fore the
war, but the processes had not been perfected to such an extent as to
make them commercially profitable. However, the increased prices of
chemicals, due to the excessive demands of war, and the absolute
necessity for producing them inspired the chemists to get the required
results, and Germany by the development of these sources of supply found
the acids necessary for her own use in war, whether for explosive making
or medical purposes.

Great quantities of sugar are used in making powder and explosives, too,
and when the supply became limited the German chemists began producing
in larger quantities the chemical substitute--saccharine. Later even
this sweet was denied the population because the chemicals were needed
for war uses. So in every line Germany found use for everything which
its chemists and chemical laboratories could produce.

The terrible gas and liquid fire bombs which the Germans were first
reported using contained chemical compounds invented for the purpose by
the chemists. Some of the chemicals and the gases produced when the
bombs exploded were so powerful that men and animals in the range of the
fumes were killed instantly. The effect was to paralyze them in some
cases and it was reported that many of the soldiers were found dead
standing upright in the trenches or in the attitudes which they had
assumed at the moment they were overcome.

BASIC PRINCIPLE OF BOMBS.

Nitrous-oxide, or chlorine, in some chemical form is supposed to have
been the base of the bombs, and concerning the liquid fire it was
reported in connection with the dropping of bombs on London from a
Zeppelin, that some of the bombs contained what is chemically known as
Thermit, which is a mixture of aluminum and iron oxide used in brazing
and welding. When ignited the oxygen is freed from the iron and combines
with the aluminum with great rapidity. During the chemical reaction an
intense heat is produced--a heat so great that it almost equals that of
an electric arc.

So in the world of agriculture and industry the German chemists,
recognized leaders of the world, actually made or produced from the air
and other unsuspected sources things without which they could not have
withstood the siege against them for a single year. In the absence of
concentrated foods for cattle and humans, the chemists produced absolute
substitutes. They took the residue or waste from the breweries and
extracting the bitter hops taste from the