INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
January, 1923
which that brought about. This movement was so sudden and sellers were so poorly prepared to cope with the demand which caused it, that conditions became immediately congested and forced even further advances than the actual demand justified. However, this feature is being cleared away and the trend toward normal business is developing rapidly. CASEOF ARSENICTRIOXIDE One of the most interesting features of the heavy chemical market during the past year has been the behavior of arsenic trioxide. Production in this country has been always closely dependent on the output of copper from which it is a byproduct,, and on this account it has been necessary to import large quantities to eke out domestic supplies for use in insecticides. Recently, experiments have been completed under the supervision of the Department of Agriculture which have led to the recommendation of calcium arsenate as a means of destroying the cotton boll weevil. This opened an entirely new field for the consumption of arsenicals, which bids fair to eclipse all others and has caused widespread speculation in this product during the previous buying season -i. e., the winter of 1921-1922. Unfortunately, the financial condition of the farmers generally prevented the realization of the hopes of the speculators, and it is only now that prices are reacting normally to this influence.
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CYANIDES One of the most interesting recent commercial developments was in the field of cyanides. The manufacture of a low-grade cyanide from cyanamide of sufficient purity for most metallurgical operations has been put on a commercial scale, and has resulted in quite a saving to operators of cyaniding plants in the West.
PRESENT OUTLOOK HOPEFUL I n general, however, the year has been notable for the actual accomplishment of the long-expected turn in prices from a general decline to an average advance. Improvement in the financial condition of industry as a whole has been closely reflected in improvement in the chemical market. Buyers may be considered to have actually acquired the confidence so long lacking and so necessary to improved business. This confidence certainly is not as great as may be expected to grow from the present beginning, but nevertheless it is sufficiently well developed to lead to a decidedly more comfortable feeling throughout the trade. As yet few buyers are anticipating their wants for years ahead, but certainly they are anticipating for months now where they were formerly content to cover requirements in terms of weeks or even days. Certainly, there can be no room now for the widespread pessimism that characterized the situation of a year ago.
Commercial Developments in t h e Organic Chemical Industry, 1922 By Elvin H. Killheffer’ NBWPORT CHEMICAL WORKS, PASSAIC, N. J.
THE TARIFF REVIEW of the year 1922 by any organic chemical manufacturer leads inevitably to a consideration of the tariff and its making, which has been the largest single controlling factor, and will undoubtedly continue to be so for a considerable time to come. As everyone knows, the tayiff was certainly a very long time in the making, but after a number of years of uncertainty as to what its final form would be, a tariff bill was a t last passed, and whether it be good or bad, it will nevertheless mark a point from which will be noted either progress or the lack of it in the organic chemical industry in America. 1922 will, therefore, be remembered as a milestone for the dyestuff , and, in fact, the entire synthetic organic chemical industry in America. As everyone who is at all conversant with the subject knows, the first milestone of the industry was the situation created by the war. Supplies of dyes and medicines formerly imported were absolute essentials if our progress was to continue. New plants for the production of these materials came into being all over the country, and the cost of their erection was a decidedly secondary consideration. The materials they were to produce could easily be sold at a high enough price to offset for the time being the disadvantages of improper and uneconomical installations. Then the war ended. With it also ended that phase of the situation that made almost anything possible. It was realized that we must produce as good products as any country in the world and at reasonable prices. This naturally meant that the feverish
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development that had gone on before in an attempt to keep pace with the demand must cease immediately, and that in the future only such processes could be adopted and those installations made which after careful study and consideration showed a t least a reasonable chance of being economically sound. With this changed condition some of the earlier manufacturers, who had entered the field simply because of the attractive profits available a t the time, realized that they could scarcely continue unless by an entire reorganization of their plants, and so they quietly dropped out of the picture. Others tried to continue, only to lose everything they had previously made, and more besides. Those manufacturers who had gone into the thing more seriously in the first place, gave very serious thought as to the (‘how” of remaining in business and continuing to occupy a place in American industrial life. While making every effort to increase their efficiencies within their organizations, it was at once realized that some governmental protection also was needed if they were to stay in business long enough to reach a place where they could be really competitive with an industry so long established and so highly coordinated and organized as that of the Germans and the Swiss. As a result, much time and thought were spent in trying to devise some form of tariff protection which would foster the organic chemical industry, but which a t the same time would not be an onerous burden on other and more important industries which the newer one served. With this thought in mind, it was naturally very difficult
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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
