Indigo Dreaming

Abstract

An Australian chemist who worked in Britain’s munitions industry during World War I returned home nursing the ambition to break a German monopoly and establish the manufacture of synthetic indigo in Australia. Although he mastered the chemistry, municipal concerns about industrial pollution by sulfur dioxide fumes emitted during the oxidation of naphthalene thwarted his attempt to site a factory, and he was never able to attract sufficient financial backing. As an organic chemist trained by Roger Brown, and for many years his friend and colleague, I dedicate this story to the master, who also left some dreams unrealised.