Abstract
EUROPEAN affairs in relation to the chemical industry, and particularly to the British chemical industry, recently formed the subject of an address by Dr. H. Levinstein to the Institution of Chemical Engineers. If and when war comes it would, he said, be sudden and overwhelming, whilst industries unprepared for war could not be switched on to the requirements of war without great delay and immense cost. In 1914, war was not expected by the British chemical industry. Dr. Levinstein outlined some of the urgent requirements which the industry then had to face, and referred to some of the great de-ficiences, delays, and difficulties with which it had to contend. That it eventually surmounted these difficulties and removed these deficiencies is attested by military history, but, said Dr. Levinstein, “I have said enough to show the terrible delay, prolonging suffering and death, inevitable to going to war with our chemical industries as they were in 1914”. On the other hand, “the German Government had the nucleus of a strongly centralised and organised industry for the chemical side of the production of munitions of war”. The formation of Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., and the establishment of the Institution of Chemical Engineers are two developments of importance in the present organization of British chemical industry. “We may be thankful,” he said, “for it is of great national importance, that the chemical industry is to-day more closely knit....
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British Chemical Industry and European Affairs. Nature 139, 437 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139437b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139437b0