There was a push to use American dyes and colorants to stave off a deep economic recession—there wasn’t really any other choice—but the cold commercial reality dumped water all over that flag-waving parade.
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Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
2 Apr. 2026
But that other supplier would have to try to reverse engineer that particular dye — formulas for dyes and colorants were, in spite of being in service to the war effort, still proprietary — and backward engineering color from a finished product is a crapshoot.
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