The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1916-06-30
SEARCH FOR DYES
VIRTUALLY FORGOTTEN INDUS.
TRY BEING REVIVED IN HASTE.
Chance Discovery of Young English
Chemist Taken Up by Germans
and Made Great Utility for
Whole World.

A virtually forgotten industry is be-
ing revived with frantic haste as a
result of the discontinuance of Ger
manys world commerce in aniline or
coal-tar dyes, according to a bulletin
issued by the National Geographic
society.
The United States, like many other
countries, is looking longingly once
more to Avignohs madden root for it's
Turkey red,'' I'd midas indigo for its
blues, to Mexico's cochineal for it's
scarlets, to Central Americas logwood
for it's blacks and browns, to our own
oak forests for the quercitron yellow,
and-no, not to the peculiar Mediter-
ranean seashell for it's purple, for the
manufacture of the Tyrian shade be-
loved by emperors is one of the So
called lost arts.
But these ancient vegetable dyes,
some of which were in use when the
mummy cloths were being made for
the pyramid builders Of Egypt, can
never replace the coal-tar dyes, which,
during the go years since they were
accidentally discovered, have revolu-
our clothes, our houses, our inks, our
shoes, our. wallpaper, out hats, and our
book bindings. In fact, aniline dyes
furnish almost all OF the modern tints
for which man Is responsible.
1t was in 1856 that young Eng
lish chemist, while trying to produce
artificial quinine, distilled from coal
tar a substance which had beautiful
mauve tint. This was the first of the
aniline dyes, dyes which have now
been produced in nearly a thousand
commercial shades, 400 of which are
widely used. This young chemist, Will
liam Henry Perkin, secured capital
from his father and began the manu-
facture of dyes, as result of which
he was knighted and amassed for
tune. His discovery Immediately at
tracted the attention of German man
ufacturers, who, aided by far-sighted
bankers, employed university chem
lists, and established dye plants on the
Rhine and Main rivers, inaugurating
an industry which has enjoyed phe-
nomenal success. At the outbreak of
the present great war 81 manufactu
ing establishments, most of them
within an area of $50 square miles, had
a practical world monopoly of the an
iline dye trade.
1t is not coincidence that IL OF
Germany's biggest dye factories are
located at Essen, adjacent to the lead
ing munition plants of the Teutonic
empire. The same coal tar which pro-
duces dyestuffs also furnishes the es-
sential ingredients of the high explo-
sives used in the shells of the 16-inch
guns which battered down the forts
of Liege, and which fill the head Of
the deadly submarine torpedo.
Up to the time of Perkins epoch
making discovery, coal tar was the
despised by-product when coal was
burned to produce coke and illuminat-
ing gas. Today the once rejected third
product has become, as it were, the
keystone in the manufacture not only
of dyestuffs and high explosives, but
of many perfumes, photograph devel-
opers and innumerable medical COM
pounds known as coal-tar prepare
tions.
At the outbreak of the world war
the United States was importing an
nually from Germany about SIS 900, 900
worth of aniline dyes. The discontin-
uance of these dye shipments has had
an effect upon our industries out of
all proportion to the actual value of
the imports, for the manufacturing es-
Establishments in this country which
used these dyes employ more than
100000 workers, and many of the
factories have been forced to run on
half time or even less.
The increase in the prices of some
Of the dyes can only be compared
with the astonishing increase in the
prices of shares in some of the war
bride" stocks. For instance, patent
blues have registered the astonishing
advance from 60 cents to $24
pound. Other dyes which formerly
sold for 25 cents a gallon now bring
s12.
Since 1893 the United States has
produced about 20 per cent of the
dyes needed in domestic manufac-
lures.