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so many men, and the parents of so many men, Who are interested in modern science read the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN that one is tempted to take the opportunity of this special number on Industrial Chemistry for some intimate discussion on the invitation which this science extends. What is Industrial Chemistry, how may one become an industrial chemist, and what opportunities for achievement does it offer? The writer is prompted to this because in his positional capacity he is this year at the receipt of an unprecedented and altogether un-Iooked-for number of inquiries and personal visits from men and their parents who are just as ignorant of this matter as they are interested. These inquiries arise through the vague, but entirely valid, idea that there are some remarkable contemporary opportunities in Industrial Chemistry. Leaving for the nonce the nature and scope of these opportunities, let us settle the meaning of the term-What is an industrial chemist? The fact is that the in Qustrial chemist and the training he ought to have, is to·day a subject of warm debate among those of us who follow applied chemistry. As is usual in such discussions, the trouble·factor lies in our varying definitions. To one man, an industrial chemist is a chemical engineer, to another, he is a “works chemist,” to a third, he is a routine analyst, to a fourth, a scientific researcher, and so on. There are thus many types of industrial chemistry, and many kinds of each type and each kind with its own allure. Industrial Chemists are all alike in this, however, that they are interested in applying chemical knowledge to practical and useful ends. The industrial measure of what is practical and Ilseful is the dollar, and the only material difference between Pure Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry is that with the Industrial Chemist the dollar sign inevitably enters into every chemical equation; a subordinate differenre is that many industrial chemical reactions are carrierl Ollt by the ton instead of by the gramme. How, then, is one to become an industrial chemist? Ohviously, by learning Chemistry. An industrial chemist may have some Iowledge of engineering, or of biology, or, for that matter, of psychology (all the bettel if he has), but the sine qua non is Chemistry. Chemistry is Chemistry; and since it is quite imposslble to obtain it self-taught, the novice must enter some institution of learning fcr the requisite training. It is just at this point that he needs guidance. If the young man is too old to undergo the school· training that would enable him to matriculate into one of the higher institutions of learning, if ;,e has responsibilities, such as the support of mother and sisters: that would make it inadmissible for him to proceed in his own interest, or if he recognizes that he is not so endowed intellectually that he could expect to survive creditably in the severe class·room and laboratory training that university-chemistry infers, then by all means let him enter a trade·school. He could not do better, in fact, than to enter for a training the scope and character of which is presented in this number by Prof. Allen Rogers, of Pratt Institute. Nor would he by so doing cut himself off from a genu;ne success. The industries are in point of fact desperately in need of scientific foremen; i. e., of men educated in chemistry and mechanics to an extent that enables them to cO'overate sympathetically and practically with the officials of the company for the elimination of waste and for progressi ve factory' practice; in addition, educated foremen may become superintendents, and superintendents managers, and managers presidents. But if, on the contrary, the man concerned is interested in chemistry for its own sake, if he eagerly desires to become, genuinely, a scholar in chemistry fully equipped to add to the world's sum of lmowledge both pure and applied, and if he has none of the hamper-ments stated above, then his course may be as follows: Before stating this, however, there ought to be said that any man proposing to become an industrial chemist should satisfy himself that when he is ready for work he will be able to qualify under the follow:ng d
