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I SD GS TRIAL .A iZ: D ENGIS EE R I S G CHEMIST R Y
confiscated, and we were warned that a life sentence in a German “Zuchthaus” awaited any member of our firm who was caught trying to enter the German domain. When Jim Moffett was informed of the outcome of our efforts, he simply remarked that America was good enough for him. Our brilliant plan having come t o naught, there was nothing left to us but t o re-invent the art of producing magenta and other colors as best we could, and we started into this proposition with renewed energy although some misgivings. To help us out in the matter we engaged a young man then working in a grocery store, who, while having no knowledge whatever a t that time of the aniline manufacture or any branch of chemistry, proved to be a genius in his way. This was Frank Shuman, who worked under me for many years and subsequently became wealthy and famous as an engineer and inventor. He is best known as the inventor of wire glass and the successful development of various new mechanical and chemical processes, the sun engine operated by the heat of the sun and practically demonstrated in Egypt some years ago being his greatest achievement. After he left us he started the manufacture of carbolic acid and other coal-tar products for the then firm of Elkins & Weidner, in Philadelphia, in which city he died some years ago. Shuman was an inveterate reader and student, and with the information we had gained started the manufacture of fuchsin for us. We produced the fuchsin by the old original method of heating aniline with arsenic acid. I suppose our entire production in the few years that we operated our plant did not exceed 150,000 pounds of aniline oil and perhaps 20,000 pounds of fuchsin, which latter we manufactured and sold in the socalled granulated as well as the purified (crystallized) form. Our attempts to manufacture the blues from the rosaniline base proved entirely abortive, and we finally gave up all attempt to manufacture colors other than fuchsin. I t is hardly necessary to add the humiliating admission that the enterprise was not a profitable one. We simply carried it along because we did not want to give it up, our faith still being strong that somewhere along the line millions could be unearthed. The end of the American Aniline Works was as dramatic, or perhaps I should say tragic, as some of its other experiences. The plant was situated on the little Kanawha River not far from its junction with the Ohio River. This little river, while a lamb most of the year, became a raging lion every once in a while during exceptionally heavy rainfalls. In one of the record floods of the river the entire plant of the American Aniline Works was swept into the Ohio River, its stock of fuchsin and some tons of “melt” and mother liquors tinting the turbulent waters a beautiful raspberry shade for many miles, much to the amazement of the natives along the river shore.
Walter E. Sanger Walter E. Sanger, of Wurster & Sanger, Chemical Engineers, Chicago, died suddenly on March 3, of bronchial pneumonia following an attack of ptomaine poisoning. Mr. Sanger was born in Detroit, Mich., December 15, 1884. He attended the Detroit public schools, and later the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1908. For a few years he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and the Buick Motor Company, and in 1910 he became associated with the late William Garrigue and started on the work to which he devoted the rest of his life. This work related largely to the recovery and refining of glycerol and to soap plant work in general, including the solvent extraction of fats and oils, fatty acid distillation, and so forth. In the development of this work he was twelve years associated with William Garrigue, Procter & Gamble Company, and Swift & Company. Since 1921 he had been a member of the firm of Wurster & Sanger. Mr. Sanger was recognized as one of the highest authorities on the technology of glycerol production. His premature death is not only a shock t o his many friends throughout the country, but also a great loss to the entire fat, oil, and glycerol industries.
