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CHEMICAL NEWS, Feb. 26, 1915

If, however, it be desired and if public necessity requires the introduction of the manufacture of explosives and further chemicals and dye-stuffs into our home industry, such as coal-tar product explosives, pharmaceuticals, medicinals, and other intermediates and finished coal tar dyes, then alterations of our tariff law are inevitable, and the consumers in the first place and the public in general must share in the burden thus imposed. If conditions of national defence in case of attack by a foreign power require us to manulacture our own explosives, and to be in that regard independent of all foreign nations at all times, or if our textile industries or any other of our industries requiring coal-tar chemicals, such as dye-stuffs, shall for ever be protected and made independent of foreign nations for the supply of those materials, then the nation as a whole must bear the burden incident to such expansion. Under existing circumstances private enterprise and private capital have gone their limit. They have reached the limit for two reasons:

1. The explosive, dye, and similar industries abroad, just referred to. are in a state of high development and of refined organisation, and are financially the best suited to carry on an offensive campaigne against any nation attempting to take business away from them.

2. Domestic manufacturers are prohibited by law from making use of co-operative commercial devices, such as pools, trusts, manufacturing and selling agreements, and the like, whereas such devices are wholly lawful abroad, and are encouraged by the respective governments. In other words, the American chemical industry is expected to cope with the foreign industry while both its own arms are tied behind its back, and its opponents have full and free use of their arms.

Anti-dumping Clause.-The remedies required would be an effective anti-dumping clause that would certainly prevent underselling of domestic manufactures in the United States by untair methods. What the form of such clause shall be is a problem with which your Committee is unable to cope; it is strictly a law-making and lawenforcing problem, and is allied to the usual problem of determining under-valuation as heretofore carried on by our Treasury Department; it, however, is a much more refined problem than the older problem of proving undervaluation. Nevertheless, your Committee believes that with such a mechanism in our law that much would be done toward encouraging our chemical industries.

To Create Coal tar Chemical Industry.-According to the best information that your Committee can gather, such an anti-dumping clause alone would not be sufficient, how ever, to create complete and independent domestic coal tar explosives, dye-stuffs, and medicinals industries. It has been conclusively demonstrated during the past thirty years that the present triff rate of 30 per cent on dye-stuffs is not sufficient to indu the domestic dye-stuff industry to expand at a rate comparable with the consumption of dyestuffs in this country, and that therefore all dye-stuffs made from coal-tar, whether they be aniline dyes or alizarin, or alizarin dyes, or anthracene dyes or indigo, so long as they are made in whole or in part from products of or obtainable from coal-tar, should all be assessed alike, namely, 30 per cent ad valorem plus 73 cents per pound specific, and that all manufactured products of or obtainable from coal-tar, themselves not dyes or colours and not medicinal, shall be taxed 15 per cent ad valorem and 3 cents per pound specific.

Tariff to Aid Dye Industry. The best information and judgment your Committee can obtain is that the above manufactured products of coal-tar, not dyes and not colours and not medicinal, should carry one-half the duty of the finished coal-tar dye, and that the above rate of 30 per cent ad valorem and 72 cents specific would probably be sufficient to encourage and enable domestic manufacturers

a very material increase in, if not the whole, of these commodities consumed in this country. The reason for a specific duty is to protect the domestic manufacturer in the manufacture of the relatively cheap dyes, such as the cheap scarlets, the cheap yellows, and the like, whose prices abroad are in the neighbourhood of from 12 cents to 20 cents per pound, with dyes of that type 30 per cent ad valorem would not offer so serious an obstacle to importation and underselling thereof as does the 7 cents per pound specific; on the other hand, on dyes whose prices are I dol. and upward per pound the function of the 73 cents specific more nearly approaches zero. That is, with the cheap dyes the chief function lies in the specific portion of the duty, and with the expensive dyes the chief function lies with the ad valorem portion of the duty. This is said to be the price the nation will have to pay to have a complete self-contained and independent coaltar chemical industry. However, it must be remembered that if such an industry be created and importation of coal-tar picducts, inclusive of intermediates and dyes, is restricted its ultimate effect upon the Federal revenues will havet o be considered. It will therefore be necessary to determine carefully if the advantages to be gained are equal to the price to be paid.

