The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-02-12
FORMER GERMAN
CHEMICALS MADE
BY ILLINOIS u"
Nearly 100 Different Mix
lures, Many for Govern
ment, Now Produced
AZ AesocIated Press.l

| Urbana, Ill, Feb. 12-When the
| story Of the work done for the ma
| tional defense of America in the great
war is written at the end OF the great
| struggle, IL will be found that one OF
the largest and most valuable contri-
buttons has been made by the chem
zeal laboratories of the University OF
Three members of the chemistry
faculty, twelve assistants and Rradu-
ate students and thirty-siX under
graduates have entered the military
service since the beginning of the
present academic year and the rec
ords of the university show that 1873
men who have graduated from the
department of chemistry or have been
connected with the department also
are in government service. Maj Ed
ward Barlow, with the Sanitary corps
in France, was q. professor OF chem
istry before he enlisted for the more
important work; DR.. w. Il. Thrun and
DR.. G. ]. Engelder, both valuable fac
ulty men, also have enlisted.
A number of different lines of
work, some Of them Of great import
ance, are in progress at the univer-
Of the chemistry staff. Among these,
the one which has attracted most at
tention is the manufacture of organic
chemicals, which has been carried on
under the direction of DR.. Roger Ad-
ans since last June.
Make German Chemicals.
The stocks Of many organic chem
icals which were imported from Ger
many before the war have been ex-
hausted and within the past eight
months more than 100 different chem
icals have been made, many Of them
for the use of the United States gov
eminent. The Importance of some OF
these will only be known at the close
of the war. Among the chemicals Of
this kind which have been needed for
analytical work are dimethyl glyox-
inc, nitroso betanaphthol, cuperron,
nitron and Ninhydrin. The first OF
these is used in the cumulative de
termination OF nickel and is extreme
ly important for use in the labora-
tories OF manufacturers of nickel
steel. Other chemicals which are
widely used in synthetic organic
chemistry have been made, including
malonic ester, acetoacetic ester, ortho,
and para nitrobenZoic acids, allyl al
cohol and acetonitrile. A half barrel
Of crude. fusei oil was obtained from
Peoria dtstilleries recently and frac-
donated to prepare amyl alcohol and
amyl acetate of a high grade of puri-
ty for certain biological laboratories.
Some rare chemicals, such as furfural
chIoropicrin have been prepared on
account of their physiological proper
ties.
All of these experiments and manu-
features are being carried forward in
the university's laboratories. which
GONOA hAL GuklGS ulOGhs Inc
forms one of the biggest instruction
al chemistry laboratories in the
world.
Manufacture Product Cheaper.
A business which was expected to
be at the outlet about $1,000 turned
out to be in the neighborhood of S5,-
600 for the summer, and up to the
present time materials valued at more
than $4,000 have been made. In gen
eral, the chemicals have been sold at
a price which would cover labor, raw
materials and general overhead ex-
pense. When sold to commercial con-
Germs a slight percentage was added.
When chemicals in ordinary times
have been manufactured on a large
scale in Germany II was generally
impossible to make them here, at a
price approaching that which existed
before the war. In the case Of chem
icals which had never been marfufac-
tured on a large scale, If was found
that even though the raw materials
were even more expensive than be-
fore the war, the cost in practically
every case was either below or never
much above the price which was paid
for similar articles when imported
duty free" from Germany.