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Cf. Morgan and Pratt,Rise and Development of British Chemical Industry.
Cf. Bruce, loc.cit. “In the chemical industry such plants are available in only one or two of the biggest industrial countries in the whole world, and they cannot be improvised to function in any emergency. Some of them taken years to build and almost as long a period elapses before their functions are being discharged with high efficiency.”
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A symposium on this subject was opened by the writer at the Baroda Session of the Indian Science Congress on the 5th January 1942. In the October issue of the Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists (1941, 57, 305), just come to hand, Bruce has presented an elaborate account of “Vital developments from the dyestuff industry” in which he has clearly demonstrated its fundamental importance as a key industry. On account of its striking application to our own problems, an extract will be of interest.
“It surely is apparent now that any nation which, for the maintenance of its population has to keep its position as an industrial power, must, for its continued existence, maintain and control supply and be self-sufficient for every vital manufacture…. Industrial development has been so rapid and technical advance so prolific and important that, to-day, a nation might be rendered completely powerless in an international struggle because of the lack of some vital manufacture, apart from weapons, even while her rulers and general body of her industrialists were unaware of the producf’s existence…. Arising from the dye industry as a basis, almost any organic substance can, if necessary, be made in great quantities. … It is this wider aspect of the subject which must be appreciated to envisage the developments possible from dyes as a basis, for it is undoubtedly on that foundation that the enormous edifice of the synthetic chemical industry has been built…. The most important of these facts is that this country is largely dependent in almost all its present-day industries on synthetic organic products. Their key importance is such that the country’s strength in this field must be a measure of its greatness as an industrial country…. Again, those countries exploiting the synthetic organic chemical industry with energy gain a lead and an advantage transcending that of geographical position and even of many rich natural resources, if these are not also industrially exploited, because high quality manufacture gives greater return for effort, needs skilled labour and altogether means greater prosperity than abundance of raw material and agricultural produce can bring. Another fact that emerges is that the most important organic chemical industries are fundamentally dependent on coal, lime, salt (with water and air), i.e., raw materials within easy reach…. The national failing in buying for immediate expedience, in place of making for permanent assurance of supply, is surely a bitter regret to-day. We have always too readily assumed that we could not complete with certain manufacturers without making the attempt…. A most important fact is that the manufacture of synthetic organic products has already developed at a much greater rate than any other established industrial activity and appears to have still greater potentialities of further increase than any other class of manufacture.”
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Venkataraman, K. The manufacture of synthetic drugs and fine chemicals. Reson 9, 81–85 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02834313
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02834313