OCR Text |
Show J Chemist in Every Day Life I His Part in Government Attempts to Give TJs Pure Food. $ I Special to Tlio Tribune. Tk OSTON, Nov. CC The various ex-ILr ex-ILr " pcrlments which the United States i 1 Government has been conducting to dctermlno standards of purity for food stuffs havo brought Into special prominence thl9 year tho modern development develop-ment of chemistry by which, having be-como be-como fundamental In a ere:"-- many manufacturing manu-facturing and mechanical processes It 1b new considered a prlmo rcqulHlto In technical tech-nical training. There Is hardly a branch of twentieth century Industry In which an important part Js not assigned to tho chemist. HO Is no longer merely a scientific scien-tific theorist; Jig Is a professional man whose work Is plainly practical and whoso accomplishments are doing at least as much as thoso of any other profession to set tho world for.vard on the road of progress. pro-gress. Tho strjlklntr thing about twentieth century cen-tury chemistry Is tho relation of tho pure science, which Is what tho layman generally gen-erally thinks of. to tho applied, which Is tho practical utilization of the oxperl-mentor's oxperl-mentor's discoveries. Indeed, , though physical chemistry Is commonly regarded re-garded as dealing with abstract questions, tho United States now markots annually more than SIOO.MO.OOO worth of products obtained by the application of only a portion por-tion of Its results, such products, for example, ex-ample, as aluminum, carborundum, bo-dluni bo-dluni and bleaching powder. Tho demands of manufacturers for Im-nr."vrf1 Im-nr."vrf1 nmcofura nf nrndurts. llin iitlllzn- Ilfl tjon of waste,' and bo on, has stimulated lM and facilitated 'pure" Investigation; and mm on tho other hand, the spurring of the scientist has driven on tho Industrial am chemist to experiments of as great gen-Cjfl gen-Cjfl oral value ad of commercial worth. H Special Research Laboratory. H So important is this Intel-dependency O considered to bo, in fact, that the Mossa-H Mossa-H chusetts Institute of Technology, which v may bo taken as a typical American aclen-Ifl aclen-Ifl tlfic school of today, has recently ctab-I ctab-I I'fhed a special research laboratory, ju wherein a group of workers are devoting JD their cntlro energies to the purely sclcn-tide sclcn-tide problems that so often lead to the Wb applied chemistry of tomorrow. This sup-Ijl sup-Ijl plemouts the forty or fifty rooms devoted JT8 by the Instituto to chemical analysis, for lljj - every technological student, whatever Mi his futuro work is to be, must bo at least III something of a chemist; and frequently RU he goes from here directly Into tho prl-tjl prl-tjl vate experimental laboratories which kjuj nowadays are maintained, by many manu-Dfj manu-Dfj racturera for tho study of ways and ha means of Improving their processes. At ml the recent International meeting of selen-D selen-D tlsts it was said that the manner and fill method of training men who will apply Hlffl to Industrial needs the phenomena dls-(n dls-(n covered by tho scientific recluse are "matin "mat-in Urs which havo to do with not only the gjffl future of chemical Industries but with the till very vitality of nations." Jib "What pure and npplled chemistry, work-W work-W ing together, havo wrought for the mod-'jjjl mod-'jjjl endless list, yet their work has" but Just WB begun. The drug trade demanded a Hf crn man and woman makes an almost quinine that should bo dovpld of the bitter bit-ter tasto which made that valuable remedy reme-dy so difficult to administer sometime but should retain all Its anil-malarial properties, and the chemist made quinine tasteless. Thorium oxide was known for half a century before It was utilized na tho basis for Welsbach mantles that have given now Illuminating powers to our gaslights; gas-lights; tho waste material from pitchblende pitch-blende was thrown away aftor most ot the uranium had been removed, until suddenly It' was discovered that radium could be extracted from it; 25 years ago Prof. Ira Remsen. as a result of strictly scientific Investigations, discovered benzoic ben-zoic sulphlmlde, which under Its moro familiar name of saccharine has been a boon to thousands of suiYerora from ill health who could not with safety uso sugar; su-gar; and in several branches of Industry what was onco considered