On a particularly cold winter evening, during the year of which I now write, Mrs. Baynes and I were sitting by the hearth fire in the living room of our modest cottage. We were discussing coal-tar derivatives and the products of fractional distillation during the gassifying process. We often engaged in light conversation for relaxation at the close of a stressful day.
Mrs. Baynes noted, and I agreed, that coal-tar (sometimes called gas-tar) was a substance obtained as a by-product during the manufacture of the illuminating gas that is piped throughout London. For years the coal-tar was of no commercial value, but toward the end of the 19th century, fractional distillation of the gasses permitted the capture of some useful coal-tar derivatives, such as carbolic acid, creosote, benzyne and naptha.
What we could not agree upon was just when Mr. Sherlock Holmes first began to do his research into the coal-tar derivatives.
I pointed out that the first mention of coal-tar or its derivatives was in the Empty House adventure, and that Holmes's research could not have been earlier than 1894, which was toward the end of his 3-year hiatus. It was in the Empty House tale that Holmes was reporting to Watson upon his activities during the hiatus. Holmes told Watson:
"I then passed through Persia, looking in at
Mecca, and paid a short but interesting visit to the Khalifa at Khartoum, the results of which I communicated to the Foreign Office. Returning to
France, I spent some months in a research into the coal-tar derivatives, which I conducted in a
laboratory at Montpellier, in the south of France." [Doub. p.488]
This research was carried out shortly before Holmes's return to London. According to Baring-Gould the return occured in May 1894. I told Mrs. Baynes that I had deduced that the research into coal-tar derivatives began in 1894, pointing out that there was no other mention of "coal-tar derivatives" in the Canon.
Mrs. Baynes answered, "The evidence of earlier such activity is there but you have overlooked it. There is clear evidence that Mr. Holmes was deeply involved in the research of coal-tar derivatives as early as 1889, when the events of the Copper Beeches matter were transpiring."
She went on, "We are told that on an evening in 1889, Mr. Holmes was seated in 221B at the deal table loaded with retorts and test tubes. He was `settling down to one of those all night chemical researches which he frequently indulged in.'
"The research work was interrupted by a message of distress from Violet Hunter. Watson found that there was a train next morning; and Holmes told Watson:
"'That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the acetones as we
may need to be at our best in the morning.'" [Doub.p. 322]
"So, you see," Mrs. Baynes instructed, "it is clear that Mr. Holmes was engaged in coal-tar research long before his visit to Montpellier in the south of France."
"But, Mrs. Baynes," I interjected, "the quotation from the Copper Beeches story refers to acetones, not to coal-tar derivatives."
"You see, but you do not perceive, Inspector. You see, but you do not perceive."
Mrs. Baynes pulled down a large book from the shelf above the mantle. It was Hawley's The Condensed Chemical Dictionary (Van Nostrand Reinhold Company 8th ed. 1971). She looked up from it and said, "In the fractional distillation of coal-tar the distillate separates into five distinct groups or layers, depending upon the stage of the process and the amount of heat applied. Category-one of the five includes benzene, toluene, xylenes and cumenes."
Mrs. Baynes continued, "Acetones [dimethelketone- CH3COCH3] may be derived from the oxidation of cumene. And cumene [isopropylbenzene-C6H5C(CH3)2] is derived by distillation from the coal-tar naptha fractions."
She then summarized: " So you see, cumenes are derived from coal-tar; and acetones are derived from cumenes. Thus, a study of the acetones is, necessarily, a research into coal-tar derivatives."
When Mrs. Baynes was sure of herself, she had a tendency to pontificate. And right now she was in one of her most pontificatory moods. She held her hands out before her and steepled the fingers in a prayerful pose. Then, as if pronouncing judgment upon my error, she said, "So you see, Inspector, when Mr. Holmes was doing an anlysis of acetones in 1889, he was at that time doing research into the coal-tar derivatives. And that was long before he visited a laboratory in Montpellier in the south of France."
Mrs. Baynes sought to go further into the matter, but I told her that it was late, and that I thought that I'd better walk the dog around the yard before I retired for the evening. She looked at me rather strangely as I took my leave and left the room. We have no dog, you see.
Rspctflly, Baynes
(Jody Baker, a distinguished Chattanooga attorney, is an expert on Sherlock Holmes and is writing a series on the topic for the Chattanoogan. He can be reached at bkhlaw@vol.com)