The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1901-11-16
Wealth Made by Chemists.

NO expert CH6tHisLS - Ill liupuNtdHt
figure in the industrial world today,
writer in The New York Sun truth
fully says. He can earn not only fame,
but also large income, and he saves
manufacturers many millions of dollars
every year OF course, nine out of ten
chemists stick to the old routine, but the
tenth goes in for industrial chemistry, and
either allies himself to some progressive
and fourishing manufacturer, or indepen-
IDENTIFY conducts his industrial experiments
and spends his time and brains in devising
schemes for the utilization of by products.
One doesn' talk much about waste pro-
ducts now. So little is wasted that it
doesn't deserve mention. The Chicago
joke that the packing houses utilize every
thing about the pigs save their squeals and
are planning to- make the squeals into
whistles, has more point than most Chica-
60 jokes.
Probably the great slaughter houses fur
nish the most familiar illustration of the
modern thrift in the utilization of what was
formerly considered waste; and even the
smaller abattoirs, while they haven't at
tanned the scientific perfection of the Chi
cage packing houses, are reformed charac-
tiers. It was only a few years ago that the
abattoir was usually built upon the bank
of stream, and all refuse was washed into
the stream. In course of time neighbors
were inconsiderate enough to protest against
the practice Sanitary bees invaded in
Vulnerable bonnets, and a howl OF protest
against the abattoirs. 1t was necessary to
dispose Of the refuse in some fashion.
Chemists were called in. Methods for
drying the refuse and extracting all the
grease were developed The grease went
into the manufacture of soap The resi-
due was converted into fertilizer. After
jelly had been made from the hoofs, the
hoofs and horns were used for buttons,
knife handles, etc. The health of the
neighborhood, and the income of the
slaughter men, went up.
The development of the tremendous ami
line color industry is altogether due to
chemical experiment with waste products.
In the dry distillation Of coal or wood for
gas, the gas passes through a succession of
washers, which take out its impurities.
These impurities, including ammonia, car
holic acid, acetic acid, and various nitrogen
compounds were formerly waste, but are
now separated and used In fact, nearly
all of the acetie acid in the market is Sc
cured from the dry distillation Of wood.
Five per cent. of the coal used in gas man
ufacture is coal tar, and by experiment
chemists found that this coal tar, always
regarded as waste residue, contained sub
stances useful in the making of dyes.
Fully 10 per cent of the weight of the
coal tar is available for this purpose, and
upon the basis Of this discovery the enor-
nous coal tar color industry has grown.
New plants have been put into many of
the coke regions to collect the coal tar lib
Grated in coke manufacture, and it will not
be long before the open coke oven will be
a thing of the past. Where coal is burned
in an open oven no coal tar can be collect
ed, and large profits are literally thrown
away; but by burning the coal in closed
retorts all the coal tar can be recovered and
used
This color industry which chemists call
the greatest of the modern chemical in
dustries, has called for other chemical de-
velopments. 1t demands large quantities
of snlphuric acid of soda, etc. and chem
lists have sharpened their wits upon the
problem of obtaining these products at a
minimum expense. Until recently the
greater part of the sulphur used in this
country was imported from Sicily. Now,
through chemical processes, the sulphur
occurring with iron, gold, silver, and zinc
is liberated and burned to sulphur dioxide,
from which almost all of our sulphuric acid
is made.
In connection with all of our mining
development, chemistry has played an i'm
portant part. Ores can be mined with
profit today that would have been practi-
cally worthless few years ago. In the
old mining days only high grade ore was
profitable, and only certain percentage of
the gold contained in the ore was freed
The tailings thrown aside held consid-
cradle quantity of gold, but could not be
worked by the ordinary processes, and
were therefore piled mountain high and
disregarded until chemists discovered that
the gold @as soluble in potassium cyanide,
and that by washing in very weak solu-
ton Of potassium cyanide the failing gold
could be proftably separated from the re-
fuse The same process has led to the
working of low grade ores, running 81 to
So to the ton, which could not be profit
ably worked by the ordinary mining pro-
cesses.
The silver contained in lead has also
been freed and utilized twas found by
chemists that when the melted lead was
mixed with zinc the silver formed an alloy
with the zinc and foated to the surface
When this mass was taken from the lead
and heated in a retort, the zinc, being vo-
lathe, was freed, and left deposit SO rich
in silver that it was easily purified
The applications of chemistry to mining
processes are legion, but it is in other
branches of industry that practical chemis-
try is now making its strides. The Stand
ard Oil Company is a hardy exponent of
the merits Of industrial chemistry and has
expert chemists constantly employed. As
for that matter, so have all the great gas
plants, coke plants, sugar refneries, starch
factories, etc. The original waste of the
oil business was enormous; now it is next
to nothing. OF course, the primary aim
is the production of kerosene; but crude
oil contains on the one side, oils lighter
than kerosene, such as gasoline and naph-
tina, and, on the other side, products much
heavier than kerosene, such as parafin.
At one time all of these by. products were
waste; now every one of them is utilized.
By first distillatiop the lighter oils are
freed and collected Then the kerosene
is distilled, leaving product that is worked
over into hard paraffin and soft paraffin or
yaseline A heavy oil, left after the col
lection of the paraffin, is used for lubrica-
ting and fuel OIL much of it being made
into car and axle grease After all these
processes solid mass of carbon is left in
the retorts, and this is used to consider
able extent in making carbon sticks for
electric light When one considers that
until few years ago every one of these