Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/449

Rh. Among the many important advances due to this use of electricity may be mentioned the manufacture of caustic soda and bleaching powder by the electrolysis of brine. The percentage of the world's supply of these two standard articles which is now made by this process is already a formidable figure and constantly increasing. In the electrolytic production of aluminum we have seen an entirely new industry develop until it is now one of magnificent proportions.

What the application of the electricity will do for technical chemistry in the future can be predicted only by estimating the results of the past. In many fields it is practically virgin soil over which only the pioneers have trod, and which is still waiting to be tilled.

Under the name of catalysis or contact action is included the other force that we can mention this afternoon, the usefulness of which the technical chemist is only beginning to appreciate.

These substances which are capable of so wonderfully increasing or decreasing the speed of a reaction without themselves appearing in its final products vary in their nature from such simple ones as metallic platinum or ferric oxide to the most delicately constituted ferments or enzymes. The manufacture of concentrated sulphuric acid by such a process is perhaps the most striking example of the application of this idea, although to be sure the finely divided platinum used at present plays but the rôle which the oxides of nitrogen have done so successfully in the past. The reproduction of photographic negatives by substituting for the action of light on sensitized paper the contact action of certain chemical compounds, is a process worthy of its distinguished discoverer, Professor Ostwald. For this application of the catalysis idea even the most pessimistic must prophesy a great future. Still another phase of this question is found in the hydrolysis of fats by the enzyme found in the seeds of the castor-oil plant. Instead of the application of acid, heat and pressure the same result is obtained at room temperature by the quiet action of this catalytic body. The advantages to be reaped by the development of these phenomena can scarcely be foreseen. Even the wildest dreamer might easily do injustice to the possibilities of this wonderful agent when intelligently used by the technical chemist.

We probably should not invite criticism were we to state that wherever we find a manufacturing establishment based upon chemical processes, there also exist problems in technical chemistry. That one factor which is so apparent that it scarcely needs mentioning, namely, the increase in the yield of processes now in operation, is enough to substantiate this assertion. The paramount question before us is, therefore, how can these problems best be solved. In any answer to this question there are two factors, both of which deeply affect the future growth of chemical industry. The first is the attitude of the