| Heller & Merz Plant in Newark Source: American Cyanamid, A Half Century at Bound Brook 1915-1965 |
Heller & Merz Company
The synthetic colorants industry in Newark, New Jersey began in 1869 with the partnership of Frederick Heller (1835-1889) and
Henry Merz (1833-1905). They were German immigrants from the city of Darmstadt, with Heller coming to the U.S. in 1849 and
Merz in 1853. Merz studied chemistry at Cooper Union in New York and in 1868 attempted the manufacture of ultramarine, an
inorganic pigment used for calico printing, tinting of paper, and as a laundry aid. They selected this product because of the high
selling price and low cost of the raw materials. Another factor was the lack of competition, since all the domestic requirements for
ultramarine were imported. But the process was complicated, generating much waste, so Heller went to Germany to acquire the
know-how, rejoining Merz in 1869.
Production of ultramarine was successfully carried out in a rented plant in Newark. The quality of the blue was good but selling it
proved difficult. The owners and superintendents of the mills were typically English or Scotch who were satisfied with the imported
product and reluctant to switch to a domestic source.
Business suddenly improved due to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, with the threat of a blockade of German shipping by the
French Navy. The blockade did not materialize, but the customers liked the Heller & Merz blue and their ability to ship promptly
resulted in lower inventories compared to importing. The plant became too small to meet demand and the noxious sulfur fumes
irritated the neighbors. The company relocated operations to a facility in the meadow lands, away from densely populated
neighborhoods. The dye plant was destroyed by fire in 1884 and was rebuilt.
The industries served by Heller & Merz were also interested in coal tar dyes, so the small company imported aniline dyes from
Switzerland, representing the firm of P. Monnet & Cie. Dr. Bredt came over from Europe in 1880 and established the manufacture of
methyl violet and fuchsin at the Newark plant. The methyl violet business was small because it was difficult to compete with large
German companies who made their own dimethylaniline. Bredt left in 1881 and Dr. George Prochazka joined the company, adding
eosine to the product line.
During the 1870s the tariff on dyes was a rather steep $.50 per pound specific duty plus 35 percent ad valorem. This encouraged
investment in the coal tar dye industry and by 1883 there were ten companies operating in the U.S. However in that same year,
Congress bowed to the powerful textile and paper industries, withdrawing the specific duty. Only five domestic companies
survived: Schoellkopf Aniline in Buffalo; Heller & Merz in Newark; Albany Aniline; Hudson River Aniline in Rensselaer; and Holliday
in Brooklyn.
Heller & Merz continued to expand the dye range, adding safrosine, erythosine and rose bengal in 1885. In the same year, George
Prochazka’s brother John, who studied in Europe, was hired as a chemist. In 1886 rosaniline blues were made and by 1889
nigrosine, induline, chrysoidine and bismark brown were in production. The company’s synthetic capabilities were apparent in
1890 when Orange II was introduced, along with the intermediate sulfanilic acid. A process was developed to purify phosphine, a
byproduct of fuchsin manufacture. Phosphine would later be in high demand by the leather trade when tan shoes became stylish.
Fast red was added in 1894 along with several oil soluble dyes used by the paint and varnish industry.
In mid-1887 August Merz, son of Henry Merz, joined the company as an assistant chemist. Six months later he became the chief
chemist when his predecessor, a European chemist, resigned. The partnership was incorporated as the Heller & Merz Company
on February 2, 1889, with capital stock authorization of $200,000. The stock was closely held by the two families, linked by the
marriage of Frederick Heller and Henry Merz to sisters.
The commodity production of ultramarine helped the company survive when demand for coal tar dyes fell. This included the period
after 1890 when the tariff was further reduced to only 15 percent. The tariff was increased back to 30 percent ad valorem by the
Dingley Act of 1897.
The ultramarine process emitted large volumes of noxius fumes, first hydrogen sulfide and then sulfur dioxide. The nearby truck
farms regularly filed claims for damages to the crops. Hydrogen sulfide turned a house freshly painted with white lead to gray in a
few hours. The solution was construction of a 350 foot tall smokestack, one of the highest in the U.S. at that time, which can be
seen in the plant photo above. The smokestack and plant buildings are in the background of the 1910 photo below, which depicts
a baseball game taking place in nearby Davis Stadium:
Total domestic production of ultramarine was 2.7 million pounds in 1914. Heller & Merz was the largest producer. A major
competitor was H. Kohnstamm & Co. of Brooklyn. A newcomer to the ultramarine field, Standard Ultramarine, began operating in
1912 in Huntington, West Virginia.
When war was declared in 1914, dyes were largely imported and there were only seven dye plants in operation in the United States.
They had 528 employees. The capital invested was about $3.5 million with output of about 6.6 million pounds, valued at $2.4
million. Schoellkopf Aniline was the leading manufacturer with a 50 percent share of the market, followed by Heller & Merz with a 21
percent share.
The dye famine caused by the war rapidly increased prices. Before the war, Heller & Merz sold Rhodamine B at around $1.00 per
pound; during the war the company repurchased the same lot of dye for $50.00 per pound. Prices fell quickly when the war ended
in 1918.
The company increased its capitalization to $1.0 million in 1918 to expand production, but the focus remained on ultramarine and
dyes for the paper and leather industries. Eugene and August Merz, sons of Henry Merz, refused to enter new fields. They had
believed the war would be of short duration and that the Germans would regain control of the American market.
On April 16, 1927 the weekly cash payroll was stolen in a brazen robbery. Five men, one of them armed with a sawed-off shotgun,
held up the cashier and two clerks. They escaped in a car with the $6,000 payroll. The size of this payroll indicates that around 200
employees worked at the plant.
In 1930 Heller & Merz was acquired by the Calco Chemical Company, a division of American Cyanamid. Eugene and August Merz
became vice presidents of Calco Chemical. The Heller & Merz Company was operated as a department of Calco Chemical and
production at Newark continued for some years. The site was located on Wilson Avenue and adjoined Davis Stadium, later named
Ruppert Stadium, where the Newark Bears semi-professional baseball team played. Ruppert Stadium was demolished in 1967.
An illegal alcohol distillery was raided by Federal agents at the Heller & Merz plant in 1931. The unit was valued at $500,000 of
which $240,000 represented equipment and supplies. It had been operating for seven months, producing 12,000 gallons of
alcohol , valued at $35,000, daily. The distillery had been receiving carloads of molasses from Puerto Rico, delivered to the rail
siding adjoining the plant. A pipeline was used to pump the high grade alcohol into railroad tank cars. No arrests could be made
since the plant siren was sounded with five blasts as soon as the Federal agents walked through the main gate.
Dye production was gradually transferred to the large Calco Chemical plant in Bound Brook, New Jersey and the Newark plant
closed sometime after 1949.
Central Dyestuff & Chemical Company
George A. Prochazka was born in Milwaukee in 1856. After attending private schools in New York, he studied chemistry in
Germany. He studied under Fresenius in Weisbaden, under Bunsen in Heidelberg, under Kekule in Bonn, and at the Aachen
Polytechnic. He received a Ph. D. at Heidelberg. His brother John Prochazka studied chemistry in the U.S. and at the Ecole de
Chemie at Mulhouse, under the foremost authority Emil Noelting. The Prochazka brothers established their reputations as experts
in dye manufacturing at the Heller & Merz Company in Newark.
