The Topeka state journal., 1903-06-29
WEALTHIN WASTE.
Chemistry Makes Discarded Matter
Valuable.

Chemistry is the modern alchemist It
transmutes the world $ dross into gold.
Not long ago. at a reception rendered by
DR.. Ernest J. Lederle, president of the
board Of health, by his aamirIng con-
tempol aries in chemical research. DIR.
Lederle spoke of the wonderful modern
achievements of chemists in utilizing in
the arts and industries substances
which were formerly regarded as mere
Valueless waste product
He used this striking Illustration: Coal
tar Tor scores Of yeals was regarded as
a fOul-smeiling, useless by-product of
! the gas making industry 1t was vile
compound, fit Tor nothing. not aNaila bic
even for filling in low ground. Wher-
/ ever the proximity of gas houses TO
bodies of water made it possible, there
fore, it became customary to dump the
coal tar overheard and so get rid OF
Today the magic wand of chemistry
has transmitted the despised coal tar
into a product so valuable that men are
actually dredging now to recover it from
the river bottoms where their less en-
lightened predecessors dumped it over
board years ago. This has been done
literally in the city Of Philadelphia,
where large quantities of coal tar re-
sidues from the gas houses were thrown
away for years and settled into pockets
a the bottom q the rivers Into these
pockets dredgers are now delving with
all the avidify 0f gold miners or pearl
divers tc recover for commerce that
self-same FOUL, greasy stuff, which, IN
til a few years ago. was regarded as a
nuisance to be suppressed and hurried
out of sight and out of the range of
smell as soon as possible.
In amplifying the topic thus suggest
ed Dr. Lederle afterWard said that coal
tar is only one of scores of hitherto de-
spised and neglected by-products which
the science OF chemistry has rendered
so valuable that industries which other
wise would have become obsolete long
ago through the development of newer
methods are kept alive and profitable
largely because of value of what was
formerly regarded as a mere by-producC
or a necessary evil incident to the in
dustry itself
Water gas has superseded in a large
measure the old method of making illu~
minaung gas by the heating of coal n
Ie t3rts. ct competent judges say thac
today the old method of gas making
might be successfully conducted and
pay a dividend simply from the value
Of the coal tar thus produced, apart
from the sale of the Illuminating gas
generated. II is pretty we'll known
that from these nOisome and unsightly
residues are now distilled valuable
ammonia liquors, that the material lefl
in the retorts yields good coke and thai
from coal tar we get that useful and
much abused poison, carbolic acid.
But few persons not trained to chem
ical science know that coal tar is now
used as the basis of scores of the most
exquisite perfumes and extracts; THAI
patchculi, altar of roses, verbena
heliouOpe and most of the other deli
cate extracts most favored by dainty
women IN the boudoir are successfully
counterfeited by clever chemists. VINO
use the products of coal tar as the
basis of these seductive Installations
Still fewer are those who know that in
about nine cases out of ten when they
call for a glass of soda water and the
white-aproned attendant pours into the
glass that beautifully colored fruit
fiavoring extract it is only cunning
ly contrived concoction built upon a
basis of that same despised coal tar. So
the old gas house product that grimy-
faced urchins used to dump into the
rivers has now become thing of beau
ty and a JOY forever, an aroma to de