Providence Technical High School - Review Yearbook (Providence, RI)

Page 69 text:

1928 THE TECH REVIEW 65 The Relation of Chemistry to National Defence By Gommaire Domaige, ’28 (Awarded Roy's Trice in Anthony Medal Contes!) Although chemistry is comparatively a new study in the scientific world, its uses and appliances are very old, and its im- portance to national defense can no longer he ignored. The first time that chemistry was used directly as a weapon goes back to the old stone age, when a man was smoked out of his cave by the smoke of a fire built among the leaves at his cave entrance by his enemy. But the first time that the appliances of chemistry was used on a large scale as a war weapon was during the World War, when all kinds of gases, smoke screens and ex- plosives were used. Ever since men first fought among themselves they have tried to get at their enemy from a distance so as not to en- danger themselves too much. Therefor when the first explosive gunpowder, was invented, by some unknown chemist, it started a new era in warfare. One of the most wonderful things that the chemist has done, is finding some use- ful application in peace time for all the gases and other chemical weapons used during the war. Most all the poisonous gases can he used for the manufacturing of dyes and medicines as well as other minor uses. Dynamite, one of the most widely used explosives, is in war time used for wreck- ing purposes, while in peace time it is used for building purposes and for agri- cultural purposes in clearing fields of obstacles such as rocks and stumps. Dynamite is entirely a chemical product and is both just as important in peace time as in war time. Another great achievement of chem- istry in relation to national defense as well as to industries is the manufactur- ing of steel by the Bessemer process. In peace time this steel is used for build- ing purposes of all kinds, while in war time it is used for the manufacture of guns that defend the nation. When the war broke out we were prac- tically unprepared because the people had not wanted to face the truths of chem- istry. Instead when a chemist discovered a poisonous gas they placed a ban upon it. This ban was usually so strict that the chemist did not bother to investigate either the gas or the protection against it. When Germany made her first gas at- tack the result was tragic. Thousands were found dead and dying with horrible agonies; the result of unpreparedness. Then! the ban on poisonous gases was withdrawn and the chemists were let “loose” in their laboratories to find some means of protection for the soldiers. During the war Germany taught us a hitter lesson, but did we learn it? Arc we realizing the importance of chemistry

Page 68 text:

64 THE TECH REVIEW 1928 purification of drinking water. No one can deny that a city’s water supply affects the health of the inhabitants of that city. Contagious diseases such as typhoid and diphtheria have often been traced to im- pure drinking water as their source, so too much stress cannot be laid upon the necessity for an absolutely pure water supply. The chlorination of water has done much towards its purification. Lack of iodine in the water has ofter caused goiter, and certain sections of the country are more in danger of this disease than are others. In Rochester, New York, iodine is artificially introduced into the reservoir there, to make up for the lack of a natural supply. It is to the chemist that the physician owes the use of anesthetics. That there were anesthesia-producing substances was not unknown to early physicians, but they scorned to use them, so even the most painful operations were performed while the patients were entirely conscious. The use of ether and “laughing gas” as an- esthetics marked the beginning of a new era in both medicine and chemistry, for it was left to the chemist to delve deeper into the study of anesthetics, and to per- fect those already in use. Local anes- thetics for minor operations soon came into general use. For a time cocaine served this purpose, but many deaths were caused by its use. Chemists then undertook the study of the cocaine mole- cule, which was found to contain three atoms—one relative to that found in nicotine; another, to the poison hemlock; while only the remaining atom contains the anesthesia-producing property. The useful atom was then extracted from the molecule, so that cocaine is no longer dangerous, but a new substance, novo- caine, is rapidly displacing cocaine for current use. These are but a few instances in which medicine and chemistry are necessarily linked together, and chemistry will al- ways be vitally connected with health and the cure and prevention of disease. The Gentleman in Gray Marvin Cornell. ’30 Told by a A small gentleman in gray, out on one of his habitual exploring trips, came upon a large, “spooky-looking” house. Led by his natural curiosity, he entered by a loose fitting door, lie found himself in a dismal room in which there were many strange appearing articles. He could hear doors rattling, and the wind moaning. Over all he smelt an odor which was very pleasing to him. On tiptoe, he progressed across the room, led on by that fragrant smell. Freshman Ah! He spies the source of the odor upon a small platform. He nears it, he reaches for it. and as he does, lie hears a faint click. He looks up quickly; an iron bar is descending; it is too late to dodge; the horrible device has broken the gentleman in gray’s neck. All is quiet again except for the moan- ing of the wind. Ah! Such is the sad tale of a poor mouse on his quest for cheese.

Page 70 text:

66 THE TECH REVIEW 1928 to national defense? Are we preparing ourselves? Yes, in a way, but still we are not doing as much as we could. By that I do not mean that we should build a great number of battleships, tanks and other war implements, but we should pre- pare ourselves through industries. In order to progress in our industries we must have national defense but in order to defend our nation properly during war time it is necessary that our industrial development is great enough to compete with the industrial development of our enemy. This can be understood easily by Germany’s position during the war. The reason Germany held on so long, while being completely cut off from the rest of the world by the Allies, is because her chemical industries were the leading ones in the world. She had prepared her- self during peace time and had every- thing necessary right in her own country. Germany’s real soldiers were not the ones that were at the front, but the chemists that stayed at home. When England’s navy prevented Germany to reach Chili to get saltpeter, from which nitrogen is obtained, she thought that Germany would only be able to keep on fighting for a little while, because nitrogen is obsolutely necessary for the manufacture of explosives as well as for the growing of plant foods. But Germany got her chemists together and they devised a method of obtaining nitrogen directly from the air and it was the same with everything else. Germany’s chemists de- vised methods for making all kinds of chemical warfare weapons in order to keep on fighting longer. They understood the relation of chem- istry to national defense and its import- ance, and they prepared themselves, not so much by building war implements, than by improving and progressing in her dye and other chemical industries. In this short discussion I have tried to show the relation of chemistry to na- tional defense and its corresponding rela- tion to industrial development because I believe they both go together and can not go one without the other. I have only to add that the people of the nation instead of talking against the chemist and his work, should as a nation help and en- courage him in his research work, be- cause it is he who will be our defender and saviour in future wars. o------ COMPENSATION “Mother says there was a fly in the cake she bought here yesterday.” “Tell her to bring the fly back and I will give her a currant for it.” Farrell: “Did you know Mr. Man- chester is a musketeer?” Ajootian: “How do you make that out ?” Farrell: “He tells us that we musketeer at 8:30 every morning. The City Girl: “What’s that funny stuff on the sheep?” The Herder: “Wool, ma’am.” The Girl: “Wool? Huh, I’ll bet it’s half cotton.” “Dear Doctor: “My pet billy goat is seriously ill from eating a complete leather-bound set of Shakespeare. What do you prescribe?” Answer: “Am sending Literary Digest by return mail.”