In 1897 George and John Prochazka left Heller & Merz and on September 26, 1898 incorporated the Central Dyestuff & Chemical
company with a capital stock authorization of $48,000. The dye plant, employing around a dozen men, started to manufacture a
limited line of dyes. The small plant was located at Plum Point Lane in Newark, near the Butterworth & Judson chemical plant, and
close to the Passaic River. This street no longer exists.
In 1902 a State of New Jersey inspection report said the plant employed 30 men and that the condition of the facility was good.
By 1914 the Central Dyestuff & Chemical Company had attained a 3-4 percent share of the dye market. The production of colors
included: orange Y, orange R, orange I, crocein orange, lake scarlets, Bordeaux, amaranth, wool scarlet, fast red, roccelline, azo
rubine, Bismark brown Y and R, chrysoidine Y and R, amidoazobenzene, amidoazotoluene, and a line of unsulfonated azo colors
known as Sudan colors. Nigrosine base, induline base, and spirit nigrosine were also made. The Sudans and bases were sold to
the varnish, wood stain and leather trades.
The plant produced some of the intermediates required: sulfanilic acid for the orange Y and I, sulfotoluidic acid for orange R,
Schaeffer acid for crocein orange, and G-salt for wool scarlet. Sales of the scarlets were limited by competition from Germany. Raw
materials that had to be imported included: aniline oil, o-toluidine, xylidine, cumidine, nitrobenzene, dinitrobenzene, dinitrotoluol,
alpha naphthol, beta naphthol, and alpha naphthylamine. The beta naphthol and alpha naphthylamine were essential to the dye
business, but the company lacked financing to establish manufacture at Newark.
The one-story plant was destroyed by fire in 1918. Plans were made to reconstruct with a new building measuring 54 by 80 feet.
During World War I, Herman Metz, a dye importer, acquired financial control of the company and was named vice president. Metz
also owned the Consolidated Color & Chemical Company of Newark. Although a native born American, Metz was a strong
supporter of German interests and often clashed with other American dye manufacturers over tariffs. Dr. George Prochazka retired
in 1924 and in 1925 Metz formed the General Dyestuff Corporation, which took over the sales functions of the Central Dyestuff &
Chemical Company, the Consolidated Color & Chemical Company, and the Grasselli Dyestuff Corporation. General Dyestuff also
handled the U.S. sales of the largest German dye makers.
The Central Dyestuff & Chemical Company was phased out a few years later. In 1930 Federal agents discovered an illegal alcohol
still operating at the site. There were six wooden vats of 20,000 gallons capacity each. Five vats contained a corn syrup mash and
the sixth vat contained yeast. Four 5,000 gallon stills, with thermostatic regulation, were capable of producing 20,000 gallons of
high proof alcohol daily. The still operator was arrested.
Consolidated Color & Chemical Company
Herman Metz established the Consolidated Color & Chemical Company at Lister Avenue in Newark in 1902. A few dyes and color
lakes were made and by 1914 the company had a market share in the range of 2-3 percent. Dr. Gustave Metz, younger brother of
Herman, was production manager during 1902-1912. This plant was said to be a Trojan horse, enabling Herman Metz to have the
appearance of an American manufacturer
In 1925 Metz merged his two dye plants in Newark into the General Dyestuff Corporation. The Consolidated Color & Chemical
company and the Central Dyestuff and Chemical company were subsequently sold to the Calco Chemical Company, which
eventually became a division of American Cyanamid. By 1930 many of the small dye producers either had merged with larger
companies such as Calco and DuPont or went out of business.
Dye Products and Chemical Company, Inc.
This company was formed around the time of World War I, with a plant on Vanderpool Street in Newark built in 1915 and a sales
office at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Aniline oil was the first product manufactured. The range of aniline dyes consisted of:
naphthol green, Newark scarlet, Ponceau scarlet, and acid yellow for wool and silk; chrome blue black, chrome brown, and copper
purple for wool; eosin for silk , cotton and rayon; Bismark brown Y and R for rayon, cotton, leather and paper; and chrysoidine for
rayon, cotton and paper. The trademark "Dylene" was registered in 1922 for all the dyes and intermediates sold.
The capacity of the plant was considerably increased in 1917 to produce the following intermediates and dyes: m-toluene diamine,
m-phenylene diamine, p-phenylene diamine, amino azo benzene, alizarin blue black, alizarin yellow G, and chrome red.
In 1919 the company purchased a new plot of land on Vanderpool Street, adjoining its factory, for future expansion. In 1920 plans
were completed for a new brick boiler house.
The Calco Chemical Company, a division of American Cyanamid, acquired the company around 1930 and shifted production of
dyes to its large plant in Bound Brook, New Jersey.
Amalgamated Dyestuffs & Chemical Works, Inc.
The Amalgamated Dyestuffs & Chemical Works, Inc. was incorporated in New York in 1915 with capital of $50,000. The company
was founded by George H. Whaley, Charles H. Jones, and Emile H. Kick, all of Jersey City.
The plant site was located at Plum Point Lane and Avenue P in Newark. The property was four acres in size and served by a
railroad siding. In 1918-1919, the company built a one-story, 50 by 90 foot building at a cost of $8,500. The production consisted
mainly of sulfur and azo dyes. Textile processing chemicals, or dyeing assistants, were also made. The plant expanded over the
years to twenty chemical buildings with an area of 105,000 square feet.
In 1938 J. Pfister, the president and general manager, announced the addition of a line of vat dyes and naphthols. This
supplemented the extensive range of acid, basic, direct, chrome, developed and sulfur colors. Amalgamated pioneered in the
research of acetate rayon dyes and had one of the largest lines of these dyes in the US.
John Campbell & Co. of New York was the sales agent for most of the products. The vat dyes and naphthols were sold by the
company's own sales force located on Hudson St. in New York.
The company was acquired in 1938 by the Calco Chemical Company. Production was eventually moved to the Calco plant in
Bound Brook. The site was sold in 1943 to Martin Laboratories of New York City.
Alliance Color and Chemical Company
In 1946 the Alliance Color and Chemical Company took over the former Amalgamated Dyestuff site on Plum Point Lane (see
discussion above). In one of the largest buildings, production started on a limited range of fast color salts and bases. Over time
the range was extended and a large number of stabilized azoics in solution and powder forms were manufactured.
A major expansion program began in 1950 and was completed in 1953. Additional property was purchased and four buildings
were modernized. Bases and intermediates continued to be manufactured in the original building. Another building housed
equipment for the production of salts and stabilized azoics. The finishing steps of drying, grinding and blending were performed in
another unit. An air conditioned, brick warehouse building helped maintain the shelf-life of the products. The fifth building in the
group was used for offices and had a research laboratory on the second floor. The machine shop and boiler room were located on
the first floor. Plans were made for a new boiler house, lunch and locker room for employees, and a new laboratory.
The president of the company was Harold W. Rose. Secretary-treasurer was Harold W. Coward who was also in charge of
production. Coward formerly worked for the National Aniline Division of Allied Dye and Chemical Corporation. In 1953 Coward said
Alliance Color and Chemical was the only U.S. dye maker to specialize in such a large line of salts, bases and stabilized azoics.
Sales were made through several dye distributors to all locations of the textile industry.
