But it was also in Germany, a leader in scientific research, that the qualitative leap in transforming industry through developments in chemistry and electricity was made. Surging ahead of Britain after the 1870s, Germany's polytechnic institutes produced the trained personnel that enabled her chemical and electrical industries to make gigantic progress, as witnessed by the synthesizing of dyes and the application of electromagnetic theory. The (German) invention of the dynamo brought a revolution in electrical energy leading to the construction of power stations serving cities and towns. A "Second" or higher phase of industrial progress had been launched, as suggested in the following observations, selected from his referenced work, of a contemporary American writer.
In 1850 Germany exported food-stuffs and raw materials, and imported manufactured goods; now [c. 1905] her principal exports are manufactured goods, and her imports are raw materials and foodstuffs. In this period she has changed from an agricultural to a manufacturing and commercial nation . .
As in the case of Britain, the industrial strength of modern Germany is based on her iron and steel manufactures. . . . In the production of pig-iron and steel, Germany has overtaken Great Britain within the last few years, and stands second only to the United States. . . . Since 1888 the consumption of iron per capita in the German empire has doubled, and since 1861 has increased five-fold. The rapid increase since 1888 has been due in large part to the development of the electrical industry . . . the employment of electrical power has brought about an extensive building of street railways, creating a demand for steel rails.
It is in the electrical industry that Germany has made her greatest progress, one of the direct results, no doubt, of her excellent technical schools. In 1880 electricity was commercially employed only in telegraphy, and in 1882 the total number of persons employed in the industry was too small to be separately enumerated. In 1895 there were 15,000 people engaged in the industry, and the number at the present time is estimated at 50,000. . . This tremendous and rapid growth . . has placed Germany second only to the United States in the industry . . .
In the chemical industry Germany is easily the first nation of the world. This industry affords the best illustration of the recent progress, and reveals more clearly than any others, the causes which have made that country industrially great. . . . This splendid industry is the direct produce of German technical education. The beginning was made when Professor Liebig founded the first chemical laboratory in 1827, at the University of Giessen. The convincing success of this experiment led the several state [i.e., provincial] governments to found and maintain advanced schools for scientific study. These technical schools and university laboratories may be regarded as the corner-stone of the nation's industrial greatness, and the whole foundation of its supremacy in the chemical industry.
The most interesting branch of the chemical industry is the manufacture of dye-stuffs from coal-tar. It is in this field that the most recent and brilliant achievements of the German chemists have been won. In 186o all the dyes used were organic, and Germany was almost entirely dependent on foreign countries for her supply. The annual import of dyes at that time cost the country (over $12 million). By 1900 the conditions had so changed that the import had sunk to almost nothing, and the export, on the other hand, had risen to (over $24 million). Almost without exception, the discovery and production of coal-tar dyes has remained in the hands of the Germans. . . . Four-fifths of all the world's products of dye-stuffs as well as a large proportion of the medical preparations derived from coal tar, are made in Germany.
For centuries indigo [a blue dye obtained from certain plants] had been one of the great items of import to the textile- producing countries. . . . The discovery of a process for making artificial indigo (by Dr. Bayer) in 1897 has completely revolutionized this trade. . . . As the result of this one discovery, Germany is not only relieved from the necessity of importing this dye-stuff at a great expense, but she is also able to realize from its export a very considerable national profit.
This is but one instance of the advantage Germany has derived from the labors of her army of scientifically trained chemists. While it may be the most spectacular, it is by no means the most important. The sugar-beet industry owes a large debt to the agricultural chemists, who have been able to raise the percentage of saccharine content of sugar-beet from 5.7 per cent in 1840 to 13 per cent at the present time. . . .
In studying the educational methods and systems of Germany . . we are dealing with one of the most fundamental causes of her recent industrial progress. There is no doubt that it is (her) splendid industrial training which has enabled (Germany) to overcome many obstacles in reaching (her) present industrial position . . . The technical (universities) prepare men for the highest positions in the industrial world, and train men for careers of scientific research either as professors or as laboratory scientists in the great industries. These are the institutions which have enabled Germany to take a place in the front rank of industrial nations. . . .
Probably we can put down as one of the most fundamental and important causes of the present prosperity of the German nation the close relations which exist in that country between science and practical affairs. . . . The men who have the technical direction of the (industrial) processes and the experimental laboratories have been trained in the technical schools, and are able to bring into practical use the latest achievements of science . . . many of the large chemical concerns pay retaining fees to the professors in the universities to act as their technical advisers, and to agree to give the company the benefit of any scientific discovery they make. . . .
Most of the progress of technique in Germany . . has come as the result of patient and thorough scientific investigation. The contributions of the Germans have more often been improvements in processes, for instance, in the making of steel, in the manufacture of chemical products, especially dye-stuffs and pharmaceutical preparations, and in electro-technique. . . . After having remained backward and unprogressive during two thirds of the nineteenth century, while her chief competitor [i.e., England] was developing and dominating industry, Germany at last entered upon a course of industrial progress, slowly at first, but in the last decade or so at so rapid a rate that she stands with England and the United States as one of the industrial powers of the earth.
[Ref: E.D. Howard, The Cause and Extent of the Recent Industrial Progress of Germany, (1907)]
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