THE DECADENCE OF THE BRITISH CHEMICAL INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 80

THE DECADENCE OF THE BRITISH CHEMICAL INDUSTRY.

In the manufacture of " fine chemicals,"' including perfumes, alkaloids, and crude coal-tai products, as well as dyes, the decadence of our industry is far advanced ; ou>* position in heavy chemicals is not quite 6O serious, but the future is dark and threatening. Chemical industries are so intimately interconnected and dependent upon one another that the fate of one niay determine the fate of all ; the bypioduct of one process is often the raw material of another. The possibilities are full ot national danger. The prophecy cannot be regarded as unduly pessimistic, that the time will airive when we shall be dependent on outside sources, not only for our food supply, but also for our means of self-defence. During the Perkin jubilee, Professor Duisberg (of Elberfeld) pointed out that the Briton, in general a practical man, is lacking in patience ; he expects to be compensated in cash at once for his work or for his capital outlay. The German, on the other hand, is primarily a theorist possessing endkes patience, and he has now learnt to be practical as weld. The new Patents Act, for which the country is so much indebted to Mr Levinstein and Sir Joseph Lawrence, seems to many to have removed one of th-e principal causes of decline. Foreign firniis are now indeed trying to sell their Biitish patent right, or are building works art the country, and at least Fome £25,000,000 of foreign capital, it has been estimated, ■nill have to be invested to comply with the law. The prospective establishment of branches of two of the largest German chemical works at Ellesmere Port and Port Sunlight are mat/ters of common knowledge. At present the Britiuh ■workman is ,in inferior operative in such works. The r,ew factories will piobablv train men. will staff their laboratories with chemists — possibly for routine woTk only — and may even employ British chemist*, if we have men of sufficient knowledge. But if production were found to be really cheaper over here than abroad, those foreign firms will be in a superior position ; if production proves more costly, they will, with their superior scientific organisation, nevertheless cut us out in the world's market. The Patents Act may pjove of great value in many respects, therefore, but it will do little to foster British chemical trade. Eliminating freights and tariffs and the alleged supineness of the Government in assisting industry, the causes suggested as -contributory to our failure include: (1) the unsatisfactory condition of secondary education ; (2) the nature of the training given to chemists in our universities and other institutions ; (3) the insufficiency of the time and money devoted to research in the manufacturing industries ; (4) the lack of co-operation between manufacturers and men of science. Some believe that if the fiist -mentioned cause of weakness were remedied, the other evils would disappear. It i 3 impossible to predict wh-ether the improvement of secondary education will hove such far-reaching results : but we are certainly moving in an opposite direction at present. — Engineering.

— A clerk in a Liverpool office was sitting at his desk during a recent thunderstorm, when what he describes as a ball of flame struck the pen in his hand, producing a startling report. Curiously enough, the pen was not damaged, nor did the clerk himself suffer any injury.

— A perfect feminine face should measure exactly five times the width of an eye Across the cheek-bones. The eye should be exactly two-thirds the width of tbe mouth, and the len-gth of the ear etaotiy twice that of the eye. The space between the eyes should be exaotly to© length of on» eye.