Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1921-09-09
Romance of Science is
Extolled by Worlds
Research Workers
MAKE sun Do THE WORK
Will Furnish Fuel, Pow
er, Food, Drugs and
Happiness
(By Associated Press. o.

New York, Sept. S-The problem
how to harness the energy of the
sun so as to utilize it for the direct
benefit of man was presented to the
chemists of the United States and
Great Britain here today, by DR.. L.
H. Baekeland, honorary professor
of chemical engineering in Columbia
University. He was speaking at an
international meeting of the Society
of Chemical Industry of Great Bri-
tain and of the American Chemical
Society. He pointed out the neces-
sity of chemical research for the ad-
vancement of American industry and
warned manufacturers against dis
continuing that work during the pre-
sent period of business depression.
Speaking on the problem of how to
utilize the rays of the sun, he briefly
told how these rays acting upon
plant life produce sugars, starch,
celluose and other foods. He said:
"No sun, no crops, no life. So that,
after all, the whole living world is
dependent upon delicate photoche-
mical reaction.
"Our vast coal beds and our pc
troleum wells and our natural gas
are merely the result of light ener-
gy stored up from the plant to i'm
press US with the enormous possibil-
tiles of photochemicaI synthesis and
yet, here is a field where the scien-
tist or engineer hahs accomplished
next to nothing. In the utilization
of this marvellous energy, we have
not gone beyond the art Of making
photographs.
when it comes to Transforming
light energy into chemical synthesis
we have left thus far the monopoly
of this agent to nature; we have been
acting as Rip Van Wrinkle.
4NttuSu-A NEHdi SHtUlISl.
where is the Farady, the AM
pere, the Leonardo de Vinci; where
is the Archimedes who shall show us
how to use the sun rays for charg-
ing our electrical storage batteries.
or who will teach us how to handle
the photochemical action of sunlight
or to emulate nature in her delicate
synthesis of plant life? Who will
utilize this delicate method instead
of our hitherto brutal processes of
synthesis?
TO the wide-awakc manufacturer
the present industrial depression
should be an incentive to engage
more, chemists, to do more chemical
research work, instead Of laying off
the men of their chemical staff, as
has happened in too many instances
since we got out of that FOOLS par
adise of so-called prosperity
"Most of our industries badly need
"fertilizing" and fertilizing is better
done while the land lies fallow than
during planting or harvesting time.
whenever l see such shortsight.
edness, which is bound to stunt our
industrial efficiency for the future,
than | wonder whether some of the
financial or business men at the head |
of large industrial enterprises are not |
occupying their position on an as
sumed and unearned reputation"
Man Stealing From Nature
A revolution in chemical science |
which will have wide bearing on
human affairs" was prophesied by |
Sir William ]. Pope, president of the
Society of Chemical Industry of
Great Britain.
at is safe to prophesy that the
next great epoch of organic chemi-
cal progress lies in the very near fu-
ture and that it will lead us to labo-
CONTINUED on lAage p