A Systematic Survey of the Organic Colouring Matters

Abstract

A PART from its special value to experts as a standard work of reference, the present compilation is of general interest as enabling chemists to gauge the progress in a department of industry which is perhaps more intimately associated with scientific research than any branch of manufacture that has been called into existence as the result of laboratory work. The first English edition bears the date 1894, and it was noticed in these columns at the time of its appearance (vol. 1. p. 267). The present edition, therefore, enables us to measure the development which has taken place during the last decade. First, with respect to the actual number of coal-tar colouring matters on the market. The edition of 1894 enumerated 454 distinct compounds; the present edition comprises 695; an apparent addition of 241 definite organic products of tinctorial value in ten years is an instructive illustration of the resources of chemical science when these are requisitioned in the service of industry. The actual number of new products is, however, even greater than this, since 59 dyestuffs which were included in the last edition have been removed from the list as being obsolete. The total number of new colouring matters is thus 300, so that the increment has been taking place at the rate of 30 per annum.

A Systematic Survey of the Organic Colouring Matters.

Founded on the German of Drs. G. Schultz and P. Julius. By Arthur G. Green, F.I.C., &c., Professor of Tinctorial Chemistry at the Yorkshire College, Leeds. Second edition. Pp. x + 280. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 21s. net.