NATURE 



475 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1915. 



SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND CHEMICAL 

 INDUSTRY. 



THE future prospects of the British dye in- 

 dustry, and the organisation of it and other 

 scientific industries, have been the subjects of much 

 attention lately. The developments taking place in 

 Japan, Russia, Italy, and America in regard to 

 the manufacture of synthetic dyes were discussed 

 by Dr. F. M. Perkin in a lecture recently de- 

 livered before the Society of Dyers and Colourists 

 at Bradford. The latest American enterprises in 

 this industry were described in Nature of 

 December 16, p. 429, and the conclusion was 

 drawn that, in a few years, America will be very 

 largely self-contained in the matter of dye wares. 

 This condition may, with reasonable certainty, be 

 postulated of the other industrialised countries, 

 including France, and, one may hope, the British 

 npire. If this anticipation be realised, it will 

 ...can that the synthetic dye industry, with all the 

 allied trades in fine chemicals, will have entered 

 on a new phase of their development. Before the 

 war these industries were very largely a German 

 monopoly. After the war they will be comparable 

 with the brewing and distilling trades in that the 

 wants of each industrialised nation will be sup- 

 plied almost entirely by manufacturers of the 

 same nationality. Only a few dyes or fine 

 chemicals having specially desirable properties 

 will find their way across the frontiers, just as is 

 now the case with alcoholic beverages of inter- 

 national reputation. 



So far as the existing dyes and fine chemicals 

 are concerned, there can be little doubt that in 

 tlic course of twelve months or so processes will 

 have been worked out for the manufacture of 

 these products on an industrial scale. At first it 

 will certainly not be found possible to produce 

 these materials so cheaply as was formerly done 

 l)y our German rivals. Both the capitalists and 

 the consumers will need at first to exercise con- 

 ic rable patience and forbearance. Later, as 

 .ohnical experience increases, the cost of pro- 

 duction will certainly diminish. But even if all 

 the synthetic products on the market before the 

 war are captured in this way and manufactured 

 at a reasonable price, this development, although 

 representing a considerable advance, will not 

 suffice to ensure the continued stability of the 

 chemical industries. There are no ideal dyes, 

 drugs, or other fine chemicals ; all are capable 

 NO. 2409, VOL. 96] 



of improvement, and, in spite of the distractions 

 of the/ war, many German chemists are engaged 

 in the amelioration of existing chemical products. 

 Only quite recently the report has filtered through 

 of a further considerable advance in the pro- 

 duction of synthetic indiarubber. These develop- 

 ments call for corresponding efforts on our part, 

 and the demand arises for more and better- 

 trained chemists. 



The view has been put forward in certain 

 quarters that now is the day of the chemical 

 engineer. It is undoubtedly true that a chemist 

 with some mechanical aptitude will find a useful 

 outlet for this bent in the chemical factory, but 

 unless he exercises the trained chemical mind, and 

 the synthetic ability to make chemical discoveries, 

 he will never have the problems on which to 

 utilise his engineering talents. Perkin 's mauve, 

 Meldola's blue, Knorr's antipyrine, Ehrlich's 

 salvarsan, Baekeland's baekelite, and many other 

 valuable discoveries were made by chemists work- 

 ing at these problems from a purely chemical point 

 of view, and although some of these eminent 

 investigators may have had more or less 

 mechanical aptitude enabling them to put their 

 discoveries into operation on a more extended 

 scale than in the laboratory, yet the indisputable 

 fact remains that they made these discoveries 

 first and foremost because they were trained 

 chemists with the chemical insight into the mole- 

 cular constitution of the materials they studied. 

 As a conneting link between chemist and engineer, 

 the chemical engineer may serve a useful purpose, 

 but he can never become an efficient substitute 

 for the chemist. The latter alone with his own 

 hands, and usually with cheap improvised appa- 

 ratus, makes the synthetical discoveries which 

 then become the factory problems for the engineer. 



As regards the organisation of chemical workers 

 for industrial research, it must not be assumed 

 that conditions applicable to Germany will be 

 readily adopted in the United Kingdom. Due 

 regard must be made for the highly developed 

 individualism of the British character, with its 

 sporting instincts, its love of personal liberty, 

 and its disinclination to sink natural predilections 

 and to take the point of view of the State. It 

 is useless to deplore these apparent shortcomings 

 of the national temperament; indeed, in certain 

 contingencies they are to be regarded rather as 

 virtues. This preference to fight for one's own 

 hand has probably, in many a recent desperate 

 battle, kept intact the thin extended khaki line 

 against overwhelming hordes of more amenable 



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