Creative Chemistry: Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical IndustriesSlosson, Edwin E. (Edwin Emery)
Science
Creative Chemistry: Descriptive of Recent Achievements in the Chemical Industries
Slosson, Edwin E. (Edwin Emery)
Chemistry, Technical
The tar obtained from the gas plant or the coke plant has now to be
redistilled, giving off the ten "crudes" already mentioned and leaving
in the still sixty-five per cent. of pitch, which may be used for
roofing, paving and the like. The ten primary products or crudes are
then converted into secondary products or "intermediates" by processes
like that for the conversion of benzene into aniline. There are some
three hundred of these intermediates in use and from them are built up
more than three times as many dyes. The year before the war the American
custom house listed 5674 distinct brands of synthetic dyes imported,
chiefly from Germany, but some of these were trade names for the same
product made by different firms or represented by different degrees of
purity or form of preparation. Although the number of possible products
is unlimited and over five thousand dyes are known, yet only about nine
hundred are in use. We can summarize the situation so:
Coal-tar --> 10 crudes --> 300 intermediates --> 900 dyes --> 5000 brands.
Or, to borrow the neat simile used by Dr. Bernhard C. Hesse, it is like
cloth-making where "ten fibers make 300 yarns which are woven into 900
patterns."
The advantage of the artificial dyestuffs over those found in nature
lies in their variety and adaptability. Practically any desired tint or
shade can be made for any particular fabric. If my lady wants a new kind
of green for her stockings or her hair she can have it. Candies and
jellies and drinks can be made more attractive and therefore more
appetizing by varied colors. Easter eggs and Easter bonnets take on new
and brighter hues.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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