556 



NATURE 



[January 21, 1915 



heavily drawn upon to provide the essential 

 apparatus. A great number of chemists will be 

 needed to work out the details of known processes, 

 first on the laboratory scale, and later on a bulk 

 basis, and the well-equipped laboratories and 

 staffs of the universities and larger technical 

 institutions might well be pressed into service for 

 much of the preliminary work. Many chemists 

 will also be required for developing new processes 

 and other research work, because of no other 

 industry can it be so truly said that stagnation 

 spells failure. 



The great complexity of the manufacture of 

 dyestuffs is not due to the use of a large number 

 of raw materials, the direct products from coal 

 tar being only nine or ten. By chemical treat- 

 ment these are, however, transformed into 250 to 

 300 different intermediate products which, in 

 their turn, yield some 1200 chemically distinct 

 dyestuffs. In some processes of manufacture high 

 temperatures and pressures are required ; in others 

 the temperature must be reduced, and a large 

 refrigerating plant is an essential feature of a 

 colour works. 



Surely, then, it is abundantly evident that the 

 technical expert must be the preponderating ele- 

 ment in the dye factory, and that he must have a 

 large share in the management and control. The 

 British custom of entrusting the management of 

 large concerns to financiers, commercial magnates, 

 and " men of affairs " has done much to retard 

 the scientific development of our industries, and 

 the adequate representation of the technical expert 

 on the directorate is vital to the success of the 

 new scheme. 



Lord Moulton laid down three propositions with 

 regard to the proposed new British dye manu- 

 facturing company. It must be large enough to 

 be able to face severe competition at the end of 

 the war. It must be, and must remain, entirely 

 British, and, it must be co-operative ; and all 

 these conditions are fulfilled by the scheme put 

 forward. It is proposed that the share capital 

 shall be 3,000,000/,, and the Government offers to 

 supplement this by a loan of 1,500,000/. at 4 per 

 cent, and repayable in twenty-five years. The four 

 and a half millions of capital thus proposed rs 

 probably ample to establish and develop an industry 

 which would make us independent of imported 

 products. 



The proposals with regard to co-operation are 

 that dyers and others associated with the con- 

 sumption of the products, e.g.^ spinners, manu- 

 facturers, merchants, textile machinists, etc., 

 NO. 2360, VOL. 94] 



should take shares in the new company and thus 

 become interested in its success. This is quite 

 sound and receives general acceptance, but certain 

 suggestions in the prospectus with regard to a 

 pro rata subscription appear to be unworkable. 



The Government reserves the right of appoint- 

 ing two directors of the company, and it is much 

 to be regretted that the opportunity has not been 

 taken of giving a wise lead in regard to the 

 character of the directorate, by stipulating that 

 the scientific technologist should be adequately 

 represented. 



Another feature of the scheme propounded by 

 the committee is that certain existing colour works 

 are to be taken over by the new company to form 

 the nucleus of development. The resources of these 

 works are to be extended as rapidly as possible in 

 order to cope with immediate necessities and pre- 

 vent an actual famine in dye-wares — in fact, large 

 extensions are at the present moment being made. 



A point which presents some difficulty in ad- 

 justment is the relationship of the new company 

 to existing British dye-producing firms, or such 

 as may be established in the future. It is obviously 

 not desirable to stifle private enterprise by any- 

 thing in the nature of a monopoly supported by 

 the Government, but the existence of successful 

 German firms which are outside the two great 

 " Interessengemeinschafte," or rings, indicates 

 that the difficulty is more apparent than real. A 

 somewhat cognate matter is the future relation- 

 ship of the new company to the Swiss firms which 

 are importing to us during the present crisis. 



The various criticisms of the Government 

 scheme which have been offered, refer, not to 

 general principles, but in almost all cases to more 

 or less Important details. The general outlines 

 of the scheme — the establishment by co-operation 

 of those specially concerned, of a new company 

 with great resources and financially aided by the 

 Government — has received general approval, and 

 the unprecedented step taken by the Government 

 has been applauded by men of all parties, as 

 meeting an Industrial crisis In a bold and states- 

 manlike manner. In response to this, and In 

 recognition of a national emergency, it is the 

 obvious duty of all who are commercially inter- 

 ested, to deal with the question from the national 

 rather than from the individual point of view. 

 Support of a scheme for the manufacture In 

 Britain of British used dyes is, at its lowest 

 estimate, an essential business insurance, and on 

 a higher plane it Is helping forward a movement 

 to free our great textile Industry from the danger 