41 1
Record of the Coal-Tar Color Industry a t Albany’ By Ellwood Hendrick 139 EAST4 0 T ~S T , NEW YORK,N. Y
T
HE coal-tar dye industry was begun in the United States
by the late Arthur Bott. He was born in Fulda, near Cassel, Germany, in 1831. He studied a t the University of Marburg, and came to America in 1853, and engaged in the manufacture of colored paper and cardboard in Albany. During a visit to Berlin he met A. W. Hofmann, and following this association he resolved to begin the manufacture of aniline colors in America. Mi-. Bott returned to Albany in 1867, but shortly afterwards he made a third trip to Germany, this time a business one, and it appears that his purpose was to visit Professor Hofmann again. We may therefore put it down as an historical conclusion that the idea of making coal-tar color in America originated with A. W. Hofmann. The Albany Aniline & Chemical Works was incorporated April 7, 1868, for the duration of fifty years. I entered its service in May, 1881, as chemist, and became successively assistant manager, manager, and secretary until 1884, when I left it on the foreclosure of its bonds. Mr. Bott retired from the paper business in 1868, and began, either a t the end of 1868 or beginning of 1869, t o make aniline colors on Chestnut Street, Albany, as president, I believe, but a t all events as operating head of the Albany Aniline & Chemical Works. Now Chestnut Street was a respectable dwellinghouse quarter, and the neighbors complained. They complained of the smear on the sidewalks, which I suppose was magenta, but to which they objected as painting their conservative quarter red. The works were then moved to the southern part of the city, on Broadway, backing on the river. This was about 1870. I do not know who the associates of Mr. Bott were in the organization of the company, but I believe they were the same who continued in control of the company after he retired from it in 1871-that is, James Hendrick, Robert H. Pruyn, Chauncey P. Williams, and Paul Cushman. Mr. Bott returned to making cardboard and coated paper on Central Avenue, Albany, until his death in 1894. He made fuchsin and several other colors, but I do not know what these were except that I think I can recall a few old tins labeled Nicholson blue, a few of Hofmann’s violet, and a green of some sort which I do not remember, in the Broadway laboratory. The venture does not appear to have been successful at the start, except in regard to magenta. At all events, about 1871, on Mr. Bott’s retirement, my father, James Hendrick, became president, and owners were, respectively, James Hendrick, Robert H. Pruyn, Chauncey P. Williams, Paul Cushman, and Friedrich Bayer & Company, of Barmen, Germany. It is my impression that my father succeeded in inducing Bayer & Company through their New York representative, Carl Rumpff, of Rumpff & I,utz, t o take over the Bott interest. I am not sure of this. It was then resolved to restrict the product to fuchsin, and to make this the brother of the foreman of the fuchsin plant of the Bayer company, Hermann Preiss, was trained in the factory and finally sent over. He succeeded in making a good product from charges of aniline and arsenic acid, which was shipped by Bayer & Company in barrels. Sometimes they would ship aniline and arsenic acid separately, but usually it came as the 1 Presented in part under the title “Recollections of the Coal-Tar Color Industry from 1881 to 1884, with Notes on Its Beginnings in this Country.”
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arsenate. Carl Rumpff was called back to Germany a t Elberfeld, where their extended works were located, leaving the old Barmen plant as a branch fagtory attached to the main office. E. Sehlbach & Company had become agents for the Bayer company, while Louis Lutz, the former associate representative of the firm, established himself as Lutz & Movius, agents for the Meister, Lucius & Bruening Company a t Hoechst. Sehlbach & Company also sold the product of the Albany works, and the business was very profitable. There was a duty on dyes of 35 per cent ad valorem and 50 cents a pound specific, as I recall it, a n d everything went on smoothly, although there was not a chemist in the establishment. Then I appeared on the horizon, as a boy. My father thought I would make a good architect, and that such a career would suit me. But cold weather has always been painful to me, and Albany is headquarters for cold weather in the winter time. The thought of going out on a bleak November day t o look over a building as i t progressed was too much for me. I wanted above all things to keep warm, and this convinced me-although I didn’t say so-that I could not become an architect. Then my father suggested chemistry, which involved work in a laboratory. It was the warmth of the laboratory that lured me into the science-just warmth. The temperature was the pressure that pushed me in-that and the chance to go to Germany. So in 1877 I sailed, went to Barmen, studied German, and matriculated a t the University of Zurich