CHAPTER XVIII

THE INFLUENCE OF THE WAR UPON THE DYESTUFF INDUSTRY

In Chapter II of this book it has been explained how the dyeing industry of the whole world was changed by the discovery and commercial preparation of the first aniline dyestuff, mauveine, in 1856, by the English chemist Perkin. Under his leadership the supremacy in this new industry was kept in England; but when he retired from the field the manufacture of dyestuffs was soon concentrated in Germany. For over forty years before the beginning of the Great War, the Germans had almost complete and absolute control over the whole color business, including many allied industries like the manufacture of organic chemicals, drugs, perfumes, flavoring matters and the like, derived originally from coal tar. In Germany were four or five great and splendidly equipped factories, and some ten or fifteen others of less importance, all thoroughly organized and working together most harmoniously under what would, in the United States, be called a most perfect specimen of a Trust. Opposed to them all over the world there could be found but a handful of comparatively small and unimportant firms in Switzerland, France, England and the United States—producing altogether not over about ten per cent of the output of their German competitors.

Compared to other industries the output of dyestuffs needed for the whole world’s consumption is not a very large one—some sixty or seventy million dollars a year all told; and it was freely boasted, and more or less accepted by the rest of the world, that “the dyestuff industry is a one-nation industry, and that nation is Germany!”

=Rise of the German Dyestuff Monopoly.=—The story of how this came about was once told the writer by Sir William Perkin, when he was in New York, in 1896, at the time of the “Coal Tar Color Jubilee,” the fiftieth anniversary of his famous discovery.

He said that in the early days, when he was running his plant near Manchester, the most dangerous competitors he had to face were the French. He described them as excellent chemists and keen, but fair-fighting business men; and the Germans, in those days, were far inferior to them in every way—in ability, in originality, and, above all, in honesty.

He went so far as to say that, for years before he left the business, he and other English chemists had entirely abandoned attempts to patent their discoveries in Berlin. He had found, by sad experience, that whenever he sent over an application for a patent on a new dyestuff, or new chemical compound of importance, the German Patent Office would at once call in, for consultation, the leading German chemists who were interested in that line of work. He would get request after request for more and more detailed information about every part of the process; and then, when they had got from him every bit of information that they could, they would grant the patent to some one of his German competitors, who, in many cases at least, had never even dreamed of the thing, until Perkin had sent his application to Berlin. In fact, he said the English and French chemists considered them as rank, bare-faced pirates, and none too successful pirates at that.

Two Germans however, in 1869, did work out the composition of alizarine, the dyestuff of madder, and published their discovery in the chemical journals. But while they discovered and patented one method for preparing this Alizarine from coal tar on a commercial scale, Perkin in England, and some dyestuff chemists in France discovered other methods equally good or perhaps better for producing the same identical color at less expense. So they still kept well ahead of the Germans even in that.

Soon after this, in 1870, the Franco-Prussian war broke out. At once the French and German factories closed, at any rate for any foreign trade, and as the cultivation of madder had by that time been abandoned, Perkin found that all the Turkey red for the whole Eastern market must be dyed with his Manchester alizarine. Orders came pouring in, and in order to keep up with the demand, it would be necessary for him to greatly increase the size of his plant, and to put back into it all his savings of the past fourteen or fifteen very profitable years.

This, he told me, he was unwilling to do. But, just at that moment, he was approached by a firm of Manchester business men, who had been supplying his works with some of the raw materials from coal tar (crudes and intermediates as they call them now), with an offer to buy his works and his interest in the business. He was perfectly frank and open with them, showed them his books, his profits for the past few years, his present orders and the rest, and after a little bargaining he sold out to them for a very fair price, which he immediately invested in the best of securities and on which he lived in comfort for the rest of his long and extremely happy life.

