Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-09-03
OVERS AND DYE-STUFFS.
The Mysterious Origin Of a Very
 Popular Art.
flow It Was Transmitted from the H:n- dOOs to the Jews and from the Lat ter to the Rest of the World
 Nineteenth Century Progress.

Results arc sometimes so familiar in tho arts that we lose sight of the process, ob- serves the New York Sun. The same might be said, also, of natural phenomena, with the additional reflection that we would often fail to understand the process by which results are produced were we to study ever so inquiringly. Naturalists have not yet learned to give any satisfactory ex- planatiOn of the laws that paint the atmo- sphere sky blue
 Very little is popularly known of the art of dyeing. In truth it is an art that is con- tmuauy becoming more and more special ized the women of today who can rival the butterfly in the dehcacy and splendor of their adornment not knowing nearly so much of the art of mixing indigo, cochineal, madder, haywood and the other natural dyes as their grandmothers knew. This decad- ence of knowledge is natural. The good housewife no longer turns the spinning wheel nor drives the shuttle, and she has no occasion to know how to transform white wool into the colors of the rainbow.
 But the art of dyeing has always been mystery, and the fact that it is less a mystery now than it was in former ages is due to the fact that the scientific analyst is becoming an important person, from whom 1t is almost impossible to withhold the se- cret of compounds. It is one of the oldest of arts. The art of constructing fabrics to be dyed was necessarily it's predecessor; but the most ancient of literature, whether sacred or secular, gives abundant testimony that it must have been practiced soon after the dawn of civilization. The Hiudoos were skillful in tho art, according to the standard of skill recognized in the earlier years of tho historic period; and the Jews, who probably learned the mystery from the Hindoos, could dye coat of many colors. But among the Western and Western Ori- ental nations the Jews were for a long | period the only people i'll possession of the secret. They practiced the art exclusively | through the earlier and declining years of l tho Byzantine empire, and from the time of Pllny to the thirteenth century there is no record of dyers who were not Jews. The peculiar people seemed to be most peculiar during this long period in the fact that they had nearly all taken to tho art of coloring l fabrics, and made it their exclusive calling. | A traveller who ventured to Jerusalem in the year 1lG0 found only two hundred Jews in the ancient capital of Judea, and they were all engaged in dyeing wool.
 But this is the age of color; and in nothing else during the last thirty years has science made such a forcible impression on the usagcs of domestic life as it has made through it's contributions to tho resources of the dyer. Go through the dry-goods district
 
 carpet Ware-rooms, the furniture ware rooms, or even into the gentlemen's fur nishlng store. Everywhere the rainbow seems to have been caught and reproduced | i'll fresh hues. The very flowers and fruits, 1 though still beautiful and attractive on ac- count of their odor and flavor, have lost the transcending superiority in tintS for which they were once noted, and must consent to become only common contributors to an Of ia A translucent marvel According to M. Chevreul, the resources of the dyer now cover 150O0 chromatic shades. But after counting 14,999 shades it would have been just as well had this author stopped caIcu- lating and pronounced the remainder infin- itc in number.
 This sudden advance in the art of dyeing has been due to the general cause that has contributed so much to civilization during the last hundred years. It has been due to the discoveries in chemistry. Through all the many centuries of history the world knew only of natural dyes, and down to the beginning of tho present century, or rather till past the middle of this century, it still busted itself with the discovery of new natural agents It had found indigo, coch- incal, haywood, maddler, quercitron barNx sumaCh, Brazil wood, and other vegetable or wood dyes, and it learned by various
 
 use of chemicals in process technically known as mordanting, in making per manent the colors produced by these agents. But it had not learned to distil color from the clements. It could reach only the boundaries of an empire that was not yet quito won. Finally, the chemist Unverdarbcn discovered aniline, a purely chemical agent, the distillation from coal tar. This discovery opened the war for an ;,,,l,, o1 ;, even yet only in the infancy of it's move ! mcnt. This happened in 1926. But the } utility of the discovery was not known until } many years later. It was not until the year 1858 that the tint known as Perkins purple, product of aniline, followed soon after ward by anilne red, or Magenta became known. Then the revolution was fairly in- augurated, and since this latter date the ? advance has been rapid. All that is most brilliant in color is credited to this new chemical agent.
 But the body of the art remains uA- changed. What are technically known as the wood dyes have more substance and . permanenCy than the aniline dyes. Indigo still forms the basis for blue. The scarlet on the coats of the British soldiery, war. ranted not to run, is mainly produced from cochineal; madder is the basis for crimson red and Turkey red, and yellow is pro uuCeu Dy luSllc, QuerCllIou odTh, UT US COh ccntratcd extract called tlavine, and from Avignon or Persian berries. The mordants remain also unchanged. Chief among them is the oxide of tin, called tin spirits by the trade. This fixes the scarlet colors founded upon cochiueal; but alum is used as mordant for crimson red and cherry red is produced with tin;mordant from am moniac&l cochineal. Turkey red is pro duced from madder on an aluminous basis ( &l1 o1I NT 3xIa ing, and thus it runs still. Aniline is rather a re-enforcement than an independ l ent agent. Prussian blue, however, if f purely Q chemical product, and it's discov l cry antedated the discovery of auiline |. colors.
 Too Many of Them.
 We have rather too many dismal humor