connection with the Great International Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862. Not only did the number of exhibits, and the meda.s and other honours, awarded to the United Kingdom, exceed those of any other country, but the writer of the Report in 1862, no less a person than Prof. Holmann, then director of the Royal College of Chemistry in London, described the position in the folowing words:

"The contributions of the United Kingdom and in particular the splendid chemical display in the Eastern Annex prove the British not only to have maintained their pre-eminence among the chemical manufacturers of the world, but to have outdone their own admitted superiority on the corresponding occasion of 1851."

With such a record from the past and remembering the repeated warnings and appeals which have been addressed by the most eminent British chemists to British manufacturers during the last forty years it was bitterly disappointing to find at the outbreak of war in 1914 that England made only about one tenth of the quantity of dyes required in the Yorkshire dyehouses and that in the preceding year she had paid to Germany a sum of about one and three-quarter millions stering for these commodities. It was found at the same time that we were practically destitute of many of the synthetic drugs which have become indispensable in recent times, and which, being the products of the chemical laboratory associated with the production of dyes, had been made chiefly in Germany.

The conditions which have led to this state of things have been the subject of much debate, and whether they can be rightly referred to the neglect of organic chemistry in the Universi.ics, or to the patent laws, or to fiscal regulations relating to the industrial use of alcohol, cannot now be discussed. It will be more profitable to look at the present position and see what can be done to recover lost ground.

Happily, very encouraging reports have been given in regard to progress made in the production of dyes in this country, and if it had not been necessary to employ so many of our chemists in making explosives, a business in which few of them had previously any experience, it is probable that the supply would have been by this time not much behind the demand. Some substantial progress has also been made in regard to drugs, and though still dear, there is no serious deficiency.

British chemists have in fact shown themselves fully equal to the demands which have been imposed on them. We require, however, a much larger number of wellqualified men.

Another direction in which chemistry has come to the rescue is in the investigation of the composition of optical and chemical glasses undertaken since the beginning of the war. And as a result several manufacturers have adopted the English formulæ, and are providing material independently of all foreign supplies for the making of field-glasses and other optical instruments, as well as for the glass flasks, beakers, tubing, &c., required in the many chemical laboratories.

Many other things we still need. Among them potash salts for agriculture, bromine for the production of bromides used in medicine and for use in making some dyes, also a larger quantity of sugar and paper.

The question arises, What industries should we endeavour to establish to make ourselves less dependent on foreign sources of supply? Obviously we cannot make averything, but as we have coal-tar of which the supply can be increased by improving the methods of making coke, we can certainly make dyes and drugs. Sugar we can increase by cultivating the sugar beet in England, but paper must be obtained from countries where timber is grown. A large quantity of paper pulp has been obtained from the northern countries of Europe, but there is Canada with extensive forests which may hereafter give us all we need. There is, therefore, no reason for despair as to the future of chemical industry in the

First of all, we must have many more well-trained chemists. By this I do not mean dispensers of medicine, or keepers of shops the windows of which are adorned with the familiar bottles of bright colours. I refer, of course, to chemists who have followed faithfully a course of study in the theory and practice of scientific chemistry in one of the universities or technical institutes. Here is an opportunity for women, for there is nothing in the nature of the study itself or in its applications which should be an obstacle to the successful practice of chemistry, analytical, purely scientific, or industrial, by women. But it must be understood by men and women alike that only well-educated people, with a moderate knowledge of mathematics, can hope with diligence to reach the higher grades of the profession.

In the next place co-operation among manufacturers is very desirable. Already some important steps have been taken in this direction, and when, a few months ago, it was announced that an alliance had been established between Brunner, Mond, and Co., and the Castner-Kellner Company, it was felt that one of the most satisfactory possible movements toward strengthening British chemical industry had been accomplished. Since that time a powerful Association of Chemical Manufacturers has been formed, which includes many other important firms. In place of rivalry and unrestrained competition at home we may look forward to a condition of mutual help, remembering always that the fiercest competition of all comes from over the sea.

In the third place, henceforth, a better position for the chemist in public esteem, social position, and official recognition, will be demanded. The ignorance of all science among the British public is at present scandalous, and this is largely attributable to the neglect of science in the schools, which are still dominated by people brought up in exclusively classical traditions. Nor will it be tolerable that a Government Department should again place chemists in the same category as navvies and labourers, as was the case not many months ago The education and training of a professional chemist extends over several years, and the cost both in time and money is approximately equal to the cost of gaining entrance to ihe profession of medicine. If conditions as to pay and prospects are not substantially improved the majority of able young men in this country will continue to be attracted into the ranks of the law, medicine, engineering, and commerce, and the supply of properly qualified chemists will remain as insufficient as at present.

The recent announcement of a new Committee of the Privy Council with power to give large pecuniary assistance to research, is encouraging, but not entirely satisfactory, because it is apparently going to be administered from Whitehall, where there is no science, and scientific men have no place. In the great councils of the nation, in pub ic offices, in business, and in education, science at present occupies only a subordinate position. There has been usually only one man of recognised scientific position in the House of Commons, and as far as my memory serves me, there have only been two scientific men admitted into the Privy Council. These were Professor Huxley and the late Sir Henry Roscoe, and on the decease of the latter in 1915, no step has been apparently taken to fill his place. This is not as it should be, and when the war is over it will be found that scientific men will no longer be content with smooth words trom ministers without that practical acknowledgment of the indispensable value of their services which is their due.

