February ii, 19 15] 



NATURE 



647 



plant, together with their acquired experience and 

 their sales organisations, largely account for the 

 almost complete control which Germany has 

 acquired in this branch of industry, and these are 

 insuperable difficulties to be met by any com- 

 peting nation unless really effective State-aid is 

 guaranteed in the future. 



The accompanying illustration (Fig. i) from the 

 Little Journal, for December, published by Messrs. 

 A. D. Little, of Boston, Massachusetts, shows a 

 typical German coal-tar colour factory. Some idea 

 of the development of the German dye industry is 

 afforded by the history of the Farbwerke Meister, 

 Lucius und Bruning, which was organised in 1862 

 by two chemists and two merchants, with a staff 

 of five workmen, one clerk and one chemist, and 

 an engine of three horse-power. In 1912 7680 

 workmen, 374 foremen, 307 chemists, and 74 other 

 higher technical officials were employed by this 

 sino^le firm, the wages paid out being 86 million 

 marks, whilst 5*2 million marks were expended in 

 salaries and bonuses. Eleven thousand different 

 substances were manufactured, and the steam 

 engines had a total horse-power of 30,000. 



Closely wrapped up with the question of the 

 manufacture of aniline dyes in Great Britain is 

 that of the future of indigo in India, which is dis- 

 cussed in an article in the Pioneer Mail of January 

 8. It is here emphasised that duiing the past 

 few years the indigo grown in Bihar and Orissa 

 has been falling off in a remarkable way owing to 

 the competition of the synthetic dye ^ whereas in 

 1913 63,100 acres were under indigo, the area 

 grown this year is only 38,500 acres. Owing to 

 the war, however, the price of natural indigo has 

 rushed up enormously to more than 700 rupees 

 per maund, a rise of about 300 per cent, on the 

 normal price of the past three years. Thus the 

 few indigo planters who were still producing 

 indigo have been fortunate enough to make very 

 large profits, and if they can continue or increase 

 their production during 191 5 they will be in an 

 equally strong position. It is, however, difficult 

 to estimate the ultimate effect of the war upon 

 the indigo industrv of India. There is no doubt 

 that trade with Germany will be suspended for 

 some time to come, and some time must also 

 elapse before the manuf.acture of the synthetic dye 

 can be established in France or England. More- 

 over, the use of natural indigo will probably be 

 stimulated, owing to the increased requirements 

 of the War Office and Admiralty, so that for some 

 time to come the indigo planters will probablv 

 benefit considerably and make profits which will 

 be some compensation for the lean years recently 

 passed through. But there is little doubt that in 

 the long run the synthetic dye, whether manu- 

 factured here or in Germany, will very largelv 

 supplant the natural material ; it will be a repeti- 

 tion of the history of the madder industry. On 

 this side of the Question reference mav be made 

 to the lecture delivered recently by Dr. F. M. 

 Perkin before the Society of Arts, and published 

 in the Journal for January i, and to the discussion 

 which this paper evoked. 



NO. 2363, VOL. 94] 



METALS AND WAR. 



CONSIDERABLE attention has recently been 

 devoted to the internal resources of Germany 

 as a producer of various metals, more particularly, 

 of course, of such metals as play an important 

 part in the manufacture of war material. It has 

 been shown that the normal consumption in 

 Germany of copf)er, for example, is about 250,000 

 tons yearly, whilst the production is only about 

 25,000 tons, of which 20,000 tons are produced 

 I from one mine alone, the well-known Mansfeld 

 i mine, so that the p>ossibility of any great increase 

 ! in the domestic production would appear to be 

 remote. The bulk of the German copf>er is im- 

 ported from the United States, which produces 

 more than half of the world's supply of copper, 

 amounting now to about one million tons per 

 annum, so that in normal times Germany pur- 

 chases about one half of the United St?rtes' output 

 of copper. It is obvious that the American pro- 

 ducers of thi? metal must be seriously affected by 

 the loss of so very important a customer. 



.\lthough public interest has centred mainly 

 upon copper in this connection, there are other 

 m.etals of scarcely less importance in this respect ; 

 thus nickel is used in the manufacture of armour 

 plate, of special steel for ordnance and numerous 

 similar purposes, and for some purp>oses can even 

 be used to replace copper, as in the casing of leaden 

 bullets. Germany produces practically no nickel, 

 but has to import all its requirements ; it. would 

 appear that the imports of nickel and nickel ore, 

 which latter is smelted in Germany, would repre- 

 sent between 5000 and 6000 tons of nickel, of 

 which about 1500 tons is re-exf>orted, so that the 

 German consumption may be taken as approxi- 

 mately 4000 tons p)er annum, out of the world's 

 total production of some 28,000 tonsl Again, 

 manganese is indispensable in steel manufacture. 

 In round numbers, Germany produces about 

 85,000 tons of manganese ore, and imports norni- 

 allv 650,000 to 700,000 tons, the bulk of which 

 comes from the Caucasus, so that Germany pro- 

 duces only about one-ninth of its normal require- 

 ments of manganese, and the cutting off of the 

 supplies of this substance cannot but seriously 

 affect its steel production. 



NOTES. 

 In answer to a question as to typhoid in the Armv, 

 asked in the House of Commons on Februar}- 8, Mr. 

 Tennant, L'nder-Secretary of State for War, said : — 

 "Of the 421 cases of t>-phoid in the present campaign 

 among British troops 305 cases were in men who were 

 not inoculated within two years. In the 421 cases 

 there have been thirty-five deaths. Of these deaths 

 thirty-four were men who had not been inoculated 

 within two years. Only one death occurred among 

 patients who were inoculated, and that man had onlv 

 been inoculated once, instead of the proper number 

 of times — namely, twice." This is a marvellous 

 record ; and no further answer than it provides is 

 i needed to the inhuman efforts made by anti-vaccina- 



