COAL TAR MARVELS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 150, 26 June 1937, Page 3 (Supplement)

COAL TAR MARVELS

Sr>cakin<r recently before the Soeiety of Chemical Industry, a noted ch«mi=t . summarised a number of the produ-ts of the coal-tar industry. Since Iho discovery of mauve, half a century a:n, dyesluffs after dyestuffs have been and — till are evolved from coal tar. jr'nin™ the 'whole ranio of the colour- of the rainbow and complying with c\ery demand of taste, fashion and stability. surpassing in beauty, brilliancy and fastness to time, light and chemicals, the colours supplied to us by Nature in plants and animals. A host of medicines for the treatment of the m"-t diverse disease- has been and still is ! produced from coal tar; fever, slccpi lessness. and pains of all origin are i I allayed by its various derivatives; surgical operations are rendered painless i and shortened by anaesthetic* made I from this source. The active principles lof animal "lands are reproduced ;r..:n • coal tar. and placed at the disposal of , the physician. The sleeping sickness of Africa —the disease caused by the bite of the Wtse fly — i- cured l>v r.ia! tar j products, and we are now on t!:e threshold of curing cancer, the most horiiiiio i scourge of modern life. by remedies derived from this source. We make artificial sweeteners from coal tar which are ."•-"»*I times .»,•(■' r than sugar: artificial nil of Litter almond ami of ur.i-k arc derive.] f:..:n iliis si.nice. The >•'• •■':} of wiiucrirreen. \iolct-. pi-i-, j.i-m.:: and heliotrope are reproduced hv cal tar product-. We develop our nhoto"rap''iic pictures with them, and ;;-e them for photography in the r..]..nr* of Nature. We employ them, a- safety cxpb>-:ves in mines and huiidin" operation*, and the armies and na\ies of the world us» tbem as smokeless powder. With coal