Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/537

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HE chemical industry is a child of the nineteenth century. The inorganic branch, the so-called industry of heavy chemicals, such as the manufacture of sulphuric acid in lead chambers, the manufacture of nitric acid, of hydrochloric acid, of sulphate, the manufacture of soda according to Le Blanc's process, the manufacture of chlorine and bleaching powder according to the processes of Deacon and Weldon, was already in operation in the first part of the nineteenth century, while the organic branch of the industry, the manufacture of coal-tar products, of the organic intermediary products, of the aniline and alizarine dyestuffs, pharmaceutical and photographic preparations, the artificial sweeteners and artificial perfumes, and the whole crowned by the synthesis and manufacture of indigo on a large scale, became known only in the latter part of the last century.

As Liebig's influence on the education of chemists and on the chemical industries was chiefly exercised during the time he lived in Giessen, that is until about 1860, and as this influence became of course perceptible only very gradually and slowly, it is evident that the organic chemical industries owe most of their progress to Liebig, and therefore I shall devote my remarks chiefly to a description of this influence.

As every branch of industry is originally the result of empirical research, it is very rare for men of great scientific knowledge to become the founders of any new industry. We find that almost invariably energetic and enterprising merchants, who possess some technical skill, are at the head of such undertakings; and thus we find at the beginning merchants as managers of the factories of the organic chemical industries. Scientific research pointed out the direction in which the gold fields were to be discovered, and enterprising and energetic men marched on the road indicated to the unknown regions, provided with the simplest tools, to uncover the golden treasures and to free them from the gangue which hid them from the view of mankind.