United Color & Pigment Company
The company built a plant in 1920 on property at McClellan Street and Evergreen Avenue. The factory consisted of three one-story
buildings and a two-story main building. Dr. H. S. Riederer, who formerly worked in commercial chemical development for the Atlas
Powder Company, joined the new pigment manufacturer in 1920. The manufacture of lithopone was started in early 1921.
Lithopone is a white inorganic pigment composed of barium sulfate and zinc sulfide.
The company expanded over the years and was acquired by the Interchemical Corporation. By 1943 the plant had 500 employees
producing a broad range of organic and inorganic pigments. Later that year the business was acquired by the Calco Chemical
Company and production was shifted to a new building at the Bound Brook complex.
Butterworth-Judson Corporation
Egbert P. Judson (1812-1893) was an inventor and manufacturer of explosives. He founded the Butterworth-Judson Chemical
Works in Newark around 1886. The plant, which produced heavy chemicals such as sulfuric acid, was located on Plum Point Lane
and Avenue R along the Passaic River and near Newark Bay. The nearby waterways and railroad siding were important for the bulk
transportation of raw materials and finished goods.
Sulfuric acid is a key raw material for the production of organic chemicals, intermediates and explosives which were in high
demand due to World War I. Corporate net earnings in 1916 were estimated at a record $4.5 million. In 1917 a unit was built for
synthetic phenol and picric acid. The phenol was made by nitration of benzene in sulfuric acid followed by caustic fusion. Nitration
of phenol produced 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, known as picric acid, a potent explosive in high demand during World War I. It was
estimated that the plant produced 95 percent of all the picric acid used by the Allies.
The firm received a guncotton contract from France. Peacetime lacquer-maker Maas & Waldstein, located next door, helped fulfill
the contract.
The company employed hundreds of African-Americans for the workforce in order to make it easier to spot potential enemy
saboteurs for this critical war production plant. Their skin was stained yellow by the reaction of picric acid with the proteins of the
skin. A help wanted ad, placed in a Southern newspaper in 1917, solicited unskilled and semi-skilled African-American men with
the promise of cheap transportation and free housing:
"Men wanted at once. Good steady employment for colored. Thirty and 29.5 cents per hour. Weekly payments.
Good warm sanitary quarters free. Best community privileges. Towns of Newark and Jersey City. Fifteen minutes
by car line offer cheap and suitable homes for men with families. For out of town parties of ten or more cheap
transportation will be arranged. Only reliable men who stay on the job are wanted. Apply or write Butterworth-
Judson Corporation, Box 273, Newark, New Jersey or Daniel T. Brantley, 315 West 119th Street, New York City."
In March 1918, part of the picric acid unit was damaged by explosions and fire, with the loss exceeding $100,000. Four small and
well separated wooden production buildings were destroyed and two employees were reported missing. Speculation on the
causes included friction in the machinery, an electrical wiring mishap, and even sabotage.
Fumes emanating from the picric acid unit were noxious to residents of Hudson County. In April 1918 a Hudson County jury found
the officers of the company, including William A. Bradford, president, guilty of maintaining a public nuisance. Newark citizens were
also upset with the fumes and Mayor Gillen threatened to shut the plant down. In May 1918 the U. S. Army announced it was
installing three scrubbing towers to eliminate the fumes and recover valuable material that formerly was disposed as waste.
Butterworth-Judson contracted with the U.S. Government in May 1918 for 72 million pounds of picric acid. The Government
advanced the company $1.5 million for the construction of a new picric acid plant in Brunswick, Georgia. The plant was to be built
on a 1,600 acre site at a cost of $8.0 million and employ 4,000 workers. When the war ended in November 1918, the contracts for
picric acid were cancelled before the new plant was completed. The Government demanded the return of its money. Net earnings
in 1918 were only $846,000.
Plans were made to use the surplus nitration capacity at the Newark plant for dye intermediates. Butterworth-Judson announced in
early 1920 the construction of new units for the production of Gamma acid, H acid and J acid. The company intended to market a
broad line of colors from the intermediates, including direct black, diamine black, diamine fast red and diamine brown M. Research
work on cyanthrol blue was also underway in an effort to match the quality of the dye imported before the war. N.F. Borg was director
of the research laboratory which employed seven chemists, two assistant chemists and a helper.
Fire struck the plant again in September 1920, destroying the paranitraniline unit. Company officials denied rumors of damage to
the Gamma and H acid units. The company expected to rebuild the paranitraniline unit by January 1921. But the depression that
year significantly curtailed production of heavy chemicals, intermediates and dyes. In 1921 the corporate office at 61 Broadway in
New York City was reorganized. The sales department remained in New York, but the accounting, purchasing and executive
departments were moved to the Newark plant to reduce expenses.
By 1922 the company was offering only a few dyes for sale: Acid Blue Black G; Chrome Brown SW; Chrome Bordeaux SW; Diazo
Black BH; and Direct Brown M. The low sales were inadequate to cover the high fixed costs of operating the large plant.
Butterworth-Judson went bankrupt in 1922. The corporation was capitalized at $2.5 million at that time. In 1925 the plant site was
auctioned for $855,000 to the F. J. Lewis Manufacturing Company of Chicago. The property consisted of 77 acres of land, with
1,700 feet of frontage on the Passaic River, and more than 500,000 square feet of buildings and machinery. The site eventually
became part of the Reilly Tar & Chemical Corporation.
Verona Chemical Company (Click Here for History)
The company was founded in 1902 by Edwin Kuttroff. The nine acre plant site was located at 26 Verona Avenue in Newark, near the
Passaic River. The company manufactured a broad range of aromatic chemicals, intermediates and dyes for many years, finally
closing in 1963 after having merged with the Pharma Chemical Corporation of Bayonne.
Otto B. May, Inc.
The company was established by dyestuff industry notable Otto B. May (1880-1952). He was born in Germany and received a Ph.D.
in pharmacology at the University of Strasbourg in 1904. Dr. May came to the U.S. in 1907 and taught chemistry at Columbia
University. In 1911 he joined the Johann Hoff Malt Extract Co. in Newark and became the general manager. In 1919 with the advent
of Prohibition looming, Dr. May organized the May Chemical Works to manufacture chemicals and dyes. The original plant was
located at 42 Jelliff Avenue, Newark but was soon moved to 198 Niagara Street, between Paris and Amsterdam Streets.
May Chemical Works was the first to manufacture the dry color Red Lake C which was the leading red color for printing inks. The
company was the largest U.S. producer of this color until it was acquired by the Calco Chemical Company of Bound Brook, New
Jersey. Dr. May joined Calco as an executive, but resigned in 1931 and repurchased the facilities at Niagara Street. He formed Otto
B. May, Inc. to make vat dyes. His son, Ernest M. May, joined the firm in 1938.
In 1958 Cone Mills, a large textile firm in Greensboro, North Carolina, acquired Otto B. May, Inc. It was rare for a textile company to
also have a dye manufacturing subsidiary. Cone Mills was a major producer of cotton textiles, so it may have wanted an assured
supply of vat dyes for cotton.
Otto. B. May, Inc. announced plans in 1962 for expansion of the Newark plant at a cost of $500,000. Adjoining land was purchased
to double the area. A 20,000 square foot building was acquired and plans were made to build a new 18,000 square foot laboratory
building. This building would house R & D and control laboratories and would be located next to relocated dyestuff standardization
facilities. Warehousing and standardization were to be removed from their current location to make room for the chemical
manufacturing expansion.