in the summer semester of 1878. Some time, I do not know when, my father purchased the Bayer interest and Sehlbach lost heart in selling Albany fuchsin. But it was pretty easy to sell in those days. Early in 1881, I think-at all events, before I returned from Zurich to Albany, in September of that year-William Lesser, who formerly had been with I. Levenstein, Campbell & Company of Manchester, Eng!and, appeared. He was an excellent salesman, had a grounding of chemistry, and was able t o produce a rosaniline blue which was acceptable t o the paper trade. A chief chemist was wanted, however, and in 1881 when I returned I brought with me Dr. Emil Wahl, who was an excellent laboratory man but deficient in technology. He undertookato make alkali blues, but his temperament was against him and we let him go. I n the meantime, Lesser & Preiss had reached the conclusion that they were not securing adequate recognition from the directors of the Albany company, and they joined the organization of the Hudson River Aniline & Color Works, a t Greenbush, now Rensselaer, N. Y., across the river from Albany. Of this company and its more successful career I shall speak later. This left me in charge, and there came along an engineer named Voelck who had been with the Badische company. We also engaged Dr. Oscar Froelich from the works of K. Oehler a t Offenbach, an excellent chemist. I continued to make the fuchsin and the blues, while Froelich set to work a t dimethylaniline, methyl violet, and benzaldehyde green, Voelck aiding in construction. Another chemist who drifted in was Justus Wolff. He was an elderly man who had studied under Liebig, and when stating this fact he invariably added, “I am one of his disciples.” Wolff claimed to have invented nigrosine, and I think this was correct, because he said he got i t in the attempt to make blue. He always got something different from what he was trying to make, and very regretfully we had to let him go. He was expensive, but he was a delightful person. A corner in the aniline market developed, and we engaged a Frenchman named Claude Chavant, formerly with Henri Vedles, of St. Denis, to make aniline, He designed and erected an excellent plant and this operated successfully from the beginning. A young Irishman named Casey was also engaged as a laboratory assistant. He had just graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Another chemist, George H. Weiss, was employed to make azo reds, but there were patents in the way of every process with
Vol. 16, No. 4
which he was familiar, and after a short stay with us he left. Later came Dr. Mann from the Oehler works, a friend of Dr. Froelich’s and a sound chemist. He took charge of the aniline production, and I was planning to divide the technical direction of the works between Drs. Froelich and Mann, when the bonds were foreclosed in 1884 and, my interest being closed out, I resigned. We were producing successfully a t the time of the foreclosure in May, 1884,aniline, toluidine, fuchsin, rosaniline blues, methyl violet, benzaldehyde green and nigrosine, nitric acid, arsenic acid, and dimethylaniline. We lacked a selling agency, and were piling up excellent material. I n 1882 the specific duties were taken off dyes and t: m e s were dull, but what was even worse was the lack of a competent selling organization. This continued until May, 1884,when interest 6n the bonds was not paid and foreclosure followed. That wiped out the stock, which put an end to my interest. The bondholders, who were a group of stockholders, objected to the employment of so many German chemists, so that Drs. Froelich and Mann and Mr. Voelck left. Mr. Casey remained. The bondholders undertook to reorganize the concern, but at the end of two or three years they paid off its debts and closed it out. That was the end of the first effort to make dyes in this country. I am not familiar with the company’s history since that time. I am aware that I share in the responsibility for the final collapse of the undertaking. I made expensive errors. Bringing over Dr. Wahl was one. Dr. Wolff was another. A little more foresight would have prevented some expense in the layout for azo reds. But the lack of a selling organization when we were getting into shape was another contributing cause, and in this connection the board ruled against my plan to turn over all sales to an experienced dye merchant. I used to think this would have saved the situation, but I gave up long ago all pretension as to my vision of things that might have been. The board of directors consisted of singularly able men. Besides myself there is but one living OF the board that I knew, and he is a successful administrator of great affairs, a man of fine character and distinguished reputation. The old Albany Aniline 2% Chemical Works is as dead as anything can be. Even its charter has expired. But we had some wonderful dreams about making Albany a grand center for chemical research and achievement, dreams as good as any that ever were dreamt. The trouble was, they did not come true.
