BRITISH DYES

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13813, 18 July 1918, Page 2

BRITISH DYES

fW A VALLEY OF INDUSTRY. J IMPRK<tI(».\S Ul' i'HOt.HKSS. Towards the North of England runs a valley which within living memory might have been called well wooded. Farther back in time it must have been very lovely, its dimensions are still noble and its slopes imposing. but its river is no longer clear, nur do lish | live there. But if the romance of Nature has pine, the romance of industry t has come to give a modern interest to | the whole neighbourhood. The works | of British Dyes now lie along £ the river bank, and form a structure — or a congeries of structures —which jp means much to the commercial future of England. I' There was already a factory here, £ and extension was contemplated. The , locality was favourable for dye-making, f' in that it offered a supply of suitable | water, was near sources of coal and | water and crude coal-tar products", had [• ports within reach to provide access *'or imported raw materials like iron pyrites and nitrite of soda, and gave facij Uties fur the distribution i f manufacfe tured products. In 10 ir>. having [ weighed these advantages against fe' those of other places. Hi-* t*;*nii>any fe- purchased various estates of a total area of nearly 000 acres near the exk isting works. The first ground was l.'CUt in November of that year, the conI struction of a railway from the old fac--I'tory to the main line railway being L undertaken as a beginning. | To-day the new buildings cover a fvery large space. Vast as they are, | however, ami complete as is the plant K installed in them, they do nut represent § finality The designs are such as to ; allow of much additional construction, | which will enable the company to carry | out its schemes for safeguarding the | British dyestuff industry, and with It ' : thtf British textile industry, from the ( power of Carman raanu- j flfeeturcrs. ...... mdtf" Xfff 0 * *tyiect in the Past. |i: The history of Germany's control of dye industry has been often told, j but perhaps, even if it were written in !<very detail, it could not be fully appreciated without a sight of the effort on the part of British enterprise to counteract an enemy success. iGermany built up her monopoly by atE tention to relatively small things, which [ England disclaimed, or at least neglectEed to consider. Dyes depend on the of a large number of interim mediate products, which entail complit cated and expensive plants. A long Kseries of processes are often needed to Rma it« use of these intermediate proK ducts, processes so elaborate that it has Ejbeen estimated that a company would Kneed 85 per cent, of its capital for ■intermediate product plant. The actual K;dye-making plant is less costly and than this other. In the , Kpast we neglected the intermediate ■stages, with all they included in sigKniflcance and values, and we lost the Kgye industry. ■II Speaking to a party of journalists Bfivho were shown the works, plant and ■processes recently, Mr Falconer, M.P. ■ (chairman of the company), put this ■fundamental fact of dye-making very Bthe intermediate products, the difficulty ■of making dyes is comparatively small." BThere is no reason (to quote the same Hguthority) for faint-heartedness as to Hour success in establishing a manufacKture which will compete with supplies Bfrom Germany or any other part of the ■world. We have the raw material and Bihe scientitic and business ability. Under the guidance of Dr. Forster ■and other expert associates of the comBipany, the visitors were enabled to reaHpse the achievements of the British HSihemist in the research, engineering, business aspects of the enterprise, plant has not been erected without Handicaps owing to the war inevitable. Nor was it easy to an adequate number of trained assistants. Organic chemistry been studied in Great Britain only a limited extent; and the services of ■competent men were required in munition factories. The hundred trained Wchemists whom the company gathered ■.together must be increased in the Bfbture; and to this end arrangements ■ have been made with universities and ■ technical colleges for specific instruc- ■ tion in the chemistry of dye-making. I The Laboratories. ■ The necessity of research has been ■ recognised by the building and equip- ■ ment of large laboratories at the works, ■ where the fairy tales of science are ■ woven in beautiful colours before the ■ spectator's eyes. Here the 'practical I joins hands with the speculative. On I the one hand is the apparatus of reI search; on the other are models of dye- ■ making plant of convenient size, ■ whereby processes can be thoroughly ■ tested on a semi-manufacturing scale ■ before transfer to the works. If in ■'one sense these laboratories are both ■ speculative and practical, in another ■ they are wholly practical, since they H are almost exclusively devoted to re- ■ search in relation to operations in the ■ works and to plant in course of erec- ■ tion. Owning as yet no laboratory for ■ the development of research, the com- ■ pany has arranged with the Universities ■of Oxford, Leeds, and Liverpool for ■ such work to be done there by members ■ of the company's staff under a carefully ■ organised system of this kind. Some- ■ thing has already been accomplished ■ "Which will aid the broadly based enter- ■ "JiTtSe to which the company has set its ■ mind and hand. ■ It is a little more than two years ■ since the present development began. ■ Under unfavourable conditions, owing ■ to the war. plants have been completed j for making the essential mineral acids, H and for supplying the requisite services to the colour plants. The progress in the manufacture of intermediate products, and in preparing new means for obtaining ♦hem, is visible in the piles ■ of building threaded by main roads and ■ by-roads, and marked in every point H of equipment by scientific order and business perception. It is very obvi- ■ ously a "big tiling" which is on hand at the bottom of this geographical cup, whose sides are swelling hills that have looked down in the ages on to many operations of an oddly different kind. ■ But mere size is not the true measure of its magnitude. It strikes one even more forcibly as an example, such as one has too seldom seen in England, of the alliance of science with business —science with its vision for what is and ■ may be, business with its eyes on the material results of endeavour. If there is no "up-in-the-clouds" air about the science, there is no looking on the ground in the business. Such, at any ■ rate, is the impression one gets. The ■ company ha* r. it. as the superficial ■ cynic might sn-'tvsl on hearing of the ■ insistence on lie- intermediate products, lost sigfit of its main purpose—the ■ bringing <«f ieai :In-lis!i colour into the world. W'l;i '•* the vital supply of dyeH stulTs has to tie maintained, the newly- ■ founded mean- for making ihe tints ■ needed by (!>•■ e-consuming indusH tries are patent io .ill who may tie ;d- ---■ lowed to si--, rnfortr.r.nfely, for the ■ present, the ni:m>'i- of these observers ■ must be So, Willi »lUIH industry. v..- |«-| . s lie Bronchi;i- cn:...:iyi! aniiir-'.t -among <-lii'■ t'.-e lei'-U little