It remains to add, that the tar obtained from one ton of Lancashire coal
furnishes an amount of aniline capable of giving a little over half a
pound of magenta. The colouring power of the latter will be inferred from
the fact, that this quantity would dye 375 square yards of white flannel
of a full red colour, and if converted into Hofmann violet by methylation,
would give enough colour to dye double this surface of flannel of a deep
violet shade. It should be stated also, that during the formation of
magenta by the arsenic acid process, there are formed small quantities of
other colouring-matters which are utilized by the manufacturer. Among
these by-products is a basic orange dye, which was isolated by Nicholson,
and investigated by Hofmann in 1862. Under the name of "phosphine" this
colouring-matter is still used, especially for the dyeing of leather. Even
the spent arsenic acid of the magenta-still has its use. The arsenious
acid resulting from the reduction of this arsenic acid is generally
obtained in the form of a lime salt after the removal of the magenta by
the purifying processes to which the crude product is submitted. From the
arsenical waste arsenious acid can be recovered, and converted back into
arsenic acid by the action of nitric acid. Quite recently the arsenical
residue has been used with considerable success in America as an
insecticide for the destruction of pests injurious to agricultural crops.
Concurrently with these technical developments of coal-tar products, the
scientific chemist was carrying on his investigations. The compounds which
science had given to commerce were made on a scale that enabled the
investigator to obtain his materials in quantities that appeared fabulous
in the early days when aniline was regarded as a laboratory curiosity, and
magenta had been seen by only a few chemists.
The fundamental problem which the modern chemist seeks to solve is in the
first place the composition of a compound, _i.e._ the number of the atoms
of the different elements which form the molecule, and in the next place
the way in which these atoms are combined in the molecule. Reverting to
our former analogy, the first thing to be found is how many different
blocks enter into the composition of the structure, and the next thing is
to ascertain how the blocks are arranged. When this is done, we are said
to know the "constitution" or "structure" of the molecule, and in many
cases when this is known we can build up or synthesise the compound by
combining its different groups of atoms by suitable methods. The coal-tar
industry abounds with such triumphs of chemical synthesis; a few of these
achievements will be brought to light in the course of the remaining
portions of this work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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