MEETING THE DYESTUFF SHORTAGE 



THE dependence of American tex- 

 tile manufacturers on the German 

 coal tar dyes has placed some of our big 

 industries in a difficult position. Though 

 some importations still get through, they 

 are inadequate. It is interesting to learn 

 from official Government reports that 

 American manufacturers of dyes are 

 taking extremely active steps to establish 

 new color works and enlarge existing 

 plants. In the last few months the prog- 

 ress has been noteworthy. 



Benzol is the starting point for most of 

 the aniline dyes. It is a product of the 

 distillation of coal tar, and in Germany 

 coke ovens are built and operated so as 

 to collect all the tar and finally the 

 benzol. In America most of our coke 

 ovens are of the old bee-hive type, which 

 waste everything except the coke. This 

 accounts for a shortage of one of the 

 most important raw materials. However, 

 much is being done to correct this waste. 

 By-product coke ovens are becoming 

 more common. One company has award- 

 ed contracts for 92 additional by-product 

 coke ovens with complete equipment for 

 benzol recovery, and expects to spend a 

 million dollars on the plant. The Com- 

 bria Steel Company, of Johnstown, Pa., 

 has perfected its new battery of benzol 

 scrubbers so as to secure a daily output 

 of five .tons of benzol, one ton of naptha- 

 lene and the usual smaller amounts of 

 toluol and xylol. To use this raw ma- 

 terial the firm expects to erect at once a 

 plant to manufacture dyestuffs. At first 

 they will make only the staple dyes in 

 greatest demand. 



At Woodward, Alabama, a recovery 

 plant is nearing completion that will 

 furnish seven tons of benzol daily, and 

 the new benzol plant of the Tennessee 

 Coal and Iron Company will have a daily 

 output of 13,000 gallons. Additional re- 

 covery plants are being built in connec- 

 tion with the coke works of the Republic 

 Iron and Steel Company, of Youngs- 

 town, Ohio, of the Lackawanna Steel 

 Company, at Buffalo, and of the Inland 

 Steel Company, of Inland Harbor, Ind. 

 The United States Steel Corporation in 

 Indiana has in active operation a plant 



producing 12,000 gallons of benzol daily. 



As to the actual manufacture of dyes, 

 the Benzol Products Company has nearly 

 completed an extensive plant at Marcus 

 Hook, Pa., to be devoted to the manu- 

 facture of intermediate products on a 

 large scale. They hope to produce most 

 of the aniline oil and salts required by 

 American color works. The W. Beckers 

 Aniline & Chemical Company, of Brook- 

 lyn, has greatly widened the scope of its 

 manufacturers, increasing its capital to 

 $1,000,000. They will make a variety of 

 aniline colors. A large chemical plant 

 at Stamford, Conn., idle for two years, 

 has been leased by a new company or- 

 ganized by Joseph Doelger, of New 

 York. They will soon make on a large 

 scale many aniline dyes never before pro- 

 duced in America. E. C. Klipstein, of 

 New York, is making sulphur blacks 

 which are in even greater demand in the 

 hosiery industry than the famous aniline 

 black. 



Alizarin red and indigo blue are not 

 planned for, yet they are the two most 

 important coal tar dyes. There is a great 

 increase in manufacture of vegetable 

 dyes, such as logwood, fustic and orchil, 

 white cochineal and mineral dyes, such 

 as Prussian blue, chrome green, manga- 

 nese brown, chrome yellow, and many 

 others, will meet an increased demand. 



LARGE BATTLESHIPS USE PAN- 

 AMA CANAL 



For the first time since its comple- 

 tion, the Panama Canal has been used 

 for passing large United States battle- 

 ships. On July sixteenth, the Missouri, 

 Ohio and Wisconsin, carrying naval ca- 

 dets from Annapolis to San Francisco, 

 made the trip from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific. 



The canal has been used by battle- 

 ships before. The Peruvian gunboat, 

 Tentiente Rodriguez, passed through the 

 waterway about a year ago, and a flo- 

 tilla of American submarine boats dur- 

 ing February of this year navigated the 

 canal during battle practice. 



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