we have been importing. This is equally true in the Aniline industry and probably will continue so, until Chemists and Engineers specialize on separate products, until they out-German the Germans and produce these products better than they have ever been made before, and as cheaply, and which the American people can easily do if they would only think so. Twelve months ago there was but one Synthetic Phenol plant operating in the United States. After this plant had been running some time successfully and producing Phenol in large commercial quantities, and as late as the early part of February, 1915, it was still called by most outsiders as a farce and failure. Many weeks elapsed before the public at large would believe that Synthetic Phenol could be made in a commercial way, and not until the National Exhibition of Chemical Industries in New York in September, 1915, when five separate manufacturers exhibited samples of Synthetic Phenol that they were making, was the proof made positive. The public then were finally disposed to accept the process as a fact. The display served its purpose, and all doubts were at last removed. Our other needed Coal-Tar derivatives, Aniline, etc., are just as easily made, many of them far easier than Phenol, but Chemists and Engineers must specialize on some one or two of them, practicalize the chemistry, and devise the necessary apparatus, and make it so that it will be superior to anything the Germans ever dreamed of. The Germans have "buffaloed" the people of the world on their chemical industries, until every one is ready to believe their superiority as an unchangeable fact. How long is it that American ingenuity has been second to German mechanical conceptions, and how long is it that American inventive genius has been second to any anywhere in the entire world? Are the German formulas and reactions in the Benzene derivatives any different from the American formulas for the same reactions? Are not the text books and literature on the chemistry of these compounds readily accessible to every American, and does not every chemical and color manufacturer have the opportunity of taking the literature on these products and commercializing their production, through a little ingenuity and mechanical application? All honor is due the German people for their application and achievements, but we can readily outdo them on these very industries if we make up our minds to really try to do so. SHEET STEEL TANKS, LEAD LINED, WITH AGITATORS, AND SUPPLIED WITH TANK-BENCH HAVING ADJUSTABLE PIPE LEGS. 10 sheets of drawings of steel and wood tanks, all 8 ft. in diameter and various depths, with details of several agitators, tank connections, wood and iron tank-benches, and names of the various manufacturers who are makers, and who have submitted figures. Price $50.00. VOLUME OF BUSINESS AND PROFITS. The volume of business done even in a one-ton synthetic Phenol plant is stupendous and the profits are enormous. At the present prices of Phenol of $1.50 per pound, a oneton plant would produce over $3,000 worth of Phenol daily, or over $1,000,000 worth per year. The profits would be over $2,500 daily, or three-quarters of a million dollars annually. If such a plant could operate only for two to three weeks it would pay for the entire investment of apparatus, buildings, power and everything else in that time. It would require about $700 worth of raw materials daily to supply such a plant, and its operating expenses and labor, while amounting to about $50 per day, makes so small a per cent. on the volume of business done, that it is scarcely worth considering. From 15 to 20 men will operate a one-ton plant, and two tons of coal daily would easily furnish the power. No matter what price the raw materials may be costing, it would vary the cost of the Phenol not over 3 to 5 cents per pound, and 25 to 30 cents per pound is now about its average cost, leaving a profit of about $1.25 per pound. If the Phenol sold as low as 50 cents per pound the profits would be about $1,000 per day on a one-ton output, and before the selling price can go as low as that the price of the raw materials must correspondingly fall. It would seem from this that the inducement was sufficient to encourage the starting of enough Synthetic Phenol plants in the United States within six months to supply the world with all the Phenol and Picric Acid that it could consume. Ignorance of the chemistry of this subject, however, and an inclination to still believe America cannot do what Europe has been doing for years in chemicals, is probably responsible for this dilatory work. On other lines of industry the United States is not so lacking in initiative as we seem to be in chemistry. The publicity regarding some of the principal essentials of Carbolic Acid manufacture, that it is hoped this pamphlet will be responsible for, should direct attention to a new industry that can be made permanent, for the product can be profitably made in ordinary times, and drive out of the market every trace of the regular Phenol for the better uses, and where the Cresols must not be present as they are in the most of it, that is not made synthetically. THE SYNTHETIC PHENOL PROCESS BY SULPHONATION. The process of manufacturing synthetic Phenol by sulphonation is as well defined as is the precess of making Aniline Oil or any other chemical compound. There are countless authorities as to the proper reactions and procedure, and while there are possibilities of proceeding in ways different from the accepted methods, upon practical lines alone, those ways very soon give place to the standard methods of operating. Many impractical and substitute ways, however, are daily advocated, and for this reason a general outline of the process is here given. The synthesis of Phenol consists of five separate and distinct reactions, each simple in itself, and beyond question as to its practicability and as to its results. First-The sulphonation of Benzol to Monosul- Second-The conversion of the Benzene Sulphonic Third-Converting the Calcium Salt solution into Fourth-Fusing this Sodium Salt when dried, with Fifth-Decomposing the resultant Sodium Pheno late with a mineral acid to liberate the Phenol. The balance of the process consists in mechanical operations, merely to facilitate these five reactions. Nearly every inexperienced person contemplating the production of synthetic Phenol, believes that he can do it differently, and this in face of the fact that the entire world today is producing Phenol in precisely the above manner. On sulphonation there is at present no question whatever as to the method of procedure. Quantities and strengths of the Sulphuric Acid may vary, but some form of sulphonation must result. Concentrated Sulphuric Acid is used and not Fuming Aciá (Oleum). Fuming Sulphuric Acid is liable to change not only a part of the Benzol, but its Monosulphonic acid also into a mixture of meta- and para-disulphonic acids. Considerable quantities of the meta-acid are formed even at lower temperatures should an excess of Fuming-acid be present. Higher temperatures or prolonged heating, even with concentrated Sulphuric Acid, will form a mixture of both monoand disulphonic acids. The evolution of Sulphur Dioxide in sulphonation, indicates an oxidation and consequent destruction of a portion of the substance that is being sulphonated. It is the Chemical Engineer's business then to tell and show you just what is the best and most practical method of procedure in sulphonation, to produce the desired Benzenemonosulphonic acid, which alone can be eventually converted into Phenol. The production of the Sodium salt has offered many opportunities for departures from correct methods, and so numerous recommendations are continually being found for the production of the Sodium salt direct, rather than from the Calcium salt that should be made first. It is true that the Benzene sulphonic acid can be converted into the Sodium salt direct, as for instance, by using Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate) for both neutralizing and conversion, as per the following formula: 2(C, H, SO, H) + Na, C 0,= 2(C, H, S O, Na) + C 0, + H, O 3 3 H2 S O1 + Na, C 0, = Na, S 0, + C O2 + H2 O 2 4 4 2 or by using Salt solutions (Sodium Chloride) for the same purpose, but while it is possible to do this it is very impractical. C, H, SO, H+ Na Cl = C, H, SO, Na + H Cl In the former case the evolution of C O, would greatly hinder the operation, and the quantity of Sodium Carbonate necessary would make the cost prohibitive. In the latter case the evolution of Hydrochloric acid fumes |