Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-02
Germany Knows How to Make Use
Of Analytical Chemistry.
AND REAPsss ENORMOUS PROFITS
Investigators Employed o" All Sorts
of Big Plob'ems'
SEEKING CHEAPER METHODS
Written for The Evening Star.

analytical chemistry. That Is the enor-
nous price paid on one class of articles
alone by the United States, simply because
cur colleges ignore a higher scientific
course and our manufacturers refuse to
recognize that which is common practice
In rival Countrywide employment of high
~ trained chemists for analytical re-
searches
We paid Germany So. 100000 in 1897 and
1898 for dye stuffs with which to dye
articles of dress. German chemists dis
covered the process by which those dyes
can be made from something almost as
cheap and plentiful in this country as
ashes. German manufacturers made those
dye stuffs from coal tar!
The description of their progress in this
line reads like a fairy story, but 1t is true
enough. 1t is lesson that should go to
the heart of every American manufac-
turer every American business man, and
every true American citizen
The fact that Germany could have taken
from us gold exceeding S11 100000 yearly
for one simple class of articles, and that in
race of the fact that we have here every
thing by which the articles can be made.
Is more than incredible-it is humiliating.
And 1t calls for a thorough investigeu.,o
and revolution in some portion 81 our in
ternal economy.
That which we lacb is easily explained,
and proof-appln and convincing proof
VIII De given in this paper. We do not en-
courage the study of analytical chemistry
m our colleges. nor the close union of
science and business in our factories.
Fer Invention and Discovery.
In Germany there are thirty-seven chem
ical dye factories that employ large staffs
of expert chemists solely for invention and
discovery. Not for manufacturing, mind
you. not for the making of products. but
solely for tho careful
delving into natures secrets.
In the whole length and breadth of the
United States, it is said, there Is not one
chemical factory where chemists are en-
ployed for research There are works and
laboratories apenty. but simply for the
purpose of manufacturing known products.
There seems to be no satisfactory eX-
PLANTATION for this extraordinary state of
affairs no given reason why we of America
are content to rest idle and permit other
countries to make the discoveries and reap
the benefits.
We know that in the, German universities
the root idea of higher education-freedom
of teaching and freedom of learnfng-neces-
sarily carries research and specialization to
their highest terms. We know that it af-
fords a splendid opportunity for technical
careers to the students, and We are also
fully aware that Germany'S system in
moding her schools has led to a marvellous
organization of the power of invention in
the arts and Industries We know all this,
y
ly advantageous course.
Science and Business.
There is not manufacturer Of chemicals
In the United States but will confess that
his rivals in Germany are quickly and sure
ly getting control Of the worlds market,
and there is not an American manufacturer
who is not fully cognizant of the fact that
this growing supremacy comes solely from
the Joining of science and business.
Prof. OSWALD. distinguished German
chemist stated in 1896 regarding the chemi
cal factories in Germany:
Each large work has the greater part of
it's scientific staff-and there are often more
than 1cJ Phi. D. in a single manufactory-
occupied. not in the management of the
manufacture, but in making inventions.
The research laboratory in such work Is
only different from one in a university by
its being more splendidly and sumptuously
fitted than the latter. / have heard from
the business managers Of such works that
they have not fnfrequently men who have
worked for years without practical success,
but If they know them to possess ability
they keep them notwithstanding, and in
most cases with ultimate success sufficient
to pay the expenses of the former fruitless
years.
Taxes Many Industries.
Is it any wonder that. by such methods.
Germany has come to control the fine chemi-
cal markets of the world? By her superior
ity in this respect alone she is able silently
and without any legislation to lay a tax
upon almost every industry in every coun-
try.
AS a further proof of the wise importance
Germany places upon the union of science
and commerce. one of the chemical works
not long ago offered a university professor
a very large salary simply to come into
the laboratory and make experiments re-
garding the practical use of certain scien-
tific methods which the professor had been
developing.
That this close relation between science
and industry is greatly to the advantage
of both is beyond question. 1t puts the
best trained and highest inventive power
at the service Of manufa cturers, and it
also furnishes the scientist not only with
new openings for livelihood, but with
wide opportunities for research. In Ger
many some of the great establishments
provide finer technical means and appli-
ances to chemists than any university lab
oratory.
Employs Eighty Chemists.
1t is of interest to know just how many
Of the German chemical manufacturers
control their research laboratories. One of
the largest, situated in Baden, and having
branch works in three other cities main
tains staff of over eighty chemists who
devote their working hours to research
alone.
This army of scientists is housed in a
large building deliberately fitted up with
the most modern appliances. but, strange
to say as carefully guarded as the late
Professor Keeley's workshop Admis-
sion is strictly forbidden, and there is no
intercourse between the different rooms
Each chemist reports for work at an
early hour in the morning, and on enter
ing his particular room-cell it might be
termed-fnds written instructions from
the chief chemist. These instructions pro-
vide for the days work, and in addition
the chemist will find the material he is
supposed to investigate or experiment
with. He does not know what his fellow
laborers on either side are doing nor what
plan of work any one of the eighty-odd
other chemists is pursuing.
He receives asoa salary a sum ranging
from $500 to 81, 600, and 1t is safe to con-
lecture that his iabers will repay his en-
ployers ten-fold He has no pecuniary in
terest in his discoveries, receives no re-
ward If be Is successful, yet, such is the
peculiar workings of the German mind, he
strives with as much enthusiasm as If
there were a bag Of gold dangling at the
end of his days labor
An Interesting Companion.
An American visitor to one of the preat