The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-05-20
THE WONDERS or COAL TAR.
Gorgeous Dyes and Most Useful
Products Obtained From .
Troublesome Refuse.


Gorgeous Dyes and Most Useful
Products Obtained From
Troublesome Refuse.
"Chsmistry is capable Of wonderful
things" said an expert in chemical sci
ence to New York Sun reporter, but in
nothing to which It's principles were ever
applied have such marvellous results fol-
lowed as are witnessed in its manipula-
tion Of common gas or coal tar. Thirty
years ago the problem Of how they were
TO rid themselves Of this foul and then
utterly useless refuse Of the retorts was
puzzling manufacturers OF GAS, and the
aid Of chemistry was sought In working
out the solution. They had no thought
beyond the utter annihilation OF the Of
fensive tar In their experiments with
the refuse the chemists discovered the
so-called burning naphtha, which, how
ever, could be applied with safety to no
practical purpose. After the naphtha was
extracted the tar was left In the form Of a
heavy oil, which was still more Of nui-
sance than the original compound, as It
was more difficult to store and handle.
The chemist Belief discovered a channel
OF utility for this oil in applying 1t as a
pickle for the preservation Of railroad ties.
bridge timbers, and similarly exposed
woods. This used up large quantities Of
the refuse, but only partially relieved the
tar nuisance.
"The only hope that gas men now had
was that some discovery might be made
in chemical experimenting which would
give O commercial value TO the refuse.
Faraday next awoke interest In coal tar
by his discovery Of benzine as product
Of the tar oil. 1t was In experimenting
with the volatile substances Of these oils
that the great chemist Mansfield lost his
life by an explosion In his laboratory, and
It was probably this casualty that di-
rected greater attention to the possibih-
ties Of the despised gas tar.
at was not until 1851 ,howeyer.th the
great value OF coal tar as q raw material
was demonstrated. In that year Perkins
discovered its aniline properties, discoy-
cry which has almost revolutionized the
trade in dye-stuffs. Perkins took coal tar
naphtha, and, boiling It In a retort, OBJ
tanned chemical action which resulted In
benzole and nitro-benzole. Adding water
to this, the nitro-benzole was deposited In
the form of thick, oily mass. This be
experimental with in various ways, and
finally by the addition Of acetic acid and
iron filings, he produced q colorless fluid
which is aniline. This liquid he treated
with different chemical salts, and the re-
suit was green crystals Of a metallic
lustre. These he found were capable OF
producing, under different chemical reac-
tions, tho most brilliant and gorgeous
dyes-the aniline hues Of the paint and
dye trades Of to-day.
"This discovery made the long-detested
coal tar desirable product Of the gas
retorts, but 1t held still greater surprises.
From the Light oil Of the tar valuable
naphtha solvent for India-rubber was OBJ
tanned, and then the invaluable discovery
Of carbolic acid was made. How many
people in ordinary life know that this
great disinfectant Is one Of the products Of
common gas tar After these properties
were extracted from the tar there were
left heavy oils and resduum, for which
chemistry was puzzled to find q practical
use. It was not until 1860 that any
satisfactory result was obtained by
experimenting with this refuse, and then
the great discovery OF alizarine was made.
This product was first obtained by the
the German chemists Gr@be and Lieber-
mann, but Perkins. who had developed
the aniline colors from tar, was the first
to give practical application to the Ger.
man work. The importanceo Of this discovery
may be understood when II is known that
in the first ten years following the intro
duction of the artificial aliznrine In the
dyestuf trade, IL exceeded the total
amount Of natural alizarine, or madder
root, that had been handled In the trade
previous TO its introduction. It was, II
anything, superior to madder, and 30
much cheaper that the saving by its use
up TO 1880 had amounted to over 10000
900. The discovery Of alizarine In coal
tar converted 100000 acres Of land that
had been used for growing madder root
into fertile fields OF corn and other cereals.
With vegetable lnadder IL required nine
weeks to perfect the dying Of material
Turkey red. The artificial madder ac-
complished the desired result in as many
hours. Three years ago the chemist
produced an artificial indigo from the
residudA Of gas tar. and, In connection
with the aniline dyes and alizarine Of the
same base, It Is rapidly taking the place
Of vegetable indigo. Later, the naphtha-
lene yellows and reds, with which en-
tirely new effects In color were made pos
sible, were derived from coal tar
reslduum. Chemists are still experiment.
ing with the tar products, and other inn
torfauf davalonp, xvf1 x,n do.,hf IL.