Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-05-19

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the value Of coal tar and English man.
ufacmrers We're the first to put the
| country's large deposits OF the raw
material 10 practical use, Germany has
succeedef in taking the industry away
from the Brltons, and is now importing
the raw bacterial to keep her factories
supplied land running, Germany has
taken the lead, because the Govern
ment has done everything possible to
encourage the profession as well as the
industry, aud her chemists are masters
who lead the world.
America produces immense quanti-
ties Of coal tar. 1t is formed from the
old-fashioled process of making coal
gas, and although this system is now
out Of date, it is still used to make the
coal tar now instead of the gas. A
story is told and vouched for by an
eminent authority that illustrates how
highly this by-product is valued. 1t
seems that not many years ago on the
banks of the Schuylkill River in Phila-
delphia, was gas works. That was
in the days prior to Perkins discovery.
The gas men had no use for the coal
tar, and it's rapid accumulation soon
became a nuisance and a burden to
them.
The city would not permit the COM
pany to run the tar into the river, so
the gas men put down drain, which
ostensibly was to empty into a big
underground reservoir, but which real
ly discharged into the river beneath
the surface of the water. Coal tar is
too thick q substance to mix with
water. 1t congeals just like molasses
candy, when in making it you drop 1t
into glass to see if 1t has boiled to the
proper consistency. That is just what
the coal tar discharged from this Phila-
delphia gas works did. When it flowed
from the pipes of the gas works into
the river it sank into a pocket in the
river bottom. and formed a hard, solid
deposit, gradually accommodating in size
as the years rolled on. Then the new
process of making gas came into vogue,
and. the old works on the Schuylkill
were abandoned.
Several years after the value of the
despised coal tar became known,
sharp-witted chemist, in nosing around
the old gas works on the Schuylktll,
discovered the drain pipe, and follow
ing it up found that the output of coal
tar for years had been emptied into the
river. 1t did not take long to engage
q diver and set him to work, with the
result that the rich deposit was located,
finally brought to the surface and
utilized to a considerable profit.
The chemical industry is on the gain
here in America, and is coming up with
rapid bounds. One thing that has
acted to keep it down is the present
tax on alcohol which, it is expected,
will be removed by this session Of Con-
gress. Alcohol is a great solvent, and
in the different processes of manufac-
ture and research work is used in great
q'Tr''iiS irieS.- NSa'r tha limited States.
however. Here at $3.50 a gallon 1t is
prOhibitive.
Alcohol can he made for fifteen cents
proof gallon, yet the tax on 1t here
Is $1.10 for every proof gallon made.
II seems strange, but it is nevertheless
true. In England and in Europe there
is not this handicap, and with such a
difference in the price existing in favor
Of the foreigners, one advantage they
hold in research work is plain to be
seen. Sentiment and Il popular agita-
ton on intemperance has helped great
ly in influencing the Government to
maintain it's tax on alcohol. The
United States has been against any
policy which should encourage the pro.
ductiOn of alcohol as a beverage, and
the enforcement of the law has cost
the Government lot of money. Tie
moonshiners in the mountains and the
illicit distillers in the crowded cities
have been the transgressors.
Chemists acknowledge the danger OF
taking down all bars and permitting
the wholesale manufacture of all kinds
of alcohol. They have, however, al
last made it plain to Congress that the
sort of alcohol they wish to use in
their profession is as different from
rum alcohol as whisky is from water
The New York section of the Society
of Chemical Industry, which has done
so much to advance all branches OF
the profession in America, is the grouI
of men who are now working to raise
a Perkin memorial in the form Of
scholarship to encourage chemical re
search.-H. ]. c., in New York Post.