Making the World Safe for Democracy, but Putting the Neighbors at Risk.

August of 2009 marked the 95th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, an event that more than any other shaped the world of the twentieth century. In previous essays we explored some of the effects of the war on the chemical industry the most immediate of which was the interruption of chemical imports from Germany. Another important impact was the many contracts for explosives and other war materials for European governments. Just one example from northern New Jersey was DuPont's explosives manufacturing facilities in Pompton Lakes being vastly expanded after the company signed a contract in October of 1914 to deliver eight million pounds of smokeless powder to the French Government.

The causes of the war can be traced to the tensions between the European powers that had been building over a number of years. These tensions centered around the scramble for overseas empires, Germanys decision to build a navy that would match Britains, political instability in the Balkans, and a power vacuum created by the decline of the Ottoman Empire. While endlessly fascinating to the professional historian, most members of the general public only know that the wars proximate trigger was the assignation of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo.

A member of a Bosnian nationalist group, the Black Hand fired the shots that killed Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. Because Serbia provided shelter for Bosnian nationalists Austria Hungary retaliated by invading Serbia. Russia, an ally of Serbia, mobilized for war against the Austro-Hungary Empire. Russian mobilization directly threatened Germany, which promptly invaded France. Germanys action was in accord with long-standing war plans that called for France, an ally of Russia, to be defeated quickly so that Germany could use all of its resources against an anticipated Russian Steamroller. Great Britain, Turkey, Italy, and the smaller Balkan states were soon drawn into the widening conflict. Readers who wish to know more about this period should consult The Guns of August (2001) by Barbara Tuchman, unquestionably the best history of the wars outbreak.

It was far from clear if the United States would enter the war and if it did, on which side. Not only did the United States have a long tradition of isolationism but had eschewed any involvement the nineteenth century scramble for overseas empires in Africa and the far east. (The Philippines, Hawaii, and parts of Latin America were of course exceptions to these general rules.) Persons of German descent were the countrys second largest ethnic group after the English. It appeared to many that the best policy for the United States was to remain neutral and grow rich.

But growing rich requires industry and industry requires chemistry. The interruption of chemical shipments from Europe posed an immediate problem. In 1914 Germany was the world's leading supplier of chemicals and laboratory supplies. Shortages were felt almost immediately in the United States. As the British naval blockade of Germany tightened, the shortages would only get worse.

Within a week of the outbreak of hostilities, the State Department was sending urgent telegrams to the American Consuls in Frankfurt, Mannheim, and Cologne requesting that they obtain assurances from German manufacturers that their dyestuffs would continue to be available in the United States. American textile manufacturers had no other source of supply. Meanwhile the English government was already asking the Americans for a supply of chemicals required for pharmaceutical manufacture. The day after the British request was made public, newspapers reported that drug prices in the United States had already risen by more than 200% for certain medicines.

In September of 1914 Dr. Thomas Freas of Columbia University stated that some 596 colleges and university chemistry departments in the United States relied on imported German chemicals and laboratory supplies. Of the materials on order, a mere 10% had arrived. Chemical supply companies were already restricting orders of such common supplies as the filter paper that had been manufactured in Prussia. In normal times it usually required eight to ten weeks for an order to arrive from Germany but Dr. Freas feared widespread shortages. He stated that:

We shall all teach chemistry this year, but the Youth who has been in the habit of smashing everything breakable will not be over-welcome in any college chemistry laboratory this year.

American manufacturers received a much welcome shipment of dyestuffs in November of 1914 when the SS Matanzas arrived from Rotterdam with 3,000 tons of dyestuffs. The ship had been specifically chartered by the German company Farbwerke-Hoechst to bring dyes to 17 of their American distributors. Less than two years later the British blockade made such voyages impossible. The Germans resorted to the use of a cargo-carrying U-Boat the Deutschland. Built and operated by the North German Lloyd Line, the boat could carry a meager 700 tons of high value cargo. On her first trip the Deutschland carried $1.5 million worth of dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, and gemstones. She arrived in Baltimore on July 9, 1916 after a four week voyage and returned a few weeks later with nickel, tin, and rubber.

