Cotton 
15 
The dyes or coloring materials come from both the vegetable and the 
mineral kingdom, and are obtained from nearly every part of the 
world. Most of the dyes come from coal tar, which is given off when 
coke is made from coal, but certain special colors are derived from 
other sources. As you read this sentence, many chemists are busy 
experimenting with coal-tar products and other chemicals, inventing 
cheaper ways of making old colors or producing new colors that they 
think people will like. In the forests of many distant regions men 
are now gathering bark, roots, flowers, and berries of various plants 
and trees for dyeing the cotton cloths that you will be wearing or 
using after a year or so. Others are growing plants in their fields for 
the same purpose. 
Whatever the color of your cotton clothes may be, the greatest 
probability is that the dye came from a coal mine. Before the World 
War, Germany led the world in chemical industries, and her coal 
mines supplied most of the world with dyestuffs. So skillfully had 
German chemists worked upon coal-tar products that they were able 
to produce nearly seventy thousand different tones of color. 
When the United States was cut off from Germany during the 
World War, our own manufacturers of dyestuffs increased their out- 
put enormously and made nearly all the colors formerly imported 
from Germany. The United States was in time able to supply other 
countries with dyes not only for cotton, but also for woolens, linen, 
paper, and leather. 
How Geographical Conditions Affect Cotton Manufacturing 
New England the center for cotton manufacturing in the United 
States. We are now ready to consider the geographical conditions 
which cause cotton manufacturing to be concentrated in certain 
places. We have seen that in the United States, Fall River is the 
leading center of this industry. Figure 12 shows that many of the 
neighboring cities also manufacture cotton goods ; for instance, New 
Bedford, Pawtucket, Lowell, Manchester, and numerous smaller 
centers. In fact, New England is the leading cotton manufacturing 
region of the country. Let us see why this is so. 
How water power and glaciation help cotton manufacturing. 
A study of Fall River will help to solve the problem. In the first place, 
this city, as its name implies, is located on a river which, although 
small, has numerous falls and rapids. The falls were early used for 
power ; today, however, they supply only a little of the power used, 
compared with that furnished by coal brought from Pennsylvania.