FEATS OF CLEVER CHEMISTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 234, 8 November 1909, Page 3

FEATS OF CLEVER CHEMISTS

Two r-markable instances in which the chemists laboratory has supplanted the farmer and the field are worth menticining. There was a time when India produced large quantities of indigo every year on plantations. The planters were warned that over in Germany chemists were at work making indigo, but taey oniy laughed. Then the announcement came that synthetic indigo, made in the laboratory, was a commercial success. •It was absolutely the same as the natural indigo, only, if anything, a little bit purer. Now India no longer supplies the world with indigo. A German laboratory makes the whole supply, and even ; India buys in Germany. There was a time when large areas in I France were devoted to the cultivation of madder root, from which he red dye alizarine was made. Again a German chemist improved upon Nature and mace fcrtifieial alizarine at a cost of one-third less than of the natural product, It wasn't an inferior imitation; it was the teal thing. Now Germany supplies the world with alizarine. The only red cloth you will see to-day that is dyed with the natural d o is in the trousers of the French ;• :nlarme. And this is purely for «"•>'mental reasons. The French n- , anient maintains a farm and grows : few acres of madder, that the French army need not be dependent upon its old enemy, Germany, for anything it uees.