=Ruin of the English Dyestuff Industry.=—As soon as they had gained possession of his factory, the Manchester people began to pass word around among their friends, that they were going to show the whole world how to run a chemical industry. Perkin, they agreed, was indeed a clever fellow in his way, and undoubtedly a good chemist, but he was no _business_ man. They were going to run those works on good, practical, common-sense business lines, and they and their few friends whom they allowed to join them, boasted loudly and deeply of their expected profits. Their motto was the well-established one “Manufacture cheap and sell dear”—and they proceeded to follow it implicitly.

They went over all the details of the business with the greatest care, and soon found what seemed to them a willful piece of extravagance. Perkin himself, and three or four other chemists, were drawing salaries, not for the actual making of the dyestuffs but for _experimental_ purposes, and they had quite an expensive laboratory used for that purpose alone!

Of course this was at once eliminated—and great was their satisfaction when they found that they had thereby cut down the price of making their dyes two or three cents a pound.

Then it came to the “selling dear” part of it. Perkin told me that the last few years that he ran his factory, he kept the price of his dyestuffs at a reasonable figure, so that, indeed, he would get a good profit from them, but that, on the other hand, it would be no easy matter for competitors to break into his field with success. His alizarine, in particular, he had kept at a price just below what it would pay to grow madder in opposition to it, and he had not raised the price to any great extent since the war had given him a monopoly. These Manchester people, however, fully recognized that they were the only manufacturers of alizarine, anywhere, and were over-flooded with orders—so they instantly jumped up the price of their alizarine to four or five times its former figures.

Barely had they completed their “business” reorganization of the plant when the war came to an end, and the Germans marched back to their own country, with “five milliards” of French money, full of self-confidence (to use a very mild term) and looking around for new fields to conquer in peace, now that they had won all that they could at that time by war. Instantly every German with any knowledge of the textile or dyestuff industries turned his eyes at once in that direction. “What! Alizarine at five dollars a pound instead of a dollar; why, any fool can make a profit on colors at that price!” And immediately, in different parts of the country, factory after factory was started, each one centered around some first-class chemist, of national if not international reputation, with instructions to gather around himself a staff of the most brilliant and best trained organic chemists he could find, to be used first of all in experimental and investigating work as well as for the mere preparation of dyestuffs.

As a result, in a very short time, these new German firms were supplying alizarine and other dyestuffs to the Manchester Turkey red manufacturers at lower prices than they could be made for in Perkin’s old factory in the immediate neighborhood; and, before the end of the year, those clever business men were complaining bitterly to Perkin that he had cheated them in the sale of his works, and were wanting him to give them their money back, which, as the old gentleman told me with a chuckle, he very positively and decidedly refused to do.

From that time until the beginning of the Great War the great English textile industry, with its enormous trade all over the world, was obliged to buy practically all its dyestuffs from Germany.

=Dyestuff Industry in the United States.=—The manufacture of dyestuffs in this country was a little better than in England, because of the tariff protection granted it by the Government for many years. Four or five factories of very moderate size kept up a rather precarious existence, because their chief raw materials, the so-called “intermediates,” organic chemicals made from coal tar and from which the principal products, dyes, drugs, perfumes and the like are made in turn, all had to be imported from Europe, and, in most cases, from their German rivals who naturally kept a tight rein upon the quantity and quality of their output.

In 1913 even this industry was destroyed by the abolition of the duties on dyestuffs in the new tariff, thanks to the pressure for free raw materials brought by the great textile industries, probably at the instigation of the foreign color houses.

=Changed Conditions Due to the War.=—Since 1914 this whole situation has been radically and completely changed all over the world. Appreciating the great danger to their textile trades from the lack of dyestuffs, and also the vast military importance of a large and highly developed coal tar products industry, for the manufacture of high explosives, smokeless powder and the like, nation after nation has given government assistance not only in the line of money, but also with patent legislation and new tariff. England with its British Dye Works, Ltd., France with the St. Denis Works, now greatly enlarged and strengthened, Italy, Japan, all have made arrangements for supplying their trade with home-made dyestuffs, of excellent quality, not only during but after the temporary disturbance due to the actual fighting.

