The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-10-26 00:00:00

olive yellow and pure olive, is the quercitron bark of com-
merce. It is shaved down into small shreds, and an infusion
of it made which is an amber-coloured liquor, which, when
mixed with acetate of alumina, gives a dull yellow precipi-
tate, not so beautiful as that prepared from the Persian berry.
By taking a portion of the cloth which contains alumina,
and immersing it in a bath of quercitron bark, it will assume
a yellow character somewhat more permanent than that pro-
duced by Persian berries, but not so bright. If I take a salt
of iron, and add it to the qtiercitron bark, it immediately
gives a very rich olive-coloured liquor. If I immerse a piece
of cloth impregnated with the oxide of iron in a solution of
quercitron bark, we shall immediately find that the yellow
colour of the oxide of iron is converted into a very deep olive.
The red colouring matteri-Areti—ir will be necessary
to examine, will be of a simple nature. The most important
is madder, which is of an exceedingly complicated constitu-
tion. It contains half a dozen different colouring principles,
of different shades. There are the red, the yellow, and the
orange principles, all mixed together with such a powerful
attraction for each other, that the extraction of the pure red
principle is a very difficult process. Th€ yellow-coloured
principle is that which leaves the madder easily, and is that
which overpowers the others; so that when the cloth is first
dyed. it makes it appear a reddish orange. The object of
the manufacturer is to. rid the madder of all these impurities.
The peach-wood presents us with a red of as good an appear-
ance, but much less fixed, and therefore of less value, than
the madder. It gives us an infusion of a dark-brown colour.
When the infusion of peach-wood is mixed with the alumina
mordant, there is formed a precipitate; but at the same time
the liquor, which had been an impure brownish red, assumes
a very beautiful wine-red colour. We get a pink from it,
but the pink is fugitive. Acetate of alumina is prepared by
mixing together alum and acetate of lead. Alum consists
of sulphate of alumina and potash. When the acetate of
lead is added, the sulphate of alumina is decomposed, as well
as the acetate of lead; so that we get acetate of alumina
with sulphate of alumina, and the lead takes into com-
bination three-quarters of the sulphuric acid. 'Fhe peach-
wood liquor gives a more beautiful red colour with a solution
of tin than with one of alumina; indeed, the finest colours
in commerce arise from combinations of oxide of tin with
some colouring matter. By means of ammonia and tin we
can dye two shades of colour with peach wood. The peach
wood is likewise used to dye with iron,—we get a purple by
this means. Cochineal is a substance which is too expensive
to be used in calico printing, but which is used in finer cloths
and in dyeing upon silk. In dyeing with cochineal, the mor-
dant which ismade use of is tin, and upon adding a solution
of tin to an infusion of cochineal, we obtain a beautiful red,
which is the colouring matter of the cochineal combined with
the oxide of tin. Another colouring matter which is used in
the dyeing of silk is the safflower, a plant not unlike a thistle.
This contains two colouring matters, one of which is yellow,
and the other constitutes the rouge of commerce. The saf-
flower is first washed with water until the yellow colouring
matter is removed; and the red matter, which is a resinous
substance, is then dissolved in alkali, and then precipitated
with nitric acid. We thus get the pink colour by which
rouge is very well known. Time will scarcely allow me to
go into the blue colours, but luckily, the only organic blue
matter is the well known. indigo; for the wood only owes its
colour to the small quantity of indigo it contains. Indigo is
a substance of a peculiar nature, and we cannot tell the true
problem of its chemical constitution. Indigo is soluble in
sulphuric acid, and in the manufactures of France and
Switzerland it is generally employed, and the acid being
neutralized by an alkali, the blue is allowed to deposit itself
upon the fibres. Chlorine bleaches indigo by applyiug it
with oxygen. it may likewise be coloured by abstracting
oxygen from it, for if we add to it a solution of tin and caus-
tic potash, the potash precipitates protoxide of tin, which,
having a powerful affinity for oxygen, takes it from the in-
digo, leaving it colourless. Dr. Kane then described and
illustrated the indigo hot and cold baths; but the subject is
too difficult to be reported with any advantage.
You will observe, proceeded the lecturer, that although the
theory of the combination of colouring matters with cloths,
is one of the most important and most interesting subjects of
the arts, and although it is strikingly evident that these com-
binations are essentially of a chemical character, there re-
mains a wide field to be explored with regard to them, and it
is highly incumbent upon those who are engaged in the prac-
tice of the art to endeavour to improve the different processes.
