Development of the Chemical Industry 9 



world's requirements takes its way through St. Louis 

 and becomes a product of the United States. 



We turn now to organic industry, particularly to dye- 

 stuffs, the development of which to a great extent is the 

 work of A. W. V. Hofmann and his followers. Hofmann 

 first studied law in Gottingen, but turned to chemistry, 

 becoming a student and co-worker of Liebig. When 

 in 1845 the School of Practical Chemistry was started in 

 London, Hofmann, upon recommendation of Liebig and 

 largely through the influence of the Prince Consort, 

 became its director. For about twenty years he 

 remained in this position, doing much work on coal-tar 

 products, including aniline, and in 1856 Perkin, one of his 

 assistants, discovered mauveine, the first aniline dye- 

 stuff. But the public support extended to the College of 

 Chemistry was dwindling and Hofmann returned to Ger- 

 many, first to Bonn in 1864, from where he was called 

 to Berlin in 1865, to succeed E. Mitscherlich. There he 

 spent the rest of his life working tirelessly and with 

 great success on the development of coal-tar chemistry, 

 on which he spent twenty of his best years in England, 

 scoring little success for lack of support from the Eng- 

 lish government. 



Fuchsin had been discovered in 1859 by Professor Ver- 

 guin of Lyons, France, who made the dye but did not 

 clear up its chemical compositions, which, many years 

 later, was disclosed by Hofmann and his followers. And 

 from the fundamental work of his school sprang suc- 

 cess upon success. The most brilliant colors were found 

 among the derivatives of aniline, but they generally lacked 

 permanence under the influence of light. For many cen- 

 turies beautifully colored rugs and tapestries had been 

 made in the Orient. The colors were known to be per- 

 manent and almost indelible. They were derived from 

 the madder and indigo plants, which were cultivated on 

 a large scale. It was natural that attempts should be 

 made to produce these dyestuffs in the laboratory, but 

 they seemed to be complicated and their composition was 