In the United States there soon were made many more or less independent and spasmodic efforts to supply at least the principal and most generally used colors, notably the Basic dyes, Methylene Blue, Methyl Violet and the like, so much used in calico printing, silk and wool dyeing, leather and other lines, and the simpler Sulphur colors, like Sulphur Black, Blues, and Browns. These were selling, before the end of 1914, at comparatively huge prices, and until the peace will probably still command from five to ten times their usual values.

But out of these scores of generally quite small and isolated factories, there have sprung, by the fourth year of hostilities, a few large, well equipped and fully financed organizations which will be able, within a very short time, indeed probably before these lines appear in print, to fully provide this country with the main standard dyes, quite as good in every respect as the same dyes made by the best German color houses. And, unless very adverse tariff legislation should be introduced, they should be in a position, after the close of the war, to hold their trade against any foreign competition. It will, of course, take several years before they can supply in this country the very finest special dyestuffs, of which but small quantities are ever needed or used, and which in most cases are fully protected by patents, as well as by secret methods of manufacture. But, with the exception of the vat colors, of which artificial Indigo and the closely allied Brom-indigo are at present the only ones made in this country, the dyeing trade will be, in a short time, well supplied with excellent standard colors “made in America.”

The three important American dyestuff houses already started with the addresses of their New York offices are as follows:—

_American_—American Aniline Products. Inc., 80 Fifth Avenue.

_Marden_—Marden, Orth and Hastings, 61 Broadway.

_National_—National Aniline and Chemical Co., 244 Madison Avenue.

And also, soon to engage in the manufacture of dyestuffs on a large scale:—

The Dupont de Nemours Chemical Co., of Wilmington, Del.

Lists of the Best Dyestuffs, in the Different Classes, Made Thus Far by the American Manufacturers

At the present moment, November, 1917, but few of the home-made colors are as fast to light as the specially selected dyes of the great German houses, listed on pages 66, 89, 103 and 127. Those in the following lists are the best made at present, in the United States, and will be steadily improved upon as time goes on.

_Direct Cotton or Salt Dyes._—

American—Benzo Fast Yellow, A Direct Sky Blue

Marden— Stilbene Yellow Direct Blue Direct Brown

National—Delta Red, 2 B Niagara Fast Yellow, F Niagara Blue, 2 B Erie Black, G X OO

_Sulphur Colors._—

Marden— Sulphur Black Sulphur Brown

National—Sulphur Brown, W F Sulphur Yellow, B W Sulphur Direct Navy Blue Sulphur Black, F conc.

_Vat Colors._—

Dibrom Indigo, powder and paste Synthetic Indigo, 20% paste

_Made by the Dow Chemical Company of Midland, Michigan. New York Agents, Geisenheimer & Co., 134 Cedar Street._

Synthetic Indigo and Sodium hydrosulphite can also be obtained from _Klipstein, 634 Greenwich Street, New York_.

_Basic Colors._—

Many of these such as Methylene Blue, Methyl Violet, Phosphine, Bismarck Brown and others, including leather Black, are being made by _American_, _Marden_ and _National_, as well as by many firms that so far have not gone into the general color business. One of the most important of these last, who, besides the above, make a brilliant basic Green, called by them Methylene Green, is the _Meth-O-Lene Co., Inc., 81-83 Fulton Street, New York_.

Auramine, at present, can best be obtained from _Klipstein_. Nigrosine soluble in water, in jet black and bluish shades, is made by _Marden_, _Meth-O-Lene_ and other firms, and is largely used for dyeing leather fast brilliant shades of black.

_Acid Colors._—

American—Fast Yellow, H Ex. Brilliant Blue, conc. Cloth Red, H Acid Black, L conc.

