CHEMISTRY, INDUSTRIAL

There scarcely exists today any industry of importance which does not depend, to & greater or le er degree, upon chemical control. This is true, not only of those directly engaged in the manufacture of dyes and other chemicals, but of other manufacturing proce es whose connection with chemistry would appear to be remote. Most modern factories of appreciable size keep a close control over their fuel consumption employ chemists to analyze their and coke, and also the flue gases from their furnaces, in order, firstly, to keep a check upon the quality of their fuel and, secondly, to provide their engineers with data which will enable — them to obtain the greatest po ible efiiciency combined with economy in fuel consumption. Similarly, the analysis of boiler water, and the treatment of A water to prevent scale, or the gga: of water for scouring operations, i come under the control of the factor chemist. In large plants where mu machinery is used, lubrication becomes a matter of extreme importance, and a systematic testing of oils and greases is found to be true economy. In al! industries where raw materials are purchased and converted into other products systematic analyses of both raw materials and finished products are, today, almost a nece ity, partly to guard against fraud, and partly to ensure a standard product. Among the industries which consist almost wholly of applied chemistry, the great metallurgical proce es, including the manufacture of all the different grades of iron and steel, are, perhaps, the most important. The manufacture of explosives, dyes and synthetic perfumes, the distillation of mineral oil, and the extraction and refining of vegetable and other edible oils are all wholly dependent upon chemical control for their succe ful operation. In the manufacture of paper from wood, the chemist sw es the preparation of the acid or used for coo the wood; he determines the quantity of hypochlorite required for bleaching the pulp; he adjusts the percentage of rosin to give the desired degree of sizing, and of mineral filler to ive weight, and finally, he tests the \ hed paper for color, strength, opacity and other properties. The sugar industry, from the extraction of the juice from cane or beet, to the 2! abate of granulated sugar or the various syrups which form the industry’s by-products, is wholly dependent on the chemist, and the same may be said regarding the manufacture of soaps, inks, paints, leather, cement and a host of food products of every description. Not only is the scientific control of these industries in the hands of chemists, but their growth has been almost entirely due to chemical discoveries, and the progre of the older industries as well as the birth of the new, are largely, if not entirely, the outcome of research work carried on in innumerable chemical laboratories all over the world.