BRITISH DYESTUFFS CORPORATION, LIMITED. The first Aniline Dye was discovered by William Henry Perkin in 1856, during an attempt to produce quinine. He proceeded to erect a works near London, and, towards the end of 1857, the first synthetic dye was being manufactured. The discovery opened out an illimitable field for invention, and within a few years the industry which Perkin started was destined to kill the extensive French madder trade, and, later, to reduce the centuries-old Indian indigo plantations to unimportant dimensions. It paved the way for the science of chemical therapeutics and led to the develop ment of synthetic drugs. The practical performance of Perkin's discovery was made possible by the work of two other Englishmen —Faraday, who discovered benzene in 1825, and Mansfield, who carried out its actual separation from coal tar on an industrial scale in The British Dyestuffs Corporation thus has a two-fold connec tion with this discovery, for Mansfield founded what is still the Turnbridge Works of the corporation, and, through Claus & Co., it can trace its descent from Perkin & Sons.
For a brief period, the infant industry established by Perkin's discovery developed in England. The manufacture of aniline was taken up by Simpson, Maule & Nicholson, and to this firm we owe the first soluble blues and the beginning of the great range of azo dyestuffs. Read, Holliday of Huddersfield was founded in 186o, and Levinstein, Ltd. of Manchester, in 1865. Brooke, Simp son & Spiller, founded in 1868, acquired Perkin's firm in 1874, ultimately selling its own goodwill to Claus & Ree, in 1906, which firm in turn, was purchased by Levinstein in 1917.
Af ter the first brilliant efforts, research in England languished; the older men associated with the early period of development fell out, and no new school of leaders was available to take their place. In the meantime, other countries seized upon the new discoveries. By 1885, the British dyestuffs industry had lost the greater part of its trade, and Germany became the chief supplier of synthetic dyestuffs to the whole world.
On the outbreak of war in 1914, the colour-consuming trades found themselves cut off from what had become the chief source of supply. A representative meeting of British dye consumers was held at the Board of Trade in Dec. 1914. Following the recom mendations of this committee, a company called "British Dyes, Limited" was incorporated in 1915, and a prospectus issued in viting subscriptions for L 1,000,000 capital from the colour-using industries. The government agreed, under certain conditions, to advance a sum not exceeding £1,500,000.
It was upon the efforts of this company and of Levinstein, Ltd., that the colour users were very largely dependent for their sup plies of dyestuffs during the period of the War.
Towards the end of 1918, it was felt that the rate of progress was not satisfactory, and it was finally determined that this object could better be secured by effecting a fusion of interests of British Dyes, Ltd. and Levinstein, Ltd. British Dyestuffs Corporation, Ltd. was incorporated for this purpose, and a prospectus was issued inviting subscriptions for £5,000,000 of new capital. In consideration of their financial support, the British Government stipulated for the nomination of two Directors and for certain powers of veto and control.
The corporation was faced with the problems of peace, which were far more exacting than those of war. The situation was complicated by the free importation of dyestuffs in the interval between the Sankey Judgment and the passing into law of the Dyestuffs (Import Regulation) Act and by the very serious trade depression. In Dec. 1925, the Government agreed to terminate its powers and to surrender its shareholding in return for a pay ment of f 600,000, and under a scheme of reconstruction, the issued capital was reduced from £9,197,000 to £4,775,000. In 1926, the British Dyestuffs Corporation became a constituent unit of Im perial Chemical Industries, Ltd.
The corporation owns extensive works at Huddersfield, Man chester and Ellesmere Port ; in these works is perf ormed the manufacture from coal tar of the primaries, such as aniline, of dyestuff intermediates and, finally, of a complete range of the finished dyes of e'very class.
The dyestuffs industry is one for the trained chemist. Research, which, it is agreed, is vital, is now carried out on a scale entirely unprecedented in Britain, but research is not all; laboratory ex periment is often very different from the large-scale manufacture and, here, comes in technical ability. The corporation operates a particularly complete small-scale plant on which the technical aspect of works operations can be studied. Equally practical are the laboratories attached to the Dyehouse and the Service Depart ments, in which colours are standardized and the needs of cus tomers studied. The industry is the nucleus of the synthetic organic industry, and its highly trained staff of chemists, techni cians and engineers is available for the establishment of the mani fold new industries connected with organic chemistry which to-day are coming into prominence. (E. F. AR.)