Marden— Metanril Yellow Orange, No. 2 Fast Acid Red Croceine Scarlet

National—Azo Yellow, A S W Scarlet, B R Acid Black, 4 A B

Also Tartrazine, a fast acid yellow much used for wool, not for silk.

SPECIAL NOTE

Further information concerning dyestuffs, apparatus, textiles, chemicals, etc., connected with this work, may be obtained on writing to the author at 7 West 43rd Street, New York.

INDEX

There is no mention either of the Plate illustrations or of the Figure illustrations in the index; these may be found in a list of the illustrations in the front of the book.

Acid Azo Colors, 123, 124

Acid Colors, 52, 54, 123-131, 131-136, 148-150, 152, 165-168, 219, 258

After-treatment, 18, 67, 68, 89

Alizarine and Alizarine Dyestuffs, 22, 23, 42

Alizarine Assistant or Turkey Red Oil, 88, 106, 232

Aniline, 40, 41

Aniline Black—for Stencilling, 224-228

Aniline Colors, 109. Also see Basic Colors

Aniline Red or Fuchsine, Magenta, 40, 109

Animal Dyes, 11-14. Also see Cochineal, Kermes, Lac, Tyrian purple

Artificial Silk, 39, 87, 112, 181, 184-192

Artificial or Synthetic Indigo, 92, 93

Bagobo Tied Work, 196, 199, 200, 202, 206

Basic Colors, 52, 54, 108-123, 148-153, 220-223, 258

Basketry, Dyeing of, 113, 114, 116-123, 258

Batik or Wax Resist, 241-260

Benedict, Miss Laura (Tied Work from Philippines), 199, 200, 206

Bismarck Brown, 109, 115, 124

Bistre or Permanganate Bronze, 32-35

Black Dyeing—with Coal-Tar Colors, 69, 86, 89, 114, 168, 169

Black Dyeing—with Logwood, 21, 138, 169-172

Black Stencilling, 224-228

Bleaching Powder, 208-211, 234-236

Boiled-off Liquor, 161, 162, 164, 168, 174

Bone-colored by Batik Process, 258

British uniforms, dyed with cochineal, 19

Bronze on Leather, 153-155

Bronze (Permanganate) or Bistre, 32-35

Brown (Bismarck), 109, 115, 124

Brown, dyed with Permanganate of Potash, 32-35

Cachou de Laval, 85

Catechu. See Cutch

Chardonnet Silk, 184, 185, 189

Chloride of Lime. See Bleaching Powder

Chrome Orange, 32

Chrome Yellow, 32

Chrome Tanning, 144

Chundries or Chunaries (Indian Tied Work), 196-199

Classification of Coal-Tar Colors, for Craftsmen, 51, 52

Cochineal, 11, 18, 19

Congo Red, 55, 56, 57

Cordovan Leather, 142

Cotton Colors. See Salt Colors

Cotton Dyeing, 59-64, 86, 88-90, 98, 99

“Covering,” 83

Crackle Effect—in Batik, 244, 246, 247

Cutch, 18, 85, 146, 171

Direct Coloring, 193

Direct Cotton Dyeing. See Salt Colors and Sulphur Colors. Also 17, 53, 55, 85

Discharge Stencilling, 233-241

Discharge work, 193, 208-211

Discovery of Acid Colors, 123, 124; Aniline or Coal-Tar Colors, 40, 41, 46; Basic Colors, 108, 109; Indigo, 9, 10, 91, 92; Salt Colors, 55, 56; Sulphur Colors, 85, 86; Vat Colors, modern, 103