Material shortages continued throughout the war on both sides of the Atlantic. Under such conditions the time were ripe for inventors, dreamers, and fraudsters.

In the spring of 1917 Louis Clemont, a Danish chemist living in New York City, introduced a gasoline alternative he named Nuoline. Clemont refused to disclose the formula of the milky-white liquid but stated that it contained naphthalene, camphor, and an extract of from hard coal. Nuoline, according to the inventor, contained 2/3 water and the remaining ingredients could be obtained from any drugstore. The fuel was tested by three automobile clubs in New York and was reported to run an engine as well as ordinary gasoline. The cost was 10 cents per gallon.

Clemont was charged with fraud by the District Attorneys office. In March of 1918 he was allowed to mix a batch of Nuoline under the watchful gaze of professional chemists. A test of the fuel mix took place at the New York City Fire Departments automobile repair shop. Two separate cars fueled with the mixture ran around the block but the observers noted that Clemont was largely ignorant of chemistry and that the fuels actual cost would be between 18 and 40 cents per gallon. Nuolines formula was revealed to include mothballs, benzene, saccharine, sodium bicarbonate, potassium chromate, alum, methanol, cedar oil, sulfuric acid, talcum powder, and kerosene. There is no record if any of the cars using the fuel were damaged beyond repair. The District Attorneys office had no comment about the test and the charges appear to have been dropped.

Clemont was far from the only amateur chemist active at the time. In June of 1916 the New York City Fire Commissioner Robert Adamson announced that experiments conducted by amateur chemists in apartment buildings were causing an outbreak of fires, several having occurred in the space of only a few weeks. While most of these chemists were untrained, some of them had at least taken a correspondence course.

Most of the experimenters were attempting to find replacements for drugs and industrial chemicals that were no longer available from Germany. It was said that millions of dollars could be made by the persons who found substitutes for these materials.

One chemist who was searching for a rheumatism treatment allowed air to come into contact with phosphorous and set fire to the building which housed his work rooms. In another instance a chemical laboratory above a restaurant caught fire and the fire fighters had difficulty approaching the blaze through a cloud of noxious smoke. Several fire fighters were overcome and required hospitalization.

The Fire Commissioners office issued a warning to landlords that they should insure that their tenants were not experimenting with chemicals and any legitimate chemical firms should only be housed in fireproof buildings.

Another problem was that legitimate chemical companies were hoarding materials and handling much larger quantities than they normally would. On May 1^st a New York Central Railroad freight dock at St. Johns Park (on the west side of Greenwich Village) received a shipment of 30 cases of bromine in glass bottles. While handling the shipment one of the bottles broke and seeing a brown gas leaking from the case, a panicked worker threw all thirty cases into the street. Bromine gas entered nearby apartment buildings and factories. Horses were overcome by the fumes and collapsed in the streets but there were no other injuries.

Chemical companies and manufacturing firms were also struggling to deal with unfamiliar process and new chemical hazards. Earlier in the year, a fire broke out at a factory on Gold Street (about four blocks north of Wall Street) where a mixture of aluminum, magnesium, zinc, copper, and lead was pulverized into a fine powder. Water from the firefighting came in contact with the dried powder releasing hydrogen gas. The fire fighters warned the company about the danger and workers quickly cleared out the storeroom, dumping the dry, metallic powder into the snow-covered streets. The release of hydrogen gas caused an explosion that injured three fire fighters.

The United States officially entered the war in December of 1917. President Woodrow Wilson had previously resisted all efforts to involve the United States but Germanys campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare and overtures to Mexico could no longer be ignored. President Wilson however saw Americas involvement as part of the larger struggle between authoritarian and democratic governments. For Wilson, the war was about making the world safe for democracy. The American war effort might have made the world safe, but there were no guarantees that their neighbors would not be in danger.

Information posted by:

Kevin Olsen
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Montclair State University
Montclair, NJ,
OlsenK@Mail.Montclair.edu