men more 
valuable to the industry. What the American Portland cement industry 
chiefly needs is well-trained chemical engineers to take the place of the 
mechanical engineers who are now trying to manage an industry for which 
their training has not prepared them. 