Polyester/cotton blends became popular in the 1960's so the company introduced the "Companion Dye " system in 1966. A range
of MayEster Companion disperse dyes for polyester was offered to match and compliment the Mayvat dyes for cotton. The shade on
each fiber in the blend could be controlled independently of the other.
In September 1966 Dr. Ernest M. May, president of the company, testified at the Tariff Commission hearings in Washington, D.C.
He reported that vat dyes represented 95 percent of his firm's production and that the Newark plant employed 125 people. Many of
these employees began as unskilled workers and were trained to assume high-paying jobs. Dr. May feared that reducing tariffs on
imported dyes and intermediates would drive the company out of business. The tariff cuts were implemented and become an
important factor in the demise of many American dye manufacturers by the early 1980s.
In the 1970’s, Dewey Trogdon was president of the Otto B. May subsidiary; in 1980 he was named president of Cone Mills. Later in
the same year Cone Mills sold Otto B. May, Inc. to dye producer Crompton & Knowles. Crompton & Knowles used the plant to
make cationic dyes based on technology purchased from DuPont. They manufactured ink and paper dyes along with vat dye pastes
made by dispersing purchased presscakes. Vat dyes were phased out by the late 1980's and the Newark plant subsequently
closed.
Paas Dye Company
The tradition of dyeing Easter eggs was made easier by the invention of William M. Townley in the late 1800s. Townley owned a
drug store in Newark where he developed recipes for home products. He had been selling hand wrapped packets of dyes as a
courtesy for customers at Easter. When some dye spilled on the spotless white marble counter and on his business suit, Townley
relegated the jars of dyes to the basement, where packets of dyes were made up in papers normally used for medicinal powders.
The Townley Easter Egg Dye packets were sold in 1880 for five cents. The packets became popular, leading to sales to other
druggists and the beginning of the Easter egg dye business. The trade name "PAAS" was soon adopted, stemming from the Dutch
word "Paasdag" for Easter Day.
Townley incorporated the Paas Dye Company on February 5, 1881 with $20,000 of authorized capital stock. Food dyes were
purchased for production of the packets at a facility at 60 Shipman Street in Newark. In the 1890s the company introduced calico
and picture papers. These were the precursors of the colorful transfer designs of today. In 1893 Townley discovered how to
concentrate the dye in tablets, launching the modern Easter egg dyeing kit. The kits contained five bright colors, which were
dissolved by the addition of water and white vinegar to the tablets.
In 1901a State of New Jersey inspection report rated the plant in good condition and noted that seven men and twenty women were
employed. Paas eventually became the largest manufacturer of Easter egg dyes and Philip B. Townley succeeded his father as
head of the company. Although sales were seasonal, the plant operated throughout the year.
In the late 1960s the company moved to Florida and the Newark plant was closed.
References:
1) August Merz, Textile Colorist "5Oth Anniversary" Edition 1879 - 1928
2) August Merz, "Early American Coal Tar Dye Industry", Chemical and Engineering News, Vol. 22, No. 13, August 10, 1944, pp.
1275-1280
3) Williams Haynes, American Chemical Industry, Vol. I (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1954), pp. 311-313
4) Williams Haynes, American Chemical Industry, Vol. III (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1954), p. 102
5) Williams Haynes, American Chemical Industry, Vol. III (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1954), pp. 245-246
6) The Conshocton (Ohio) Tribune, April 17, 1927
7) "Raid Alcohol Plant Valued At $500,000", The New York Times, November 24, 1931
8) George A. Prochaska, "American Dyestuffs" Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Vol. 16, No. 4, April 1924, pp. 413-417
9) "Dr. G. A. Prochaska, Dye Expert, Dead", The New York Times, March 25, 1936
10) "Notes of the Trade", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 13, September 23, 1918, p. 34
11) "Raid 20,000-Gallon Still", The New York Times, March 28, 1930
12) "New Concerns Chartered", Trenton Evening Times, November 17, 1915
13) "Chemical Plant Sold", The New York Times, December 19, 1943
14) "Notes of the Trade", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 7, No. 13, September 27, 1920, p. 18
15) "Notes of the Trade", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 6, No. 19, May 10, 1920, p. 18
16) Anthony S. Travis, Dyes Made in America, 1915–1980: the Calco Chemical Company, American Cyanamid and the Raritan
River (Jerusalem: Edelstein Center/Hexagon Press, 2004)
17) "Acid Plant Blast Wrecks Buildings", The New York Times, March 25, 1918
18) "Will Destroy Acid Fumes", The New York Times, May 6, 1918
19) "Butterworth Judson To Build New Plants", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 6, No. 2, January 12, 1920, p. 12
20) "Big Newark Plant Sold", The New York Times, February 11, 1925
21) "Chicago Firm Buys Big Newark Plant", The New York Times, February 15, 1925
22) "Butterworth-Judson Improves Quarters", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 8, No. 3, January 24, 1921, p. 14
23) "Butterworth-Judson Corp. In Receiver's Hands", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 10, No. 11, May 22, 1922, p. 380
24) "Negroes Turn Yellow", The Lima (Ohio) Daily News, March 31, 1918
25) “Otto B. May Dies At Age of 72”, American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 41, No. 24, November 24, 1952, p. 789
26) "Otto B. May to Expand", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 51, No. 6, March 19, 1962, p. 60
27) "Coloring Materials", American Dyestuff Reporter,Vol. 55, No. 25, December 5, 1966, p. 67
28) August Merz, "An Old-Timer in the Dyestuff Industry Reminisces", American Dyestuff Reporter, December 2, 1946, pp. 635-637
29) "Easter Egg Rush Is Starting Again", The New York Times, April 3, 1955
30) "Amalgamated Dyestuff & Chemical Works, Inc.", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 27, No. 3, February 7, 1938
31) "The Jersey Meadows", Fortune, November 1934, p. 99
32) "Alliance Completes Expansion Program", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 42, No. 18, August 31, 1953, p. 599
33) "Dye Makers Fear Tariff Changes", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 55, No. 21, October 10, 1966, p. 81
34) Bulletin of the National Research Council, 1920
35) W.D. Weatherford, The Negro From Africa to America, George H, Doran Co., New York, 1924, p. 285
The synthetic colorants industry in Newark, New Jersey began in 1869 with the partnership of Frederick Heller (1835-1889) and
Henry Merz (1833-1905). They were German immigrants from the city of Darmstadt, with Heller coming to the U.S. in 1849 and
Merz in 1853. Merz studied chemistry at Cooper Union in New York and in 1868 attempted the manufacture of ultramarine, an
inorganic pigment used for calico printing, tinting of paper, and as a laundry aid. They selected this product because of the high
selling price and low cost of the raw materials. Another factor was the lack of competition, since all the domestic requirements for
ultramarine were imported. But the process was complicated, generating much waste, so Heller went to Germany to acquire the
know-how, rejoining Merz in 1869.
Production of ultramarine was successfully carried out in a rented plant in Newark. The quality of the blue was good but selling it
proved difficult. The owners and superintendents of the mills were typically English or Scotch who were satisfied with the imported
product and reluctant to switch to a domestic source.
