Blogs and book

When we entered the war the need for
phenol became yet more imperative, for it was needed to make picric
acid for filling bombs. This demand was met, and in 1917 there were
fifteen new plants turning out 64,146,499 pounds of phenol valued at
$23,719,805.
Some of the coal-tar products, as we see, serve many purposes. For
instance, picric acid appears in three places in this book. It is a high
explosive. It is a powerful and permanent yellow dye as any one who has
touched it knows. Thirdly it is used as an antiseptic to cover burned
skin. Other coal-tar dyes are used for the same purpose, "malachite
green," "brilliant green," "crystal violet," "ethyl violet" and
"Victoria blue," so a patient in a military hospital is decorated like
an Easter egg. During the last five years surgeons have unfortunately
had unprecedented opportunities for the study of wounds and fortunately
they have been unprecedentedly successful in finding improved methods of
treating them. In former wars a serious wound meant usually death or
amputation.


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