A 1902 paper read before the Chemical Section of the Franklin Institute on how indigo went from a plant-derived dye to a synthetic coal-tar product. It describes the natural extraction of indigo from Indigofera tinctoria via indican, then Adolph von Baeyer's twenty-year work on indigo's chemical structure. It then covers the commercial syntheses (Heumann's phenyl-glycocoll route from naphthalene) developed by Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik and others, and predicts the decline of the natural indigo industry as happened with madder and alizarin.

A 1905 lecture by J. Merritt Matthews on the chemical constitution of wool, delivered at a Franklin Institute stated meeting. It distinguishes raw fleece components (dirt, wool-fat, suint) from the purified fibre, and discusses wool as a proteoid, amido-acid substance with both basic and acidic properties, including its coefficient of acidity and its reactions with acid and basic dyes. It closes with an argument that the fibre is not chemically homogeneous, based on its three-part cell structure and variable sulphur content.

A paper by J. Merritt Matthews read before the Section of Physics and Chemistry of the Franklin Institute in May 1906, on how raw cotton is scoured before dyeing, mordanting or bleaching. It describes the waxes, pectin and other impurities in the fibre, then distinguishes light "wetting-out" from full "boiling-out". It covers scouring with alkalies (soda ash, caustic soda) and with sulphated oils such as Turkey-red oil, with practical notes on yarns, hard water and basic dyes.