SUBSEQUENT HI STORY^ Sometime in 1881 William Lesser, who made blue for the Albany Aniline & Color Works and sold i t as well, met Louis I. Waldman of Albany. They played whist together, and incidentally Mr. Lesser told Mr. Waldman, who was associated with his father in the department store of Mann, Waldman & Company, of the profits to be made in coal-tar dyes. Mr. Waldman said the idea appealed t o him and that he could raise the capital for such an undertaking, but Mr. Lesser declared that he was tied up already. At the end of the year, however, Mr. Lesser felt that his services were not properly recognized by the directorate of the Albany Aniline & Chemical Works, and he assured Mr. Waldman that he was ready to quit. He added that in the event of his leaving Mr. Preiss would go with him. Conferences ensued in which Preiss wanted Ernst Sehlbach, the American agents of F. Bayer & Company, t o join them. These conferences resulted in the organization of the Hudson River Aniline:& Color Company, of which Louis I. Waldman was president and treasurer. William Lesser was vice president and general manager, and the other directors were B. A. Mann, a cousin of Mr. Waldman, Herman Preiss, and E. Sehlbach, representing the Bayer company. The capital was $41,000, of which 2 For the following information the writer is indebted to Louis I. Waldman, to whom he desires to record his appreciation and thanks.
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I N D U S T R I A L AiVD ENGINEERING CNEMISTR Y
Bayer & Company a t first wanted the control, but that was not agreeable to Mr. Waldman and his associates. The Bayer company then subscribed to $10,000 of the stock. The company was organized in 1882, and after buildings were completed and equipment installed they proceeded to make fuchsin, paper blues (known originally as Blakely blues), nigrosine, Bismarck brown, and chrysoidine. In the course of time Mr. Lesser was sent to Elberfeld to learn the technology of alkali blue, and after his return this became a successful feature. Mr. Waldman tells of large sales of alkali blues t o English and German importers of colors, who sold it as of foreign make. The company was successful from the start, and later there were added cotton blues and induline t o their list of products. They could afford to pay good salaries and 30 per cent dividends for many years. Their arrangements with Bayer & Company, however, were such that they could not produce any color or wares that were not approved by that firm, and the president, Mr. Waldman, felt the pressure of these inhibitions. He therefore, in 1898, organized the American Color & Chemical Company, engaging for his technical director Dr. Emanuel von Salis, a Swiss, then active in Manchester, England. He secured a building and land on Van Rensselaer Island to the south of Albany, and had associated with him in the venture Martin Waldstein, of Mass & Waldstein, New York; William Lesser, his partner of the Hudson River works, F. E. Attaux, of Boston, an importer .of dyes, and James Lyons, a printer of Albany. Later he was joined by Herman A. Metz, of New York. Dr. von Salis was vice president and general manager. The American Color & Chemical Company began making a wool dye known as empire black, similar to diamond black. Then followed benzopurpurin, Congo red, naphthylamine black, naphthol black, and naphthol yellow. In 1903 Bayer & Company, then known as Farberfabriken von Elberfeld vormals Friedrich Bayer & Company, wanted to make phenacetin and aspirin. They concluded that the best thing to do would be to buy out Mr. Waldman and his associates, including the entire Hudson River Aniline & Color Works, which was accomplished under the following conditions: Dr. von Salis was to go over to the Hudson River works, which was first purchased by the Bayer company and the Hudson River company, then bought out the American Color & Chemical Company, keeping Mr. Waldman as president and treasurer of the Hudson River company for six years. The Van Rensselaer Island plant was dismantled, and the Hudson River company ceased to make the dyes that had been produced by the American Color & Chemical Company in competition with the Elberfeld works. That is, the various blacks, benzopurpurin, Congo red, naphthol yellow, etc., were made no more, although the Hudson River company continued to make aniline red, aniline blues, and those that had been made before, under the sanction of the Bayer company. But there was also introduced a t the plant of the Hudson