1887.] on the Work of the Imperial Institute. Ill 



made at a low price upon a very large scale by a beautifully simple 

 process worked out in England, by Squire and Messell. The alkali 

 and kindred chemical trades have been very greatly benefited by 

 the large consumption of caustic soda, of chlorate of potash and other 

 materials used in the dye manufactures, and the application of con- 

 structive talent, combined with chemical knowledge, to the production 

 of efficient apparatus for carrying out on a stupendous scale the 

 scientific operations developed in the investigator's laboratory, has 

 greatly contributed to the creation of a distinct profession, that of the 

 chemical engineer. 



One of the most beneficial results of the rapid development of the 

 coal-tar colour industry has been its influence upon the ancient art of 

 dyeing, which made but very slow advance until the provision of the 

 host of brilliant, readily applicable colours completely revolutionised 

 both it and the art of calico printing. 



In endeavouring to furnish some idea of the magnitude of the 

 coal-tar colour industry, I may state that the total value of the 

 coal-tar colours produced in 1885 amounted to about 3,500,000/. 

 The value of the alizarine and its related dyes which are used with it 

 for obtaining various shades of colour, now amounts to about one-half 

 of the total produce of the coal-tar colour industry. Their manu- 

 facture in England in considerable quantities still continues, but it is 

 a suggestive fact that the value of the artificial alizarine imported 

 into this country from the Continent last year, wa,s 259,795/. Taking 

 the average value of madder at od. pel' lb., and the cost of its equiva- 

 lent in artificial alizarine at one-halfpenny, the quantity imported, if 

 valued at 5d. per lb., would represent about 2,597,950/. 



I venture to think that it will be interesting at this point, to quote 

 some words of prophecy included in Professor Hofmann's important 

 ' Eeport on the Chemical Section of the Exhibition of 1862,' and to 

 inquii'e to what extent they have been verified. In commenting upon 

 one of the features of greatest novelty in that worlds show, the 

 exhibition of the first dye products derived from coal-tar, he says : — 

 " If coal be destined sooner or later to supersede, as the primary 

 source of colour, all the costly dyewoods hitherto consumed in the 

 ornamentation of textile fabrics ; if this singular chemical revolution, 

 BO far from being at all remote, is at this moment in the very act and 

 process of gradual accomplishment ; are vre not on the eve of profound 

 modifications in the commercial relations between the great colour- 

 consuming and colour-producing regions of the globe ? Eventualities, 

 which it would be presumptuous to predict as certain, it may be per- 

 missible and prudent to forecast as probable ; and there is fair reason 

 to believe it probable that, before the period of another decennial 

 Exhibition shall arrive, England will have learnt to depend, for the 

 materials of the coloui's she so largely employs, mainly, if not wholly, 

 on her own fossil stores. Indeed, to the chemical mind it cannot be 

 doubtful, that in the coal beneath her feet lie waiting to be drawn 

 forth, even as the statue lies waiting in the quarry, the fossil equiva- 



