Job Wanted for FurfuralSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Apr., 1923), pp. 440-444Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/6456 .

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WILHELAI KONRAD VON ROELNTGEN Whose death is nanlounced froni Municil. Pi ofessor Roeiitgen 's disux eey of the Roentgen oi X-Iay's ill 189% begain a newx era in the developmeiit of the

ph sic di scienices.

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T'HE 1PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 441

THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE CURRENT COMMENT

By DR. EDWVIN E. SLOSSON Scieniee Service, Washingtoii

JOB WANTED FOR FURFURAL A NEW material has come inito the

market anid wants to make itself use- ful if aily one can show it how. Its name is "'furfural''; queer sound- ing, but not so hard to pronouiee as most chemical terms. The public is lucky to be let off with onily three syllables and those slipping easily off the tongue.

Two years ago furfural was sell- ing at $30 a pounid. Or rather this was the price it was quoted at in lists of rare chemicals. Really it was not selling at all, except when a pro- fessor wanted a little vial of it to put iinto his museum case of organiie preparations.

But it is iiow kniown that the stuff cani be made cheaply from miiaterials that are going to waste in unlimited amounts, such as corn cobs, oat hulls, straw and the like. Consequeiitly, furfural is iow quoted at twenty-five cents a pouncl aiil could be made very much cheaper, perhaps six cents a pound in a large scale plant, one capable of taking in, say, a huncdred tons of cobs a day and turning out six tons of furfural. All that is needled is to cook up the cobs with steam.

I saw it donie at the Color Labora- tory of the Department of Agricul- ture, oii the Arlington Farmi, just across the Potoiiiae Riyer from Wash- ington. A large steel still was set up in the center of the big buildinig. Two bags of corn cobs were dumped into the cylinider; then the top was screwed on and the steam turined in. After digesting for a couple of hours the furfural was distillecd in a streaum of steam, ancd the water and

furfural condensed together by cool- inig. This mixture is afterwards sep- aratecl by redistillationi.

Furfural is a liquid, c]ear andcl colorless as water when fresh andl pure, but turninig brown when ex- posecl to light anicl air. It takes fire easilv ancl burnis with a bright flam-le. It has a characteristic odor, but not stronig or unpleasant. It is what the chemists call a "'ring compound,'" for its molecule is conmposed of four carboni and onie hydrogen atoms, con- nected in a ring with ani extra atom of carbon anid another of oxvgen and four hydrogeni atoms attached out- side.

But we are all more initerested in what furfural can do than what it is. This, however, remains to be founld out. The first thing that we think of is using it as a motor fuel, since a shortage of gasoline is impending. Furfural can run a car, but does not seem to be suited to the ordinary type of motor and anyhow it is still twice as high as gasoline andcl there- fore out of reach.

Furfural is poisonous to inisects anid germs. Perhaps it couldl find em- ployment here. It will dissolve painit aidi varnish, also fats and airplane dope.

More proomising yet aire its com- pouncds. Furfural will comibine with various coal tar products such as aniilinie and carbolic acidc. With anii- liae ancd the like, it makes dyes of a variety of colors, but those so far malde are fugitive.

With carbolic acid, furfural coin- biines to form resins very much like bakelite, which is made fromi carbolic acid anid formalin. These may be usecl in liquid form for varniishes or in solidc formii as insulation in elec- trical apparatus. We may, expect furfural some day to appear in clis-

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EDWARD JENNER The eetenary of whose death was celebrated on Januarv 23. The illustration

is from a bronze statue by Monteverde in the Museum of the Royal Society, London.

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'HE PROGRESS OF SCIENC'E 443

EDWARD JENNER Showinig the v-accination of his -first patient in 1796. From the paintiing by

M61ingue.

guise as amber beads or tortoise shell combs or ivory billiard balls or horn buttons. Phonograph records may be made from it, also plates for printing from instead of type. They are light, hard and tough.

