Applied Organic Chemistry and International Trade

Abstract

DURING the period which has elapsed since the Armistice, events in the domain of international trade confirm the belief engendered by the War that the manufactures based on applications of organic chemistry are among the most important of our key industries. The pre-War dependence on German sources for the supply of fine chemicals was a national menace, which has since been largely obviated by the creation of a new industry in organic chemicals entirely unprecedented in the annals of the British Empire. A remarkable achievement standing to the credit of the manufacturers of synthetic dyes and intermediates may be appreciated by the circumstance that whereas in 1914 eighty per cent. of these colours used in Great Britain were of German origin and only twenty per cent. of home production, nowadays these proportions are reversed, British makers accounting for eighty per cent. of the total supply, the remainder coming from abroad, and at present more from Switzerland than from Germany. In regard to certain complicated colours, such as the vat dyes, now being produced for the first time in Great Britain, it is generally admitted by dye users that the quality is well up to continental standards, but a difficulty arises in the matter of cost of production.

(1) Synthetic Colouring Matters: Vat Colours.

By Prof. Jocelyn Field Thorpe Dr. Christopher Kelk Ingold. (Monographs on Industrial Chemistry.) Pp. xvi + 491. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1923.) 16s. net.

(2) Dyes and their Application to Textile Fabrics.

By A. J. Hall. (Pitman's Common Commodities and Industries.) Pp. ix + 118. (London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., n.d.) 3s. net.

(3) Handbuch der biologischen Arbeitsmethoden.

Herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Emil Abderhalden. Lieferung 84. Abt. I: Chemische Methoden. Teil 10, Heft 3: Spezielle chemische Methoden. Harze und Pflanzenfarbstoffe. Pp. 585832+xxii. (Berlin und Wien: Urban und Schwarzenberg, 1922.) 10.5 Schw. francs.