Fig. 121.
These few examples of the peacetime value of gas are worthy of thought from another standpoint. Being so valuable, their use in peace will not be stopped. If they are thus manufactured and used in peace, they will always be available for use in war, and as the experience of the World War proved, they certainly will be so used even should anybody be foolish enough to try to abolish their use. As for this latter idea, the world might as well recognize at once that half-way measures in war simply invite disaster.
This chapter would not be complete without a brief statement of the necessity of a thoroughly developed chemical industry in the United States as a vital national necessity if the United States is to have real preparedness for a future struggle. As will be indicated a little later, no one branch of the chemical industry can be allowed to go out of existence without endangering some part of the scheme of preparedness.
Let us consider first the coal tar industry. Coal tar is a by-product of coke ovens or the manufacture of artificial gas from coal. The coal tar industry is of the utmost importance because in the coal tars are the bases of nearly all of the modern dyes, a large percentage of the modern medicines, most of the modern high explosives, a large proportion of poisonous gases, modern perfumes, and photographic materials.
A consideration of these titles alone shows how vital the coal tar industry is. The coal tar as it comes to us as a by-product is distilled, giving off at different temperatures a series of compounds called crudes. Ten of these are of very great importance. The first five are benzene, toluene, naphthalene, anthracene and phenol (carbolic acid). The second group comprises xylene, methylanthracene, cresol, carbazol and phenanthrene.
These, when treated with other chemicals, produce a series of compounds called intermediates, of which there are some 300 now known. From these intermediates by different steps are produced either dyes, high explosives, poisonous gases, pharmaceuticals, perfumes or photographic materials.
We have all heard that Germany controlled the dye industry of the world prior to the World War. A little study of the above brief statement of what is contained in the coal tar industry along with dyes will show in a measure one of the reasons why Germany felt that she could win a war against the world. That she came so desperately close to winning that war is proof of the soundness of her view.
In many of the processes are needed the heavy chemicals such as chlorine, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and the like. The alcohol industry is also of very great importance. Grain alcohol is used extensively in nearly all research problems and in very great quantities in many commercial processes such as the manufacture of artificial silk and for gasoline engines in addition to its use in compounding medicines. It is of very great importance to the Chemical Warfare Service in that from grain alcohol is obtained ethylene gas, one of the three essentials in the manufacture of mustard gas. While this ethylene may be obtained from many sources, the most available source, considering ease of transportation and keeping qualities, is in the form of grain alcohol.
Allied to the chemical industries just mentioned is the nitrate industry for making nitric acid from the nitrogen of the air. Nitrates are used in many processes of chemical manufacture and particularly in those for the production of smokeless powders. The fertilizer industry is of large importance because it deals with phosphorus, white phosphorus being not only one of the best smoke producing materials but a material that is, as stated elsewhere, of great use against men through its powerful burning qualities.