Chemistry and the progress of mankind

Chemistry and the progress of mankind

696 CURRENT TOPICS. [J. F. I. Chemistry and the Progress of Mankind.--An increase of m o r e than 53 per cent. in registration under courses in the...

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696

CURRENT TOPICS.

[J. F. I.

Chemistry and the Progress of Mankind.--An increase of m o r e than 53 per cent. in registration under courses in the chemistry department of the University of Pennsylvania in the past five years is reported in a twenty-two-page illustrated pamphlet released by the University's Bicentennial Committee. The explanation of this rapidly expanding interest in chemistry as a career is found, among other reasons, in the greatly increased importance of chemistry in virtually all manufacturing industries, as well as in medicine and agriculture. The pamphlet traces the development of chemistry from the accidental discovery of glass 3,000 years ago by Phcenician sailors in Syria, through the Industrial Revolution and the researches of Cavendish, Priestley, Scheele, Lavoisier, Faraday and Pasteur, to the present. The range of industries today dependent upon chemical research and chemical production, it shows, runs from the fabrication of stream lined stainless steel locomotives to that of the daintiest of rayon lingerie; from the compounding of automobile tires and motor fuel to the compounding of a layer cake. R. H. O.