The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-05

for these dystuffs Our own country
 relied exclusively upon these foreign
 manufacturers for the dyes used in all
 kinds of textile manufacture. At the beginning of the war there were only three or four plants in the United States which were undertaking to manufacture dyes. Today there are several thousand and at the recent meeing of the Amer lican Chemical society of this city the 1 announcement was made that our own | chemists had with wonderful mastery
 Of some of the mysteries of chemistry,
 been able to obtain from raw material
 all the dyestuffs that we need but, fur
 tfermore, a surplus sufficient for export WHAT SCIENCE HAS DONE | This achievement is only one of many which American science has accom-, plished, but which would have been un-
 known in the United States but for the exigencies of the war. Our chemists now
 know how to utilize the byproducts of petroleum and coke so as to obtain therefrom dyes which equal and some of which are superior to the best which , formerly We imported from the nation across the sea which manufactured al.
 most exclusively the dyestuffs for the world
 Had England taken heed of the discov-
 cry Of Perkin in that country there might have been established great dye
 manufacturing plants which would have
 commanded the market Had the Unfteo
 States taken heed of the discovery at
 the time when discovery was made of the important byproducts of petroleum
 and when only a few years ago there came change in the manufacture Of coke whereby valuable byproducts are secured, we might also have established
 dye plants which would have. entered
 into successful competition with similar Econ, modities manufactured upon the con tinent of Europe S &
 Soon after the war prevented further imports of dyestuffs, American manu- lecturers summoned considerable body of chemists and commissioned those men of science to make such research as would result in securing dyestuff which would be as good as any hereto fore imported by the United States. At first the experiments did not give en- ti1ely satisfactory results. The manu- lecturer of textiles complained. saying 1 that the American dyes were not fast, l that is to say, they would not hold their ] cclor after the material was washed 1 Then, again, textile manufacturers re 1 gretted that the Americans were not ! able to produce as many different col ors as formerly were imported.
 But science kept steadily occupied with | this undertaking and at last appears to | have mastered or solved all the prob lems. Our manufacturers are turning out | dystuffs of, many colors which Will not | run and which can be marketed at req sorable prices. Within two years this | country has passed from the conditions of dependant upon other countries for its dyestuffs to\one of pre-eminence and there appears to be no doubt that this | triumph will be maintained after the war and the nation from which formerly we i obtained our dyestuffs will discover after peace comes that it has lost the American market and has deprived itsei of one of it's most important exports
 In fact, England and France are now calling upon the United States for aye stuffs and only a day or two ago J. C. Baldwin. Jr., who is president ol the United Dyewood corporation returned from a visit to England and Frencn manufacturers to learn exactly what kind of dyes they stand in ieed of and to assure them that the United States can furnish now all of the commodities in various colors which England ana France have recently been urgently ask
 Thus by reason of one of the many achievements of science in the United | States we have gained a market in Franoe and England for dyestuffs, al tho,,a.h formerly those countries were E dnrcutss. nt almost exclusively upon Ger r n,a,sy fcr these comm0d titles T:k