THE COAL-TAR INDUSTRY IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY. 253 



Besides exerting this influence upon the inorganic chemical manufac- 

 tures, the coal-tar industry has given birth during recent years to several 

 important daughter industries. The manufacture of synthetic medicinal 

 agents, artificial perfumes, sweetening materials, antitoxines, nutritives, 

 and photographic developers are all outgrowths of the coal-tar industry, 

 and in great part still remain attached to the colour works where they 

 originated. Of these subsidiary industries the most important is the 

 manufacture of synthetic medicinal preparations, wliich has already 

 attained to large proportions, and bids fair to revolutionise medical 

 science. The requirements of the coal-tar industry have further led to 

 great advances in the design and production of chemical plant, such as 

 tilter-presses, autoclaves, fractionating columns, vacuum pumps and 

 stills, suction filters, enamelled iron, aluminium, and stoneware vessels, ikc, 

 for the supply of which extensive works have become necessary. 



It is a frequently quoted remark of the late Lord Beaconsfield that 

 the chemical trade of a country is a barometer of its prosperity, and the 

 chemical trade of this country has always been regarded as a most important 

 branch of our manufactures. Even those who might be inclined to regard 

 our declining position in the colour industry with more or less indifference 

 would consider the loss of a material portion of our general chemical trade 

 as nothing less than a national calamity. As already pointed out, how- 

 ever, the two are indissolubly connected, the coal-tar industry being an 

 essential and inseparable part of the chemical industry as a whole. It is 

 with the object of ascertaining our present and future prospects in the 

 chemical trade of the woi'ld that I propose to compare the relative 

 development of the colour industry in England and Germany during the 

 past fifteen years. It was at the commencement of this period, that is 

 to say in the year 1886, that Professor Meldola, in a paper read befoi-e 

 the Society of Arts, gave such a masterly account of the position of the 

 industry of this country at that date, and sounded a warning note to our 

 manufacturers and business men regarding its future progress. 



If an excuse is required for my venturing to refer again to a subject 

 jpon which so much has been said and written already, it is supplied by 

 the fact that the warnings I'epeatedly given by those who saw the future 

 clearly (notably by Professor Meldola and Professor Armstrong) have 

 remained largely unheeded by our business men. The conclusions which 

 arc forced upon us arc unfortuiiately not of a reassuring nature for our 

 national trade, but it is well to remember tliat nothing is gained by 

 burying our heads in the sand, and that the cure of a disease can only be 

 effected after an accurate diagnosis of its cause. 



The period which we have to consider ha; been one of extraordinary 

 activity and remarkable development in the coal-tar industry, and Ijefore 

 I pass to the economic aspect of the question I shall ask you to consider 

 very superficially some of the main points in this advance. In no other 

 industry than this have such exti-aordinarily rapid changes and gigantic 

 developments taken place in so short a period, developments in which the 

 scientific elucidation of abstract problems has gone hand in hand with 

 inventive capacity, manufacturing skill, and commercial enterprise. In 

 no other industry has the close and intimate interrelation of science and 

 practice been more clearly demonstrated. 



Born in 1858 the colour industry had already attained to a consider- 

 able state of development by the year i886. The period prior to this 

 might well be called the 'rosaniline period,' since it is chiefly marked by 



