Synthetic Indigo M. L. B. 100%, From Cargo of Submarine "Deutschland" on her Second Trip.
date: label: date made
content: 1916
name: label: maker
content: Meister Lucius & Bruning
notes: label: Description
content: In early 1915, after the outbreak of the Great War, the British began to enforce a blockade of German ports to prevent Germany from exporting goods that might help the country pay for imports of war materiel, and also prevent imports of goods need to sustain the war effort. American industry began to worry in earnest about what materials and products were not produced in sufficient quantity, or at all, in the US, and how the US would suffer from the blockade. The lack of dyestuffs was the first shortage Americans dealt with after the outbreak of war, Germany having been the pre-eminent producer of dyes and dye chemicals since the 1870s. Blockade-run cargoes were few and far between, and the textile, paper, leather, and printing industries were all reliant on German dyes until 1917, when the US entered the war and asserted “compulsory licensing” of German dye patents to US producers.
label: Description
content: The German chemical firm BASF (Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik), introduced a process for mass-producing synthetic indigo dye in the late 1890s. The indigo dye in this sample (Indigo M. L. B. 100%) was manufactured by the German chemical and pharmaceutical company Farbwerke vorm. Meister Lucius & Brüning AG (Hoechst). The dye cake is in a special presentation box inscribed on the inside cover “Compliments of H. A. Metz, New York.” A major importer of dyes and the president of Farbewerke-Hoechst Company in New York, Metz received shipments of both dyes and pharmaceuticals from the Deutschland, a German merchant submarine that broke the blockade by running cargoes to American ports. The U-boat was the first merchant submarine to cross the Atlantic and its first shipment to Baltimore in July 1915 was a celebrated event. After the Deutschland’s successful return voyage to New London, Connecticut, in November 1916, Metz had these sample boxes made for his preferred customers. The Deutschland was converted to military use in 1917 and used to attack merchant ships and lay mines off the US coast.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Hesse, Frankfurt am Main
topic: label: related event
content: World War I
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the American Textile History Museum
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2017.0234.09
label: catalog number
content: 2017.0234.09
label: accession number
content: 2017.0234
objectType: label: Object Name
content: dye cake
label: Object Name
content: dyestuffs
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cardboard; fabric; cotton wool (container material)
label: Physical Description
content: synthetic indigo dye cake (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3.3 cm x 10.2 cm x 10.5 cm; 1 5/16 in x 4 1/32 in x 4 1/8 in