MODERN MIRACLE

SYNTHETIC CHEMISTRY: WEALTH FROM WASTE

by John E. Pfeiffer

This is the first of a series of articles on the romance of synthetic chemistry in which science has solved the mystery for turning waste into wealth.

“Don’t throw that away!” This is the battle cry of the great synthetic chemical industry which makes everything from hair-brush handles to T.N.T. from stuff that was once just waste. If you want to buy some perfume, the odds are that the bottle will contain odors extracted from coal tar, once a nightmare to factories who paid people to get rid of it.

But today, whether it’s waste gas, tar, or peanut shells, the chemists want it to sell back to you again in the form of motor fuel, photographic film, or pipe stems. What men do with rubbish would turn the most efficient housewife green with envy and the whole thing only started late last century.