NEW INDUSTRIES Chemistry has introduced many new notes into industry. The photographic industry is an example of one founded on a single chemical fact, namely, that halogen salts of silver turn dark in the light. Unpromising raw materials have been made the basis of new industries such as the manufacture of ethylene glycol and its derivatives from natural gas, and the preparation of amyl alcohol and compounds derived therefrom, from pentane separated from natural gas gasolene. Cellulose derived from wood, cotton and annual growing stocks, has been made the promising raw material of the immediate future, and already supplies a variety of lacquers, several kinds of artificial silk or rayon, artificial leath ers, sausage casings and films used for a variety of display and wrapping purposes. Synthetic resins, prepared in the laboratory, have provided a building material of great importance in these days of mass production, lending themselves particularly to moulding compounds, enabling metal inserts to be moulded in place, and intricate forms to be produced by a single operation. Acetic acid, once a by-product of wood distillation, is now pro duced by fermentation, and acetic anhydride is prepared by catal ysis from acetylene gas. Methanol is prepared on a great scale from gases derived from coal. Aluminium since its introduction into industry has become a metal of many uses produced in great quantity. Metals such as tungsten, tantalum and molyb denum, once regarded as rare, are now important commercially. Another service has been the supply of materials prepared accord ing to precise requirements. The range of alloys permits to-day a careful selection, depending upon the peculiar use, thus contrib uting directly to economic savings possible through longer life in service or resistance to rust and corrosion.
In the field of organic chemistry the work of arranging atoms and molecules to order has been of the greatest importance. The organic chemist begins by isolating and identifying the active principle of some natural medicinal product. When the character istics of such a compound have become established, he then pro ceeds to synthesis. This work begins in the laboratory and when perfected there, goes through semi-works development and innu merable physiological tests before manufacture is attempted on a commercial basis. By this method it has at times been possible to eliminate groups of atoms found to be responsible for such deleterious properties as habit-forming, or perhaps other groups are added in the synthetic product to widen the use of the com pound or make it more specific. Such work does not always start with natural products, for organic chemistry now produces in commercial quantities numbers of compounds quite different from anything known in nature and devised to meet a particular need.
Chemistry is valued by industry on many accounts. It serves to guard raw materials as to quality and supplements them by establishing new sources. It prevents waste by assisting in the selection of materials for particular uses, thereby avoiding the production of "seconds." It turns by-products into profits and often creates a new industry as a result. It speeds production by the improvement of processes and by imparting improved physi cal characteristics through changes in chemical composition. It protects the guarantee by determining in advance that the war ranted material will meet specifications. It supplies reliable in formation as to products and processes as well as trends in in dustry; such information may save industry by avoiding surprise. It has assisted in breaking monopolies and in countless instances has reduced costs to a surprising degree. Since chemistry is a fundamental science dealing with the ways of materials, it natu rally occupies a position in the front rank of the aids to modern industry. (H. E. H.)