The calico-printer or the dyer is every moment of bis exist-
ence engaged in solving problems of the most difficult nature
in chemistry, and there is an earnest hope that, by the more
general scientific education of individuals engaged in these
arts, not only will their own interest be promoted, but also
that of the community at large. 1 therefore look with great
satisfaction at the growing interest which has been shewn in
this town with regard to chemical science, since I last had
the pleasure of lecturing before you. On that occasion I ad-
dressed myself to the younger students, and admonished them
that the prosperity of this kingdom must depend upon that of
the chemical arts. I have had the pleasure to observe that
what I then said has not fallen on barren ground, but that
the chemical classes here, conducted, as they are, by the ta-
lented gentleman [John Wilson, Esq.] who is at the head of
that department, are in such a flourishing state, that we may
look forward to great improvements in chemical science. So
far as I am myself concerned, I can only return you my most
sincere thanks for the kindness and attention with which you
have received me; and whatever advances I may have made
in science, 1 think them amply repaid by being selected to
address one of the most enlightened audiences, in one of the
greatest manufacturing districts in the empire.
At the conclusion of the lecture, Dr. Kane was honoured
with the most electrical applause, from a crowded audience,
which has been for some time heard in the Theatre.

Robert Wallis, Esq., delivered his first lecture (of which a
full report will appear on Friday) last Wednesday, and, in
common with his audience, we were highly delighted. The
really simple and lucid inannei of this lecturer, in explaining
a difficult subject, is beyond all praise. The subject of his
next lecture (to-morrow evening) is highly attractive.

A SCENE 'IN COURTSHIP.

(DRAWN FROM LIFE.)
It was about this time I fell in love, and a remarkably co
mic affair it was. Love is, in fact, nothing more than a
game at riddles—each party attempting to puzzle the other;
and a very pretty amusement it is. I was about nineteen
when I first began to play. The first player I met with was
apparently a placid; unsophisticated girl, nearly my own age,
with a form and features very prepossessing, who lived with
her soother and father, and some half-dozen sisters, in a small
cottage, about a mile from our house. I met her at a dance,
during which she evinced no repugnance to my melancholy
features, and, although I went through the figures of several
quadrilles like a mummy from the tombs of the Pharaohs, she
expressed herself delighted with my animation. This I
thought droll; but it was followed by things much more fun-
ny. Amelia Thomson and I soon became intimate, and I
was, in due time, introduced to Amelia's papa, a retired bar-
rister, who had never had a brief, and Amelia's mamma, a
patronizing lady, who wished to be thought a person of some
consequence; and Amelia's half-dozen sisters, fine, strap-
ping girls, with broad shoulders, and a horrible inclination
for bread and butter. They were all remarkably civil, for
Mr. Thomson tried to bore me to death, by constantly and
perpetually describing, at length, his peculiar method of fat-
tening pigs; Mrs. Thomson attempted to poison me by mak-
ing me swallow some abominable home-made—wine, she
called it, but physic it was; and the seven Miss Thomsons
seemed inclined to worry me into a fever, by Urging me to
write in their seven different albums. At that time I never
could bring myself to refuse any yequest it was possible for
me to grant, and I often endured much unnecessary suffer-
ing, through wanting sufficient resolution to say " No." In
this instance, 1 did not escape. The old gentleman was sit-
ting in an arm chair, in his best wig and coat; the lady of
the house reclining, with no inconsiderable assumption of
dignity, on the sofa, had placed me by her side; Amelia sat
quiet and shy very near me; and her sisters were busily
shewing me some beautiful wretched drawings, and charming
trashy nonsense, contained in their albums. Some refresh-
ments had been placed on a circular table, close to the sota.
" Pigs, niy dear sir, pigs are more interesting animals than
the vulgar.imagine," said the retired barrister; and, as he
had repeated the observation at least a dozen times within
the last half-hour, of course I assented to his opinion.
" I'm astonished, Mr. Thomson, you should talk of those
dirty creatures in the best parlour!" observed his spouse,
with a look of offended majesty that spoke volumes; and
then turning, to me, with a face all of smiles and good na-
ture, said, "you must take another glass of wine, Mr. Wag.
I'm sure you like it, and it is Amelia's own vintage."