As to manufactarers, they have long held back from the utilisation of scientific assistance, and in many cases have met with such a measure of commercial success as seemed to justify this attitude. The time has, however, gone by when traditional processes in the works, traditional methods of business, or even acknowledged excellence in quality of goode will suffice to sustain this position of

CHEMICAL NEWS, Jan. 26, 1917

39

analyst ought to be such that he can work out a process from a work of reference, and apply it successfully to the substance in question without interfering greatly with his routine duties.

THE TRAINING OF THE ANALYST. By FRANK BROWNE. F.I.C., formerly Government Analyst, Hongkong.

THE education of the scientific man, to be of practical utility, should have the broadest foundation. Excellent as the instruction may have been, the period of tuition is with many, probably with most students, too much curtailed. A chemical student on leaving college may have obtained a very good degree, and yet may know little of the practical side of the analytical profession. Is it not true that to many such even the recognition of a simple salt of a common metal is by no means easy, and is arrived at frequently only after an undue expenditure of time? And is there possessed that thorough knowledge of the British system of weights and measures so that ordinary problems can be worked out without a long circuitous process of calculation? Or give a sample of boiler incrustation and ask for the constituents present, and roughly the proportion of each. Is it not a fact that, although a correct answer may be given in, the amount of time expended has been altoge her disproportionate to what should be taken over such an examination? It is not here asserted that all newly qualified men are lacking to the extent indicated, but there seems to be with many a deficiency of analytical experience, which is likely to hamper them in after life. This article is not written for any controversial purpose, but is rather the reflections of one who, after long absence from England, is able to take a detached view of what seems to be some defects in our educational system as applied to the analyst. A graduate who has adopted a chemical career may go direct from his college to a public analyst's laboratory, and there it may be that he will not suffer much from having had academic training only. He would be given work to suit his capacity, and as he obtained more experience the analyses given him to perform would become more difficult. There, with a large variety of examinations, the processes used will be of a standard and rapid kind, and after a year or two the assistant of ordinary ability becomes highly useful. Take the case of this same student supposing he has entered a works laboratory. Here, also, by constantly going over routine processes, he may become very helpful to his employers. But here there may be plant difficulties to be solved, and now, although well trained and capable of carrying out analyses satisfactorily as long as he is given unlimited time, he may be found wanting on account of his lack of knowledge of good rapid analytical methods. Here, for the most part, difficulties have to be solved with as little interference as possible with laboratory routine, and it is reasonable to suppose that an employer feels disappointed when an assistant, well recommended from his college, seems unable to carry out in a commonsense practical manner a very ordinary analysis. Perhaps it is desirable to go outside routine work and ascertain accurately the composition of some new material used on the works, such as an oil, alloy, or cement. Now, in a laboratory where such substances are examined frequently, the analysis would be concluded after at the most three or four hours. In a laboratory where such an examination is outside the usual scope, much longer

It may be of interest to young analysts to know that almost any system of analytical examination may be so carefully studied with a view to speed as to be almost incredibly shortened. A cement analyst informed me that, working single-handed, he was able to determine quantitatively in one hour the silica, iron, alumina, lime, magnesia, and loss on ignition of ordinary cement. Another wrote me that he was now able to determine the amounts of antimony, iron, lead, and arsenic in antimony ochre in two hours, and the same in two stibnite ores in three hours. Perhaps a few remarks as to speed in per forming analyses may be found useful. It may frequently be obtained by bearing in mind that it is most helpful in performing a new analysis to write down in what direction the process may perhaps be shortened by the introduction of, say, a volumetric for a gravimetric process, which is nearly always possible in inorganic work. And when a good process of estimation has been arrived at it may be better understood by ascertaining the effect of varying conditions such as the concentration of the solution to be examined, the strength of the volumetric reagent to be added, and the rapidity with which the latter may be run in, and so on. In this way sources of error may be discovered and guarded against and invaluable experience obtained. On no account should it be considered that no improvement is possible in a process, even although such is taken from a good textbok. Many excellent methods of examination are locked up in laboratory journals, and are not likely to be pub lished except, perhaps, after the lapse of some years. When physical constants, such as the relative density and refractive index, are to be determined frequently, a table of corrections for temperature is simply invaluable.

Sometimes in routine examinations the use of a pipette to deliver a constant weight (CHEMICAL NEWS. July 28, 1916. p. 41) may prove a great time-saver. Also standard solutions can be made often so that I cc. corresponds to I per cent when I grm. of substance is taken. This is a good system, and saving of time and error. With every analyst the time comes when, from some cause or other, there is an apparent deficiency of work in the laboratory. This period in reality is most valuable for maintaining efficiency. Everyone during his busy days will see matters, such as the testing of new processes, that cannot at once be attended to, and these inquiries should be entered at the end of his note-book for further consideration when opportunity permits.

