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T H E J O U R N A L OF I S D G S T R I A L A.YD EL‘\-GIlYEERIiYG C H E d I I S T R Y .
Dr. Toch became President of the Club in 1907, and in his retiring address, after reviewing the success of the Club, he announced t h a t the time was ripe and he was ready to undertake t o develop ways and means for the chemists t o build a larger and better house of their own. Professor Loeb became interested, and suggested a plan to include special laboratories, offices, and other accommodations for professional chemists. Professor Loeb furthermore gave tangible form to the enterprise b y offering t o subscribe $50,000 which he subsequently increased to $75,000. Dr. Nichols and his associates subscribed $50,000. A Finance Committee was organized and various plans were discussed. I n 1908 the old Tilden Club Building a t 74th Street and Broadway was offered for sale, and was being considered by a committee, when the present site a t 52-54 East 41st Street came to the attention of Dr. McKenna, who again realized a n opportunity and appreciated its advantages as a central location and arranged for its purchase. The building was planned and erected under the supervision of the Directors of the Chemists’ Building Company, Dr. Morris Loeb, Dr. Charles F. Chandler, Albert Plaut, IN.H. Nichols, Jr., and Dr. L. H. Baekeland. The steady progress of the Chemists’ home in New York, from the single room in Washington Square furnished with packing cases and strewn with books and journals, to the handsome eleven story building at Fourth Avenue and 41st Street, with its auditorium, library, museum, laboratories, offices, social rooms, living quarters and restaurant will always be intimately coupled with the history of the development of the profession, and marked b y the unselfish devotion of these and many other loyal hard-working men t o the interests of chemists, whether they be native or foreign, young graduates, or men years in the service of the profession.
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A NEW DYEING INDUSTRY TO BE ESTABLISHED.
The Bradford Dyers’ Association, a very large English corporation, which practically controls the great bulk of dyeing in the United Kingdom, has definitely
April, 191 I
decided to establish a branch works in this country. This has been brought about in one sense by the operation of the tariff which has put a higher rate of duty on dyed and finished cloth than on the unfinished material. I n another sense it has also been brought about b y the increasing competition of American mills in the production of novelties which have hitherto been specialties of the Bradford Dyers’ Association. The Englsh Corporation has quietly bought up about 800 acres of land along the Pawcatuck River a t Niantic, R. I. Their purchases include also the small plant of the Niantic Dyeing Co., together with flowage rights, docking privileges, and railroad facilities. There is every indication t h a t a large plant is to be erected in the immediate future with the idea of developing a general commission dyeing business on a large scale. The Bradford Dyers’ Association has now forty-six plants in operation in England, and a s the company is backed b y almost unlimited capital, and has under its control a large number of processes and valuable specialties, there is no doubt but t h a t its influence will be largely felt in this phase of Amercan industry. I t is expected to have a unit plant in operation a t Niantic b y the coming summer; that is to say, a plant of sufficient size t o dye and finish about 1000 pieces per day. As the business develops and grows this unit plant will be duplicated as often as conditions demand. As the circumstances and organization of the American textile industries are somewhat different than in England, i t is a question open to considerable discussion as t o whether this move of the Bradford Dyers’ Association will prove to be a successful one. One factor which has probably hastened the determination of the English firm is the circumstance that a large French dyeing corporation has also decided t o enter the American field b y the erection of extensive plants in this country. I t is to be hoped t h a t the Bradford Dyers’ Association will have a more successful venture than was the case with the earlier experiences of the British Cotton a n d W-001 Dyers’ Association, in their endeavor to establish a branch of their yarn-dyeing industry in America. J. MERRITT MATHEWS.
THE. CHEMISTS’ BUILDING. By
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E. L ELLIOTT, Editor Illumanating Engzneer.
I t is a question which of the two sciences whose origin extends back into the ages possesses the richer lover of historical romance, astronomy or chemistry. When in the dawn of civilization man began to wander from place to place, seeking to destroy or to escape destruction, he learned to use the stars as guide posts, and his imagination discovered in the heavens the outlines of the beasts of the field and the other forms of nature with which he was most familiar; and so he came to believe t h a t his entire destiny lay within the powers of this mysterious dome .above. The race of astrologers is even not yet extinct, while the modern science of astronomy has mapped and weighed the heavens with well nigh superhuman exactness.
The beginnings of chemistry came later, when man had learned t o extract some of the commoner metals and turn them t o his use; and when gold became the substance and the symbol of wealth, the search for methods of producing it from the baser metals afforded a field of infinite possibilities, with the motive of cupidity for all t h a t wealth signifies as an instigator and promoter of the work. Added to this was the equally powerful incentive of discovering a means of escaping sickness and death. The universal belief in immortality is the child of a wish to defeat the inevitable course o nature, to the end that man may enjoy perpetually the delights of youth. To possess youth forever and gold a t will1 Who would not strive to accomplish this end? The modern science of chemis-
