I 



NATURE 



501 



;iAi LRDAY, APRIL 22, 1922. 



Editorial and Publishing Offices : 



MACMILLAN h- 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. 



British Dyestuffs Industry. 



THOSE who scrutinise with anxious attention the 

 progress of the British dyestuffs industry are 

 aware that the stage now reached is one surrounded 

 by dangers of a character more economic than technical. 

 The Dyestuffs (Importation) Act has been in operation 

 during fifteen months^ and at the outset of this period 

 two main factors contributed to smooth administra- 

 tion. As a consequence of the Sankey judgment^ this 

 country had been flooded with German dyes in quantity 

 and variety amply sufficient to supply the normal 

 needs of one year's good trade ; concurrently, every 

 branch of industry was facing an abnormal depression, 

 which reflected itself in a greatly diminished con- 

 sumption of dyestuffs. It followed that the principal 

 problems arising in regard to licensing imports were 

 questions affecting identity or equivalence of the 

 domestic dyes when competing with foreign products. 



The period under review has been one of steady pro- 

 gress by the British factories, and an opportunity to 

 visualise their achievement was offered lately by an 

 imposing exhibition of synthetic colouring matters at 

 the British Industries Fair. Still more recently, Brig.- 

 Gen. Sir William Alexander, Chairman of the British 

 Dyestuffs Corporation, invited a large gathering of 

 press representatives to review the circumstances in 

 which the renascence of this industry took place, and 

 to apprehend the nationally fundamental need of main- 

 taining it. There is grave public danger in the present 

 risk that, as the connection between dyestuffs and 

 explosives recedes into the background of the public 

 mind, the more permanently important features of this 

 industry will sink into oblivion. Failure to realise 

 how closely the chemical industry is linked with the 

 NO. 2738, VOL. 109] 



general manufacturing activities of the country springs 

 from the apathy with which chemistry, particularly 

 the organic branch, has been regarded in Great Britain, 

 and Sir William Alexander has rendered a public service 

 in emphasising the fact that research in the dyestuff 

 industry creates and maintains a very highly trained 

 body of organic chemists who, in an emergency, are 

 qualified to apply themselves to technical national 

 problems, whether these relate to peace or war. 



This admonition is a timely one, because a variety 

 of circumstances indicate growth of opposition to the 

 principle of the Dyestuffs (Importation) Act. At the 

 moment, although great strides have been made by 

 the research departments of the British factories to- 

 wards improving the quality and diminishing the cost 

 of their colours, prices are still in many cases higher 

 than can be viewed with equanimity by the dyer or 

 calico-printer, and advantage is being taken of this 

 drawback by those who, from motives of gain, or in 

 disregard of national interests, seek the repeal of the 

 Act. Owing to countless variations of detail in the 

 application of dyestuffs to textiles, it is difficult to 

 secure trustworthy information respecting the per- 

 centage of cost borne by a colouring matter in the 

 finished product ; in some cases it is trifling, in others 

 it may be substantial, and in the general scramble 

 to reduce cost of production, it is natural for those 

 colour-users whose range of vision is not wide to pounce 

 upon the dye-costs and demand relief. Meanwhile, the 

 opportunity now in the hands of German factories 

 owing to currency depreciation is one which they have, 

 not been slow to use, but it would be foolish to imagine 

 that any mercy will be shown by Germany to British 

 colour-users if once the domestic industry is allowed to 

 perish. 



Happily there are colour-users who look beyond the 

 needs of the moment, and to such it is evident that the 

 effort now being made to shatter the industry in 

 adolescence must, in the interest of the whole com- 

 munity, be faced and overcome. If this country is 

 not allowed to establish a dye-making industry, in- 

 calculable damage will ultimately accrue to the textile 

 trade. In the first place, the dyer will suffer in be- 

 coming a spoon-fed vassal of the German factories ; he 

 will grow less and less capable of exercising his craft 

 intelligently, and of devising novel applications to 

 textile fabrics. This will diminish the attraction which 

 British products offer to foreign markets, and in that 

 degree curtail the operations of the textile manufac- 

 turer, who will be further handicapped by exorbitant 

 prices for German dyes. Finally, if this, the principal 

 industrial incentive to the pursuit of applied organic 

 chemistry be permitted to languish, this country de- 

 liberatelv excludes itself from the immediate benefits. 



