The Electrochemist in a Changing World'

Everyone will agree that we live today in a world that only faintly resembles that of a half century ago. But the changes have occurred gradually and perhaps their significance is not immediately recognized. One therefore should occasionally view these changes in perspective in order to assess their effect on our life and environment. The business of electrochemistry has not been free from changing conditions and I wish to point out some of the interesting aspects of our chosen field during the past decade. The Growth of Industrial Electrochemistry It is difficult to measure the growth of a scientific subject such as electrochemistry except in terms of dis-coveries and major developments. Unfortunately, most of these can best be evaluated several years later. It is much easier, and often more timely, to examine the growth of applied electrochemistry in the industrial field. In this area, both the quantities produced an: nual ly and their monetary value offer direct means of comparison with previous years. Because the field of all electrochemically produced materials is a very dif-ficult one to treat in this way, a few examples have been chosen to show representative growth. The chlor-alkali industry has been evaluated an-nual ly by a special committee of the Industrial Elec-trolytic Division of the Society and these reports (1-10) offer an excellent source of information. Figure 1 shows the annual production of chlorine in the U.S.A. for the last ten years. It is amazing to note that the chlorine industry in this country produced only 10,000 tons in 1902, and the industry has grown unti l the out-put today is almost 100 times that of 1902. Moreover, the production has doubled during this decade to around 1 mill ion tons annually. Surprisingly, the points on the log-l inear graph deviate little from a straight l ine for the period 1961-1969. The investment in chlorine-producing facilities in 1969 approximated $1.7-$2 billion. During the past decade, about $1 bil-l ion has been invested by the industry to achieve this production level, based on data published in 1964. * E lec t rochemica l Soc ie ty Act ive Member