SEPTEMBER 27, 1918] 
course, immediately vindicated; but the cruel 
fact of the charge was a hurt which—humor- 
ously as he passed it off—made the more pre- 
carious the heart trouble from which he suf- 
fered, and led quickly to the end. Dr. Wolfe 
was one of the few men to whom, in action 
and motive and principle, the word “noble” 
ean be clearly applied. He was a lover of 
truth and righteousness, of his country and of 
humanity, and of the best in all things— 
worthy of the name of philosopher. 
Hartiey B. ALEXANDER 
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, 
September, 1918 
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DYESTUFFS IN- 
DUSTRY 
THE success of the American chemists and 
chemical manufacturers in developing the dye- 
stuffs industry, when the supplies of dyes from 
Germany were cut off, is shown in a report is- 
sued by the United States Tariff Commission, 
entitled “ Census of Dyes and Coal-tar Chem- 
icals, 1917.” 
At the outbreak of the European war, Ger- 
many dominated the world’s trade in dyes and 
drugs derived from coal tar. Before the war, 
seven American firms manufactured dyes from 
imported German materials. In 1917, 190 
American concerns were engaged in the manu- 
facture of dyes, drugs and other chemicals de- 
rived from coal tar, and of this number 81 
firms produced coal-tar dyes from American 
materials which were approximately equivalent 
in total weight to the annual imports before 
the war. The total output of the 190 firms, 
exclusive of those engaged in the manufacture 
of explosives and synthetic resins, was over 
54,000,000 pounds with a value of about $69,- 
000,000. 
Large amounts of the staple dyes for which 
there is a great demand are now being manu- 
factured in the United States. A few of the 
important dyes, such as the vat dyes derived 
from alizarin, anthracene and carbazol, are still 
not made. The needs of the wool industry are 
being more satisfactorily met than the needs 
of the cotton industry. 
The report gives in detail the names of the 
SCIENCE 
313 
manufacturers of each dye or other product 
and the quantity and value of each product, 
except in cases where the number of producers 
is so small that the operations of individual 
firms would be disclosed. Seventeen hundred 
and thirty-three chemists or engineers were en- 
gaged in research and chemical control of this 
new industry, or 8.8 per cent. of the total of 
19,643 employees. The report also contains an 
interesting account of the history and develop- 
ment of the industry since the outbreak of the 
European war. 
On August 27, Dr. H. O. Forster, a member 
and director of the Technical Committee of 
British Dyes, Limited, lectured on August 27 
on “The decay and renaissance of British 
dye making” at the British Scientific Prod- 
ucts Exhibition, King’s College. He stated 
that in 1878 the color industry in Germany 
was four times as valuable as that of, England. 
Of £3,150,000 worth of coal tar colors pro- 
duced in the world Germany produced £2,000,- 
000, four fifths of which was exported, while 
Switzerland produced £350,000, and England 
only £450,000 worth. 
That was forty years ago; confronted by 
these figures, people would hesitate to believe 
those who said that in two or three years Eng- 
land should be able to do all that Germany 
could in regard to the dye industry. It would 
take ten or fifteen years of unremitting labor 
and extraordinary patience and liberal expendi- 
ture on chemistry before we could hope to 
achieve the position which Germany had 
reached before the war in this industry. He 
said in conclusion: 
They have three times as many chemists as we 
have, and their population is half as large again. 
We shall have to make a great effort if we are 
going to reach them. The industry is not an El 
Dorado in which one has to dig once in order to 
make countless thousands. It can only be 
achieved if money is spent on experiment. That. 
was how Germany got on, and unless we tread the 
thorny path the Germans have followed, there is 
not the slightest hope of our catching them up in 
this industry. They will keep it for all time. 
On the conditions of success in England Sir 
Henry Armstrong writes to the London Times: 
