The Emergence of the German Dye Industry [antikvár]

Introduction Many persons still recall the dyestuffs shortage that gripped the United States soon after the outbreak of the First World War. This situation was not peculiar to America; it affected all the nations of the world except Germany and its immediate neighbors. The average newspaper reader in the afflicted countries probably regarded the shortage as only one of many inconveniences which he would have to bear for the duration of the war. He certainly did not expect a major catastrophe to befall his land if clothes would once again have to be dyed in the same way they had been thirty years before. In fact, he and quite a few others could remember with a certain nostalgia how mother used to color socks or other items with cheap old-fashioned sumac or walnut hulls or similar naturally occurring dyes. Yet, if he was not particularly concerned over the shortage of coal tar colors, leading men in science, industry, and especially government definitely were. Actually, it was not exactly the lack of dyestuffs that worried these men—although that too was more serious than the general public suspected—but it was the absence of the industry which made those dyes that caused their anxiety. Without that industry, this first great technological war in history might very well be lost, for upon it fell the burden of providing the mammoth war machines with explosives, poison gases, photographic film, drugs, and substitutes for unavailable natural products. Aside from its military importance, neutral powers, such as the United States, as well as the belligerents quickly came to appreciate the dye industry's commercial significance and they made plans to build such an industry in order to make themselves henceforth independent of foreign dyestuffs producers. In Europe during those first war years the mood in Germany was one of quiet satisfaction and determination to keep ahead in the field, while in France and England officials were desperately struggling to breathe life into a handful of neglected, pitifully inadequate dyestuffs factories. Through government hearings, press, and public lectures at scientific societies, their citizens were analyzing the reasons that had caused this industry to be so woefully neglected. Had not the dye industry been born in their countries rather than in Germany? What