The sun., 1912-07-28
~ iARN more dividends for the
Standard Oil Company than
John -. Rockefeller himself is no

small UtCOftipllsnintnl. Jet Ine
ubo did il RENAL incd almost unknown
t..,,yoniy wears and only came to general
,.,bl,c notice after he had broken from
,,o nowcrful shelter of the great cor
|, ,',r,tion and executed a one raid upon
two commercial coasts of Europe.
I, Is no figure of speech 10 make such
..,,,,mna, uboui Herman Frasch. Natur-
,lv If there htd been no John ID. Rocke-
,o,ler there nigh; have been no Standard
mi romparv 10 exploit Irasch's inven-
ans on the .cae which made them so
,rsn,endoIsv profitable. But il is a fact
,hs, when the company first applied
,is new method to the refining o. the huge
o,,n,t Of ,ts Ohlo feds it was doing it's
b.st 10 produce big dividends and was
sctually paving per cent. And it is fact
that when frasch's process had been
N full swing for a few years Standard
Oil dividends had mounted from TO 20
nor cent. and Standard OIL stock from
ss TO 500 and that men who know ascribe
the greater part Of this appreciation
NJ 1857 600 oo0-half billion. perhaps
to the worxings of the Frasch process.
The man and his career are interesting
for other reasons than that he piled up
fortune nv brilliant scientific work and
brilliant business tactics. He is typical
ofs group Of man Of great abilities and
If great significance to the work Of the
world Of whom the world at large remains
irnorant--the scientific specialists Of in
| du.,rv. who hide in their laboratories for
I Years of patient abor and then overturn
: n whole system OF manufacture when
thew announce their results.
II is a striking fact that while Frasch
il one of the greatest living chemists
ne is not university man. and that his
,ormal education stopped when he left
N. cvmna SUM at Halle in his sixteenth
wear. His father was hurgomaster OF Gail
dorf. a small town near Stuttgart. and
treasurer of the adjoining district. The
hoy was already deep in chemistry when
no came to America in 1885, though his
instruction was only such as he had OBJ
famed a, Halle and from some work as
druggist = lpprentice.
In Philadelphia he found employment
N tho laboratory of a professor in the
Pnladepbia College Of Pharmacy. but
that thorough going German mind OF his
vas ont or place in The primer chemistry
al the student druggists and kept push
gor into the depths of tn" science where
mo unsolvcd problems were.
Hl- mind had Il strong. practical
..ru. and though he shaved At his
ryrcr,,rcu,s with the carncotncss and
.rdl"s, pctience of the true scientist. .
vs. >;i, the practical things that
'ascir,ated him most. Not TO do
row hing. lLt IT, learn how the old things
,et ,vks kn dome "A UrpAt
.cac. on tho st lc that naGe the m the new
.,l revolutionary things of industry.
Wa tho task he tiuned most naturally
toward
lnI.;, whom he WAS only -. hc had gone
So far that hn sct IN a laboratory oi MS
own to, IA I me le had a hard struggle
10 make both ends meet. He had u lew
small cliorts anong Philadelphia manu-
tac,ufo,- IN. of th"sc. u dyer on small
>ralo wrn rttnt, ,i.it"dhi- little laboratory
and watchr,' ljscYlerin"ntS .si,iireinein-
lcrs how vhen hr told Frasch that he
would do rres,thngs sonc dav the Young
nan tnrncd ava" examine q ctort IN
which he was list 'lllng something ana an
svored SIN y'vwith the German qua ,nt'"ss
whch wa- .''il IN l,i- speech.
"No shat ''st -ce how great things this
shall ro-
Small a. his t'I-iDc-s was, II was letter
for trio work oi hi life that it should I've
So FOR ho was n horn inventor ana
tho work to which hc devoted himself
with ras> rat"oncrgy was large original
creative. "" cxrerimentel along many
limos IN his Philadelphia laboratory, but
,the fir, inv.n,o Of Importance which
he hrounh, out WAS a now process Of re-
ininr para TN wax. which he Iato!tct; in
lTr
Iic t,oh h- ulan 10 tho Cleveland Pc
ttoieiun I 'onnanv, q subsidiary ot the
STANDARD on aud sold il ont uf hand. II
var hlynlr technical and very ingenious,
ar'markahle ACCOMPLISHMENT for young
man of e who'e rivals Of the Same ag"
were sill, IN IN" technical schools The
officers OF the Standard Oil company sum
inon"d hun To lcveland and gave him a
rlaoc IN their laboratories.
There WAS more or Jess routine work
10 ls done but it was the creative work
that fired his imagination and he threw
himself INTO IT with IA true scientist $ en-
Nrrgy. Fourteen hours day was his reg
Mar stunt. and often he stayed all night
with his apparatus 10 follow some partic
larly tedious process through IN the end
And before the year was out ne had proved
his labor worth while. for he patented al
improved method for refining petroleum
(which was soon after adopted by his EN-
poyers
After that his inventions and improve
'nents Of chemical processes in industry
followed rapidly. One OF the most profit.
able was his plan for the manufacture
y waved paper. which soon became ar
important hy-produot of the STANDARD
on Company, He invented an oil lamp
~ superior lighting qualities. five or sil
minor improvements in petroleum re-
Nning and so on.
His work did not all have to do with
oil products, however. He found a way
Nor making white lead directly from tn
ore an important discovery for com
msrce. Later he studied the salt manu-
faoture. and studied it with the same ex
haustive care that he gave to everything
lie took out five separate patents for i'm
provements in this line, and four on hi
methods of making carbonate OF soda.
n ha studied electricity among othel
'hlDpH and ha nhla,,,. 30 th., ol,,. ~ ~,