Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-07-23
How a Great Discovery Was Made.

NJ Claude Collas, a celebrated French
chemist, communicates to Les MOndes
an interesting paper on how discoveries
are made. To NJ. COllas is due the honor
Of first recognizing nitro-benzol, or, as it
is better known, essence Of mirbane, a
| yellOWish oil derived from coal tar hav-
| ing a very sweet taste and an odor
| strongly resembling that of bitter al
| monds, which latter popularity has led
to its extended use in perfumery. In
telling the story of how he found this
substance, he says that, during the year
1S48, he was engaged in researches with
| view of utilizing industrially the guam
titles Of light oil which, having no en-
ployment, and hence very small value,
nlled up the ciSterns in gaS-hOuses. 1t
was at that time worth about one cent a
pound. After vainly endeavoring to
solve the problem for some time, NJ. Col
las was about to relinquish the task,
when it occurred to him to treat the oil
III the same manner as gun cotton, that
is, with mixture of mOnOhydrated nj
trio acid and sulphuric acid. "After the
operation, the acids being separated by
water" he says ] was aStOniShed to
find at the bottom of my vessel a yellow
button. The oil, at first lighter than the
water, had become heavier, and hence
sunk. [ touched it with my finger and
rubbed it on my hand, when the strong
characteristic odor became at once fOrci
bly, apparent. / had found an essence
which, at the cheapest, could replace
substance in great demand, and which
was WORTH instead of five ce1timeS Zone
cent?, fifty francs ten dollars, pound.
This discovery of mirbane was, how
ever, only the prelude Of the greater one,
subsequently made, Of the magnificent
cOlOrs which could be derived from the
aniline obtained by its deoXidation by
means of nascent hydrogen evolved from
iron filings and acetic acid. In 1856
Perkin obtained from aniline the beau
tifUl violet color known as mauve, and
since then the dyes thus derived have
been produced to such an extent that
their value to industry is almost beyond
calculation. The little button of mir
bane, however, in the modest laboratory
of a Partisan apotheCary, was the germ
from which the whole grand series
sprang.
There seems to be kind of fatality
about great discoveries which brings
them forth in its own time. Men stumble
across valuable ideas and learn important
truths too soon, which lie dead during
their lifetime. only to be appreciated by
the world after their death. The history
of arts and sciences abounds in examples.
Faraday. in 1925. found benzol in the
tarry iesidues of gas-works, but that
illustrious chemist obtained neither fame
nor profit for his discovery, which would
doubtless have remained buried in the
archives of the British Royal Institution
until the attention of the scientific and
industrial world was drawn to the chem
zeal properties of the substance almost
forty years later. Again, it often happens
that discoveries escape those who are, by
accident, placed in the very position to
seize upon them. NJ. Collas cites, as
evidence of this, the case Of a French
chemist who, in 1916, made yellow dye
coal oil The peculiar odor of the mir
bane which he must have produced
escaped him, and he failed to recognize
the new substance which he had OBJ
tanned Scientific american.