The New York herald., 1921-12-04
COLUMBIA TO BUILD
A CHEMISTRY PLANT
New Building Will Be Added
to Facilities for the De-
partment.
SIS ARE IN CLASSES NOW
Large Demand for Trained
Chemists Is Being Met by
University.
SIS ARE IN CLASSES NOW

Columbia University Is planning to
erect a new building to add to the IA
cilities OF It's department OF chemistry.
The present home of the department.
Havemeyer Hall on Broadway at 11Sth
street, Is so crowded that the univer-
sity's work in chemistry Is being greatly
hampered. and it has been found neces-
sary to turn away many competent stu
dents who desired to undertake research.
Tentative plans call for a new build
ing on the ground north OF Hayemeyer
Hall to house the whole work of the
department of chemical engineering and
provide room for a large expansion OF
the department of chemistry.
Dean Pegram Of the Schools of Mines,
Engineering and Chemistry said yester-
day that this new building, which Is
planned as a part Of the university's pro-
gramme for new structures costing sew
erai millions. will have capacity at
least equal to that of Havemeyer Hall.
Chemistry, called by President Mich
olas Murray Butler "the central Science"
is undergoing enormous expansion IN
American universities and it has been
necessary for Columbia to limit the num-
ber of its student Those studying
organic chemistry totalled S5 in 1908. To-
day instruction Is given to SIG: among
these are professors from China and
Japan. But many of che research stu
dents are doing their work away from
Columbia--in the laboratories OF city
College. Barnard College and In other
places.
"Fortunately," added Dean peerara-
this condition will not last lons
the trustees have set IN motion ~ a.
plans for a new building 60 proNN -
expansion OF the departments - et e.
try and chemical engineering. eHFEE, H
for advanced Instruction and rsaraEch
Prof Bogert OF the sub-department %
organic chemistry reports that. though
the war emphasized the Importance OF
chemistry. the demand for trained chem
lists started to grow about ten or nftecn
years ago. when the community began
to realize the role than chemistry plays
in ministering not only to the life and
welfare of every person. but also to the
security Of the nation In peace and war.
The new chemistry building. he
thought. would be filled within COM
paratively few years. '"rhe growth of
organic chemistry depends. however. on
legislation enacted by Congress in rela-
ton to the dye industry" he added, for
the dye business is the key industry of
the fine chemical industries of the coun-
try.
upon dyes depend the production not
only of dyestuffs. but of drugs, flavor
ings, synthetic plastics, synthetic tam
nine, synthetic resins, accelerators for
the vulcanization OF rubber. photo chem
icals, virtually all high explosives and
the stabilizers as well as the weapons
Of chemical warfare.
For Ave years an attempt has been
made to obtain suitable protective legis-
ton. A temporary war embargo on the
importation of dyes that are not made
here in satisfactory quantities and at
fair price became a law later. AS a
result OF that embargo We have been
able to develop dye industry starting
from seven manufacturers in 1913 that
had reached a total Of eighty-two In
1920"
Prof Bogert dispclled some popular
superstitions in speaking OF The bearing
of synthetic dye industry upon our
national welfare. He said:
THE popular superstition that the
medicinal value of a pure chemical COM
pound Is modified in some obscure but
positive manner by the source from
which It is derived. is as old as the
hills. The famous English drops
drug which really consists OF nothing
more than ammonium carbonate with a
little ethereal oil. was sold for high
prices up to the close Of the seventeenth
century. because II was stated by some
obtained by the dry distillation OF silk,
while others even went so far as to
maintain that 1t was prepared by dis
tilling five pounds of the skulls OF per-
sons who had been hanged or who had
come to some other unnatural end, with
two pounds OF dried vipers, hartshorn
and ivory. We smile and yet this same
kind of superstition still retains its hold
upon the community and has materially
retard ed the introduction Of really yalu-
able synthetic remedies.
The time Is surely coming when Il
Will be necessary only for the physician
to state just what effects he wishes to
produce. and the chemist can build up
for him compound that will do all that
is required and be free from unpleasant
after effects, much us the child would
build up new kind OF house with the
same old blocks. 1t takes years TO
solve such problems. OF course: Won
Baeyer worked twenty years upon the
molecular structure OF indigo, but he
finally solved the mystery"