Printing Ink Shortage

Hokitika Guardian, 14 May 1921, Page 1

Printing Ink Shortage

CAN QUEENSLAND PROVIDE SUBSTITUTE. SYDNEY, May 3. The news from America, that there is to be a drastic curtailment of the manufacture of carbon black, the basic ingredient of printers’ ink, has been received in Sydney with the liveliest dismay. The printers, and more particularly the newspaper companies, have been hard hit in recent years. The increase in the price of news printing paper from about £ll to £7O and £BO per ton was bad enough, but now it is announced that the price of printing ink is shortly to he eight times what it is to-day.

Carbon black is produced in America by burning the gas from tbe oil wells. The product is impalpably fine, and no substitute has been found to bo sufficiently fine in texture to replace it. The State of Wyoming now has passed a law that no natural gas shall be burned within ten miles of a village or industrial plant. The decision has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court, and it means that Wyoming hitherto tbe third largest producer of carbon black, will practically ceaso the industry. The other two great carbon producing States are Louisiana and West Virginia. Louisiana lias started similar adverse legislation. The development is regarded most seriously here, as these countries are entirely dependent upon American carbon black. No substitute has been discovered, although tho search lias gone on for years, both in America and Europe. The only gleam of hope here is the discovery in Queensland, during boring operations for petroleum, of large quantities of gas issuing from the ground. Tho Commonwealth Bureau of Science and Industry is now enquiring into tho matter. Tt will bo a tremendous gain for the printing industry here if carbon black can be produced from tkoso grout gns omissions in Queensland.