Mr. Ivan Levinstein

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THE death, in his seventy-first year, of Mr. Ivan Levinstein, which occurred on March 15, at his residence at Hale, near Manchester, removes a conspicuous figure from the world of industrial chemistry. He went to Manchester about the year 1864 from Berlin, where he had studied chemistry at the Technical High School, and established himself in business in Blackley, in the heart of the dyeing industry of south-east Lancashire, as a manufacturer of aniline dyes, being himself not only his own actual producer, but his own salesman also. He quickly laid the foundations of a flourishing business, and soon began to identify himself conspicuously with the industry and commerce of the city, associating himself also with the active direction of other chemical enterprises like those of the Ammonia Soda Company of Plumbley, and Murgatroyd's Salt Company, of Middlewlch. He was the active promoter of the fine chemical exhibit which attracted so much attention at the Manchester Jubilee Exhibition of 1887. He was also the founder and for some time the editor of the Chemical Re-view, one of the first technical journals established in this country. He was twice president of the Society of Chemical Industry, and vice-president of the Society of Dyers and Colourists and of the Manchester Chemical Club. He was for many years a director of the Chamber of Commerce and a past-president, and he was closely identified, for more than thirty years, with the development of the Manchester School of Technology, which owed much to his keen intelligence and sound knowledge of technical matters. The Manchester University, of the Court of which he was a member, awarded him the degree of M.Sc. in recognition of his many services to technical science. His name will always be remembered for his stout advocacy for the reform of the Patent Laws, which gave so unfair an advantage to the foreigner, and he undertook at great personal risk many successful actions against certain of the great German chemical firms in order to compel them to grant licences to manufacturers to work their patents in this country. As he once said,-“they had patented the whole field of organic chemistry by their astute method of drafting their patents.” His unwearied agitation resulted in the Act of 1907, of which he may truly be said, after efforts which had extended over twenty years, to be the real author.