All About Inventions and Discoveries
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62 AH About Inventions again, from the same base we obtain coal-tar sugar, or, as it is commercially called, saccharine, which is three hundred times sweeter than cane sugar. As a matter of fact coal-gas—and by this term one includes all the articles derived from coal as a result of its distillation—is the greatest friend and enemy of mankind at one and the same time. In addition to the illuminating “ spirit ” we obtain a wide variety of articles. We get naphtha, which enters into the manufacture of our mackintoshes and other articles of apparel, and is the solvent for indiarubber ; benzol, which is a fuel for motor- cars and high-speed explosion engines generally ; toluene, used for high explosives; lamp-black ; creo- sote, for treating timber and woodwork so as to give it a greater length of life, as well as forming a dip for sheep and other animals; carbolic acids, for disinfectants and the manufacture of picric acid, which enters into the composition of lyddite, melinite and other explosives; sodium cyanide, for plating silver and extracting gold; various pigments and paints; aniline dyes; wagon grease; pitch for fuel blocks and use in the electrical trades; tar for paving our roads and as a protective coating for woodwork, felt-roofing and masonry; perfumes and smelling salts; artificial manure; anhydrous ammonia for refrigerators and producing artificial ice ; ammonia ; and cyanogen gas, which has played a prominent part in the poison-gas phase of the Great War. We have seen that in the early days the illumin- ating agent was the pure gas derived from the dis- tillation of the coal. But to-day, if such a term may be used, the raw coal-gas is adulterated—or