Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-22
w EALTH IN WASTE
CHEMISTRY MAKES DISCARDEU
NATTER VALUABLE
Perfumes, Medicines and Flavorine
Extracts Now Made From
Coal Tar.


Chemistry is the modern aichemist- 10
transmutes the worlds dross into gold. Not
long ago, at a reception rendered by DR..
Ernest j. Lederle, president Of the board
Of health, by his admiring contemporaries
in chemical research, DIR. Lederle spoke OF
the wonderful modern achievements OK
chemists In utilizing in the arts and indus
tries substances which were formerly re-
garded as mere valueless waste product
He used this striking illustration: Coal
tar for scores OF years was regarded as .
foul-smelling, useless by-product Of the gas
making industry. 1t was vile compound.
At for nothing not available even for filling
In low ground. Wherever the proximity of
gas houses to bodies Of water made IT pos
sble, therefore, 1t became customary to
dump the coal tar overheard and SO set rid
Of it,
: 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 enlightened prede-
cessors dumped 1t overheard years ago.
This has been done literally in the city OF
Philadelphia, where large quantities OF coal
tar residues from the gas houses were
thrown away for years, and settled into
pockets at the bottom of the rivers. Into
these pockets dredgers are now delvinG
with all the avidity of gold miners or pearl
divers to recover for commerce that self
same foul, greasy stuff, which, until a few
years ago, was regarded a nuisance to be
suppressed and hurried out of sight and out
of the range of smell as soon as possible.
Obsolete Industries Kept Alive.
In simplifying the topic thus suggested DR..
Lederle afterward said that coal tar is only
one of scores Of hitherto despised and neg
lected by-products which the science of
chemistry has rendered so valuable that in
dustries which otherwise would have be-
come obsolete long ago through the devel-
opment of newer method are kept alive and
profitable largely because of value of what
was formerly regarded as a mere by-pro-
duct or necessary evil incident to the in
dustry itself.
Water gas has superseded In a large
measure the old method of making illumi-
mating gas by the heating OF coal in re-
torts. Yet competent judges say that today
the old method of gas making might be suo-
cessfully conducted and pay a dividend
simply from the value of the coal tar thus
produced, apart from the sale Of the illu-
minating gas generated. 1t is pretty we'll
known that from these nosome and I'M
slightly residues are now distilled valuable
ammonia liquors, that the material left in
the retorts yields good coke and that from
coal tar we get that useful and much
abused poison, carbolic acid.
But few persons not trained to chemical
science know that coal tar is now used as
the basis Of scores of the most exquisite
perfumes and extracts; that patchouli.
altar of roses, verbena, heliotrope and most
Of the other delicate extracts most favored
by dainty women in the boudoir are sue
cessfully counterfeited by clever chemists,
who use the products Of coal tar as the
basis Of these seductive Installations.
Coal Tar in Soda Water.
Still fewer are those who know that In
about nine cases out of teD when they call
for a glass Of soda water and the white
aproned attendant pours into the glass that
beautifully colored fruit favoring ex-
tract" 1t is only a cunningly contrived con-
coction built upon basis of that same de-
spised coal tar. So the old gas-house prod
uct that grimy faced urchins used to dump
into the rivers has now become thing OF
beauty and a Joy forever, an aroma to de-
light the olfactory senses and flavor to
tickle the fastidious palate. But these are
only some of it's more frivolous uses There
is scarcely important industry today
that does not utilize in some form coal tar
or one or more Of its derivatives.
Those pretty little crystalline white
spheres which you put into your wardrobe
to keep the moths away and which you call
camphor balls are made of coal-tar prod
uct.
OF the so-called newer remedies of the
pharmacopaeia no less than three hundred.
which are now more or less well known TO
medicine. are made from the same sub
stance its derivatives. Among these
are phenacetin, antpyrine, antifebrin and
acetaniIid Those beautiful colors now SO
common known as the aniline dyes are
about ne-tenths coal tar derivatives. and
1t was the discovery of young English
chemist which gave to the world these rich
hues that have revolutionized the dyeing
industry.
The New Dye.
1t CHANGED that this young investigator.
before devotng himself to chemistry, had
passed his apprenticeship in dye house
and had there learned the dyers trade. He
was familiar with the old colors and with
the methods of producing them before he
immured himself in q laboratory. One day.
after he had become a chemist, he was ex-
perimenting with indigo and a dark, greasy
substance called anel On treating ii with a
particular reagent, which he did only ex-
perimentally and without thought OF
evolving a new industry, he observed that
he got the rich purple that has since be-
come famous.
With the eye of the trained dyer he noted
it's beauty at once, and his next practical
thought was, Il wonder if that color would
take and stick wool" He got some
wool and tried it, and found the dye per-
feet. Then he tried it silk, with sim
liar results, and so the dye house industry
was revolutionized.
A dozen other chemists afterward re-
membered that in laboratory experiments
they had stumbled upon the same reaction
and had found the same color. But they
were not looking for that, and they had not
the practical dye house bent of mind to
develop and utilize what they had seen.
different result. and this oily purple,
valuable commercially, only annoyed them
at the time.