NA TURE 



Ty^^l 



THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 1916. 



POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF 

 CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. 

 "D ECENT communications to the British and 

 ^ German Press show that already the op- 

 posing- forces of the trade war of the near future 

 are manoeuvring- into positions favourable for the 

 prosecution of their militant operations. This 

 contest, when opened, will be most severe in the 

 domain of the coal-tar products, in which hitherto 

 the German manufacturers have maintained a very 

 lucrative monopoly. The German newspapers of 

 the first week in May contain references to an 

 amalg-amation of the producers of aniline dyes, 

 drugs, and other fine chemicals. These manufac- 

 turers, who have made enormous profits since the 

 outbreak of war, have been impelled to take this 

 step by the fear of foreign, and especially British 

 and American, competition. Seven larg-e chemi- 

 cal factories formerly belong-ing- to three different 

 g-roups have, while retaining- a certain degree of 

 independence, formed a new "community of in- 

 terests," in which the units will share their "ex- 

 perience," so that all products will be manu- 

 factured by at least two of them simultaneously. 

 The streng-th of this amalg-amation is to be gauged, 

 not only by its capital of more than ii,ooo,oooZ., 

 but by its unequalled combination of financial, 

 technical, and scientific efficiency. 



The advocates of a chemical directorate for 

 qhemical factories are met in England with the 

 statement that in Germany the technical directors 

 are only apparently supreme, and that the 

 hig-her policy is in reality dictated by bankers 

 and financiers. This view is contradicted by 

 Vorivdrts, which states that the German chemical 

 trust is the only one over which banks and finan- 

 ciers have no control, because this chemical industry 

 . has always made such hug^e profits that it is now 

 supplied with ample funds for extension. The 

 German Press is very optimistic as to the success 

 of the new organisation in maintaining the 

 ascendancy in dyes and fine chemicals of all de- 

 scriptions. This sanguine anticipation is based 

 on the fact that chemical science has hitherto 

 been treated with indifference m England. The 

 Neiieste Nachrichten of Munich asks, "Do the 

 English really believe that, by means of customs 

 and patent laws, by waging an economic war, 

 and by boycotting our goods, they can counter- 

 balance German intelligence? " Vorivdrts, from 

 the point of view of the worker, deplores the 

 formation of the German trust on the ground that 

 a chemist or chemical workman incurring the 

 displeasure of one unit of the group is not likely 

 NO. 2433, VOL. 97] 



to find further employment in German chemical 

 industry. 



In England the situation in regard to the 

 grouping of coal-tar industries is still obscure, 

 but certain significant developments have recently 

 taken place. The State-fostered organisation 

 has at length admitted a chemist to its board of 

 directors, a step the desirability of which has been 

 repeatedly urged in the columns of Nature and 

 other organs of the Press. But although British 

 Dyes, Ltd., of Huddersfield, have in the diffi- 

 cult circumstances of the war made commendable 

 progress, it is hard to see how tTTis single organ- 

 isation can hope to compete with the giant trust 

 of Germany, with its vast resources and accumu- 

 lated experience. Government help should be 

 forthcoming for all willing workers in this field, 

 and attempts at the boycott and repression of 

 individual firms or chemists should, in the public 

 interest, be rigorously suppressed. The friendly 

 rivalrv between Yorkshire and Lancashire, which 

 is a perennial feature of life in the industrial 

 North, is being extended into chemical industry 

 by the recent noteworthy achievements of the 

 firm of Messrs. Levinstein, Ltd., of Manchester. 

 Although excluded from the Governmental 

 favours monopolised by their trade rivals, this 

 firm now claims to manufacture one-half the 

 quantity of dyes formerly imported into this 

 country from Germany. Throughout the war 

 Messrs. Levinstein have supplied the Admiralty 

 and War Office with enormous quantities of blue 

 and khaki dyes, and their colours have rendered 

 possible the equipment of the Belgian and 

 Italian armies with dyed uniforms. The scientific 

 side of this enterprise will be greatly strength- 

 ened and vitalised by the appointment to the 

 headship of its research department of Prof. 

 Green, formerly professor of tinctorial chemistry 

 in the University of Leeds, and the discoverer of 

 primuline, dianthine, and other important dyes. 



In addition to the two oldest-established firms, 

 many other industrial undertakings are developing 

 extensively in the direction of manufacturing dyes 

 and other coal-tar products. These firms include, 

 not only those in the colour trade before the war, 

 but also munitions factories at present engaged in 

 the production of high explosives, the directors of 

 which are looking to the manufacture of dyes and 

 fine chemicals for a profitable employment of their 

 numerous workers and extensive plants. Finally, 

 there is an increasing tendency on the part of 

 academic chemists to launch out in the direction 

 of preparing urgently needed chemicals, such as 



j dimethylaniline and )8-naphthol. Some of these 

 workers are spending time and money on pro- 



I ducts which are already being successfully manu- 