Patent Laws.-This Committee is a unit in the belief that an alteration of our patent laws aiming at compulsory working or compulsory licensing would not be any substantial benefit to this industry or to the country as a whole. Twenty-nine countries have attempted compulsory licensing clauses and fifty-six countries have attempted compulsory working clauses, and the best information your Committee can obtain is that in none of these attempts has there been any appreciable measure of success. While it may be true that under extraordinary conditions, such as now exist. compulsory licensing might have some advantage, yet it is equally true that in normal times the disadvantage due to compulsory licensing or compulsory working would more than overbalance any advantage at all likely to be obtained under stress of unusual conditions.

In none of the countries where there have been working or licensing clauses, or both, co-extensive with the existence of the coal tar chemical industry, has there been established any real coal-tar chemical industry, and your Committee does not feel that an alteration in our present patent laws could be made which would be effective against foreigners, and at the same time not be onerous and a hardship to domestic inventors. Your Committee believes that in the long run and in the final outcome, our present system with regard to working and licensing is as efficient as that of any other country. In the dye stuffs industry in particular there are so many non-patented commercial products and so many commercial products once patented now free from patent restraint that their production alone would form a basis for a very considerable industry, and your Committee feels that the way to encourage that industry, if the establishment of that industry in this country be a national necessity, is through a change in the tariff and the additional anti-dumping feature in the administration of the tariff, and not through any change in the patent laws. Once established, such an industry could develop and ultimately cope with any foreign combination upon fair and equal terms. Over 90 per cent of the tonnage and of the individual dyes used in the United States will be free from any patent restraint within the next four years; over 75 per cent of the dyes are now in that condition.

Availability of Raw Materials.-The best information your Committee has so far been able to gather is that this country can produce so called coal-tar raw material in amounts sufficient for the needs of a complete domestic coal-tar chemical industry, inclusive of explosives and dyes, provided there is a certainty of outlet as to volume and continuity. Those engaged in manufacture here do not want to expand unless the dye-users are willing to

make corresponding contracts. In other words, it is a close circle. If the dye-users will contract sufficiently with the dye-makers, the dye-makers will contract with the coal tar distillers, and the industry will take a start. The initiative rests wholly with the users; tf they cannot afford to contract the dye-maker and the distillers cannot afford to make their contracts and additional investments. (To be continued).

INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRY AND SCIENCE.

It is officially announced that, in view of important developments, the Institute of Industry and Commerce have now changed their name to that ot "Institute of Industry and Science of Great Britain and Ireland." The word "Commerce" has been dropped in order not to confuse the Institute with other existing associations, and also to more clearly define the objects of the Institute in its title.

Considerable support is being extended to the Institute by the leaders of industry and science and many of the important trade organisations.

The Institute of Industry and Science is a counterpart of a German organisation known as the Hansa Bund, which is in reality a Chamber of Manufacturers', Shippers', and Trade Organisations, i.e., a confederation of important German firms for promoting, encouraging, and facilitating German industry, commerce, and expansion of foreign trade. The advantage which the Institute of Industry and Science has is that it is non-political, whereas the Hansa Bund is of a somewhat political character, inasmuch as it may be said to be attached to the German Liberal Parlia mentary Party, as opposed to the Junker policy.

The Hansa Bund was founded in 1909, and has its head office in Berlin, with a large branch at Hamburg, and has a comprehensive membership. It holds meetings and publishes papers and reports upon all matters relating to the welfare of German industry and finance. The present German Minister of Finance was an active member of the Bund.

The Institute of Industry and Science is founded on somewhat superior lines, suited to British conditions, and it is non-political in character. The Court of Directors hope, therefore, that all who are interested in the develop ment of British industry with the aid of science and scientific methods, will actively support the Institute and become members. The Directors propose to devote a proportion of its revenue each year to scientific research work, under the supervision of the most eminent men of science, as set forth in the objects of the Institute.

INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS. (CHEMISTRY SECTION).

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THE meeting of the Chemistry Section of the Second Indian Science Congress was held in the Presidency College, Madras, on Friday, January 15, at 10 a.m., and was well attended. On the whole the meeting was distinctly encouraging; it showed the a fair amount of research is being carried out in various parts of India, and that this is not confined to Europeans.

The Chairman, Prof. P. C. PAY, C.I.E., of Calcutta, read two papers-"Tautomeric Changes in Organic Thiocompounds through the Agency of Mercuric Nitrite, Heavy Metallic Chlorides, and Monochloracetic Acid," and "The Interaction of Dimercuriammonium Nitrite and Ethyl Iodide." The results commuuicated were distinctly interesting, but as the work has not been completed there could be little discussion.