I have already swallowed, much against my inclination,
six glasses of the filthy mixture ; hut, to be told that I liked
it, when I would have given auytbiug to have smashed the
decanter, and to be informed that it was the "vintage" (0
Jupiter!) of my adored, did not make it more palateable ;
however politeness suggested the necessity of putting the re-
plenished glass to my lips, and then, to mark my feeling to-
wards the fair manufacturer, I drained the pumper at a
draught.
" Another glass?" immediately exclaimed Mrs. Thomson,
with a look of triumph at her daughters, for which, had I
dared, 1 would gladly have choked her. " Isn't -t very nice ?
It's called Frontignac, and Amy shall give you the receipt
for making it."
" It's made of turpentine and aqua fortis, there's no doubt
about it," thought I.
" How do you like this drawing of a butterfly on a rose ?"
mildly inquired Miss Angelica, showing me something on a
bit of paper, that I thought resembled, in a remarkable man-
ner, a toad on a cabbage-stump.
" It's nature itself!" I replied.
"Amy did it all," cried Miss Augusta.
" And Amy did this cottage," said Miss Rosa, handing it
for my inspection. The cottage seemed as much like a coal
skuttle as anything could be.
"And this bird of paradise, too," added Miss I3eliuda ;
but if she had called it a Kangaroo, the designation would
have been quite as appropriate.
" And she can play ' The Battle of Prague' with both
hands," exclaimed the youngest, with a sort of wonder that
such an accomplishment was. possible.
" And as she can make card-racks, and net-purses, and
breed silk-worms, and write poetry, and —."
"Never mind, Septima, what your sister can do," here in-
terposed her mamma. " Mr. Wag will find out all her quali-
ties in time. Amy, my love ! what is the matter with you ?
You seem dull," added she, with a very impressive affection.
Amy gave a sigh. •
" Ah, poor thing; she is so susceptible," said Mrs. Thom-
son, emphatically.
Amy fixed her eyes on a gap in the pepper and salt carpet.
I looked as solemn as the Queen Elizabeth, done in worsted,
that hung over the mantel-piece. But I was rarely amused.
At this interesting period. Amelia's papa, who seemed as if
he thought there was nothing in the world so important as
his system of fattening pigs, suddenly observed.
"Mengel Wurzel gives them the gripes, and —"
"Mr. T. 1" exclaimed his dignified spouse, with a look
that would have awed an Emperor.
"My dear. I was only telling the young Gentleman—"
"Enough," replied the lady, with a wave of tier hand, that
appeared to extinguish all his piggish notions, for the time;
and then, turning to me, in her most insinuating manner,
said, " Do take another glass of Frontignac !"
This was sufficient. To prevent being completely poisoned
I summoned up resolution to look at my watch ; seemed sur-
prised it was so late, and took a hasty leave of the party.
There is something in courtship, which writers on the moral
sentiments have not described. It is the most exquisite piece
of foolery that life produces, instead of being the serious mat-
ter that people imagine. Cupid is usually represented blind,
but he has only a cast in his eye; and all his worshippers are
marked by a similar obliquity of vision. It cannot be denied
that love squints, for no lover looks at his mistress in a
straightforward, matter-of-fact manner. Instead of gazing on
her, his eyes are on the heavens, and he thinks of angels;
and she, instead of observing him. has her vision taken up
with the principal character in her favorite rorrafnce, and sees
a hero. The insight 1 had gained into the nature of the ludi-
crous, made me regard things in a less round-about fashion
than is usual with lovers; and, though I certainly felt a plea-
sure in observing the signs by which my adored was conti-
nually evincing her kind feelings towards me, is was one that,
had I possessed the use of the risible muscles, must have
ended in laughter.
I had heard, in confidence, from her mamma, who never
let slip an opportunity of praising Amelia to me, as possessing
all the cardinal virtues, and all her own virtues as well, that
the young lady, from feelings of pure benevolence, meekness,
and charity, had voluntarily become a gratuitous teacher in
the village Sunday-school, and devoted all her leisure hours
to the task of instructing the young ideas of the juvenile po-
pulation of the neighbourhood. On the earliest occasion I
bent my steps towards the scimpl, and was on the point of en-
tering the room, when I heard an angry voice in loud alter-
cation, mingled with a sort of convulsive sobbing, that seemed
to proceed from a child. I stopped to listen, and heard the
following dialogue:
"C-a-t," muttered one of the scholars, with a whimper be-
tween every. letter..
Weill and iv/lit:46es e,a-t spell, you stupid little hussy, ?"
fiercely inquired her inittuctress. "Say it, this-minute, Miss,
or I'll'beat you black and blue,"