Norwich bulletin., 1917-01-10
Tariff Protection for Dye Industry
Complete Domestic Dye Industry Element of Efficient Preparedness Worth Considering, Says Philip Johnson in Paper Before Park Church Mems Club-Robert w. Perkins and Arthur H. Gullver Other Speakers of the Evening.

A complete domestic dye industry
 is an element ofseffioient preparedness
 worth considering said Philip A.
 Johnson in a highly interesting paper
 before the members of Park Church
 Mems club at their meeting in the Os-
 good Memorial Parish house on Tues
 day evening. In addition to MT. John
 sons paper the members of the club
 were privileged to hear addresses by
 Robert w. Perkins, president of the
 Shire Line Electric Railway and Ar
 thur H. GulIiver. Mir. Perkins spoke
 on the development of agriculture in
 Connecticut laying particular emphasis
 on the work that is being done by the
 County Farm Bureau. MT. Perkins
 was the first speaker of the evening and he was followed by MT. Johnson.
 A synopsis of Mir. Jphnson's paper follows:
 The use of coal to generate heat and power is of course familiar to every one. If instead of heating coal in contact with air and allowing it to
 burn, we heat it in a closed vessel, it undergoeSs decomposition with the formation of various gaseous, liquod and solid products. This process Of heating an organic compound in closed vessel without access of air. and collecting the products, is called de- structive distillation. In the de- structive distillation of coal there are always produced four things-gas, wa tery liquid, viscous products known as tar, and a residue of coke or char coal. This observation was first made about 1880 by a German chemist named Becher (according to Dr. Gustav Schultz). In 1913 Westminster Bridge in London was successfully lighted by coal, and this date may be considered to mark the beginning of the practical commercial application of the Scien- tif1c fact known for over a century. Slowly at first, but later more rapid ly the demand arose for coal, not for direct conversion into heat and pow CT by burning, but for gas by distilla- tion, until now a very considerable portion of the output of the coal fields is never burned at all as coal.
 Thus one of the four products of the destructive dfstillation of coal is ac- counted for, i. e. the use of gas for illuminating purposes. Another of these products may be briefly disposed of, for the use of coke or charcoal as g fuel is well known. To complete the account it may be stated that the third of these products, the watery liquor, is distinctly alkaline, and con- monia, besides other volatile bases. 1 The uses of ammonia are manifold. and nearly our whole supply of this yalu- able substance is now derived from It IS W1In- the IOurIn pro l duct, the coal tar. that this brief paper | is concerned more particularly. Raw Material For Valuable Substances l
 The enormous quantity of tar result i ing from gas manufacture furnishes i the raw material for the production l of a multitude of valuable substances 1 -colouring matters, medicines& per fumes, havoring-matters, burning and l oils, etc. Out of this unsav- l bury waste material of the gas works, | the researches of chemists havef en- | abled a great industry to sp-ing sup | which is of continually growing i'm | portance. There is a notion more or | less widely spread, that the substances 1 derived from coal and utilized for in | dustriaI purposes are present in the | mineral itself. and that the a<t of the | chemist has been exercised in separ- 1 ating the said substances by various i processes This impression is incor- 1 rect. In the coals mostly used for ! gas making not a, trace of tar exists | 'eady formed. and still less can it be l said that the coal contains coke All | hese products are formed bv the chemical decomposition of the coal un- fer the influence of heat, and their nature and quantity can be made to