CAPTURING THE GERMAN DYE SECRETS.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 68, 7 February 1918, Page 4

CAPTURING THE GERMAN DYE SECRETS.

Mope About the British “ Discovery.” Great Sensation in London. Tho capture of the German dye secrets (as reported briefly by cablegram a week ag") lias created a great sensation in manufacturing and business circles. One of the moving spirits in the Swiss investigations (says “ Tho Times ”) states that Germany guarded tho processes more closel}' than any English trade secret, with tho possible exception of Sheilield steel. Lest tho Swiss plan should fail, inquirers, aided by tho Government, carried on several investigations elsewhero simultaneously. Conclusive tests have been made by Mr Rowe, of the Manchester School of Technology, who is an eminent dye chemist, and formerly worked in the Badischo works. The discoveries include a secret “apple green,” one of tho most valuable known dyes. The holders of the secrets have resisted tempting offers to form a monopoly, and intend to offer tho formulae to the Government for immediate use in the existing factories. Various dyes now selling at from £2OOO to &2400 a ton cost before the war from £-50 to £7O.

Mr Rowe, interviewed, said that the test of the apple-green served as tho basis of the Swiss purchases of other formulae. English dyemakers were previously familiar with some of the German processes, but the new recipes contained guaranteed descriptions of tho very dyestuffs produced largely in the Continental works It would be a mistake to expect large and immediate results from the discoveries, except for war work, as manufacturers, will be unable at present to make the fullest use of them owing to the scarcity of chemical experts and skilled workmen. A representative of British Dyes, Limited, states that the company previously possessed a thousand alleged German recipes. He admits that they represent camouflage, at which Germans are adepts. FIGHTING THE GERMAN COMBINE. With a capital of £11,000,000 and cash desposits in New York of £lO,000,000, the seven leading German aniline dye factories organised in 1916 a gigantic trust with the object of regaining German supremacy in the world markets after the (says tho Berne correspondent >f “The World ”) Their plans, long and carefully prepared, included the gaining of eventual control of tho Swiss and Dutch chemical industries, which would give Germany nearly 90 per cent, of the total output of the world. Three of the manufactories in the new trust have a capital each of £2,700,000, namely, the Baden Aniline and Soda Works (the secret formulae of which are now in the hands of Britain), the Elterfeld Colour Works, and the Iloechst Colour Works. The other four members are : —Leopold Cassella, capital £1,500,000; the Aniline Manufacturing Co., £1,000,000; Welertor Meer, £400,000 ; and Kaile and Co., 600,000. The Baden works reported net profits for 1915 of nearly £1,100,000, and the Iloechst Co. of just under £BOO,OOO. Each paid a dividend of 20 per cent., besides adding very large sums to their reserves.

The endeavors of the Allies’ Governments (especially England) and the chemical industries of neutral lands (particularly Switzerland) to capture German foreign markets have aroused considerable apprehension in Germany. All Germany’s highly organised and comprehensive experimental and research work in synthetical combinations, carried out by hundreds of chemists and experts, has stopped. On the other hand, the neutrals and Allies have been developing their new industries, and have not only sought to discover new combinations, but have also succeeded in modifying international fashions to meet their temporarily restricted capacity of production. Keenly alive to these dangers, the German manufacturers had long been preparing tho organisation of the combine, which included some new features. It had been arranged that full details of every speciality hitherto made only in individual factories should ho communicated to all the rest, and the same applied to each now discovery as soon as it was made. Then, too, every dye-stuff would be produced simultaneously in at least two works. Protected by very high tariffs, German manufacturers would have been able to charge such prices at home as would offset their losses in dumping goods abroad, by which they hoped to stifle the new competition. At present Germany’s most serious competition is tho Swiss chemical industry, a highly developed organisation, doing 13U per cent, of tho world’s trade. Germany has been endeavoring to cripple her Swiss rivals by holding back coal, and lias also been planning to get control of tho much smaller Dutch chemical industry.

When war broke out German dye luauui'aetmeis owned immense stocks of goods abroad, especially in America and China. Tlieso were sold at fantastically high prices, and, according to Swiss estimates, £10,000,000 were realised. This immense capital, it was intended, should be put to buying tho chemical raw materials which Germany must have immediately after tho war. The trust anticipated opposition, and it was fully aware of the high ini iff projects and all the other schemes by which tho Allies and neutrals proposed to offset tho threatened dumping of German goods in their territories.