INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY
But if all this is of purely theoretical interest, the chemistry of our earth and its products is of immense practical importance. It may beapplied, and the day of “industrial chemistry” is here. By studying the chemistry of soils, the farmer has been enabled to increase both the quality and the quantity of his crops. By employing artificial fertilizers, production has been greatly increased. An analysis of the earth’s strata has thrown great light upon geology. Analytical chemistry has proved of service in criminology,—by enabling experts to detect poisons, blood-stains, etc. (Unfortunately, it has also been applied detrimentally, in the manufacture of explosives, poison gases, etc., employed in war.) Dentistry and surgery have been rendered painless by the discovery of anæsthetics. The wholesale manufacture of illuminating gas has been instrumental in lighting millions of homes. The manufacture of steel, paper, ink, dyes, stains, paints, perfumes, bread, and a thousand-and-one useful articles of our daily lives has been rendered possible by the progress of chemical research. Artificial preservatives have enabled us to keep food-stuffs for long periods of time. By the discoveryof the nature of iron rust, bridges, buildings, etc., have been preserved intact. Our food, our clothes, our very lives themselves, may be said to depend upon modern chemistry for their maintenance and preservation.
Let us pass in rapid summary a few of these results. Let us take, for example,glass.
Glass is made from silica. What is silica? It is a substance of remarkable infusibility, and is the oxide of silicon, which is a near neighbor of carbon. Glass is made by mixing sand, limestone and carbonate of soda or potash in large pots, and melting them together at a temperature of 3,500° F. The sand, being silica, combines with the lime of the carbonate of lime, to give silicate of lime, and with the soda (or potash) of the carbonate of soda (or potash) to give silicate or soda (or potash). These two silicates become intimately fused and form the glass, which remains liquid in the pot. It is then blown into various shapes or rolled into thin sheets for window glass. We know what an effect windows have had upon the comforts of modern life!
By mixing together several metals,alloysare obtained which very often have properties quite different from those of the substances which compose them. Thus: Bronze is a mixture of copper and tin; plumber’s solder is an alloy of lead and tin; brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; ferro-silicon is a union of silicon and iron, etc. Many of these alloys are of great utility in the various arts and sciences, as well as in manufacture.
Gilding, silvering and electroplating havebeen rendered possible by modern chemistry. Alumina and porcelain have been produced. Alumina is the oxide of aluminum. One variety of clay known as “kaolin” is employed in the manufacture of porcelain. China and earthenware are made by very similar processes. Alcohol, wine and beer have depended upon scientific chemistry for their production. Ice can be manufactured artificially by means of freezing mixtures. The manufacture of oxygen gas has rendered possible high altitude flights by aviators. Camphor can now be manufactured, instead of depending upon nature’s resources for this valuable substance. Wood-pulp, starch and sugar owe much to modern chemistry. Artificial silk is manufactured on a large scale. Soaps and fats have likewise been developed in vast quantities. The perfume milady uses has been developed by the chemist. Colors and dyes now constitute an enormous industry. For our medicines we depend upon the chemist, when visiting the nearest drug store. These are but a few examples, which might be lengthened almost indefinitely, illustrating the extent to which we are dependent upon modern chemistry, in our daily lives.
And chemistry is capable of explaining many things which would be unintelligible without its aid. Let us take a simple example by way of illustration. You have probably noticed that a frozen potato has a characteristic sugary taste. The cause of it is this: the potato contains in its tissues a great quantity of starch, as well as a diastase capable of transforming this starchat the moment of its sprouting. These two substances are kept apart by the membrane of the tissue. But if a frost occurs, the ice tears this membrane, and the starch comes in contact with this diastase and is, therefore, transformed into sugar, just as it is when the sprouting of the potato begins.