Discovery (Perkin’s), 40, 41, 46, 54, 108, 109

Dyeing Directions—for Acid Colors, 127-131, 132-137, 148-153, 162, 163; Artificial Silk, 187, 189, 190; Basic Colors, 117-123, 148-150; Basketry, 117-123; Batik, 254-258; Cotton and Linen, 27, 30, 33, 59-64, 87-89, 98, 99, 105-108; Feathers, 132-137; Imitation Silk, 183; Indigo, 98, 99; Iron Buff (Iron Rust), 27-29; Iron Grey, 30; Leather, 148-150; Permanganate Bronze, 33; Raffia, 120-123; Resist Stencilling, 232; Salt Colors, 59-64, 175, 176, 233; Silk, 162-165, 174-181, 207; Straw, 117-120; Sulphur Colors, 87-89, 180, 207, 232; Tied and Dyed Work, 206, 207; Vat Colors, 105-108, 177-181; Wild Silk, 164, 165; Wool, 24, 127-131

Eastern Dyes, 10, 13, 17-21, 22, 199, 200, 245

Elberfeld Silk, 185, 189

Embroidery-fast Silk, 175-181

Equipment needed for Dyeing, 35-39

Fastness to Light, 42, 49, 63-66, 89, 100, 102, 103, 112, 114, 126, 153

Fastness to Washing, 64-67, 89, 100, 103, 124, 137, 174-181

Feathers and Feather-dyeing, 39, 131-141

Fermentation Method of Vat dyeing, 94

Finishing—Artificial Silk, 39, 189, 190; Feathers, 39, 134, 135; Leather, 153; Silk, 39, 163, 164

Fustic, 20

Gambier, 146, 171

Gelatin or Glue, used as Reagent, 87

Glanzstoff (Elberfeld Silk), 185, 189

Glucose, 33, 87, 179

Grain Colors (Cochineal, Kermes, Lac), 11, 12, 19

Grey, Miss Mary—Tied Work, 203

Grey, from mixture of colors, 72, 73, 82, 83

Grey, from Iron Salts and Tannin, 29, 31

Heating devices, used in Dyeing, 36

History. See Discovery. Also Ancient Dyestuffs, 8-16; Artificial Silk, 184-187; Batik, 241-245; Dyes of our Ancestors, 17-24; Imitation Silk, 182, 183; Leather, 141-144; Silk, 156, 157; Stencils and Stencilling, 211, 212; Tied and Dyed Work, 192-200

Horses, dyed Brown with Permanganate, 34

Hydrosulphite of Sodium, 35, 97, 98, 104, 105, 118, 209, 210, 237-241

Imitation Silk, 181-184

Indian Dyes, 17, 18, 199

Indian Tied and Dyed Work, 196-199, 202, 206

Indigo and Vat Colors, 9, 10, 14, 91-108, 222-225

Indigo, Application of, 93, 98-100

Introduction, 5-8

Iron Buff (Iron Rust), 25-29, 103

Iron Grey, 29-31

Japanese Practice, 31, 211-219, 228-231

Javanese Practice (Batik), 242-256

Kermes, 12

Khaki, 28

Lac Dye, 11, 19, 20

Leather, 141-156; Dyeing and Staining of, 111, 148-153; Finishing of, 153; History of, 141-144; Preparation of, 143-148; Stencilling of, 219

