The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-01-12
A REALISTIC ROMANCE
Old German Professor Scored
Butchery Of Naval Stores
and Young Herty Came
Home To See; He Saw and
Conquered, But Has Never
Stopped Work For Industry

-. ~ lIAINDJ
Chapel Hill, Jan. 9.-Smarting an
der "A sweeping denunciation pro-
ounce by a celebrated German
chemist against the ruthless methods
then practiced in the South of adj
ministering the naval stores industry,
a young college professor from the
State of Georgia then prosecuting
studies in chemistry in Europe, has
tened home to investigate the merits
of the Indictment against q leading
Southern industry. The German
chemist had unreservedly pronounced
the tar, pitch and turpentine industry |
of the South unworthy of the name |
of an industry-"a b%utchery. You
are wasting your natural
and get nothing like an adequate re-
turn from them"
The un%preparedness of this college
professor, then holding an instructor
hip in the University of George, to
answer of hand the drastic criticism
registered by the German chemist
was easily accounted for when the
~Georgian's knowledge of the turpen-
tine industry stopped short of ever
eye-witnesSing of a tree under opera
ton. But answering the description
of Lowell of a chemist detective
lis Georgia professor began to finger
with the clues. Like all resourceIul
scientific investigators, he expressed
- single object in his research-that
VI ItEIeliDS out the bedrock IdclS
III the experiment undertaken.
Hence the "Hcrty Cup"
Far-reaching results were produc-
ed. h structures Of the German
professor against the administration
of the turpentine industry were well
founded-the ruthless method long
practiced in the wasteful and de-
structive system of boxing the trees
cost the South 10000 barrels of
spirits of turpentine, 100000 bar.
rels of rosin, yearly, a total valuation
of $13,000,00O Today, the tremend-
Gus financial leakage is being avoided
and the preservation of the pine for
ests nave been maintained-the an
swer is, the Herty Cup-invented by
DR.. Charles II. Herty, head of the
department of chemistry of h Uni
yersity of North Carolina. He has
lately been signally honored through
his election to the presidency of the
American Chemical Society The
honor so worthily bestowed upon
Doctor Herty focuses interest upon his
productive achievements in the field
of science-the revolutioniZing of tn
~turpentine industry in the South alone
is an achievement which a Georgia
paper declares has compensated thu
state of Georgia for all the none,
ever spent upon higher education.
The ~roduc of the idea to es
tablish as a practical experiment tn,
'htANS otI wac - a = q DIP
parently insurmountable obstacles
The story of its appearance is quite a
Illuminating and romantic as the ex
p~ericnce of the man of the Middl
Vest who first introduced a simple de
vice for opening cans The inVento
of the can-opener found rough-Sled
ding in the wake of the old moss-bac
who persisted in the {
the former method of opening cans
by + use of hammer, saw an
chisel.
And the Cynic Snecred.
The troubles of Doctor Herty be
gan when he first introduced the ide
on a turpentine farm in Naldosta, c.
he was rated as an impractic;
dreamer and his radical departul
was discounted, in view of the ia,
that it from the brain of
college professor. Others sought
confuse the issue from the singh
handed purpose set on foot by Doct,
Herty-authorities in the governmel
forestry service plead for introdu
ton of foreign and complicated Ell
ments in avoiding the waste of pr
curing the turpentine by the "boxin,
system. The chemist, trained in Il
rigid investigating Laboratories
Johns -Tookins University and labor
tories abroad, was uncompromising
his research work of establishing
single definite fact. deduced from e
pertinent, at a time.
The Dreamer Conquers.
What promised to he a seven-ye
task in perfectin, the cup for incre;
ing the t,.rpentine yield and the pl
%Seryation Of the forest. was accol
plished in practical results achieved
one year. Enormous sales of the C
was the reception which met the p
lection Of the money-saving device
the naval stores of the South. 7
inventor pleasantly recalls among