International Dyestuff Industry - ColorantsHistory.Org

Herbert Levinstein, son of Ivan, acquired the sequestered Hoechst indigo factory at
Ellesmere Port. There he manufactured phenylglycine from aniline, and indigo became
available from 1916 in sufficient amounts to satisfy the Scottish and Lancashire printers and
dyers. [48] The demand for military uniforms was met. (The BASF factory at Birkenhead
was sold to Colonel E. A. Brotherton of Leeds.)
Dye-makers had other major strategic roles: they were leading suppliers of nitro
compounds for explosives, and, from 1915, chemicals used in gas warfare. Consequently,
consolidation was encouraged by the British government. Read Holliday had close links with
the Bradford Dyers' Association, especially an important contract for supply of sulfur blacks.
It did not take much government persuasion for Read Holliday to merge with the Bradford
Dyers' Association and the Calico Printers' Association to form British Dyes Ltd. in 1914 (the
prospectus was published in March 1915). However, immediately after the war considerable
government persuasion, with help from the newly formed Colour Users Association (1919),
was required to bring the rival Read Holliday and Levinstein interests together in May 1919.
At that time the British Dyestuffs Corporation, Ltd. came into being, a merger of the
Huddersfield-based British Dyes and the Manchester-based Levinstein Ltd. Another branch
of the Holliday family, L.B. Holliday & Co. Ltd., was set up in 1916 in Huddersfield, and this
remained independent.
From the start of hostilities, the French government had supported moves for
self-sufficiency. The major manufacturer in 1914 was Societe Colorantes et Produits
Chimiques de Saint-Denis, Pointer's old firm. The important Hoechst and BASF factories
were taken over by the government. In 1917, through the Service de Poudres, the
government assisted in the creation of the Compagnie Nationale des Matieres Colorantes et
Produits Chimiques, near Rouen, which employed 2,000 workers, and which produced
synthetic indigo on a large scale from 1921.
The absence of German products encouraged manufacture in European countries that had
previously not been involved in the dye industry. The first Italian factory, Industria
Nazionale Colori di Anilina, was opened in Milan during 1915 with assistance from
Manchester's Claus & Co. Ltd. (which was taken over by Levinstein in the following year),
and specialized in sulfur, azo and triphenylmethane dyes. The Spanish industry was
concentrated in Catalonia, where in Barcelona J. Pellicier and L. Sangier were joined by the
Sociedad Espanola de Productos Quimicos.
In Russia, where in 1913 some ten firms, some foreign-owned, produced around 8,000 tons
of dyes, and one-quarter of all imports arrived from Britain, there were severe shortages
from 1914. This forced the dyers and printers to take action, producing sulfur, phenol and
naphthalene dyes.
But it was across the Atlantic that the greatest transformation took place. In 1914 the
United States dye manufacturers relied heavily on imported German intermediates, and the
dyers and printers on German colorants, despite the 30 percent ad valorem duty.
Schoellkopf (then known as the Schoellkopf, Hartford & Hanna Co., specializing in azo dyes
and sulfur and direct blacks) and Heller & Merz together produced no more than 12 per cent
of dyes consumed by the domestic market. With the outbreak of war, there were shortages
and the price of dyes increased considerably. There was a surge in demand for natural
dyes, notably Brazilwood (redwood), logwood and fustic. Bayer's interests alongside the
Hudson were seized and sold to Sterling Products that was mainly interested in the
pharmaceutical division. The dye-making facilities were purchased by the Grasselli Chemical
Co., that operated a dye factory at Linden, New Jersey, in 1919.
Home based production was encouraged by the Revenue Act, of 18 September 1916, which
provided a protective barrier for a period of five years. In 1915, Herbert Dow had started
work on indigo, and by the end of 1916 the first American-made artificial indigo was
available from the Dow factory at Midland, Michigan. Calco Chemical Company, at Bound
Brook, NJ, was founded in 1915 and immediately began to produce intermediates. One year
later the Federal Dyestuff Corporation of Kingsport, Tennessee was opened, and became a
major producer of sulfur blacks.