NA TURE 



461 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1923. 



CONTENTS. 



The British Dye-producing Industry- 

 More Applications of Physics. By Prof. H. C. H. 



Carpenter, F. R.S. 

 Tubicolous Worms ...... 



Universities and National Life . . . • 



Avian Minstrelsy ....... 466 



- ■ - -- 466 



467 



PAGE 



461 



462 



463 

 465 



Prevention of Vibration and Noise. By A. M. 

 Our Bookshelf ....... 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Control of Malaria in the Malay Peninsula. 



{With Diagram.)— Dr. Malcolm Watson 

 Some Consequences of the Gravhational Deflexion 



of Light.— Prof. G. A. Schott, F.R.S. . 

 Suggested Botanical Exploration of the Higher 

 Summits of the Cape Verd Islands. — H. B. Guppy, 



F.R.S 



Polar Temperatures and Coal Measures. — Dr. 



Vilhjalmur Stefansson 



Can the Geostrophic Term account for the Angular 



Momentum of a Cyclone ? — L. H. G. Dines 

 Zoological Nomenclature: Spirifer and Syringothyris. 



—Dr. C. W. Stiles . . . . 



Colour Vision and Colour Vision Theories. — Dr. 

 F. W. Edridge-Green ..... 

 Transport and its Indebtedness to Science. By Sir 



Henry Fowler, K. B.E. 



The Influence of Science on Christianity. By Canon 



E. W. Barnes, F.R.S 



The Swiss National Park. {Illustrated.) By Prof. 



C. Schroter ' . 

 Obituary : — 



Dr. E. F. Bashford, O.B.E. By Dr. Archibald 

 Leitch ...... 



Lord Morley, CM., F.R.S. . 

 Lady Shaw ..... 



Prof. W. Roser .... 



[^Current Topics and Events 

 ' ")ur Astronomical Column 

 lesearch Items ..... 



loyal Photographic Society's Exhibition 

 'he European Drought of 1921. By L, C 

 Bonacina ..... 



^University and Educational Intelligence 

 "Societies and Academies • 

 {-Official Publications Received . 

 )iary of Societies .... 



decent Scientific and Technical Books 



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474 



477 

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481 

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485 

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4S9 

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 Supp. V 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



MACMILLAN €r CO., LTD., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON. W.C.2. 



Advertisements and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number: GERRARD 8830. 



The British Dye-producing Industry. 



IN a letter to the Yorkshire Post of September 12, 

 Prof. W. M. Gardiner returns to the national 

 problem of the British dye-producing industry, which 

 is rapidly approaching the supreme crisis in its post- 

 war history. Recognised at the outbreak of hostilities 

 in 1914 as an essential factor in our national security 

 and industrial welfare, the new dyestuffs corporation 

 was then brought into existence in response to a general 

 demand for the establishment of a home manufacture 

 in dyes and intermediates. 



Upwards of 7,000,000/. of government and private 

 money have been expended in the land, building, 

 plant, and general equipment of the British Dyestuffs 

 Corporation Ltd. alone, and the other makers, of 

 whom there are more than twenty, have also spent 

 large sums in the extension of old works and the erection 

 of new. On the technical side, the chemists employed 

 in this new industry have made advances which 

 are certainly revolutionary. Essential intermediates, 

 hitherto not produced in Great Britain, are now manu- 

 factured in large quantities and of superior quality, 

 and the range of British dyes includes eighty per cent, 

 of the present requirements of our dye users. 



On the economic side, however, the makers are in 

 a position which is almost desperate. In spite of the 

 fact that shareholders of dye-producing firms have 

 received only meagre return on their capital outlay, 

 the dye consumers are pressing continuously for re- 

 duction in prices because their foreign competitors 

 have access to dyewares sold at prices with which no 

 country with a stabilise^ currency can compete. At 

 present, foreign dyes for which there are British equiva- 

 lents are not admitted into Great Britain unless the 

 British makers' price is greater than three times the 

 pre-War price, and this measure of protection is being 

 threatened. But even if the makers could get down to 

 pre-War prices, it is doubtful whether the controversy 

 on costs of production would cease, for in existing 

 circumstances the German producer could profitably 

 quote at far lower prices than those prevailing in 19 14. 



The chemists of the organic chemical industries, 

 including dyewares, have shown themselves capable 

 of the necessary concentration and patience required 

 to build up the new scientific trades, but these essential 

 national developments are doomed to failure in the 

 near future unless the administrative leaders of the 

 country in general, and of the dye-using industries in 

 particular, can acquire what Dr. Duisberg, the head 

 of one of the largest German colour works, speaking 

 during the War, said England lacked, namely : " the 

 faculty of fixing the eye on distant consequences and 

 not merely on monetary results." 



NO. 2813, VOL. I 12] 