to devise any scheme that would be absolutely perfect. It was thought by the dye manufacturers that an embargo on products made here, while permitting other products to be readily imported a t nominal rates of duty, would be the fairest way of handling an admittedly difficult situation. The opponents of this proposal, while not so great in number, were very loud in their denunciation of this plan, and were also not without considerable influence, so that we have to-day a tariff which has abandoned the embargo plan entirely and has substituted tariff rates as the means of protection, and the manufacturers, of course, assume that this tariff is much more to the liking of the opponents of the embargo plan. No one can say a t this early date what its effect will be on the American industry which it was designed to protect and encourage. The impression is very general, however, that, while it apparently over-protects some of the cheaper products, it is woefully inadequate on the higher-class and higherpriced commodities. Uncertainty as to the future always retards progress in any industry. Consequently, while there has been some development during the years when it was not known what form or how much protection would be decided upon, nevertheless the uncertainty as to the outcome of the tariff legislation put everyone in a very cautious and fearful frame of mind, and the general tendency has been for all manufacturers to refrain from extensive developments which would entail any great capital expenditures. NEW PRODUCTS I n a sense this cessation of active new development has been beneficial, because considerable time and effort have been devoted toward the improvement of products already on the market. Improvement, such as referred to, is not necessarily confined to quality. It is more often improvement in yields obtained or in manufacturing methods, the tendency in both cases being to reduce manufacturing costs. New development has also been along much more conservative lines than it might otherwise have been. While the new products introduced were fewer in number, those that were brought out have been such as were actually needed to complete lines of high-grade fast colors, which will eventually make us more and more independent of foreign sources of supply. Illustrative of this sort of development was the introduction of Naphthol A. s. and its attendant products, Direct Fast Scarlets, Diazotized Fast Scarlets, Fast Light Yellow, Alizarine Cyanine Green, and Direct Fast Blue like the old Solamine Blue F F or Diamine Fast Blue F F B, which were the fastest-to-light Direct Blues known. All these, it will be noted, are very high-grade dyes-that is to say, they are such as will answer the very insistent and everincreasing demand for fast colors. A survey of the entire American production of dyes is very gratifying in that it reveals that we are almost self-sustaining in this respect. Outside of a few vat dyes, a few more fast-to-light direct colors, a few developed colors, principally Blues, and some specialties, such as those used for printing, this country could, if it were shut off from all foreign supply, still produce shades of all kinds for all kinds of fabrics on which dyes are used, with practically any degree of fastness that might be desired. Unquestionably, future development will be along the same lines, and in connection with the statement before made, that lines now manufactured in this country are fairly complete, we look with confidence to the development of entireIy new products, which will represent not only an advance as far as the American industry is concerned, but which will be a new and original scientific chemical advance in the industry no matter where located.
Vol. 15, No. 1
ECONOMIC FACTORS Progress in this, as in every other industry, depends on the ability of the manufacturer to convince the banker or the investing public as to the soundness of their investment, and the factor that is never overlooked by the investor is the possibility of profit on his investment. The thought so often expressed in the abstract, that we should have, and in fact must have, a self-contained American organic chemical industry, is all very well, but when a man comes to make an investment, he wants to see a t least a possibility of a fair return on that investment. If, therefore, the tariff law, as we have it to-day, does not provide sufficient protection for the products on which further progress should be expected, then we can hardly expect that money will be invested freely so as to make such progress and development possible. The thought expressed before to the effect that the present tariff is woefully inadequate in its protection of the highgrade and high-priced commodities appears then to be particularly unfortunate, because it is in this line of products that we would naturally look for future development, and if there is insufficient protection, then very naturally this hope for development will not be realized. Far from having a monopoly, the American organic chemical industry has been highly competitive during the year, with the result that there has been a consistent decline in prices, which has not been confined to any particular group of products, but has been very general. The decline in price of many commodities has been so great that present price levels are actually less than the cost of reproduction of the same merchandise. There is every reason to believe, therefore, that there will be an upward trend of prices on a great many of these commodities so as to again establish them on 8 profitable basis. Another price-depressing influence was the continuing during 1922 of the liquidation of excess stocks which was begun in 1921. This process of liquidation has undoubtedly been completed by now, so that the whole trend of prices must in the future be based on current production. We have a good start in this industry. We could have been further ahead of our present position if we had profited by the years of experience of German leaders, particularly along the lines of coordination and cooperation. The great value of coordinated and cooperative effort is certainly appreciated to the full by the Germans-as witness the present I. G. If our American industry needs any one thing more than anything else, this is the one thing it needs. Naturally, the antitrust laws prevent any combination like or similar to the German I. G., but nevertheless any efforts that have as their goal greater cooperation between manufacturers should be of great benefit. If, instead of all the duplicated effort in research and manufacturing, each producer had worked along some particular and predetermined line, then we might have to-day not so many duplications, but a much greater variety of products. Our total investment would certainly be no greater and might have been much less than it is.
N e w Journal in London The Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry is to undergo ’ a radical change a t the end of the current year. The Review section, which was initiated in 1917, will disappear, and in its place there will be issued a weekly journal to be called Chemistry and Industry. This journal will be the official organ of the Society of Chemical Industry and of the Federal Council for Pure and Applied Chemistry. With the disappearance of the Review, its editor, Dr. E. H. Tripp, is severing his official connection with the Society, and Dr. Stephen Miall will edit the new venture. Dr. Miall is chairman of the Brimsdown Lead Co., and a sdlicitor by profession. A
