Creative Chemistry
RECENT advances in applied chemistry have given us many sub- stances that are entirely new and " man-made" in the sense that they are not found in Nature, and increasing use is being made of these materials which may well alter the face of our civilisation. On these interesting substances Mr. Haynes writes with authority as one closely connected with chemical industry in the U.S.A and known as his country's foremost chemical economist. Much of what he says is widely known to chemists, but the general reader will here find information that he has long needed ; and even 1 the two introductory chapters are more impressive for their dramatic treatment of some earlier chemical events than for then historical accuracy, the rest of the book is an invaluable addition to the scanty general literature on this subject.
The remarkable success of the sulphanilamide drugs is Known to all, but their history is not ; and it is well told here. So is the history of rubber and the attempts at its synthesis. Chemists have now made, not rubber, but several rubber-like substances with different properties suitable for different purposes, a success not to be despised as the mere production of ersatz materials. Nylon, the laboratory-made fibre, is an entirely new substance, not a cheaper substitute ; it has some superior qualities and is, in fact, sold at a higher price. Other such substances are described here in interesting detail. New ones seem to be made every year. Stockings are produced from coal, air and water: cups and saucers in the new plastics are made essentially from gases, from " thin air," since the material from which they are made is produced by the condensation of formaldehyde and urea. which in turn are made respectitely one from hydrogen and carbon dioxide and the other from ammonia and carbon dioxide.
The successful manufacture of products in the factory to replace those previously obtained from Nature means production for an assured. market already established by the natural product. fhe market awaiting synthetic alizarin, the colouring principle in the madder root, amounted to five million pounds The synthesis of indigo cost a million and a quarter pounds and twenty-five years of research, but the market for it was of the order of ten million pounds, • and the synthetic product was sold at a quarter of the price of the natural product. Moreover, these two syntheses, covering a market of fifteen million pounds, together gave back nearly two million acres of land to their primary purpose of the growing of food instead of dye-plants.
In the shadow of the European war that has lust ended, Mr. Haynes does well to. remind us of the part played by Germany in industrial chemistry, not through any special skill in her people, but through the culpable indifference of her neighbours, and par- ticularly ourselves. The German came late into the field, but he soon found' that his chemical export trade had a military potential and gave hiM a new diplomatic weapon. Long before the hey-day of Goebbels, German propaganda knew how to pitch high claims for German chemicals. Those who were gulled by nonsense of that sort are now becoming aware that, in so far as the initiative in applied chemistry passed to Germany, it was due to neglect, not incompetence. The position in 1914 was that, whereas the coal-tar dyes had been developed here, our coal-tar " crudes " were being sold to German manufacturers and brought back as finished products. Before 1914 Germany seized every opportunity to dominate the markets of the world and to acquire that " chemical control " of the situation which means, if not initiative and dominance in war, at least primary advantage, possibly overwhelming, in the To-called " short-war " strategy. Dyes and explosives need the same raw materials ; and the German General Staff was not composed of officers unable to appreciate the " chemical potential " of an enemy or to see that destruction of that potential by under-selling the products of a vital enemy war industry in time of peace gained strategic advantage in war by partially disarming that enemy in
advance. But, as Mr. Haynes shows, the lesson of 1914 was not forgotten in the years before 1939. Those who still feel in doubt about Great Britain's contribution compared with that of Germany may read that of the seven outstanding discoveries in dyes made between 1914 and 1939 five were British. All who are interested in industrial history or in economics or politics will find this inter-
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