The Lambertville record., 1920-10-22
Why Purple
Signifies Royalty


wealth and power. AS is the case with
most phases, il is interesting to trace
the one quoted above and see how
purple came to have such associations.
Price is of course the controlling fac
tor and when the price is such as to
limit of use of material or object to
those who are in affluence then these
materials and objects readily come to
have an idomatic use. Notwithstand-
ing the high prices of dyes in 1914 and
1919, one must look back much fur
ther in history to find a time when
dye was really high, so high in fact
that to wear the purple" has ever
since meant the command of riches.
The ancient purple was the Tyrian
purple named after the powerful city
of Tyre which, like Carthage and
Sidon, owed much of its prestige to
the purple dye and the cloth colored
by it According to Charles E. Pellew,
the Latin records show that no other
dye has ever brought so high a price
commercially AS the supply dimin-
ished the price rose until linen costing
$52 per pound sold for 652 per pound
after dying. Assuming that per cent
of purple on the weight of goods was
required to give a full shade, say on
silk, the dye runs into the thousands
Of dollars per pound.
From records and enormous piles of
shells near the ancient cities of the
Mediterranean the source of Tyrian
purple has been found to be a whitish
thick liquid found in a small vein Of
certain snaillike fish. Only a few
drops may be recovered from each
fish and 1900 were required for a
quantity of liquid sufficient for accu-
rate analysis of the active principle
AS the demand increased the number
of fish rapidly decreased as their
growth is not rapid.
Finally the art was lost and for 200
years was not revived. In 1865 the
Purple fish" was rediscoyered when
it was found that an Irish woman liv-
ing by the sea was using the whitish
liquid for marking garments for identi-
fication after laundering. When this
liquid is applied to fibers and then
exposed to the sunlight a purple color
is developed. If it is not washed with
soap fast crimson is produced. Tyr
ian purple running from a blush gray
to a brownish red through indigo blue,
purple and violet. These shades are
so varied that we are led to suppose
that in time any unusually fine dye
was termed purple meaning quality
rather than a definite color. Thus the
use of crimson robes for the Catholic
clergy of today has come down as a
remanent of the practie at the time
when the church insisted that its rep
resentatives should have the same pre-
negatives as State rulers and princes.
With such traditions and history it
is not strange that the dye chemist
should dream of producing synthetic
ally the dye which accounted for so
much. The shell fish were identified
1900 collected from the old beds
where they had again become numer-
Gus, and a careful analysis made OF
the coloring principle in the liquid. 1t
had been assuded that it would be in
some form of indigo, both from the
color and the way it developed on
ibers, but that it should be bromine
derivative was a surprise for this was
the first time bromine had been found
to be a component of an animal
Chemically speaking, Tyrian imperial
shades of long ago are too dull and
muddy to suit the taste cultivated by
modern brilliant, attractive colors.
They are no faster TO light or wash
ing. Modern purples contain exactly
the same atoms as its ancient proto-
type, says the Scientific American,
so the most humble wearer of navy
blue is afforded a color in all respects
superior to that used to designate the
Roman consul and the senators OF the
Roman state by narrow borders on
| the toga.
IT, Ton+orr Of