River company first the production of phenacetin and later of aspirin, which in time became their leading products. In 1909 Mr. Waldman retired from the presidency and Mr. Lesser also retired from active participation, both gentlemen having disposed of their actual interests several years previously. Long before this Mr. Preiss had become afflicted with a nervous trouble, was an invalid for several years, and died in 1896. Dr. von Salis remained as general manager and president of the Hudson River company. Here they continued to make phenacetin, aspirin, and the colors fuchsin, paper blue, cotton blue, alkali blue, nigrosine, induline, Bismarck brown, and chrysoidine. In 1913 the Farberfabriken von Elberfeld was succeeded by the Bayer company, which succeeded also to the ownership of the Hudson River concern. I n 1914, when the blockade began, the works were enlarged and they extended their dye
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interests. They added to their products manufactured: aniline oil, acetic anhydride, various colors for wool, including wool greens, naphthol blacks, alizarin yellow, azofuchsin, azoflavine, cotton azo blacks and browns, metanil yellow, Indian yellow, alizarin blue, gallocyanin, sulfocyanin, and diamond black. During the war the Bayer interests were seized by the Alien Property Custodian and sold to the Stirling Products Company for $5,410,000 and about $2,000,000 back taxes for two years. This company continues the manufacture of aspirin and other pharmaceuticals, but the dye works and whatever pertains t o the manufacture of dyes the Stirling company sold to the Grasselli Chemical Company, at which point the record which I have been asked to prepare comes to an end.
American Dyestuffs‘ Reminiscently, Autobiographically, and Otherwise By George A. Prochazka2 CENTRALDYESTUFF & CHEMICAL Co., NEWARK,N. J,
F
RAGMENTARY records in my possession give an account of hearings in July, 1882, before the Tariff Commission on the dyestuff, or, as it was more familiarly called, the aniline color schedule. The witnesses mentioned in my notes are Henry Bower, of Philadelphia, James Hendrick, president of the Albany Aniline & Chemical Works, and John Campbell. I have been in intimate touch with tariff legislation from that time to the present. It appeals to me to base an analysis of the development of American chemical industries, of which dyestuffs form a part, alone upon the official records of hearings before tariff commissions, committees of the houses of Congress, congressional debates, editorial comment and correspondence in trade papers, and legislation from 1882 to date. Without intention to minimize what has been done before 1882, this analysis will show that a real, conscious, self-contained industry dates from then on-that there had been steady progress for the American dyestuff industry from then until the outbreak of the European War. The logic of events, had there been no European War, would have led to the elimination of existing obstacles and the ultimate creation of a satisfying, self-contained American dyestuff industry. The development in that case would have been in a better sense of proportion, more harmonious, more in line with sound economic maxims, and less hysterical and passionate than under the jerk of a world catastrophe. Accounts of the early and pre-war dyestuff industry have been variously given. At the Perkin celebration in New York, this international love feast of dyestuff chemists, and a t the last of the international love feasts, the International Congress of Applied Chemistry, in 1912, the dyestuff chemists of this and other countries associated in harmony and on a basis of equality. Among those whom I remember as being on record in print about the American dyestuff industry are the late I. F. Stone, of theNationa1 Aniline & Chemical Company, and H. A. Metz in 1910-from opposite viewpoints. The meetings of the respective societies where these addresses were delivered found comparatively few who had kind words to say for this struggling American industry. The Central Dyestuff & Chemical Company was established by my brother John and myself in 1898. My connection with the dyestuff industry dates back to 1882. I have, therefore, been in the game in the United States for over forty years. My career had been familiar to all the various American and European 1 Presented under the title “American Dyestuff-Past, Reminiscently, Autobiographically, and Otherwise.” President of company.
*
Present. Future:
