7o8 



NATURE 



[February 24, 19 1() 



iVsia Minor" (p. 383, etc.); and to the author's 

 visitation of the Coptic monastery of St, Anthony 

 near the Red Sea — a village of sixty houses, in 

 two streets — with its gentle-eyed, hospitable, in- 

 telligent monks, and its gardens, guest-house, 

 stores, stables, mill, swimming-bath, oil-press, 

 and churches. 



The reader should also turn to the studies of 

 Arab and Kurdish humanity — the refinement and 

 intelligence of the one, balanced by the simplicity, 

 energy, and dare-devilry of the other; to the 

 descriptions of the tumbled grandeur of the Alps 

 of Kurdistan ; and to the appendix on the Kurdish 

 tribes, their distribution, numbers, and special 

 features, past or present — this last an excellent 

 piece of work. Finally, he may welcome the 

 writer's appreciation of the merits of Muham- 

 madan life and faith in Turkey, with its gleams 

 of social religion "most admirable to me," of the 

 reality and strength of Muslim devotion, and 

 of the unconscious brotherhood of Islam {e.g., 

 PP- 383-5. etc.; 390; 523, etc.). 



FRENCH VIEWS OF THE SYNTHETIC DYE 

 PROBLEM. 



IN a recent issue of the Revue Scientifique 

 (January 8) Dr. Wahl, the director of the 

 laboratory of the Poirrier works, who is already 

 well known to English chemists as the author 

 of a very readable text-book on organic dyestuffs, 

 deals with the problem of the manufacture of 

 these dyes in France. 



In the historical summary of the causes which 

 led to the decline of the dye industry in England 

 and France, Dr. Wahl emphasises the importance 

 of systematic scientific research as an aid to tech- 

 nical progress. This aid to the industrial chemist 

 is illustrated by the work carried out by Hofmann 

 at the College of Chemistry in London during 

 the first twenty years of the youthful industry. 

 An application to coal tar dyes of the purely 

 scientific research on organic amines led to the 

 discovery of Hofmann 's violet and similar colours. 

 The return of this scientific investigator to Ger- 

 many in 1865 shifted the centre of gravity of the 

 colour industry, for subsequently many of the 

 master's German pupils also left the country and 

 transferred to German factories the practical ex- 

 perience they had originally gained in English 

 works. After a magnificent start the French dye 

 industry came to a standstill, and this halt was 

 prolonged by the disasters of the Franco-German 

 war. 



Tht' next important development after 1870 

 was the production of acid azo-dyes, a discovery 

 which was made simultaneously by French and 

 German workers. In view of the immense range 

 of possible combinations the French firm of Poir- 

 rier decided not to patent the new dyes, but in a 

 few months Hofmann published in the Berichte 

 the composition of the Poirrier oranges and their 

 method of preparation. The systematic investi- 

 gation of azo-dyes was a task admirably suited 

 to the German temperament. The preparation 

 and testing of the enormous number of possible 

 XO. 2417, VOL. 96I 



combinations required the collaboration of very 

 large staffs of specially trained chemists, whose 

 co-ordinated work on the extensive series of azo- 

 dyes and their generators was a truly gigantic 

 achievement. 



This application of the attack by massed bat- 

 talions to problems of industrial chemistry stood 

 the German colour firms in good stead as other 

 developments arose. For when the French 

 chemist, Vidal, discovered his well-known sulphur 

 black in 1896, the German factories immediately 

 mobilised their armies of chemists and, in the 

 Mackensen drive which ensued, they maintained 

 a steady bombardment of two patents per week, 

 in this class of dyes alone, for a period of eighteen 

 months, with the result that the domain of sul- 

 phide dyes was practically annexed by the German 

 colour-makers. This success has been repeated 

 in many other branches of the colour trade, whole 

 sections of which became (merman monopolies. 



First among the scientific causes of this German 

 predominance must be placed the rapid growth 

 in the middle of the nineteenth century of the 

 study of practical organic chemistry, and secondly 

 we have the evolution of large technical labora- 

 tories having a scientific organisation of the 

 highest order. Under the leadership of Bernth- 

 sen, Bohn, Duisberg, Sandmeyer, and others, 

 continuity of effort, organisation of research, 

 orderly arrangement of references and biblio- 

 graphy produced a sum total of intimate prac- 

 tical knowledge of. the subject which could not 

 have been gained in any other less methodical 

 way. This co-ordination of effort in the German 

 colour industry gives rise to 300 patent applica- 

 tions per annum, so that practically each day 

 ushers in a discovery of sufficient importance to 

 justify protection. 



Among the commercial factors of this success 

 the most striking is the employment by each 

 German firm of a staff of technically trained 

 representatives who visit the users of their pro- 

 ducts, demonstrating new methods of dyeing, 

 anticipating the wants and difirculties of their 

 clients, and collecting for their employers a valu- 

 able fund of information on the trading side of 

 the business. 



So much reliance is being founded in England 

 on the prospects offered by a systematic boycott 

 of German goods after the war that Dr. Wahl's 

 views on this subject are worthy of note. As a 

 professor of the beleaguered University of Nancy 

 he can scarcely be suspected of pro-German bias, 

 and yet he Avrites as follows :- — 



In order to sell, one must be prepared to offer the 

 goods at a price equal to or lower than that of the 

 competitors. For I do not think one should attribute 

 t) the question of sentiment an importance which it 

 does not possess. If one may suppose that the un- 

 popularity of our enemies will produce, after the war, 

 a period of hesitation in the renewal of commercial 

 relations with them, it would be presumptuous to think 

 that personal interest will not, sooner or later, prevail 

 over other considerations. It will then be essential to 

 be in a position to offer the dyes at prices approxi- 

 mately equal to those quoted by the Germans. 



