18 NATURE 
[Marcu 4, 1915 


CHEMISTS AND THE 
WAR1 
PROFESSIONAL 
A is a matter of importance to the representatives 
of the chemical profession that their aspect of the 
great coal-tar colour industry should be kept well to 
the fore in the Government scheme and in any other 
scheme that may hereafter be put forward. We desire 
to see the restoration of the industry to this country, 
and not only restored, but also permanently retained 
after the war. The discussions of the Government 
schemes in various parts of the country by dye-con- 
suming organisations, chambers of commerce, and so 
forth, have all centred round political or economic 
questions; the vital principle, viz., adequate chemical 
control, has been subordinated or left out of con- 
sideration altogether. While there has been much 
wrangling over the question as to the method by 
which the industry may be established and maintained 
here, whether by free trade or protection, or sub- 
vention, or by any other device, the consideration 
of the questions whether a few years hence there will 
be anything in the way of dyestuffs worth protecting ; 
whether there will be a sufficient basis of material 
products left for the politicians and economists and 
business people to wrangle over has been overlooked. 
It is not a purely business problem which the Govern- 
ment has undertaken to solve; it is primarily a chem- 
ical problem. 
The conditions which have to be met if this country 
is to be once more the home of the colour industry 
are imperfectly understood by the public. Even those 
most concerned—those who are invited to subscribe to 
the capital—appear in most cases to have an idea 
that all that is necessary is to find the money, secure 
Government aid, appoint a board of business direc- 
tors, and lo! the industry will forthwith spring into 
existence ready to cope with all emergencies. What 
are the facts of the case? About five hundred different 
dyestuffs of definite composition have been given to 
tinctorial industry as the products of chemical research. 
Of these a certain number only can be, and are being, 
made in this country. The total output of our fac- 
tories is, at present, inadequate for the requirements 
of our textile industries. The first step to be taken, 
therefore, is to enlarge and develop existing factories 
so that the dyes which can be made here may be 
turned out in larger quantities. This necessity has 
been provided for in the Government scheme, and ‘so 
far so good.” If the extension of the existing fac- 
tories still produces insufficient supplies, new factories 
must be erected and equipped. That also is provided 
for in the scheme; but if we want to establish the 
industry here permanently we must look beyond all 
this. Where shall we be left after the war? We shall 
be in possession of precesses for making a certain 
number of dyes, and the supply of their products may 
possibly be sufficient for the particular purposes for 
which they are required. But there will still be an 
outstanding number of other products which have 
never yet been made here, and for the working out 
of these processes no combination of ‘‘ business’ talent 
is of the slightest value. It is not a business question, 
but a chemical question, and it is by chemical research 
alone that our colour industry will be saved. The 
German colour industry has been built up by the 
utilisation of the results of research carried on jin the 
factories and universities and technical schools for a 
period of more than forty years! To suppose that 
we can retrieve our position by starting a company 
the directorate of which was to consist solely of busi- 
ness people is ludicrous. 
One feature of the new scheme which the chemical 
1 From the presidential address delivered to the Institute of Chemistry 
on March 1, by Prof. Raphael Meldola, F.R.S. 
NO. 2366, VOL. 95| 
_ be superseded by the products of later discovery. 

profession can view with favour is the distinct recogni- 
tion of research as a necessity for the development of 
the industry. The Government “will, for ten years, 
grant not more than 100,000l. for experimental and 
laboratory work.’ That is certainly a concession 
which marks an advance in official opinion. It will be 
for the satirist of the future to point out that it re- 
quired a European war of unparalleled magnitude to 
bring about this official recognition of the bearing of 
science upon industry. Who is to direct this research? 
A directorate of purely business people will certainly be 
incompetent; a board composed of dye users can do 
no more than indicate what dyestuffs were needed. 
True, it is proposed that the company should take 
powers to secure the assistance of a committee of 
experts, but this appears to be simply a reversion to 
the policy of ‘drift.’ The experts are, as usual in 
this country, to be subordinated and their assistance 
is to be invoked at the discretion of a board the mem- 
bers of which can have no real knowledge of the con- 
ditions necessary for producing the materials they 
require. Will they be competent to point out dangers 
ahead? The ‘‘staple products’ upon which they are 
asked to stake their capital may a few years hence 
The 
policy of attempting to run a highly specialised and 
rapidly developing branch of organic chemical industry 
by a company of business people with expert assist- 
ance when required is fatal if it is intended to estab- 
lish the industry permanently here. The group of 
industries which has arisen from the products of the 
tar still is not going to remain stagnant after the 
war, and it is scientific guidance and not mere assist- 
ance that will keep them alive. It is the expert, and 
the expert only, who can foresee the course of develop- 
ment, who can keep in touch with the progress of 
research, and direct with intelligence the campaign 
against competitors. If such scientific direction is 
withheld, all schemes are sooner or later bound to end 
in failure. 
To other branches of manufacture in which our 
dependence upon foreign products has been forcibly 
revealed by the war, professional chemists have been 
able to render considerable service. It has long been 
known that laboratory glass and porcelain apparatus 
and filter paper have been mainly supplied from 
abroad, and that large quantities of pure chemical 
reagents and of the special chemicals required for 
analytical or research work have borne non-British 
labels. This state of affairs called for prompt action, 
and the councils of the Institute of Chemistry and the 
Society of Public Analysts have acted conjointly as a 
committee for dealing with this matter of such vital 
importance to the profession. The inquiries instituted 
by this committee soon brought the fact that failure in 
the supply of laboratory glass apparatus would not 
only cripple the work of the chemists, but would also 
influence to a serious extent certain important indus- 
tries the dependence of which upon supplies of suitable 
glass had not at first been foreseen. In connection 
with these inquiries, it was at a later period considered 
necessary, in view of the great national interests 
involved, that the institute should take part in giving 
practical aid to would-be manufacturers. For this pur- 
pose a Glass Research Committee was appointed, and 
is still carrying on its work. Formulas supplied by 
members of the committee have been made in the 
laboratory of the institute and submitted to the recog- 
nised tests. The experiments have perforce been car- 
ried out on a small scale, but the co-operation of a 
number of glass manufacturers has been secured, and 
the results will be tested on a fairly large scale under 
complete expert control. Not the least important of 
the glass problems is the production of a suitable glass 
for miners’ safety-lamps, the necessary protecting 
