Read Holliday

The diazotisation and coupling reactions were exploited by the firm of Read Holliday in 1880 with the discovery of Vacanceine red, the first of the ice colours . Cotton pretreated with 2-naphthol was immersed in a solution of diazotised 2-naphthylamine, prepared in the presence of crushed ice. Para red (2.11), however, patented by the same company in 1887, achieved much more success. This was applied to cotton in the same way using 2-naphthol and diazotised p-nitroaniline. Para red was also manufactured and marketed as a useful azo pigment. 

Throughout the war, Chilean nitrates remained a British monopoly, but, without a mobilized industrial base, Britain could not meet increasing demands. Among the principal problems facing British chemical manufacturers in early 1915 was the supply of intermediates. Britain s two main dyemaking firms - Read Holliday at Huddersfield... 

Examples are Joseph Turner, James Turner, and Harry Dean, all at Read Holliday, and commencing employment as laboratory boys. Fox, op. cit. (11), p. 77. 

CIBA surveyed the performance of the entire British dyestuff industry and found most firms to be in a deplorable state. After this screening was complete, CIBA became interested in only two firms that were quite different because of their competitive situations and organisations Read Holliday, of Huddersfield, and Clayton Aniline Co., of Manchester. Holliday was preferred for its Christian direction, its situation as [finished] dyestuffs producer and its own sales organisation in the United StatesHowever, Holliday demanded a higher price than CIBA was prepared to pay. Instead, the struggling Clayton Aniline, owned by a Jew from Alsace (Charles Dreyfus), and which specialised in intermediates, was bought for a modest price. A comparison between Holliday, Clayton and CIBA drawn up in... 

During the 1930s, the small firm of Read Holliday embarked on a programme of substantial investment in R D, cleverly using the patent system to ensure an increasing share of the total market in dyes. This was much to the displeasure of ICl and IG Farben, who at that time were cooperating through an international cartel. 

Several examples of industrial research laboratories in Britain during the last two decades of the nineteenth century have been identified. Within the alkali industry the main example is the United Alkali Co. s purpose-built Central Laboratory which was established in 1891. Within the dyestuffs industry the firms of Read Holliday and Levinstein Co. undertook some research work, as did smaller... 

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