Now, the student in his academic course of practical work has no time to do more than carry out typical analyses, so that the writer desires particularly to su, port the useful and practical recommendation of Mr. A. Chaston Chapman, formerly President of the Society of Public Analysts and Other Analytical Chemis's, as set out in his Annual Address (CHEMICAL NEWS, 1916, cxii., 69) that :

"So far as our colleges are concerned I feel very strongly that a more thorough training in analytical chemistry is desirable, and I would in addition venture to suggest that the present curriculum of those chemical students who intend to become professional chemists should whenever possible be amplified so as to include a further year of study.

"During this post-graduate year the student should be trained by thoroughly competent and specially selected teachers under conditions approximating more to those of the technical than to those of the academic laboratory."

It is a matter of opinion as to what would be the course of study during this year that would develop best the powers of the student. The programme might include:

-

Water analysis for industrial purposes. Fuel (coal),

determinations of volatile combustible matter, water, ash, sulphur (by several methods), and calorific value by cal

stage is sufficiently rapid the lower oxidation product will be oxidised where it is formed; that is, at the surface of the metal. Thus it may happen that a metal in passing through two stages of oxidation gives the same velocity constant as a metal undergoing only one stage, the observed velocity being that of the diffusion process. Such an in stance is apparently offered by the case of tin in chromic acid, to be discussed later. On the other hand, if the second stage of the oxidation is not quite rapid enough to produce the result just mentioned, some of the molecules of the lower oxidation stage will not be oxidised until they have diffused part way through the diffusion layer, or, perhaps, have passed through it into the solution. The effect in either case is to shorten the average length of the diffusion path for the molecules of the oxidising agent, and therefore to raise the observed reaction velocity. The reaction between tin and iodine dissolved in potassium jodide solution probably belongs to this category, as has been shown elsewhere (Am. Journ. Sci., 1911, [4], xxxii., 216). There is, moreover, reason to expect similar behaviour from iron in chromic acid, for Benson has shown that the reaction between chromic acid and ferrous sulphate progresses in dilute solutions at a rate sufficiently slow to be easily measurable (Fourn. Phys. Chem., 1903, vii., 1).

The results obtained, shown in Table X., Experiments 1-5, are in accordance with this view. Not only are the constants higher throughout than with the other metals under like conditions, but they also show the continuous rise which would be predicted from the accumulation of

ferric salt, which itself reacts with the metal, producing ferrous salt in constantly increasing proportion compared with the chromic acid, and thus causing a progressive shortening in the average length of the diffusion path.

In Experiments 1-4 the titrations were carried out during the progress of the experiment, and with very little delay. Now, Benson has shown, in the article just cited, that ferric salts have a retarding effect upon the oxidation of ferrous salts by chromic acid. If in our analyses the time allowed for the completion of this reaction had been too short this would have produced high and rising velocity constants. That the high and rising constants actually observed were not due to this is proved by Experiment 5, in which the solution samples, after mixing as usual with a known amount of ferrous sulphate, were allowed to stand for two and a half hours before titrating back with permanganate. It is evident that this modification made no appreciable difference in the results.

Nickel. The experiments with nickel in chromic acid were carried out in solutions either o'25 or 5 molar with respect to sulphuric acid. In the former solution the velocity constants were in all cases irregular and abnormally low; in the latter the results were apparently normal, and agreed well with the values obtained with cadmium and with copper under like condi'ions.

The nickel discs after use always showed traces of a blackish deposit, or, in the stronger acid, of a brownish discoloration, these surface coatings resembling closely in appearance and amount those observed with nickel in ferric sulphate solutions of like sulphuric acid concentra

tion (see p. 10 ante). The effect of these coatings upon | the reaction velocity was apparently negligible in 5 molar sulphuric acid, and even in the weaker acid they were probably responsible for only a small part of the abnormality observed.

The chief cause of the low and variable results obtained in the presence of o 25 molar sulphuric acid was the tendency of the nickel disks to become passive. In Experiments 6, 7, and 8, to insure activity of the disc at the start, after cleaning in the usual manner it was immersed in dilute hydrochloric acid and thoroughly rubbed under the acid with a zinc rod. This treatment did not make the constants regular. Since low constants are found following much higher ones (notably in Experiment 8) passivity must have been produced in the chromic acid solution. That the reaction velocity also increases at times during the course of the experiment is perhaps explained by the fact that a part'y passive disc in sulphuric acid would constitute a short-circuited element of which the active areas would be the anodes, and the adjacent passive areas would consequently be subject to cathodic reducing effects

In Experiments 9 and 10 the attempt was made to restrict so far as possible the formation, on the disc, of the blackish deposits above mentioned, by removing the disc from the solution at the end of each reaction period and cleaning with nitric acid. The treatment with a zinc rod was omitted. Neither hot concentrated hydrochloric acid nor iodine in potassium iodide solution would remove the deposit completely. Concentrated nitric acid removed it easily and gave the metal a perfectly clean surface, but a disk so cleaned was invariably wholly passive and was no longer attacked by the chromic acid solution. Nitric acid of two thirds strength was accordingly selected for trial in Experiment 9, but proved too strong, the results showing practically complete passivity during two of the