Business suddenly improved due to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, with the threat of a blockade of German shipping by the
French Navy. The blockade did not materialize, but the customers liked the Heller & Merz blue and their ability to ship promptly
resulted in lower inventories compared to importing. The plant became too small to meet demand and the noxious sulfur fumes
irritated the neighbors. The company relocated operations to a facility in the meadow lands, away from densely populated
neighborhoods. The dye plant was destroyed by fire in 1884 and was rebuilt.
The industries served by Heller & Merz were also interested in coal tar dyes, so the small company imported aniline dyes from
Switzerland, representing the firm of P. Monnet & Cie. Dr. Bredt came over from Europe in 1880 and established the manufacture of
methyl violet and fuchsin at the Newark plant. The methyl violet business was small because it was difficult to compete with large
German companies who made their own dimethylaniline. Bredt left in 1881 and Dr. George Prochazka joined the company, adding
eosine to the product line.
During the 1870s the tariff on dyes was a rather steep $.50 per pound specific duty plus 35 percent ad valorem. This encouraged
investment in the coal tar dye industry and by 1883 there were ten companies operating in the U.S. However in that same year,
Congress bowed to the powerful textile and paper industries, withdrawing the specific duty. Only five domestic companies
survived: Schoellkopf Aniline in Buffalo; Heller & Merz in Newark; Albany Aniline; Hudson River Aniline in Rensselaer; and Holliday
in Brooklyn.
Heller & Merz continued to expand the dye range, adding safrosine, erythosine and rose bengal in 1885. In the same year, George
Prochazka’s brother John, who studied in Europe, was hired as a chemist. In 1886 rosaniline blues were made and by 1889
nigrosine, induline, chrysoidine and bismark brown were in production. The company’s synthetic capabilities were apparent in
1890 when Orange II was introduced, along with the intermediate sulfanilic acid. A process was developed to purify phosphine, a
byproduct of fuchsin manufacture. Phosphine would later be in high demand by the leather trade when tan shoes became stylish.
Fast red was added in 1894 along with several oil soluble dyes used by the paint and varnish industry.
In mid-1887 August Merz, son of Henry Merz, joined the company as an assistant chemist. Six months later he became the chief
chemist when his predecessor, a European chemist, resigned. The partnership was incorporated as the Heller & Merz Company
on February 2, 1889, with capital stock authorization of $200,000. The stock was closely held by the two families, linked by the
marriage of Frederick Heller and Henry Merz to sisters.
The commodity production of ultramarine helped the company survive when demand for coal tar dyes fell. This included the period
after 1890 when the tariff was further reduced to only 15 percent. The tariff was increased back to 30 percent ad valorem by the
Dingley Act of 1897.
The ultramarine process emitted large volumes of noxius fumes, first hydrogen sulfide and then sulfur dioxide. The nearby truck
farms regularly filed claims for damages to the crops. Hydrogen sulfide turned a house freshly painted with white lead to gray in a
few hours. The solution was construction of a 350 foot tall smokestack, one of the highest in the U.S. at that time, which can be
seen in the plant photo above. The smokestack and plant buildings are in the background of the 1910 photo below, which depicts
a baseball game taking place in nearby Davis Stadium:
Total domestic production of ultramarine was 2.7 million pounds in 1914. Heller & Merz was the largest producer. A major
competitor was H. Kohnstamm & Co. of Brooklyn. A newcomer to the ultramarine field, Standard Ultramarine, began operating in
1912 in Huntington, West Virginia.
When war was declared in 1914, dyes were largely imported and there were only seven dye plants in operation in the United States.
They had 528 employees. The capital invested was about $3.5 million with output of about 6.6 million pounds, valued at $2.4
million. Schoellkopf Aniline was the leading manufacturer with a 50 percent share of the market, followed by Heller & Merz with a 21
percent share.
The dye famine caused by the war rapidly increased prices. Before the war, Heller & Merz sold Rhodamine B at around $1.00 per
pound; during the war the company repurchased the same lot of dye for $50.00 per pound. Prices fell quickly when the war ended
in 1918.
The company increased its capitalization to $1.0 million in 1918 to expand production, but the focus remained on ultramarine and
dyes for the paper and leather industries. Eugene and August Merz, sons of Henry Merz, refused to enter new fields. They had
believed the war would be of short duration and that the Germans would regain control of the American market.
On April 16, 1927 the weekly cash payroll was stolen in a brazen robbery. Five men, one of them armed with a sawed-off shotgun,
held up the cashier and two clerks. They escaped in a car with the $6,000 payroll. The size of this payroll indicates that around 200
employees worked at the plant.
In 1930 Heller & Merz was acquired by the Calco Chemical Company, a division of American Cyanamid. Eugene and August Merz
became vice presidents of Calco Chemical. The Heller & Merz Company was operated as a department of Calco Chemical and
production at Newark continued for some years. The site was located on Wilson Avenue and adjoined Davis Stadium, later named
Ruppert Stadium, where the Newark Bears semi-professional baseball team played. Ruppert Stadium was demolished in 1967.
An illegal alcohol distillery was raided by Federal agents at the Heller & Merz plant in 1931. The unit was valued at $500,000 of
which $240,000 represented equipment and supplies. It had been operating for seven months, producing 12,000 gallons of
alcohol , valued at $35,000, daily. The distillery had been receiving carloads of molasses from Puerto Rico, delivered to the rail
siding adjoining the plant. A pipeline was used to pump the high grade alcohol into railroad tank cars. No arrests could be made
since the plant siren was sounded with five blasts as soon as the Federal agents walked through the main gate.
Dye production was gradually transferred to the large Calco Chemical plant in Bound Brook, New Jersey and the Newark plant
closed sometime after 1949.
Central Dyestuff & Chemical Company
George A. Prochazka was born in Milwaukee in 1856. After attending private schools in New York, he studied chemistry in
Germany. He studied under Fresenius in Weisbaden, under Bunsen in Heidelberg, under Kekule in Bonn, and at the Aachen
Polytechnic. He received a Ph. D. at Heidelberg. His brother John Prochazka studied chemistry in the U.S. and at the Ecole de
Chemie at Mulhouse, under the foremost authority Emil Noelting. The Prochazka brothers established their reputations as experts
in dye manufacturing at the Heller & Merz Company in Newark.
In 1897 George and John Prochazka left Heller & Merz and on September 26, 1898 incorporated the Central Dyestuff & Chemical
company with a capital stock authorization of $48,000. The dye plant, employing around a dozen men, started to manufacture a
limited line of dyes. The small plant was located at Plum Point Lane in Newark, near the Butterworth & Judson chemical plant, and
close to the Passaic River. This street no longer exists.
In 1902 a State of New Jersey inspection report said the plant employed 30 men and that the condition of the facility was good.
By 1914 the Central Dyestuff & Chemical Company had attained a 3-4 percent share of the dye market. The production of colors
included: orange Y, orange R, orange I, crocein orange, lake scarlets, Bordeaux, amaranth, wool scarlet, fast red, roccelline, azo
rubine, Bismark brown Y and R, chrysoidine Y and R, amidoazobenzene, amidoazotoluene, and a line of unsulfonated azo colors
known as Sudan colors. Nigrosine base, induline base, and spirit nigrosine were also made. The Sudans and bases were sold to
the varnish, wood stain and leather trades.
