Coming full circle: a brief history of the domestic synthetic dye and biological stain industries

The synthetic dye industry is traced from its inception in England in 1856 to the European Continent and finally to the United States. The primitive s tate of this industry in America prior to World War I is described as is th e desperate effort to develop the neglected technology once imports were di fficult to obtain. Topics include biological stains, formation of the Biolo gical Stain Commission (BSC), pioneers in the industry, dye shortages after World War II, formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the decline of the domestic dye industry after the EPA was instituted, and the present state of the domestic dye industry.