MARCH OF SCIENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19866, 14 June 1927, Page 8

MARCH OF SCIENCE

BEARING ON INDUSTRY CHEMISTRY IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. From the dim past when China and Egypt were the civilisations of the ancient world, up to the present day, Mr. W. R. Mummery, F.1.C., traced the progress of chemistry in public affairs when he delivered an address to the Wanganui Rotary Club yesterday. Dealing with the individual professions of chemistry and pharmacy, the speaker said it was possible to trace those two activities, which were often confused in the public mind, from about the fourteenth century. Chemistry and Pnarmacy. Speaking of pharmacy he said it had been ascertained that in England the apothecaries were originally dealers in, roots, herbs and syrups and were early associated with the grocers. The earliest known mention of an apothecary by name referred to John the Apothecary who prepared the materials for embalming Robert Bruce in 1329. In 1617 the apothecaries dissociated themselves from the grocers and when they obtained a charter of their own, the grocers were forbidden to keep apothecaries ’ shops. The alchemists devoted their attention mostly to th reef branches of research —the universal solvent, the transmutation of metals, and the elixir of life. It must be admitted that they wasted time, money and energy, but, their researches led them eventually into other discoveries such as the identification of oxygen, the composition of water and the theory of combustion. These events were regarded as the beginning of modern chemistry.

Making Good With Brains. Passing on Mr. Mummery referred r,o the words of Frederick 111. of Prussia, who founded the University of Berlin at a time when Prussia had been laid waste by Napoleon, remarking “What the State has lost in brawn we must make good in brains.” A comparison of the chemical industries of France and Germany .100 years later supplied the answer as to the better policy. Chemistry had been applied to modern public life in the examination of food; in criminal cases the analyst sometimes had to act as one of the chief witnesses, and during the World War the chemist played‘an important part. In the textile industry the manufacture of artificial silk was mentioned, and in the iron and steel industry there was the production of stainless or noncorrosive steel. The fertiliser industry had been revolutionised by the production of nitrates from the nitrogen of the atmosphere. Forty-four per cent, of the world’s output of nit/ogenous fertilisers w r as now obtained from thatsource. Oil Distillation. The speaker said a plant was being constructed in Germany for the distillation of oil from coal. The cost of the plant was £20,000,000 and the output of oil was estimated to be .1,250,000 tons a year. It was claimed that the price of oil would be 59 per cent, lower than that of the present oil companies, and the importance of this factory could be gauged when it was realised that in a few years’ time nearly the whole of the world’s shipping would be oil-driven. An Australian factory for the same purpose was expected to commence operations early in 1928. The Cawthron Institute at Nelson, under Professor Easterfield, was doing excellent work in various branches of scientific research. A Department of Scientific Research had also been formed, with Dr. Marsden as secretary and Professor Reddett as Director of Agricultural Research at Palmerston North.