The Washington herald., 1921-10-09
DEMAND FOR INDUSTRIAL
CHEMISTS INCREASING,

| IT Is prODdblN not lar Nloe VI
! the mark to assert that there are
more than $4,000 chemists usefully
employed in the United States to-
/ cay and the advantage which fol
| lows their employment has been
made so obvious that the demand
Is constantly increasing" declared
DR. Charles f. Munroe, OF the Ma
tional Research Council and dean
emeritus Of the George Washing
/ ton University at the opening of
( the evening preparatory school az
( the Y. NJ. c. A. recently.
"A special reason for this lies .n
/ the active competition for trad"
! which is going on within and with
out our country. for II has "eea
/ proved that TO successfully MANI
facture any article Dependent wn
, chemical change the opera 1"1S
must be carried on under str-r;
- emical supervision
Take the iron and steel indus
ny as an example. orig nallA aud
until recently the iron was a.
rraCted from its ores and converted
into steel in wholly empirical
manner with the result that The
product was Of most variable
character. the waste al all points
was great. and accidents. which
often involved great losses were
frequent Today no wise man
" ould expect TO reach commercial
success in this industry unless he
employed a corps OF chemists TO
chemically supervise the operations
and TO test the materials at every
step in the process. For instance,
analyses are made OF the ore, the
fuel and the fluX. which go into the
tlast furnace and OF the iron. the
I Stag and the gases that come from
It: at the converter, or open hearth,
4 the spiegel iron. or ferro-manga-
0 reese, which is added to the molten
J iron is analyZed and likewise the
( first step, after the blow is com
pleted. or the melt is brought 20
nature. is to take a sample OF the
product to the chemist TO be tested
before working it TO shape.
"As proof OF the importance Uf
all this we have the statement 90
Mr.. Carnegie to the effect that he
owed his success in the steel man
ufactUre and the enormous fortune
that he accumulated, largely to the
fact that he was one Of the first
steel manufacturers to employ
corps Of chemists in his works Il
is Of interest to note. too. that in
the published biographies OF the
two young men who successively
rose to the important position ~
president OF the L. s Steel Com
pany It is stated that they studied
chemistry 40 At them for especial
usefulness in their various duties.
and l do not recall that any other
subject of study was mentioned.
The cultivation OF chemistry
from this standpoint has been
given an especial impetus by the
immense strides which Germany
made in the industrial field through
which her manufacturers succeed
ed in capturing the trade Of the
world for many products. This
progress was such as TO cause
grave concern in France. the
/ United States, and especially in
England Numerous conferences
were held and Investigations made
regarding the sources of her sue
cess, since, as she enjoyed no spe-
cial advantages of location. cheap
I transportation, cheap food. cheap
J fuel or cheap raw material except
potassium salts, there were not
readily apparent and they Terc
/ found to be due largely 20 the fact
/ that she was employing trained
scientific men, and especially chem
/ lists, TO a much larger extent in
her manufacturing enterprises than
obtained elsewhere in the world,
and that by this she surmounted
/ her disadvantages. As an example
/ of the unparalleled extent to which
this employment OF specially
trained scientific men was carried
we find our consul at Chemnitz to
state that in one German factory,
| the Badische Anilin and Soda Fab
rik, $50 chemists, university trained
men, were working under the di-
rection OF the famous chemist
Bernthsen. and that thirty-nine of
them were engaged in DR.. Bernth-
sens special research laboratory.
One-fifth OF this corps OF chemists
attended to the routine analytical
work OF this one concern. while the
remainder prosecuted researches
along the lines OF manufacture.
According to Baskerville. in 1900
the salaries OF these chemists. ex-
cluding the chief. varied from
$1,000 to 5000 each a year. Re-
ferring 10 one Of these factories, Sir
Henry Roscoe said one chemist
was employed at 5000 a year. who
worked for several years without
1 producing any results but even
tually through his researches he
made a discovery which repaid the
firm ten times over and gave them
control of an entirely new branch
Of manufaeture.'