Los Angeles herald., 1909-05-22

the jamestown colony, and the nulhef-
Gus revivals of interest have been III
different parts of the country. Ben
iamin Franklin early became interest
ed in the subject.
This is not the only industry tired IN
the United States, only to be aban-
doned later One of the most extern
sive of these is the vegetable dye III
dustrv. Formerly thousands OF Amer
leans were engaged in the cultivation
Of various plants which were used py
thousands of other Americans through
out the land in making dyes. NOW
there is practically none OF inns WUIA
being carried on. Thanks to the ais,
coIeTies of German chemists, almost
onv dve can he made artificially from
coal tar products. In early times uyes
and inks were made Nin every mousse
hold throughout the land, but now
their manufacture is confined 10
Few large factories, where the syn
tbetic chemist performs wonders Whlcn
# was once thought nature alone couio
perform. ohon
A striking illustration OF an ao ,7.i
doned American industry is the cuiti-
walton of indigo The people OF south
Carolina entered upon this industry IN
1743. For more than century II
7ourished and the indigo plantations OF
fine south furnished a large proportion
of the worlds supply of this useIul
dive. During the Civil war the CaroIlna
indigo industry was the source OF Inuch
revenue to the beleagured Confederate
states.
The industry was carried on in
somewhat primitive manner. The indl-
go plant is not blue in color as is
popIllarly supposed, but green like
most other plants. The plants were
cut and put into large watts, to be COW
cred with water, where they were per-
mitted to ferment. The whole mass
was then violently stirred and beaten.
This bruised the leaves of the plant,
promoting oxidization, which latter
process produced the blue color The
blue precipitate was then gathered, the
water drained off and the indigo re-
fined and cured for the market.
How much more up to date seems the
process of the synthetic chemist, who
can convert unlimited quantities of
naphthalene, a coal tar derivitive, into
Fartifcial indigo at less cost than 1t
takes to produce the natural indigo.
No wonder that the synthetic process
discovered in 1880 has practically re-
suited in transferring the worlds indi-
go market from England to Germany,
putting the American indigo industry
out of business. and threatening the
destruction of the indigo industry OF
India, Java and the Philippine islands
in the past the greatest source of
supply.
In 1906 it is estimated that so per cent
of the worlds supply was artificial in
digo, and it makes as good navy blue
as the natural product. Extraordinary
efforts are being made to save the
natural indigo industry. Though the
British military authorities have de-
creed that only the natural product
shall be used in dyeing the cloth for
their army and navy uniforms, and
though the Indian government is sub
sidizing its indigo growers, their efforts
appear to be doomed to failure.
A generation or two ago the cultiva-
ton of the madden plant and the
preparation from it's root of the cele-
brated red dye was an important in
dustry in the United States. This dye
has been replaced by an artificial
substance called alizarin, which was
the first artificial color or ami
line dye produced from coal tar
in 1868. Now the cultivation of the
madden is confined to a few isolated
localities. The old purple dye and
household ink supply, extracted from
logwood and other vegetable sub
stances have been entirely replaced by
factory" colors and writing fluids. At
one time millions of dollars were made
in California by gathering certain
lichens and extracting dyes from them.