Prof. J. J. SUDBOROUGH, of Bangalore, described work which has been carried out under his direction by his students at the Indian Institute of Science. In the first paper, "Studies in Alcoholysis," he was able to show the almost complete analogy between the transformation of esters and esterification, and in the second paper, "Replacement of Sulphonic Acid Groups," he gave an account of the action of halogens on various sulphonic acids, which result in the replacement of the acid group.

Prof. NEOGI, of Rajshahi, read an account of his work on the conversion of aliphatic nitrites into nitro-compounds and the reduction of aliphatic nitrites to amines.

Prof. A. F. JOSEPH, of Colombo, described the careful work which he had done in conjunction with Mr. W. N. RAE on the chemistry of chromium phosphate.

Dr. H. E. WATSON, of Bangalore, showed a diagram and illustrated the working of an ingenious and elaborate apparatus for determining the compressibility of gases at low temperatures.

Profs. C. S. GIBSON and J. L. SIMONSEN described the resolution of externally compensated alanine derivatives and of reduced naphthoquinaldines by various methods into their optically active components, while Prof. Simonsen also communicated results of experiments, in which he had been partly assisted by one of his students, on the nitration of 3 acetylamino 2-methoxy toluene and on condensations with monochloromethyl ether.

The above brief account of some of the papers read at the meeting shows that the research work in pure chemistry in India is of a varied character, and attains a high standard. It is hoped that the Annual Meetings of the Science Congress will do much to encourage further activity on the part of Indians in this field, and that in the various university colleges will be given increased facilities for scientific investigations.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Directions for a Practical Course in Chemical Physiology. By W. CRAMER, Ph.D., D.Sc. Second Edition. London, New York, Bombay, and Calcutta: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1915.

The

THIS book contains an exceedingly useful course of practical work in chemical physiology for medical students, and it is not at all surprising that a new edition has been called for very soon after the issue of the first. arrangement of the work is distinctly novel, the early experiments being comparatively simple, and dealing with familiar substances, such as the potato, eggs, lard, butter, &c., from which the proximate constituents are prepared, and their chemical reactions and physical properties studied. The way is thus satisfactorily paved for more difficult work. In the second edition the use of the polarimeter is well described, and some new and valuable experiments on the coagulation of the blood are introduced.

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{CHEMICAL NEWS,

Feb. 26, 1915

IN the Bonecourt Patent Waste Heat Boilers and Water Heaters use is made in the most efficient and effective manner of the heat discharged in the exhaust gases of internal combustion engines. The manufacturers claim that the boiler is an effective silencer, requires absolutely no attention, and is easy and cheap to instal. It can be used either for providing additional steam power or for a continuous supply of hot water, and many different forms are described and illustrated in the pamphlet.

Le Rotazioni Ionomagnetiche. ("Ionomagnetic Rotation"). By AUGUSTO RIGHI. Bologna: Nicolo Zanichelli. THIS book contains the text of a lecture which was delivered by the author before the Italian Electrotechnical Association at the conference of the Society held at Bologna in November, 1914, Some additions have been made to throw further ligh: upon the phenomena described, and bibliographical references are included. A clear account is first given of the electron theory and the electrical theory of matter, and the author's own valuable researches on ionomagnetic rotation and the explanation he gives of the new phenomenon are fully discussed. The pamphlet should be read by all who are interested in modern physical research.

CORRESPONDENCE.

SCIENCE AND THE STATE.

To the Editor of the Chemical News. SIR, -Very shortly before the outbreak of war a newspaper correspondence, in which many writers took part, seemed to point to the conclusion as accepted that in this country the utilisation of scientific method and the status to be accorded to scientific men had not hitherto been properly appreciated by the Government or the public. Since the commencement of the war public opinion seems to have adopted and emphasised this view, at least so far as the utterances of public men, officials, and newspaper corre. spondents may be taken as evidence. The following advertisement from the columns of the CHEMICAL NEWS shows the sort of figure at which Governmert departments value scientific assistance at the present time:INSPECTION DEPARTMENT.

ROYAL ARSENAL, WOOLWICH,

Wanted immediately, Temporary Assistant Chemists.

