i8 CHEMISTRY 



fine chemical firms, holds many thousands of care- 

 fully drawn up patents ; these constitute a valuable 

 asset with which to fight competitors and to con- 

 ceal actual methods of working. For it must be 

 understood that many of these patents are bogus, 

 that is to say, contain deliberate misstatements 

 for the purpose of misleading enquiring minds as 

 to the manner in which important products are 

 manufactured by the firm. In fact, some German 

 patents are drawn up for the purpose of discouraging 

 investigation by more practical methods; thus, 

 anyone who attempted to repeat the method for 

 manufacturing a dye-stuff protected by Salzmann 

 and Kriiger in the German Patent No. 12,096 

 would be pretty certain to kill himself during the 

 operation. Commercial organisations which have 

 reached such a stage of development as can produce 

 adornments like the above will not suffer much from 

 the kind of competition which we are at present 

 preparing to offer. 



The fine chemical industry has been developed 

 to such perfection in Germany as to suggest that 

 independent attempts to establish competing works 

 in this country will encounter formidable difficulties ; 

 any new venture will naturally suffer, not only from 

 lack of experience in technical processes, but also 

 from want of an efficient business management. 

 This latter includes, as its most important com- 

 ponents, the marketing organisation and a proper 

 costing system; both of these are necessarily of 



