NATURE 



413 



THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1920. 



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Present State of the Dye Industry. 



ON the occasion of the annual general meeting 

 of the British Dyestuffs Corporation held on 

 May 21 Sir Henry Birchenough, who has suc- 

 ceeded Lord Moulton as chairman of the company, 

 emphasised the importance of a great dye-making 

 industry as an instrument of national defence, 

 pointing out that practically the whole of the 

 poison gases used by the German Army in the 

 war were made in the establishments of the 

 German dye manufacturers, as well as large quan- 

 tities of high explosives and synthetic nitric acid. | 

 Chemical warfare, in any future conflict, will no | 

 doubt be greatly extended, and its successful 

 prosecution will depend on the equipment, skill, 

 and experience of the dyestuff industry. , 



Scarcely less important is it in peace, for, as 1 

 the chairman explained, "the group of textile 

 trades of this country constitute the most striking ! 

 and important single group of allied industries in 

 the civilised world," and "the magnitude and very 

 existence of a very large part of our export trade i 

 in textiles depend absolutely upon there being | 

 ... a sufficient supply of dyestuffs available." j 



What is being done to establish a great dye- ! 

 stuff industry in this country? There is no doubt i 

 that progress has been very considerable, and it i 

 is a remarkable fact that the output of dyes in 

 this country (given by the Board of Trade as 

 25,000 tons annually) exceeds the total consump- 

 tion before the war. 



The range and variety of these dyes are, how- 

 ever, admittedly limited, and, indeed, Mr. A. 

 Hoegger, chairman of the British Cotton and 

 Wool Dyers' Association, at the annual meeting 

 NO. 2640, VOL. 105] 



held on the same day as the above, stated that, 

 had it not been for the importation of certain 

 Swiss dyes during the war, and the arrival recently 

 of certain " reparation " colours from Germany, 

 some of the branches of the association would 

 have been seriously embarrassed. 



There are two rather important points that 

 require comment here. Sir Henry Birchenough 

 stated that " an unprecedented demand for finished 

 dyestuffs prevents the creation of stocks, and 

 thereby places difficulties in the way of the main- 

 tenance of uniformity in our products." This is 

 no doubt a reply to complaints as to lack of uni- 

 formity in the dyes supplied. There are two ways 

 in which this can occur, viz. as regards shade 

 and as regards strength. 



If the preparation of a dye has been properly 

 worked out in the laboratory and in the small- 

 scale plant (such as exists at Huddersfield), the 

 large-scale manufacture should present few diffi- 

 culties. Granted that the first few batches may 

 leave something to be desired, succeeding batches 

 made under careful scientific control should cer- 

 tainly be very close to the standard required, and 

 the stock necessary to allow this difference to be 

 adjusted should not be more than three or four 

 batches— say a ton at the utmost. With regard 

 to the strength of the dye sent out, Mr. Hoegger 

 states that a great proportion of the 25,000 tons is 

 not so highly concentrated as were pre-war 

 German colours. Almost every dye coming from 

 the drying chamber is stronger than the standard, 

 even taking as standard the German pre-war dye, 

 and it is exceedingly bad policy to reduce the 

 strength below it. This cannot be other than 

 deliberate, and is very objectionable, as the quality 

 of the dye is thereby depreciated in the mind of 

 the user, and in this connection there is evidence 

 that the Canadians are not altogether satisfied 

 with the quality of the dyes imported from this 

 country. 



"Why," it will be asked, "cannot we make 

 here those dyes which are being imported from 

 Switzerland and vicariously obtained from Ger- 

 many?" The answer to this question is: First, 

 lack of plant ; and secondly, lack of raw material. 

 The former is referred to by Sir Henry Birch- 

 enough, who points out the great delay in delivery 

 of plant owing largely to the moulders' strike. 

 The provision of the multitudinous variety of pans, 

 autoclaves, and acid-resisting vessels required by 

 the industry is proceeding only slowly, and espe- 

 cially is this true of enamelled appliances. Even 



