The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-07-02

1 Gl6 m6SGSE Cu6A4LSUs
We cannot name the whole category
of chemical enterprises, and snoW you
all the progress of recent lnvestiga-
tions. We can enumerate only the
m ost important, with the hope that
Won will give to chemistry a considera-
ton worthy of its rank and It's import
ance.
There are numerous other investiga-
tions which have played no small part
IN the commercial and the scientific
world. Explosives are used to a greater
advantage and with more skill than
thew ever were until recent years.
Alizarin, a substance now largely used
as a dye stuff, and a substance which
has largely displaced indigo, has been
brought to light by exclusive chemical
Investigations. Again, the mountains
of North Carolina have not only yield
ed up a large quantity of precious
gems, but they have recently been
found to contain a product of great
commercial value. This is monozite, a
substance which is playing a great
part in the production of gas lights.
These, then, have been some of the
recent practical Investigations of chem
istry. But the enlightened mind judges
of the greatness of discovery not by
economic results only, but by scientific
possibilities.
The real scientific principles in chem
istry have been in the field of synthesis.
or the building up of compounds, and
it is in this field that its greatest tri-
umphs are anticipated. We can 9
the primitive alchemist as attempting
the creation of life, or the prolongation
of vital energy beyond its natural Pc
riod, which amounted to prospective
synthesis itself. Coming down to later
times, it has been little over half a CEN
fury since Woehler made his famous
synthesis, producing an organic COM
pound by a purely chemical process.
The development from Woehler's has
gone on until to-day it stands out as a
criterion of grand industrial possibili-
ties.
Many people have been inclined to
think that all this systhesis is merely
laboratory work. But this is not true,
Once science has declared the desired
end attainable, the genius of invention
fastens upon the problem, and the
commercial production of the result
slowly attains herfection by gradually
improved processes, and at lees and
less cost. As an illustration of this
fact, twenty years ago tk9 annual i'm
port of madden root into England was
valued at ab6ut six million dollars.
To day-industrial laboratories have
CIs1rped its place, and madden and in
digo have been driven into an economic
eclipse.
Primitive man ate his food raw.
When he first began to cook, when he
first used fire, chemistry made it's first
intrusion upon the sphere of nature.
To-day fire in the open air has been
replaced by the kitchen, and every
cooking utensil is a representative Of
some n of the chemical arts. Chem
istry has furnished the utensils, pre-
pared the foods, and now it only re-
mains for it to make the foods them
selves. There is only one step and agri-
culture will be replaced by industrial
laboratories, and 1.-The weary toiler in
the sun of to day will be in the shade,
while proteids are pricking up their
ears in the condenser and fats frying in
the scientific PAN" Will this ever occur?
It is not for me to say. I a only
quote from Prof. Berthellot, the very
distinguished French chemist. Hesays:
Sugar is to be made from two gases
at a cost of less than one cent per
pound. The food of the future will be
composed of artificial meat, artificial
flour and artificial vegetables"
The time is coming when we shall
store and make use of the heat of the
sun. But greater, far greater in i'm
portance than this, will be the ultimate
and widespread use of the central heat
of u globe. The countless acres now
given over to growing grain and other
products, will be agricultural a%ntiqui-
ties, which will have passed out of the
memory of man.
Man will grow in sweetness and no
bility, because he will have done with
war, the existence of which is based
upon the slaughter of beasts. The
favored portions Of the earth will be
come vast gardens in which the hui
man race will dwell amid a peace, a
luxury, and an abundance, recalling
] the golden ace of %1onon