In short, furfural is now in the positioii of a high-school graduate whom the principal claps on the shoulder and says: "You are a bright, versatile fellow. There is a great future before you." But when the boy asks, "Where?", he gets no answer.

This newcomer is knocking at the factory door with no credentials but a letter of introduction from the chemist which does not go far in the factory. The busy manufacturer turns to him long enough to ask: "Can you do anything better than those I 've got or do it cheaper? " The applicant can only answer: "I don 't know, sir. I think so, but I've never had a chance to show what I can do yet. Won 't you give me a try-out?''

I can 't give the answer of the

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444 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

busiiiess man because I doll 't knioAv what it is.

THE SILKWORMT'S RIVAL MIAN has emitered illto active coil-

petitioni -with the silkworm anid, although the worm has the advanitage of several millioni genieration-s of pre- vious practice in the art of silk making, man is rapidly catching up. The output of artificial silk has increased fivefold during the last tweity years, while the output of natuLral silk has only gainied fifty per cent. More thani a third of what seems silk to the eye comes from the factory inistead of the cocoon. Somlle forty iimillion foreign feet are now eneased in synithetic silk stockings maade in America.

Artificial silk is iiot silk and should never be sold as such. But if it is, it is niot so much because the salesmani desires to deceive, as it is beeause the public is unwilling to credit the chemist with the creation of something newv or to believe that he cani make anything so good as is made by a wormii. Of late this un- natural prejudice in favor of nature is being overcome and the new syn- thetic fibers are being marketed by their manufacturers as they should be uiider synithetic names. Some of the trade niames are viscose, lustron, fibersilk, lustre-fibre, Givet silk, Soie de Paris, Glanzstoff, artiseta, lustra- cellose. There are a lot of others, but I omit to eiention thenm because T cai- 't remember them.

There are four dlifferent modes of manufacture but the raw material is esseiitially the sam-e, cellulose. This is the substance of wood, paper aiid cottoni, so it is cheap and abundlant enough, but fhe difficulty is to dis- solve it so it can be squirted out of the tinyv holes in the spiiiierette to forIm the fibers. Waterl will not dis- solve paper pulp, of course, nor will anAy ordinary solvenit except strong acids ancd alkalies.

The first person to solve the prob- lem was a Fren-chman, Couint de

Char doiiniet, who in 1884 deposited with the French Academry of Sciences a sealed documnent. Three years later this was openied anid founid to contain a m-iethod of making artificial fiber by treating cellulose with nitric acid., The resultinig compound, which is a mild /form of guni-cottoni, can be dis- solved in alcohol and ether, like the common collodion that we use to cover our skiniied kniuckles. But the niitric had to be thoroughly eliiminated from the yarn, otherwise it was too iiflamn- mable.

Aniother process, inivented by the Freiieh anid worked by the Gerlman, got the cellulose into fluid form by dissolving it in a solution of copper and aimimoniium salts.

In the miiakiiig of viscose a third method is employed. Wood pulp, such as is used in paper makinig, is treated with strong soda lye and then with carbon disulfide. This birings the cellulose into solution as an orange liquid. This is forced through minute holes in a platiiumii nozzle into dilute acid, which hardens each finie stream into solid fiber and the sulfide is then removed.

Durinlg the war another formi- of soluble cellulose found extensive eni- ployment as "seac" or dope for air- plane wiings. This is the acetate, made by dissolving cotton or wood pulp in the concentrated acid of viliegar, acetic. Lustron is made by this process.

These various kilnds of artificial fibers differ from one another anid all of them differ from natural silk. Anid ill this difference lies their value. For fabrics cau- be woven out of natural and artificial silk and with cotton or wool in anly desired combinationi. The fabric at first may look white aind uniiform, but if it is dipped in baths of various dyes each thread will at- tach a palrticular tint and a compli- cated design brought out in color.

The artificial fibers ancd the coal- tar dyes make a brilliaant combin-a- tion and through the aid of this alli- allGe our world has becomiie miore

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