The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1906-05-16

afterwards assistant in his research
laboratory. 1t was here DR.. Perkin
made his coal tar sensation by the
discovery of the mauve dye In 1856
He was then only eighteen years Of
age. Subsequently he became interest
cd in the manufacture of coal tar col.
! ors. and continued in this work until
1874. Since then DR.. Perkins time
has been occupied In research work
and writing. His publications are nu-
merous. and include q circle range OF
subjects.
Although an Englshman discovered
the value of coal tar and English man
ufacturers were the first to put the
country's large deposits of the raw
material to practical use. Germany has
succeeded in taking the industry away
from the Britons, and is now importing
the raw material to keep her factories
supplied and running. Germany has
taken the lead, because the Govern.
ment has done everything possible to
encourage the profession as well as the
industry, and her chemists are masters
who lead the world.
America produces immense quanti-
ties of coal tar. 1t is formed from the
old-fashloned process of making coal
gas and although this system is now
out of date. 1t is still used to make the
coal tar now instead of the gas.
story is told and vouched for by ar.
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 a gas works. That was
in the days prior to Perkins discovery.
The gas men had no use for the coal
tar, and its 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 a drain, which
ostenslbly 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 a substance to mix with
water 1t congeals just like molasses
candy, when in making it you drop it
into a glass to see if it 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
| nrnaaSc Of mn ivrr crou int,
and the old works on the Schuylkil
were abandoned.
Several years after the value of the
despised coal tar became known, a
sharp-witted chemist, in nosing around
the old gas works on the Schuylkill,
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
a 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 great solvent, and
in the different processes of manufac-
ture and research work is used in great
quantities. Not in the United States
however. Here at $3.50 a gallon it 3
prohibltive.
Alcohol can be made for fifteen cents
a proof gallon, yet the tax on it here
is S1.10 for every proof gallon made.
1t 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 popular agita-
ton on intemperance has helped great
ly in influencing the Government to
maintain its 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 distlllers 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, at
last made ii 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 group
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.
French Railroads Con rolled.
In France nearly all the railroads are
owned by private corporations. OF
total trackage of 10000 miles, the