The Waikato Times. With which Is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1921. ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14766, 4 October 1921, Page 4

The Waikato Times. With which Is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1921. ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY

It was disconcerting to discover in 1914, shortly after the declaration of War, that Germany possessed a virtual monopoly of the dyestuff industry; it was a discovery that had its beginnings in a romance, the romance of Indigo; it was a discovery that to-day has its endings in a tragedy, the tragedy of the disastrous explosion at the works of the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik in the village of Oppau in Germany. The monopoly had, for years before the war, been patiently built up in Germany by means of splendid organisations and through much more intensive scientific application to the task than the chemists of America or Great Britain have been accustomed to give, together with the aid of Governmentowner steamship lines, the Imperial secret service and laws designed to encourage co-operation among manufacturers. Aniline is the starting point in the manufacture of the majority of dyestuffs, and until the German chemists entered the field it was obtained by the dry distillation of Indigo. Now the history of Indigo is the story of a romance dating back to the early ages. One authority writes: "The antiquity of its use is shown in the fact that many mummy cloths arc dyed with it. It was introduced into Europe in 1516, and bitter was the fight against the 'devilish drug,' which was declared to spoil fabrics and work all kinds of injury to the growers of woad, the rival blue of those days. In 1737 its use was graciously permitted in France and after that the other nations followed suit."

With the development of the dyestuff industry the consumption of Indigo increased, and its natural source—the great series of leguminous plants grown in India, China, Egypt, the Philippines, and tropical South America and Africa — began to show signs of exhaustion. Up to quite recently more than 100,000,0001 b of the dyestuff was used annually in the United States alone It was then that the great German chemist, Professor Adolph von Baeyer, of Munich, conceived the idea of an artificial indigo and commenced a series of experiments; in 1905 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for what may best be described as a triumph of synthetic chemistry. In the course of their research chemists conduct the stirdy of the composition of matter in two ways; a substance may be resolved by physical or chemical means into its component parts, and this is generally called analysis; or the components may be brought into combination and the substance built up, which is synthesis. British chemical research had largely proceeded on analytical lines; it, was von Baeyer and those who followed after him who solved problem after problem by the method of synthesis, When in 1897 the first pound of artificial indigo was placed on the market over £1,000,000 had been expended in experiments by the Badischc Anilin unci Soda Fabrik; and as soon as the chemists were convinced that a start could he made with napthalinc and aniline an enormous plant was erected at Ludwigshaven and set in full operation. By 191! Lhc Badischc product had practically taken the place of the natural indigo all over the world, since it. proved to be purer. more reliable, aud cheaper.

In the manufacture of this artificial j

indigo vast quantities of ammonia arc required, and the essential element in ammonia is nitrogen in combination with hydrogen. Until the German chamists sat their brains to work the only sources of supply of nitrogen for manufacturing purposes were the great nitrate of soda beds of Chile, a store which it has been estimated will be exhausted in another 100 to 150 years; hence for the past quarter of a century the attention of chemists had been centred on the problem of what has been called "fixing nitrogen." Again Germany solved the problem, this time by what is known as "catalysis." To explain this process a distinction must be made between a chemical compound and a mechanical mixture; there are subtances which, however carefully mixed, will not combine, but when a foreign body known as the catalyst is introduced, which to all appearances has no relation to the result desired, the combination at once iakes place- The old formula for the production of ammonia was to enclose three volumes of hydrogen and one volume of nitrogen in a vessel, passing an electric spark through the mixture; the problem to be solved 'being that at the temperature of the electric spark ammonia is not stable but decomposes again into nitrogen and hydrogen. And without the electric spark the gases refused to combine. The chemists of Germany conceived the idea of sending one part of nitrogen and three parts of hydrogen through tubes containing the metals osmium and uranium, and it succeeded admirably. The details of the process are carefully guarded, but the result was that Germany became possessed of all the combined nitrogen it cared to produce in the form of ammonia. Meanwhile Professor Ostwald had worked but a method, also by catalysis, of turning the base ammonia into nitric acid and nitric acid is one of the most important ingredients in all explosives; so shortly after the start of the war the peaceful dyeworks were transformed Into a most deadly munitions factory. When 1915 was reached Germany had so developed these scientific processes as to have in her possession the art of making all things needful for munition of war except cotton and copper. Indeed, without these chemical processes Germany could not have carried on the conflict for much more than a year, despite her accumulated stores of Chilian nitrate. The remarkable factor remains that during the long years of war, when the chemical works at Oppau were continuously engaged in turning out the most deadly engines of destruction, no accident of any kind was reported; but now that peace has come to Germany and the workers in the factory were occupied in making dyestuffs for clothing and fertilisers for the land, a terrible explosion has taken place, working fhe deadliest havoc in every direction. It was doubtless mercifully ordained that Professor Baeyer should die four years ago and thus be spared the knowledge of the awful tragedy in which the romance of his research in indigo has so lamentably culminated.