Salt Lake Tribune | 1915-11-21 | Page 6 | Coal Tar Dyes

COAL TAR DYES. Tbre is still a' burtapn of coal tar dyes in the I'nit.frd St ats and manufacturers manu-facturers wlio ub tlmse dvfs have informed in-formed tlif K0VPr'"r,p,)t officials that mils tht! supply is incrt'asod they will be. nompell'-d to Huo dowu their works. At Hji? outbrt-nk of the European war the manufaf tmrrs nf this nountry wore ;ilm&t iHitiroly d''p"iident upon Germany Ger-many for thnir dyostuffs and a laro number of chemicals as well. Great Britain also purchad the most of her dyestuffs of Ihn Germans. Wo believe .some of the Gorman products wcro allowed al-lowed to eomo to (he I'nited States , .;ven nfU-r the PO--allod blo' kride of the allies v.as put into effect, but not ', "rjouh to supply the market. J u this : I'onnc-t inn it mi'ht, bo add'il that some j months n;n the charge was made that the J'.ri t iyh were im porting dyestu f fs from Germany in Home mariner, while t In- A rnfrirn ns were y hut out. j In-order to prevent their enemies I from ohtaiuing those all-important ar- ! tides of German manufacture, the imperial im-perial 'government placed an embargo on dyestuft's aud colors, although ex: ceptiond were made in favor of the i United States. Still the supply did not equal the demand and both the British aud American governments were compelled com-pelled to take measures to make dye-stuffs dye-stuffs at home. The result has been satisfactory in some measure, but as the coal tar bases are also needed in the manufacture of high explosives the price has been so high that the dye-stuff dye-stuff industry has been hampered. The present production of dyestuffs is 9000 tons per annum, the output having been trebled in the past sixteen months. It is said that by the end of 1916 the production pro-duction will reach 16,000 tons. At this rate of increase we should be independent of Germany by the time peace is declared so far aa dyestuffs are concerned. In the meantime coal tar has rapidly advanced and some fancy profits are being made by the coke producers. pro-ducers. The same conditions prevail in England as in the United States. Two months ago the lack of imported chemical chem-ical dyes was having a disastrous effect on the British cloth manufacturers and the dye washers and chemical houses were making enormous-profits on the increased demand for domestic products prod-ucts resulting from absence of German supply. One small concern, the Yorkshire York-shire Dye and Chemical company, more ; than quadrupled its profits in the past year, equaling 50 per cent of its paid-up paid-up capital. Earnings before the war averaged only about 2V- per cent. Evidently Evi-dently there is big money in coal tar dyes at the present time. According to a statement of the bureau bu-reau of foreign and domestic commerce at Washington, nearly all the American coke ovens are now equipped to produce the coal tar bases from which dyes and high explosives are manufactured, and the demand far exceeds the supply. As coke is produced to some extent in Utah, we wonder if it would not be possible for this state to produce some of the coal tar bases which are bringing such high prices both in England and the United States. We might have dye works in Salt Lake on quite an extensive exten-sive scale if the coal tar bases were at hand, aud the label, "Made in Utah, U. S. A.," thereby might be given a greater scope throughout the world.