Evening star., 1927-11-27
BY DIR. EDWIN e. SLOSSON,
Dirnr.fnr Gninnfo Gnr,.icn

Everybody in America who owns
an automobile, or rides in one, is
concerned by the two recent an
nouncements by the German Chemical
Trust. First, that synthetic gasoline
may be made at marketable prices
from coal. Second. that synthetic
rubber may be made at marketable
prices. also presumably from coal.
Since we consume more gasoline and
rubber than any other people in the
world, We are most interested in the
reported discoveries. They belong to
the news to be classified as ''impor-
tant If true"
In both cases the chemistry is cor
rect, but the practically is question
able. 1t has been known for years
that both processes are possible, but
it has not yet been proved that they
are profitable. / have here in Amer.
lea seen and smelled samples of syn
thetic gasoline and synthetic rubber.
but the cost of production was not
specified, which is, of course, the cru
cial point. A famous professor of
1netallurgy used to make this point
plain to his students of the school of
mines in the first sentence of his lee
ture by defining his subject as Metal
lurgy is the art of getting money out
of ores" instead of the conventional
fashion of 1.-The art of getting metals
out of ores"
Change Seen Distant.
In certain parts OF our country
petroleum gushes from the ground
faster than it can be shipped and
sold, and until our oil fields run dry
some years hence we are not likely
to take to making gasoline out of coal,
rh1ln Pnhhnr iC
now being grown on the British and
Dutch plantations in the Middle East
at less than IL cents a pound. Now,
1t has hitherto been impossible to find
any raw material and any factory
process that would produce rubber at
lower price than this.
One reason why American experts
sare inclined to question this present
statement of the German Chemical
Trust that synthetic rubber would
''soon appear on the world markets as
a commercial commodity. equal to
natural rubber and cheaper in COST
is because they remember that same
claim was made by the same parties
15 years ago, and it did not turn out
10 be true. At the International Con-
gress of Applied Chemistry in New
York in 1912 DIR. Carl Duisberg ex-
hibited with justifiable pride two auto
mobile tires made of artificial rubber
and rashly boasted that synthetic
rubber will certainly appear on the
market in a very short time" But
''in a very short time" after that
Germany was barricaded by the allied
armies and rubber was wanted at any
cost, yet the German army automo.
bileS had to run on bare wheels.
Progress Since War.
But since the war. very great prog.
ress has been made in Germany, in the
manufacture of organic compounds
from coal. The Bergius process for
making petroleum by combining hydro.
gen with coal has shown suficien.
promise of proving practical and
profitable that the Standard Oil Co. OF
New Jersey has invested in it. The
Fischer process OF making methanol
alcohol from coal has cut under our
process of making it from wood.
Now the products Of these processes
for the liquefaction of coal include
various compounds out of which rub
her may be made: for instance acetic
acid. acetone butadiene and isoprene
So it is quite likely that some catalyst
has been found which will short -circui,
the process of preparation of one OF
the various materials and so cheaper
the massage from coal to caoutchouc
But after the chemist has done hi:
work and produced a substance ide'
tical in composition To the natural ruil
her. the task is still only half done
for the milk that exudes from the cut
in the rubber tree is made up or MINI
ature globules, which conflne IN al
elastic membrane a network or minute
rods and chains enmeshed in lighter
liquid. -,
When the drops are stretched, th'
nets form a stiff lattice held in place
BY strong tension of the covering skin