WIDE OPPORTUNITY FOR CHEMISTS

Professor Baxter's review of the possibilities of chemistry as a profession was printed in the CRIMSON on May 9, 1913. It is reprinted below in full by special request.

Although chemistry as a profession has long held a position of high standing, its importance has in recent years been very materially increased through the rapid development of industrial chemistry, and through the growing realization that the services of a chemist can be put to good use in a large proportion of industrial processes whether primarily chemical or not. While manufacturing chemistry in America is still behind that of Germany in most respects, yet the present rate of growth of purely chemical industries in America promises well for the future. In particular the cheap production of electrical energy at Niagara Falls has made possible the founding of a large group of electro-chemical processes, in which such substances as caustic soda, chlorine, aluminum, carborundum and graphite are produced in large quantities.

While some of the most important and profitable chemical processes have been hit upon by chance experiments, most of them are the result of protracted and careful laboratory experimentation. The importance of this sort of investigation can hardly be overestimated. That it is fully realized in some quarters is evident from the fact that in Europe, especially in Germany, millions of dollars are annually expended in industrial chemical research. In America, too, although to a lesser extent, this side of technical chemistry is receiving increasing attention as the large research laboratories of the General Electric Company and the Du Pont Powder Company and many similar smaller laboratories show. This research has led to such results as the discovery of carborundum, the artificial production of indigo and caoutchouc, the development of the coal-tar industry, the electrical production of nitric acid from the air, and the practical synthesis of ammonia from its elements.

"Efficiency Chemists" in Demand.

Furthermore, manufacturing industries of all kinds have in general found that they can use to great advantage the services of a trained chemist, not only for the examination of raw materials, including fuel, oil, water, etc., and finished products, but also in the control of the economical operation of the plants. The "efficiency chemist" has become a close rival of the "efficiency engineer" in value.

Among the more important industries which employ chemists, besides chemical and drug manufactories, may be mentioned color and print works, sugar plantations and refineries, iron and steel and other metallurgical works, paper mills, tanneries, rubber works, nitro-cellulose works, railroads, cement mills.

In these various industries hundreds of trained chemists are employed. Usually upon entering industrial work, the chemist begins as an analyst. Given a concern of sufficient size, and an enterprising and efficient chemist, this position may develop into a more responsible and better paid one of research chemist or as manager or superintendent. Past experience has shown that the best training for a technical chemist begins with a broad and thorough training in the principles of inorganic, theoretical, and analytical chemistry. It is of great advantage to understand as well the principles of industrial chemistry and of mechanical engineering, but special attention to technical chemistry in college is less important, since it is a difficult matter to reproduce factory conditions on a laboratory scale.

U. S. Bureaus Offer Positions.

National Bureaus such as the Bureau of Standards, the Bureau of Soils and the Bureau of Chemistry and the Geological Survey, State Agricultural Stations, and State and Municipal Boards of Health, also require the services of a large number of chemists. Minor positions in the laboratories of such bureaus involve analytical work, frequently of foodstuffs, but sometimes of minerals, fuels, building materials, etc. The oversight of such laboratories requires, however, the breadth of view and experience of a highly trained chemist, since much of the work consists of the investigation of chemical problems.

With a steadily increasing demand for technical and analytical chemists, the necessity for providing adequate instruction in chemistry and allied subjects becomes increasingly important. Teachers of chemistry find a wide field of usefulness both in secondary schools and in colleges and universities. The responsibility of starting the embryo chemist on the right track is no less than that of putting the finishing touches upon an extended professional training; that is, the high school teacher and the college professor find almost unlimited opportunities to further the advance of both science and industry.

In enumerating the various fields of usefulness open to a chemist, one should not fail to mention the possibilities of scientific research. While in many cases the results of this work are of purely scientific or abstract interest, they are indispensable for the development of the science as a whole, and the facts and generalizations discovered in this way may have a very important bearing upon practical affairs. In this connection the recent development of biological chemistry should be mentioned, a subject which in time will surely have a strong influence on the practice of medicine. Innumerable scientific and technical problems of all kinds still remain to occupy the attention of the chemist of an investigating turn of mind.