' 
NOTES ON THE RHINELAND CHEMICAL WORKS. 
Many others of these smaller works are as efficiently operated as 
the large ones, and on their own scale are as well provided with plant 
and scientific control. A peculiarity of German chemical manufacture 
is the large number of very small firms engaged in the preparation of 
a very few substances. Their output is invariably specialized in 
character the processes used, as a rule, yielding no by-products. Some 
of these businesses are so small as to be almost one-man concerns, the 
owner of the business being at once works manager and salesman, his 
factory being erected in what would have been the garden of his house; 
indeed, in some cases it is in the house itself. 
It is probable that the large number of men who have received 
chemical training is responsible for so many of these small businesses 
being carried on, and, as their operations are outside the field of the 
large works, their existence is not endangered by competition: -with 
them. In some cases they are even useful to works on a greater scale, 
as they provide necessary articles, the consumption of which is so 
small that it is not worth while a large firm taking up their manu- 
facture. A case in point is that of decolourizing carbon, a well-known 
brand of which, along with other similar products, is made in a factory 
of the size of a small private house. a 
From all that has been said, it will appear that competition with 
Germany in all branches of chemical manufacture is likely’ to be even 
more severe than it has been in the past, and, although I have carefully 
and designedly avoided the temptation to point morals, they are plainly 
contained in the facts I have placed before you. 
TI make no assertion that these facts are the sole causes of the 
growth and success of Germany in her particular branches of chemical 
industry, but they have certainly contributed most largely to it. I do 
not advocate a slavish copying-of their methods, but profit lies in a 
knowledge and appreciation of them, and the application of the good 
that is in thom, modified to suit our own needs, will surely be to the 
benefit of the industry. 
