Technikatörténeti szemle 19. (1992)

KÖNYVISMERTETÉS - Papers of the First „MINERALKONTOR” International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Veszprém, 12-16 August, 1991)

WILLIAM J. HORNIX* FROM PROCESS TO PLANT. INNOVATION IN THE EARLY ARTIFICIAL DYE INDUSTRY (1850—1890) In the history of the early synthetic dyestuffs industry the emphasis lies on the role of the chemists, who discovered the aniline dyes of synthetic pathways to the most important natural dyes. The analysis of contemporary patents on dyestuffs corroborates the conclusion that innovation in the dyestuffs industry is about chemical processes leading to profitable dyes. This, however is only part of the story. The development of a laboratory recipe into an efficient and profitable industrial process asks for other knowledge and skills than those obtained by chemical training, and for other facilities than those present in a laboratory. In the 19th century scale up could only be carried out in the factory itself, by people who contributed technical, chemical or management skills. The products of this development are the chemical appliances, organised in chemical plants. At the beginning of the synthetic dye industry, around 1860, such appliances were primitive and their use was labour intensive. Thirty years later process plant was already sophisticated and the industry had become capital intensive. These developments are the subject of this paper. The information about the industrial processes, the appliances used and the chemical plants of the 19th century synthetic dye industry is scattered and incomplete. It is, however, possible to reconstruct the development of the industrial preparation of a few important dyes as magenta (fuchsine) and alizarin, and to construct a framework which allows to evaluate the information on the industrial preparation of other dyes. An overview of the results obtained will discharge into the following conclusions: (1) Innovation in the synthetic dye industry before 1890 was, in the first place, process innovation. Few appliances were protected by patents of dyestuffs chemists of manufacturare: (2) The appliances used in the synthetic dye industry developed towards more or less standardized formats with a generalized use, although sppecial problems called for special solutions: (3) It is not adequate to characterize the industrial appliances used as scaled up laboratory apparatus: (4) Much apparatus was derived from other technologies like steam technology, the hydrolysis of fats, the purification of fatty acids, and the extraction processes for natural syes: (5) Communication of new knowledge about processes was extremely quick via the patent system. Secrecy •Naturalphilosophy and History of Science, Toernooweldi 6525ED Nymegen