The plant produced some of the intermediates required: sulfanilic acid for the orange Y and I, sulfotoluidic acid for orange R,
Schaeffer acid for crocein orange, and G-salt for wool scarlet. Sales of the scarlets were limited by competition from Germany. Raw
materials that had to be imported included: aniline oil, o-toluidine, xylidine, cumidine, nitrobenzene, dinitrobenzene, dinitrotoluol,
alpha naphthol, beta naphthol, and alpha naphthylamine. The beta naphthol and alpha naphthylamine were essential to the dye
business, but the company lacked financing to establish manufacture at Newark.
The one-story plant was destroyed by fire in 1918. Plans were made to reconstruct with a new building measuring 54 by 80 feet.
During World War I, Herman Metz, a dye importer, acquired financial control of the company and was named vice president. Metz
also owned the Consolidated Color & Chemical Company of Newark. Although a native born American, Metz was a strong
supporter of German interests and often clashed with other American dye manufacturers over tariffs. Dr. George Prochazka retired
in 1924 and in 1925 Metz formed the General Dyestuff Corporation, which took over the sales functions of the Central Dyestuff &
Chemical Company, the Consolidated Color & Chemical Company, and the Grasselli Dyestuff Corporation. General Dyestuff also
handled the U.S. sales of the largest German dye makers.
The Central Dyestuff & Chemical Company was phased out a few years later. In 1930 Federal agents discovered an illegal alcohol
still operating at the site. There were six wooden vats of 20,000 gallons capacity each. Five vats contained a corn syrup mash and
the sixth vat contained yeast. Four 5,000 gallon stills, with thermostatic regulation, were capable of producing 20,000 gallons of
high proof alcohol daily. The still operator was arrested.
Consolidated Color & Chemical Company
Herman Metz established the Consolidated Color & Chemical Company at Lister Avenue in Newark in 1902. A few dyes and color
lakes were made and by 1914 the company had a market share in the range of 2-3 percent. Dr. Gustave Metz, younger brother of
Herman, was production manager during 1902-1912. This plant was said to be a Trojan horse, enabling Herman Metz to have the
appearance of an American manufacturer
In 1925 Metz merged his two dye plants in Newark into the General Dyestuff Corporation. The Consolidated Color & Chemical
company and the Central Dyestuff and Chemical company were subsequently sold to the Calco Chemical Company, which
eventually became a division of American Cyanamid. By 1930 many of the small dye producers either had merged with larger
companies such as Calco and DuPont or went out of business.
Dye Products and Chemical Company, Inc.
This company was formed around the time of World War I, with a plant on Vanderpool Street in Newark built in 1915 and a sales
office at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Aniline oil was the first product manufactured. The range of aniline dyes consisted of:
naphthol green, Newark scarlet, Ponceau scarlet, and acid yellow for wool and silk; chrome blue black, chrome brown, and copper
purple for wool; eosin for silk , cotton and rayon; Bismark brown Y and R for rayon, cotton, leather and paper; and chrysoidine for
rayon, cotton and paper. The trademark "Dylene" was registered in 1922 for all the dyes and intermediates sold.
The capacity of the plant was considerably increased in 1917 to produce the following intermediates and dyes: m-toluene diamine,
m-phenylene diamine, p-phenylene diamine, amino azo benzene, alizarin blue black, alizarin yellow G, and chrome red.
In 1919 the company purchased a new plot of land on Vanderpool Street, adjoining its factory, for future expansion. In 1920 plans
were completed for a new brick boiler house.
The Calco Chemical Company, a division of American Cyanamid, acquired the company around 1930 and shifted production of
dyes to its large plant in Bound Brook, New Jersey.
Amalgamated Dyestuffs & Chemical Works, Inc.
The Amalgamated Dyestuffs & Chemical Works, Inc. was incorporated in New York in 1915 with capital of $50,000. The company
was founded by George H. Whaley, Charles H. Jones, and Emile H. Kick, all of Jersey City.
The plant site was located at Plum Point Lane and Avenue P in Newark. The property was four acres in size and served by a
railroad siding. In 1918-1919, the company built a one-story, 50 by 90 foot building at a cost of $8,500. The production consisted
mainly of sulfur and azo dyes. Textile processing chemicals, or dyeing assistants, were also made. The plant expanded over the
years to twenty chemical buildings with an area of 105,000 square feet.
In 1938 J. Pfister, the president and general manager, announced the addition of a line of vat dyes and naphthols. This
supplemented the extensive range of acid, basic, direct, chrome, developed and sulfur colors. Amalgamated pioneered in the
research of acetate rayon dyes and had one of the largest lines of these dyes in the US.
John Campbell & Co. of New York was the sales agent for most of the products. The vat dyes and naphthols were sold by the
company's own sales force located on Hudson St. in New York.
The company was acquired in 1938 by the Calco Chemical Company. Production was eventually moved to the Calco plant in
Bound Brook. The site was sold in 1943 to Martin Laboratories of New York City.
Alliance Color and Chemical Company
In 1946 the Alliance Color and Chemical Company took over the former Amalgamated Dyestuff site on Plum Point Lane (see
discussion above). In one of the largest buildings, production started on a limited range of fast color salts and bases. Over time
the range was extended and a large number of stabilized azoics in solution and powder forms were manufactured.
A major expansion program began in 1950 and was completed in 1953. Additional property was purchased and four buildings
were modernized. Bases and intermediates continued to be manufactured in the original building. Another building housed
equipment for the production of salts and stabilized azoics. The finishing steps of drying, grinding and blending were performed in
another unit. An air conditioned, brick warehouse building helped maintain the shelf-life of the products. The fifth building in the
group was used for offices and had a research laboratory on the second floor. The machine shop and boiler room were located on
the first floor. Plans were made for a new boiler house, lunch and locker room for employees, and a new laboratory.
The president of the company was Harold W. Rose. Secretary-treasurer was Harold W. Coward who was also in charge of
production. Coward formerly worked for the National Aniline Division of Allied Dye and Chemical Corporation. In 1953 Coward said
Alliance Color and Chemical was the only U.S. dye maker to specialize in such a large line of salts, bases and stabilized azoics.
Sales were made through several dye distributors to all locations of the textile industry.
United Color & Pigment Company
The company built a plant in 1920 on property at McClellan Street and Evergreen Avenue. The factory consisted of three one-story
buildings and a two-story main building. Dr. H. S. Riederer, who formerly worked in commercial chemical development for the Atlas
Powder Company, joined the new pigment manufacturer in 1920. The manufacture of lithopone was started in early 1921.
Lithopone is a white inorganic pigment composed of barium sulfate and zinc sulfide.
The company expanded over the years and was acquired by the Interchemical Corporation. By 1943 the plant had 500 employees
producing a broad range of organic and inorganic pigments. Later that year the business was acquired by the Calco Chemical
Company and production was shifted to a new building at the Bound Brook complex.
Butterworth-Judson Corporation
Egbert P. Judson (1812-1893) was an inventor and manufacturer of explosives. He founded the Butterworth-Judson Chemical
Works in Newark around 1886. The plant, which produced heavy chemicals such as sulfuric acid, was located on Plum Point Lane
and Avenue R along the Passaic River and near Newark Bay. The nearby waterways and railroad siding were important for the bulk
transportation of raw materials and finished goods.
