Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-21
MAGIC OF CHEMISTRY.
Products of Natures Laboratory Du-
plicated by Science.
GOOD BREAD MADE OF SAWDUST.
Compounds That Beat the Oils and Dyes Of
Vegetable Origin.
PINE BOARDS TURNED TO STARCH

The wonders of synthetic chemistry were
cleverly portrayed last week by DIR. R. G.
Eecles in q lecture before the Ethical As
sociation of Brooklyn, of which Prof. Hux-
ley has Just become a member. He traced
the development of chemistry from the days
when Aristotle taught that earth, air, fire
and water were the four elements, and that
chemical changes were changes of qualities
and not of matter, down through the davs of
the alchemist struggles to transmute baser
metal into gold, through the discovery Of
oxygen by Priestly, the beginning of guam
titativs analysis by Black in 1855, the dis
covery of the atomic theory by Avogadro
down to the wonders of modern synthetic
chemistry which rivals Mother Nature her
self in the strange substances it turns out of
the laboratory.
The eighteenth century was the turning
point in the development OF chemical
science, and the great names of that progress
were Black, Priestly, LsVoisier, Sir
Humphrey Davy and Avogadro. Black,
when he was "a years old, read an ESSAY on
q discovery of his which he called fixed
air." and which we know as carbonic acid
gas. He began to weigh the materials he
was dealing with, thing which no chemist
had done before. OF the results of that
change, DR.. Eccles said:
FOLLOWING THE FIXED AIR.
'Tn the pivot of that pair of Scotch scales
we find the turning point between seholas-
tic dogma and modern veri6cation. The
first turn under that young mans control
let into the world most of the blessings and
comforts OF modern civilization. His was
the first auantitive estimate ever known to
have been made upon our planet, the first
telling proof of the utter worthlsssness Of
mere abstract reasoning. He followed fixed
air into and out of magnesia, limestone and
the alkalies. He noted the changes caused
by its presence and absence, and saw that
these changes in no way agreed with cur
rent notions about the unions and vanquish-
ments of Qualities.
''Priestly discovered oxygen and Layoisier
the true theory Of combustion. The explain
alton of combustion came like bright sun
shine into the chemical world, and DIR. Ec-
cles ranked Priestly and Lavoisier among
the great benefactOrs OF the race. Yet Priestly
was driven to America for heterodOx theol-
ogy and Layoisier was gu1lIotined in the
French Revolution because he had the mis-
fortune to be born rich. After speaking of
the making of aniline dyes from coal tar,
DR.. Eccles traced the growth of synthetic
q
gan, abont 40 years ago, TO study sludge oil,
and distilled 25O gallons of the sckening
stuff Another Scotchman began where he
lett off and discovered pyndere, the basic
group OF many alkaloids, and placed us on
the road to quinine, morphine, atrophine
and cocaine
OF INCALCULABLE VALUE.
The gain to the race of such work, he
aaid ia almost incalcul ahla AZ of al
the valuable additions made within the past
20 years by synthetic chemistry would oc-
cupy more time to read than could be given
in one lecture. Thousands of acres of land
were at one time occupied with the growth
of madder and indigo. This land is nearly
all released now for grain and for other
crops, and these dye stuf5 are produced by
the chemist Yin his laboratory. Cocaine is
now built up from what might be waste prod
ucts in its extraction from exthroxylon coca.
Oil of wintergreen is no longer produced
from either wintergreen or sweet birch to the
extent that itonce was. but it is synthetically
prepared by the chemist. Musk, bitter oil
of almonds, cumarine, used as a substitute
for vanilla; vanilline, saccharine, 280 times
sweeter than sugar, are products of the
laboratory that beat those of unassisted
nature.
Antipyrine, phenaeetine, exalgine, acetan-
elid, and vesorcin are products of the labo.
ratory that in many ways excel as curative
agents any products of the vegetable world.
The number of antiseptics is large and con-
stantly being multiplied. One of them,
called salol, can pass the stomach unchanged
and arrest inhammatory processes below the
duodenum. Fluorescine has no rival in the
vegetable world, as iG alone is able to
stain diseased tissue IN the eye and leave the
healthy tissue untouched.
CHEMISTRY AND ALUMINIUM.
New processes have been devised for pro-
ducing on a larger scale and at cheaper rates
soda, chloroform, salicylic acid, oxygen,
nickel aluminium, etc. The last named
metal is now marketed at a low price and wa
are told that a new process has been devised
by which 1t can be produced as cheaply as
iron. Another chemical discovery that Is
destined to do great things for US is the stor-
age battery, which Sir William Thompson Is
said to have called the discovery of greatest
value to the race made in this generation.
Another discovery OF the same sort is the
ique action of the permanent gases, like air
and nitrogen at low temperatures.
By crude process long known sawdust
can be converted into an exceedingly coarse
article of bread, by the use of sulphuric
acid. The world may yet see pine boards
transmitted into the whitest kind OF starch.
We can and do now change starch into glu-
cose. Let us next find how to make it into
broulose and then how to unite these two
and we will have cane sugar. The man
lucky enough to solve the problem has an
enormous fortune awaiting him. We can al
ready give cane sugar the flavor of maple
sugar. Among the problems that still await
solution is the synthetic production of India
rubber, cotton, silk and wool.