Applicants must have had a thorough training

in Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, and must be accurate Analysts. University Graduates or Members of the Institute of Chemistry will have preference.

Wages £2 os. 61. per week.

Applications, giving particulars of training and experience, and accompanied by copies of not more than three recent testimonials should be addressed to CHIEF INSPECTOR, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. ' Does Chief Inspector seriously think that a trained chemist is worth no more than the "wages " he offers, which are subject to the deduction of 4d. per week for insurance?

Does he realise that the kind of man he is asking for has in all cases spent at least five or six years in acquiring his technical skill, and during that time has provided maintenance and fees at his own cost?

I am informed that these assistant chemists have been wanted for the past three or four weeks, but that no applicants for the post have appeared; hence the advertisement.

If any applicants do turn up it is certain that, like all other scientific men of British birth, they are animated by the patriotic desire to be useful to their country, and are willing to disregard official insolence. But it will have to be remembered that, when the war is over, the Government of this country will not continue to receive scientific

For my part, I hope that no response will be made to this advertisement, for it is now more than ever necessary that the public should be lifted out of its state of ignorance as to the training, qualifications, and functions of chemists. I am, &c., WILLIAM A. TILDEN.

Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. Vol. clx., No. 3, January 18, 1915. Tautomerism of Phenylpyruvic Acid.-J. Bougault encl and ketonic forms. and R. Hemmerlé. - Pheny pyruvic acid can exist in the When the former is saturated with potassium bicarbonate or acetate it is gradually con

verted into the ketone form. The sodium salt of the

ketone form when acidulated with hydrochloric acid gives a precipitate of the enol form. These transformations are accelerated by raising the temperature. The alkalis, like acids, are capable of converting the ketone into the enol form. By boiling phenylpyruvic acid with acetic anhydride C6H5.CH=C.CO2H an acetate of formula is formed.

CO,CH,

CO2.CH2

MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK.

MONDAY, March 1st.-Royal Society of Arts, 8. (Fothergill Lecture). "Motor Fuels," by Prof. V. B Lewes. Royal Institution, 5. General Meeting. TUESDAY, 2nd.-Royal Institution, 3 "Colour Photography-Scientific Applications," by Prof W. J. Pope FRS. Royal Society of Arts, 4.30. "The Northern Territory of Anstralia Past, Present, and Future," by D. Lindsay.

WEDNESDAY, 3rd.-Royal Society of Arts, 4.30. "Shakespeare's Profession." by W. Poel,

Society of Public Analysts, 8. "Soluble Chlorides and Total Chlorine in some English Cokes." by S. W. Bridge. "Routine Detection and Estimation of Boric Acid in Butter," by H. Hawley. "Structure of Pepper-some New Features," by T. E. Wallis. "Occurrence of Chlorine in Coal," by A. de Waele.

THURSDAY, 4th.-Royal Institution, 3. "Poetry and War," by Sir Herbert Warren, K.C.V.O.

Royal Society. "A Bolometric Method of Determining the Efficiency of Radiating Bodies." by W. A. Bone, H. L. Callendar, and H J. Yates. "Simplification of the Arithmetical Processes of Involution and Evolution," by E Chappell. "Elastic Properties of Steel at Moderately High Temperatures,' by F. E. Rowett.

Chemical, 8.30. "Steric Influence, Static and
Dynamic," by O. C. M. Davis and F W. Rixon.
"Interaction of Dimercuriammonium Nitrite and
the Alkyl Iodides-Nascent Mercurous Nitrite."
P. C. Rây, "Constitution of Allantoin and Allied
Substances," by H. D. Dakin.

FRIDAY, 5th.-Royal Institution, 9. "Mimicry and Butterflies," by
Prof. E. B. Poulton.
SATURDAY, 6th.-Royal Institution, 3. "Recent Researches on
Atoms and Ions," by Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M.

Royal Institution.-On Tuesday next, March 2, at 3 o'clock, Prof. W. J. Pope will begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on Colour Photography

Scientific Applications" (1) "Photographic Apprecia tion of Colour in Monochrome"; (2) " Photography in Natural Colours." On Thursday, March 4, Sir Herbert Warren begins a course of two lectures on "Poetry and War." The Friday Evening Discourse on March 5 will be delivered by Prof. E. B. Poulton on "Mimicry and Butterflies"; and on March 12 by Sir Rickman J. Godlee, on "Back to Lister."