Show f rp AY LZ synthetic chemistry after learning the secret of making royal purple succeeds in producing all the colors of the rainbow told in eight sketches by JOHN RAYMOND I 1 no V in the dim ages of history when man first felt the desire for beauty traders searched arched ge the world for dye dyestuffs stuffs jewels perau perfumes mes I 1 spices and precious woods the risk of these voyages was great and only princes or nobles could afford the fruits of ventures td the far corners of the world no man of humble origin could aspire to the rich crimsoned crim linen the royal purple of ancient T tyre re retailing at a pound royal urple purple is an age old insignia of aristocracy this dye was secreted by a small shellfish on the eastern coast of the mediterranean and here the enterprising g merchants of tyre formed a dye monopoly equaled only by the german cartel A bit of the whitish liquid secreted by this mollusk if aprea spread upon a cloth and exposed to the air air and sunlight turns first green next blue and then p purple it irple if washed with an alkali soap it becomes the magnificent crimson worn by the cardinals and princes of the catholic church tyrian purple vanished from the marts of the world with the fall of tyre synthetic chemistry learned the secret of making royal purple as indeed it learned to manufacture indigo the same deep blue that may be seen today in in museums the w winding I 1 nd n g sheets of if egyptian mummies mummies it was an achievement to snatch its distinctive color from ro royalty alty and to rival the best legeta vegetable b v indigo of the ancients but modern chemistry has gone far beyond that today any kind of dye found in nature baure can be made in the labora laboratory loz indeed among the shades an and d colors 1 rs being manufactured there are tints that it would be difficult cult to discern in the rainbow these colors all come from c tar but after it understood der stood that coal tar is the quintessence of the forests of untold ages the feat does docs not appear to be so mar bellous vel lous and still for centuries this country has been wasting vast quantities of the precious material in fact the released by the institute of ai manu fac tur e of coke in which process aj cess coal tar is 0 obtained bained is the only metallurgical oper piraneo aaion that america gunj pst af continues to conduct in a large large measure MCI sure after t the e manner of a century ury ago in 1915 mtv t there were 00 0 U t tons ons of coke produced in this country for which a almost I 1 m 0 a t tons of coal were used because of the enormous demands for war materials I 1 modern byproduct by product ovens were constructed and in 1919 more than 52 per cent of our coke supply came from these ovens it is estimated that for every eve ton of coke made in modern byproduct by provat product ovens there is is saved in fuel alone pounds of coal when a householder house holder burns a ton of coal lie he has sacrificed something like cubic feet of gas nine gallons of tar twenty five pounds of ammonium sulphate gallons gallon S of pure and gallons of pure in our industrial life tile the use of coal derivatives is just beginning to he be felt tile the rubber industry depends upon these products for solvents coni coin hounding ingredients and softeners soft eners practically r cac y all of paint pint now low use Us a derivative of coal printing r n ting inks shoe polishes brake linings dry cleaners perfumes explosives glues pastes and photographic developers velo pers contain coil coal products as ba basic ingredients tile the paper industry the h soap orp business and tile the shoe manufacturer fac would be in serious difficulties out the products byproducts by of coal tar the ele electrical c industry would lose its chief source of insulating material and the doctors and druggists would be without a sufficient supply of phenol to make their supply of everyday drugs coal tar tile the refuse of ancient ancient vegetable kingdoms is valuable because it produces a galaxy of brilliant colors not so much for the colors themselves but because in producing them so many intermediates are developed that are of inestimable worth to t 0 the industrial life of the nation american neriman business Bu fineu new york |