Sulfuric acid is a key raw material for the production of organic chemicals, intermediates and explosives which were in high
demand due to World War I. Corporate net earnings in 1916 were estimated at a record $4.5 million. In 1917 a unit was built for
synthetic phenol and picric acid. The phenol was made by nitration of benzene in sulfuric acid followed by caustic fusion. Nitration
of phenol produced 2,4,6-trinitrophenol, known as picric acid, a potent explosive in high demand during World War I. It was
estimated that the plant produced 95 percent of all the picric acid used by the Allies.
The firm received a guncotton contract from France. Peacetime lacquer-maker Maas & Waldstein, located next door, helped fulfill
the contract.
The company employed hundreds of African-Americans for the workforce in order to make it easier to spot potential enemy
saboteurs for this critical war production plant. Their skin was stained yellow by the reaction of picric acid with the proteins of the
skin. A help wanted ad, placed in a Southern newspaper in 1917, solicited unskilled and semi-skilled African-American men with
the promise of cheap transportation and free housing:
"Men wanted at once. Good steady employment for colored. Thirty and 29.5 cents per hour. Weekly payments.
Good warm sanitary quarters free. Best community privileges. Towns of Newark and Jersey City. Fifteen minutes
by car line offer cheap and suitable homes for men with families. For out of town parties of ten or more cheap
transportation will be arranged. Only reliable men who stay on the job are wanted. Apply or write Butterworth-
Judson Corporation, Box 273, Newark, New Jersey or Daniel T. Brantley, 315 West 119th Street, New York City."
In March 1918, part of the picric acid unit was damaged by explosions and fire, with the loss exceeding $100,000. Four small and
well separated wooden production buildings were destroyed and two employees were reported missing. Speculation on the
causes included friction in the machinery, an electrical wiring mishap, and even sabotage.
Fumes emanating from the picric acid unit were noxious to residents of Hudson County. In April 1918 a Hudson County jury found
the officers of the company, including William A. Bradford, president, guilty of maintaining a public nuisance. Newark citizens were
also upset with the fumes and Mayor Gillen threatened to shut the plant down. In May 1918 the U. S. Army announced it was
installing three scrubbing towers to eliminate the fumes and recover valuable material that formerly was disposed as waste.
Butterworth-Judson contracted with the U.S. Government in May 1918 for 72 million pounds of picric acid. The Government
advanced the company $1.5 million for the construction of a new picric acid plant in Brunswick, Georgia. The plant was to be built
on a 1,600 acre site at a cost of $8.0 million and employ 4,000 workers. When the war ended in November 1918, the contracts for
picric acid were cancelled before the new plant was completed. The Government demanded the return of its money. Net earnings
in 1918 were only $846,000.
Plans were made to use the surplus nitration capacity at the Newark plant for dye intermediates. Butterworth-Judson announced in
early 1920 the construction of new units for the production of Gamma acid, H acid and J acid. The company intended to market a
broad line of colors from the intermediates, including direct black, diamine black, diamine fast red and diamine brown M. Research
work on cyanthrol blue was also underway in an effort to match the quality of the dye imported before the war. N.F. Borg was director
of the research laboratory which employed seven chemists, two assistant chemists and a helper.
Fire struck the plant again in September 1920, destroying the paranitraniline unit. Company officials denied rumors of damage to
the Gamma and H acid units. The company expected to rebuild the paranitraniline unit by January 1921. But the depression that
year significantly curtailed production of heavy chemicals, intermediates and dyes. In 1921 the corporate office at 61 Broadway in
New York City was reorganized. The sales department remained in New York, but the accounting, purchasing and executive
departments were moved to the Newark plant to reduce expenses.
By 1922 the company was offering only a few dyes for sale: Acid Blue Black G; Chrome Brown SW; Chrome Bordeaux SW; Diazo
Black BH; and Direct Brown M. The low sales were inadequate to cover the high fixed costs of operating the large plant.
Butterworth-Judson went bankrupt in 1922. The corporation was capitalized at $2.5 million at that time. In 1925 the plant site was
auctioned for $855,000 to the F. J. Lewis Manufacturing Company of Chicago. The property consisted of 77 acres of land, with
1,700 feet of frontage on the Passaic River, and more than 500,000 square feet of buildings and machinery. The site eventually
became part of the Reilly Tar & Chemical Corporation.
Verona Chemical Company (Click Here for History)
The company was founded in 1902 by Edwin Kuttroff. The nine acre plant site was located at 26 Verona Avenue in Newark, near the
Passaic River. The company manufactured a broad range of aromatic chemicals, intermediates and dyes for many years, finally
closing in 1963 after having merged with the Pharma Chemical Corporation of Bayonne.
Otto B. May, Inc.
The company was established by dyestuff industry notable Otto B. May (1880-1952). He was born in Germany and received a Ph.D.
in pharmacology at the University of Strasbourg in 1904. Dr. May came to the U.S. in 1907 and taught chemistry at Columbia
University. In 1911 he joined the Johann Hoff Malt Extract Co. in Newark and became the general manager. In 1919 with the advent
of Prohibition looming, Dr. May organized the May Chemical Works to manufacture chemicals and dyes. The original plant was
located at 42 Jelliff Avenue, Newark but was soon moved to 198 Niagara Street, between Paris and Amsterdam Streets.
May Chemical Works was the first to manufacture the dry color Red Lake C which was the leading red color for printing inks. The
company was the largest U.S. producer of this color until it was acquired by the Calco Chemical Company of Bound Brook, New
Jersey. Dr. May joined Calco as an executive, but resigned in 1931 and repurchased the facilities at Niagara Street. He formed Otto
B. May, Inc. to make vat dyes. His son, Ernest M. May, joined the firm in 1938.
In 1958 Cone Mills, a large textile firm in Greensboro, North Carolina, acquired Otto B. May, Inc. It was rare for a textile company to
also have a dye manufacturing subsidiary. Cone Mills was a major producer of cotton textiles, so it may have wanted an assured
supply of vat dyes for cotton.
Otto. B. May, Inc. announced plans in 1962 for expansion of the Newark plant at a cost of $500,000. Adjoining land was purchased
to double the area. A 20,000 square foot building was acquired and plans were made to build a new 18,000 square foot laboratory
building. This building would house R & D and control laboratories and would be located next to relocated dyestuff standardization
facilities. Warehousing and standardization were to be removed from their current location to make room for the chemical
manufacturing expansion.
Polyester/cotton blends became popular in the 1960's so the company introduced the "Companion Dye " system in 1966. A range
of MayEster Companion disperse dyes for polyester was offered to match and compliment the Mayvat dyes for cotton. The shade on
each fiber in the blend could be controlled independently of the other.
In September 1966 Dr. Ernest M. May, president of the company, testified at the Tariff Commission hearings in Washington, D.C.
He reported that vat dyes represented 95 percent of his firm's production and that the Newark plant employed 125 people. Many of
these employees began as unskilled workers and were trained to assume high-paying jobs. Dr. May feared that reducing tariffs on
imported dyes and intermediates would drive the company out of business. The tariff cuts were implemented and become an
important factor in the demise of many American dye manufacturers by the early 1980s.
In the 1970’s, Dewey Trogdon was president of the Otto B. May subsidiary; in 1980 he was named president of Cone Mills. Later in
the same year Cone Mills sold Otto B. May, Inc. to dye producer Crompton & Knowles. Crompton & Knowles used the plant to
make cationic dyes based on technology purchased from DuPont. They manufactured ink and paper dyes along with vat dye pastes
made by dispersing purchased presscakes. Vat dyes were phased out by the late 1980's and the Newark plant subsequently
closed.