Linen—Dyeing of. See Cotton Dyeing, 59-64, 86, 88-90, 98, 99

Local Dyeing Formulæ, 24

Logwood, 21, 138, 169-172

Madder, 10

Manufacturers of Coal-Tar Colors, 48

Matching Shades, 77, 78, 101

Matching Shades by Night, 84

Mauvine (Perkin’s Violet), 40, 41, 108, 109

Metal, Etching of by Batik Process, 259

Methyl Violet. See Basic Colors, also 49, 108

Methylene Blue. See Basic Colors, also 109, 112, 114, 149

Mineral Dyes, 25-35

Mixed Shades, with Diagram, 78-84

Modern and Ancient Dyestuffs, compared, 5, 6

Mordants and Mordanting, 11, 18-25, 53, 55, 110

Murex Brandaris (Tyrian Purple Fish), 12

Murex Trunculus, 12

Night, Matching Shades by, 84

North Carolina Practice, 24

Perkin, Sir Wm. Henry, 40-43, 46, 108, 109

Perkin’s Discovery. See Perkin

Permanganate Bronze (Permanganate Brown, Bistre), 32-35

Peruvian Tied Work, 196

Philippine Tied Work, 196, 199-201

Primary Colors, 72, 73

Purpura Lapillus (Tyrian Purple Fish), 12

Raffia, Dyeing of, 120, 121

Rainbow Dyeing, 74, 75, 82, 83, 119-122, 129, 136

Rajput Tied Work (Chundries), 196-199, 202, 206

Resist Stencil Paste, 229-234

Resist Work, 194, 195, also 196-209, 229-234, 241-260

Rubber Gloves—Useful for Dyeing, 37

“Rubbing,” 101, 102

Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 211

Ruskin, John, Opinion on Modern Dyestuffs, 5

Safflower, 17, 55

Saffron, 10

Saffron, Indian (Turmeric), 17

Salt—used in Dyeing, 62, 87, 88, 107

Salt Colors (Direct Cotton Colors), 51, 55-71, 111, 175, 220, 237, 238-240; List of Properties and Uses, 69

Sarongs, 243

Selected Dyestuffs, Lists of— Acid Colors, 127, 152, 166; Basic Colors, 114, 115, 149; Salt Colors, 66; Sulphur Colors, 90; Vat Colors, 103, 179

Shades, Matching of, 81

Shikar, Chundries (Tied Work from India), 197

Silk, Artificial, 39, 87, 112, 181, 184-192

Silk, 156-181; Dyeing, 58, 86, 87, 161-164, 174-181; Imitation, 181-184; Preparation of for Dyeing, 159-162; Stencilling of, 219-223, 240; Tests for Weighted, 173, 174; Varieties of, 157-160; Weighting of, 169-175; Wild, 157-159, 164-167

Skein Dyeing 129, 130, 163

Soap, uses of, in Dyeing, 60, 61, 161-166, 171

Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate), 27, 28, 88

Sodium Bicarbonate, 27, 28

Sodium Carbonate. See Soda Ash

Sodium Hydrosulphite, 35, 97, 98, 104, 105, 118, 209, 210, 237-241

Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda), 97, 105

Sodium Sulphate (Glauber’s Salt), 128

Sodium Sulphide, 85, 86, 88

Starching (for Feathers), 134-136

Stencils and Stencilling, 211-228, 228-241

Stencil Salt, 223, 224, 239

Stripping, 126, 137, 166, 167

Sulphur Colors, 85-90, 102, 111, 179, 180, 224, 237, 238

Tannin (Tannic Acid), 18, 30, 31, 145, 146, 171

Tanning, 143-148

Three-Color Shades, 79-81

Tied and Discharged Work, 208-211

Tied and Dyed Work, 31, 192-211

Ties and Stops, 214-217

Tin salts as Mordants, 11, 19

Tin Weighting of Silk, 171-175

Tjantings. See Batik, 244-254

“Topping,” 111

Turkey Red, 11, 22, 56, 57

Turkey Red Oil (Alizarine Assistant), 88, 106, 232

Turmeric (Indian Saffron), 17

Tussah Silk. See Wild Silk

Tyrian Purple, 12-16, 91

Vat Colors. See Indigo, also 102-108, 222-225

Vat Dyeing, 94-100, 178-180

Vegetable Colors, 8-11, 17-19, 20-25

Viscose (in Artificial Silk), 185, 186

Washing, Fastness to, 64-67, 89, 100, 103, 124, 125, 137, 166, 174-181

Weighting of Silk, 170-175

Woad, 9, 10

Wood, Dyeing of, 258

Wood, Etching of, by Batik Process, 259

Wool, Dyeing of, 58, 86, 128-131

Wool, Stencilling on, 221

Wringers, Use of in Dyeing, 38

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

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Pg 101: removed duplicate ‘to’ in ‘are apt to to “rub.”’.