The Penn's Grove record., 1919-08-08
How Germany Dominated The Ameri-
can Chemical and Dyestuff Industry

the trade the Germans never attained
SUPREMACY. The natural tendency
was for each country to supply itself
with these essential materials, and
this natural tendency had not, at least
so far as the United States was con-
cerned, been overcome.
In two other great branches of the
chemical industry, however, the Ger
mans had not only attained the first
place. but to all intents and purposes
a world moncpoly-that is to say, in
the practical application of organic
chemistry to the manufacture of dye
stuffs and medicinals. Although the
first coal-tar dye was made in Eng
land by an English chemist and the
next important step in the develop
ment of the industry-the production
of Fuchsine or Magenta-was the
work of a Frenchman, the Germans
almost Immediately advanced beyond
the rest of the world in the develop
ment of this infinitely complex in
dustry.
This complexity of the manufacture
of dvestuffs as a business proposition
is almost beyond belief. Tens of thou
ands of distinct dyes were produced
in the German factories, and oven 900
of these were sold in appreciate
quantities in the American market
alone, before the war. Each of these
nine hundred and odd products re-
CURED a separate and distinct process
of manufacture, one differing from the
next, in many cases, as widely as if
the products had been those of UNI
related industries. While all these
dyestuffs and a host of pharmaceuti-
Gals have a common source, in that
they are derived originally from coal
tar, they descend from this common
ancestor by an enormous number of
separate family lines. From the hun
dreds of distinct substances found in
coal tar 10 so-called crudes for the
starting points of substantially all the
processes which result in dyes. From
these more than 800 so-called inter-
mediates are produced by a variety of
lions. Most of these reactions re-
quire the use of large quantities OF
acids and other chemicals not produced
from coal tar. From the 1ntermedl-
ates thus obtained an infinite number
of possible dyestuffs can be produced.
Many thousand such dyestuffs have
been actually produced and marketed.
In carrying out the process which re-
suit in the extraction of the rudes
from coal tar, the conversion Of crudes
into intermediates, and of intermeda-
ates into dyes, the quantities OF each
substance produced depend not upon
the will of the manufacture, but upon
the memorable laws of chemistry. The
proportion of the various substances
obtained can be varied slightly by
skillful manipulation, but only to a
small extent. The manufacturer can
not avoid producing large quantities
of certain materials in order to secure
perhaps smaller quantities Of others.
Again, at the very starting point OF
the industry, in extracting the crudes
from the original coal tar, an anal
ocous situation arises. The tar's con-
tent of a~nthracene, from which the
most valuable of all modern dyes are
derived, is relatively small; that OF
naphtha.ine, for instance, is immense
Nv larger. That a d|istiller can not OBJ
tam aataracene without producing or
wasting much greater quantities of
n~aphthaline, benzol, and other crudes.
The same truth holds good in every
subsequent step of the immensely
complex processes of dye manufac-
ture. At each step b~y-products are
produced in addition to the products
sought. The obvious result is that,
unless the final products can be sold
at a colossal price, uses Of markets
must be found for most OF these IN
Vulnerable b~y-products. Many Of
them, fortunately, are useful in the
manufacture Of Intermediates and
dyes. Many ci them have been found
to have important medicinal effects
and have permanent rank as pharma-
ceaticals. For others no use has been
found, and the unavoidable production
of these represents pure waste.
The most important feature, how
ever, Of this production Of by-products
is the relation which is bears to the eX-
plosive industry. All the most i'm
portant explosives Of the present day
are either coal-tar products or the re-
suit of chemical processes requiring
the use OF coal-tar products. In a
large dyestuf factory there is an un-
avoidable production of considerable
quantities Of substances which are Oh
rectiy available for conversion into eX-
p~losives. Moreover, inaddition to these
b~V-pr0ducts which can be used for
manufacture of explosives many of the
materials which are not b~y-products
but are directly useful for the produc-
ton Of dyes, a also, by slight altera-
lions in the process employed, be con-
veitad into explosives. For example,
in the production Of sulphur black, one
of the most important black dyes, a
slight variation in the final step Of the
long and complicated process of man
ufacture win transform the ultimate
product into picric acid. A still more
striking example is that of the para
mononitrotolulol This is an interme-
date. necessarily made in quantities
often beyond the needs of the dye
makers. To the end Of the last cen
tury many thousand tons OF this sub
stance had accumulated in the Ger
man dye works, which We're making
frantic efforts to find uses for it in
dye makings. About 1904 these efforts
suddenly ceased. Trinitrotolulol Ct.
N. ID had been adopted as a military
explosive, and every pound OF the ac-
-,-,rTaEtea Was 1iraoflv available for Z