Paas Dye Company
The tradition of dyeing Easter eggs was made easier by the invention of William M. Townley in the late 1800s. Townley owned a
drug store in Newark where he developed recipes for home products. He had been selling hand wrapped packets of dyes as a
courtesy for customers at Easter. When some dye spilled on the spotless white marble counter and on his business suit, Townley
relegated the jars of dyes to the basement, where packets of dyes were made up in papers normally used for medicinal powders.
The Townley Easter Egg Dye packets were sold in 1880 for five cents. The packets became popular, leading to sales to other
druggists and the beginning of the Easter egg dye business. The trade name "PAAS" was soon adopted, stemming from the Dutch
word "Paasdag" for Easter Day.
Townley incorporated the Paas Dye Company on February 5, 1881 with $20,000 of authorized capital stock. Food dyes were
purchased for production of the packets at a facility at 60 Shipman Street in Newark. In the 1890s the company introduced calico
and picture papers. These were the precursors of the colorful transfer designs of today. In 1893 Townley discovered how to
concentrate the dye in tablets, launching the modern Easter egg dyeing kit. The kits contained five bright colors, which were
dissolved by the addition of water and white vinegar to the tablets.
In 1901a State of New Jersey inspection report rated the plant in good condition and noted that seven men and twenty women were
employed. Paas eventually became the largest manufacturer of Easter egg dyes and Philip B. Townley succeeded his father as
head of the company. Although sales were seasonal, the plant operated throughout the year.
In the late 1960s the company moved to Florida and the Newark plant was closed.
References:
1) August Merz, Textile Colorist "5Oth Anniversary" Edition 1879 - 1928
2) August Merz, "Early American Coal Tar Dye Industry", Chemical and Engineering News, Vol. 22, No. 13, August 10, 1944, pp.
1275-1280
3) Williams Haynes, American Chemical Industry, Vol. I (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1954), pp. 311-313
4) Williams Haynes, American Chemical Industry, Vol. III (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1954), p. 102
5) Williams Haynes, American Chemical Industry, Vol. III (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1954), pp. 245-246
6) The Conshocton (Ohio) Tribune, April 17, 1927
7) "Raid Alcohol Plant Valued At $500,000", The New York Times, November 24, 1931
8) George A. Prochaska, "American Dyestuffs" Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Vol. 16, No. 4, April 1924, pp. 413-417
9) "Dr. G. A. Prochaska, Dye Expert, Dead", The New York Times, March 25, 1936
10) "Notes of the Trade", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 13, September 23, 1918, p. 34
11) "Raid 20,000-Gallon Still", The New York Times, March 28, 1930
12) "New Concerns Chartered", Trenton Evening Times, November 17, 1915
13) "Chemical Plant Sold", The New York Times, December 19, 1943
14) "Notes of the Trade", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 7, No. 13, September 27, 1920, p. 18
15) "Notes of the Trade", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 6, No. 19, May 10, 1920, p. 18
16) Anthony S. Travis, Dyes Made in America, 1915–1980: the Calco Chemical Company, American Cyanamid and the Raritan
River (Jerusalem: Edelstein Center/Hexagon Press, 2004)
17) "Acid Plant Blast Wrecks Buildings", The New York Times, March 25, 1918
18) "Will Destroy Acid Fumes", The New York Times, May 6, 1918
19) "Butterworth Judson To Build New Plants", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 6, No. 2, January 12, 1920, p. 12
20) "Big Newark Plant Sold", The New York Times, February 11, 1925
21) "Chicago Firm Buys Big Newark Plant", The New York Times, February 15, 1925
22) "Butterworth-Judson Improves Quarters", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 8, No. 3, January 24, 1921, p. 14
23) "Butterworth-Judson Corp. In Receiver's Hands", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 10, No. 11, May 22, 1922, p. 380
24) "Negroes Turn Yellow", The Lima (Ohio) Daily News, March 31, 1918
25) “Otto B. May Dies At Age of 72”, American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 41, No. 24, November 24, 1952, p. 789
26) "Otto B. May to Expand", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 51, No. 6, March 19, 1962, p. 60
27) "Coloring Materials", American Dyestuff Reporter,Vol. 55, No. 25, December 5, 1966, p. 67
28) August Merz, "An Old-Timer in the Dyestuff Industry Reminisces", American Dyestuff Reporter, December 2, 1946, pp. 635-637
29) "Easter Egg Rush Is Starting Again", The New York Times, April 3, 1955
30) "Amalgamated Dyestuff & Chemical Works, Inc.", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 27, No. 3, February 7, 1938
31) "The Jersey Meadows", Fortune, November 1934, p. 99
32) "Alliance Completes Expansion Program", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 42, No. 18, August 31, 1953, p. 599
33) "Dye Makers Fear Tariff Changes", American Dyestuff Reporter, Vol. 55, No. 21, October 10, 1966, p. 81
34) Bulletin of the National Research Council, 1920
35) W.D. Weatherford, The Negro From Africa to America, George H, Doran Co., New York, 1924, p. 285
Industrial Newark Interpreted by Local Artists. Click to Enlarge
| Factory Workers, Newark, NJ by Henry Gasser, 1946 |
| North Newark with a Steam Engine Pulling Freight Cars by Charles E. Luffman, c. 1945 |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
Newark, New Jersey Colorants Industry
ColorantsHistory.Org
| Paper Dyed with Heller & Merz Colors Source: Williams Haynes, Dyes Made in America 1915-1940 |
| George A. Prochazka (1855-1936), Founder of Central Dyestuff and Chemical Co. Source: Williams Haynes, American Chemical History, Vol. 1, 1954 |
| George H. Whaley, Founder Photo: Chemical Age, 1921 |
| Otto B. May (1880-1952) Photo: Williams Haynes, American Chemical Industry |
| Ad in American Dyestuff Reporter, 1925 Click to Enlarge |
| Heller & Merz Plant in Background of Panoramic Photo Taken of Baseball Game in Davis Stadium, Newark, in 1910. Photo by Irving Underhill. Click to Enlarge |
| Left: 1940 PAAS Easter Egg Colors Package Right: 1944 Newspaper Ad for PAAS Egg Dyes Click to Enlarge |
| Heller & Merz Company Site Map Source: Robinson's Atlas of the City of Newark, New Jersey, 1912 Click to Enlarge |
| Central Dyestuff & Chemical Company Site Map Source: Robinson's Atlas of the City of Newark, New Jersey, 1926 Click to Enlarge |
| Dye Products & Chemical Co. Site Map Source: Robinson's Atlas of the City of Newark, New Jersey, 1926 Click to Enlarge |
| Consolidated Color & Chemical Co. Site Map Source: Robinson's Atlas of the City of Newark, New Jersey, 1912 Click to Enlarge |
| Left: Amalgamated Dyestuffs & Chemical Works. Photo: American Dyestuff Reporter 1938 Right: Site Map: Robinson's Atlas of the City of Newark, New Jersey, 1926. Click to Enlarge |
| Butterworth-Judson Site Map Source: Robinson's Atlas of the City of Newark, New Jersey, 1912 Click to Enlarge |
| May Chemical Works Site Map Source: Robinson's Atlas of the City of Newark, New Jersey, 1926 Click to Enlarge |