a waste byproduct by-product has become tho main material of factorlos. Tests Many Foods. Tho chemist has his Bharo In all forms of productive activity. Tho Department of Agriculture, whllo It Is testing foods. Is at the same tlmo experimenting with methods of treating soils. In tho cotton Industry, for Instance, tho chemist begins his work with the cultivation of tho ground in which the seed Is to be planted and docs not finish It until tho tlntod fab-rlc fab-rlc Is wound and bundled to be put on Ealo In the storo; he bcglnB with digging oro from tho mine and follows tho crude , material through Its manifold changes till It becomes one of the great engines that distribute our commerco over the earth. enough removed, yet chemistry Js one of the important studies of the young mon whom Undo Sani selects from tho naval academy at Annapolis and sends to the Institute of Technology to bo turned Into naval constructors. Tho modern naval construction, to take a single Instance, the whole problem of armored warships turns upon chemical methods of securing such Intimate combinations of Iron and steel with varying amounts of carbon, nickel and other elements as shall provide thegreatest resisting power against hostile hos-tile missiles, and gunpowder Itself was a chemical discovery. Tho- operation of a modern railway Is another place whore chemistry would hardly seem likely to be much in evidence, evi-dence, but every largo railway sotem maintains export chemists in whose labor- I atories questions of vitnl importance to railroad economies nro constantly undergoing under-going minute chemical study. Chemistry Is here chiefly concerned with the quality of m the materials used by the road, from Its "steel rails to Its car pnlnt. even going deeper than the rails sometimes, some-times, and Including tho very soil of the roadbed. Somo years ago, when a passenger pas-senger conch on the Pennsylvania railroad had just come from the car cleaners, an official noticed that the car paint had apparently ap-parently been Injured In cleaning. An Investigation In-vestigation proved that uoth varnish and paint had been seriously injured and th car cleaners blnmed the soap furnished by tho company. Tho soap was sent to the chemical laboratory, declared guilty and tho car cleaners cleared of all responsibility. re-sponsibility. The chemist, with his expert and minute knowledge of the action of ono subotnnce upon another, has thus vprllled. tho statement state-ment of even so humble a person as tho car cleaner and Incidentally saved tho compnny thousands of dollars In Its futuro purchases of so humble a commodity as soap. Safeguards tho Public. In tho larger senso this same chemist safeguards tho ontlre traveling public. His delicate apparatus not only determines deter-mines tho working value of the raw material ma-terial that makes the locomotives and trucks nnd couples tho cars together, but keeps this material up to tho atandnrd. When tho new sections of track are built tho soil Is often chemically nnnlyzod to see how It will stand the weight of tho structuro and on this depends tho dopth to which plies must be driven or rock ballast laid to mako the track permanently permanent-ly level. In building the typical American city, aH well as In managing its public works, tho chemist Is equally Important. Chemical Chem-ical Investigation has mndo all steel and Iron construction possible nnd Is still working out tho question of the skyscraper sky-scraper as the characteristic structuro of the coming century. To protect flteel and Iron from tho chemical chem-ical action of air Is the great problem of the twentloth century construction; and It Is here also that the "pure science," seeking solely for knowledge, Is nlwavs likely to find the now combination.; such a -discovery, for example, as would load to a new kind of steel and Iron absolutely lmmuno to atmospheric conditions. The chemist is final authority on tho materials that mako tho oky-scrapcr; an Important person In tho Insurance company com-pany that Insures It, tho telephono company com-pany that supplies Its telephones, tho electric company that lights It and If the building Is occupied by a big department store In practically every factory that supplies It. from tho mill dyeing Its sllk3 and cottons to tho dairy furnishing the orocery department with checwo and butter. |