M. 



1901 



jVA ture 



II 



Then follows a very lucid and interesting historical 

 survey of the chemistry of synthetic indigo. Attention is 

 called to the fact that the first patent bears the date of 

 March 19, iSSo, and that although we knew that artificial 

 indigo prepared by this, the cinnamic acid synthesis, 

 could not compete with the natural product, yet its 

 appearance caused much consternation among indigo 

 planters. But because the threatened storm did not 

 break, the planters evidently quickly forgot their fright 

 and returned complacently to their old rule-of-thumb 

 methods. Not so the chemists ; they steadily and perse- 

 veringly plodded on, and in 1882 von Baeyerand Drewson 

 brought out another synthesis, viz. the condensation of 

 acetone and orthonitrobenzaldehyde in presence of 

 caustic alkali. This process, or a modification of it, is 

 employed at the present by the firm of Messrs. Meister, 

 Lucius and Brunning ; but as the supply of the raw 

 material— toluene— is limited, Prof Meldola, speaking as 

 an individual, says : "Were I a planter, I should have no 

 anxiety whatever with respect to a competing product 

 which starts from toluene." Every 1000 gallons of coal 

 tar yields about 6| gallons of benzene and 3] gallons of 

 toluene, therefore any process which started with benzene 

 as the out-going product should be better able to com- 

 pete than one in which toluene is the starting material. 

 However, although there are several syntheses which start 

 from aniline (produced from benzene), the methods 

 employed are so costly that at present the planter has 

 very little to fear in this direction. 



Naturally the chief portion of the paper is devoted to 

 Heumann's synthesis, as at present worked by the 

 Badische Company. This process, which starts from 

 naphthalene, the supplies of which are practically un- 

 limited, was described in N.\ture, November 29. 



In his references to the Badische Company Prof. 

 Meldola quoted the following facts from the official report 

 prepared for the Paris Exhibition : — 



" The factory at Ludwigshafen employs 148 scientific 

 chemists, 75 engineers and technical experts, and 305 

 members of the mercantile staff. In 1865 they com- 

 menced with 30 workmen, and they now employ over 

 6000. The consumption of coal is about 243,000 tons 

 per annum ; water is supplied to the factory to the extent 

 of some 20,000,000 cubic metres annually ; they make 

 12,000,000 kilogrammes of ice, and over 12,000,000 cubic 

 metres of coal gas in the course of the year. The electric 

 installation consists of eight dynamos, the currents from 

 which serve for illumination, motive power and electro- 

 lytic processes. Steam is supplied from 102 boilers, 

 which serves for heating purposes and for driving 253 

 steam engines." 



Let the British manufacturer and the Indian indigo 

 planter try to digest these hard facts and figures. I 

 wonder whether there are 148 «7i';////5'cchemists employed 

 by manufacturers in the whole of the United Kingdom. 

 Let them also remember that these figures only refer to 

 one firm. 



Finally, Prof Meldola refers to the natural product 

 versus synthetical indigo. He is unable to hold out the 

 hope that the natural article will in the long run be able 

 to compete with the product of the German factory. 

 "The planters have allowed twenty years of activity 

 on the part of the chemists to pass by with apathy and 

 indifference, and at the last moment only have they called 

 in expert assistance. ' 



It is truly marvellous that only the British planter 

 should have been so lethargic. In Java the Dutch 

 planters "have had the wisdom to avail themselves of 

 the resources of the botanical gardens for experimental 

 purposes, and their chemists and bacteriologists working 

 in Holland in co-operation with the planters have, as is 

 well known, for many years past been contributing to 

 chemical literature the results of their investigations." 



Reference is made to the contradictory opinions as to 



NO. 1644, VOL. 64] 



what goes on in the steeping vats, as to whether the 

 resolution of the glucoside indican into indigotin is due 

 to bacterial fermentation, or whether it is one of 

 ordinary zymolysis. Attention is also directed to the 

 drying process, which often extends over several weeks, 

 and during which time it is stated that a fungus grows on 

 the cakes and ammonia is evolved. Prof Meldola asks 

 whether this may not be due to the destruction of indigo 

 by a micro-organism. I have myself often wondered that 

 in all the suggestions for improving the yield and quality 

 of indigo no one appears to have drawn attention to this 

 apparent decomposition. It seems possible that more 

 thorough washing and rapid drying in a current of hot 

 air would perhaps prevent this. In his closing remarks 

 Prof Meldola refers to the antiquity of the industry, and 

 questions whether the methods at present employed in 

 India are very different to those used in the time of 

 the Pharaohs. F. Mollwo Perkin. 



THE OLDER CIVILISATION OF GREECE} 



THE sixth volume of the Annual of the British School 

 at Athens contains matter of extraordinary interest 

 to students of the history, not only of Greece, of Egypt 

 and Western Asia, but also of mankind in general. The 

 culture which now dominates the world is the child of the 

 civilisation of Ancient Greece, and any arch;eological 

 discovery which tends to increase our knowledge of the 

 beginnings of Greek civilisation possesses an importance 

 and an interest far greater than that of any other possible 

 discovery whatever in the archicological field. 



For the last twenty years, since Schliemann first 

 unveiled the treasures of the citadel of Mycen;e, it has 

 been recognised that the culture of classical Greece as 

 we know it is but the second epoch of Greek civilisation. 

 Classical Greece had a past the true history of which had 

 been half forgotten, had been preserved in confused and 

 contradictory legends. The culture of the past had 

 bloomed from end to end of the Greek world, in cities, 

 some like Athens or Knossos, of renown in classical as 

 well as pra^-classical days, others like Mycena; and 

 Tiryns, cities whose fame ceased to be when the Dorians 

 entered Greece. This culture was bronze-using, and was, 

 in fact, the Greek phase of the European culture of the 

 Bronze Age, a phase earlier in date than the phases of 

 Central and Northern Europe, and in all probability not 

 only their forerunner, but to a great extent their forbear. 

 This culture itself developed out of a stage of transition 

 from Neolithic barbarism,which we call "pr;c-Mycena;an," 

 during which stone, copper, and occasionally bronze, 

 were used side by side, pottery was rude and un- 

 painted, and the dead were buried in cist-graves. This 

 stage shades off on the one side (as in the first city of 

 Troy) into the Neolithic culture, on the other (as in 

 Cyprus) into Mycenaean civilisation, which marks the 

 first stage of real "civilisation," properly so-called, in 

 Europe. The earliest stages of the Mycenasan culture are 

 known to us from discoveries of settlements with pottery, 

 &c., in Thera, at Phylakope in Melos, at Kamarais in 

 Crete, and other isolated spots, chiefly in the Southern 

 .Egean islands. The civilisation which we find at 

 Mycena:-, at Vaphio, at lalysos and elsewhere, is the 

 same as that of Phylakope and Kamarais, but is more 

 highly developed in many ways. This can only be the 

 culture of the heroic .\chaians, which was overthrown by 

 the Dorians ; its date must, then, be placed certainly 

 before 900 B.C., even if, as is very possible, it continued 

 to exist in Western Asia Minor and Cyprus till the eighth 

 century. We can be more certain about its date than 

 this ; Mycenaean culture was by no means confined to 



1 ThcAnnual of the B>itish School at Athens; No. VI. Session 1699- 

 iQoo. Pp. viii -i- 156. With illustr-itions and two maps. Printed lor 

 the subscribers and sold on their behalf by MacmiUan and Co., Ltd. 



