DYES and Dyeing.
Teinture, . . . . Fe. Tinta, Ir.
Ffirben, . . . . G ER. Tinte, Se Rang, . ilirw., PERS. Bora, I Tun IC..
Dyeing is tho art of imparting to wool, hair, silk, cotton, linen, leather, etc., colours which resist the operation of washing, and the wear to which they are subject, when made up into articles of furniture or clothing. Tho art was known at a very early period. Jacob made for Joseph a coat of many colours (Genesis xxxvii. 3) ; and in Exodus frequent mention is made of tho orna ments for the tabernacle, as being composed of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen. About n.c. 1400, tho Maliabharata describes the colours of garments worn by men and women, which could only have been produced by dyes. Later on, at the first synod or congregation of Buddhist monks, held in tho year n.c. 543, they arranged them selves according to their rank, each in its appro priate place, and the hall glittered with the yellow robes of the monks. Both the male and female ascetics wore the same yellow-coloured robes, though it ia also stated that tho three garments they wore tvere of a dark red colour. These two colours, the turmeric yellow and the Indian red, aro still the outward distinctions of tho ascetic and the religious orders of the Hindus and Buddh ists of the present day. Tho simple turmerio yellow, occasionally reddened with alkali, is chiefly used by Hindu females on religious occa sions, as emblematic of chastity and purity, as was evidently the custom in ancient times. There are evidences in tho rock-cut temples of Ajnnta and of liagh, which aro as old as the Gth century, that tho art of dyeing had advanced considerably at that period. Tho paintings there represent several figures in varioua-eoloured clothes, and in others striped with red, blue, and white, a pattern which may be seen in India to this day. In the Bagh eaves in Central India, which are nearly as old as those of Ajunta, Dr. Mau Daji detected in the garments on the figures of two dancing men, the circular-patterned checkers, very much after the style now used in Jeypore and in parts of Gujerat. The fresco paintings at Ajunta are believed to exhibit the dresses worn in that part of India, from B.C. 200 to A.D. 800 or 1000 ; and besides garments of many colours, they show coloured borders and ends to white cloths. Pliny mentions the flags of various colours dis played by the Indians ; and the Egyptians may have learned the art from the Hindus, from whom they doubtless obtained the alum celebrated by the name of Egyptian alum, the manufacture of which is still carried on in Cutch.
1Ve read also in 2 Chronicles ii. 14 of Solomon having sent to Tyre for coloured linens, and the king of that country sent him a man sidlful to work in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson.' Still nearer the Christian era, Ezekiel (593 n.c.), in his prophecy against Tyre (xxvii. 7), speaks of ' blue and purple from tbe isles of Elishali.' The Tyrian dye is supposed to have
been obtained from two molluscs, described by Pliny under the names purpura and buccinum. Their colour was durable, but very costly. Pliny states that a pound weight of the double-dipped Tyrian purple was sold in Rome in the time of Augustus for 100 crowns (equal to about £30 of our money). Citizens of Rome wore purple attire until the time of the emperors, when the use of purple was restricted to them ; and the manufac ture languished until the llth century, and then became extinct. .1n the 17th century the art of dyeing purple WaS revived by Mr. Cole of Bristol, and in the 18th century by M. Reautunr of France; but by this time finer colours had been discovered, and cheaper processes invented. We learn from Pliny that the competitors in the circus we,re clothed in dresses of green, orange, grey, and white ; but the art of dyeing ,,vas lost at Rome after the invasion of the northern barbarians in the 5th century. About the end of the 12th century, Florence became celebrated in the art, and in the easly part of the 14th century num bered not less than 200 dyeing establishments. The discovery of America supplied Europe with a variety of new colouring naatters, such as indigo, logwood, quercitron, Brazil - wood, cochineal, arnotto, etc. Before the introduction of indigo, woad was used in Europe for dyeing blue ; 'and the cultivators of this plant endeavoured to prevent the use of indigo, which, by a decree. of the German Diet in 1577, was declared to be a pernicious, deceitful, eating, and corrosive dye.' The introduction of logwood was opposed from similarly interested motives. Its use was pro hibited by a statute of Elizabeth, under heavy penalties, and all of it found in the country was ordered to be destroyed. It was not until the reign of Charles IL that its use was permitted. The method of dyeing Turkey-red—one of the most durable of colours—early discovered in India, was afterwards practised in other parts of Asia and in Greece. About the middle of the 18th century, some Greek dyers established`dyeworks for this colour in France, and in 1765 an account of the method of producing it was published, ,by order of the French Government. About the end of the. 18th century, a Turkey-red dyehouse was established in Manchester by a Frenchman, who obtained a grant from the British Government for I the disclosure of his process, which, however, was not very successful. A better process was intro duced into Glasgow by a Frenchman named Papilon ; but before this, Mr. 'Wilson of Ainsworth, near Manchester, had obtained a process from the Greeks of Smyrna, which he made public. Still more recently, in the middle of the 19th century, a discover3r by Faraday, and, after him, by other chemists, of a series known as the aniline dyes, has lessened the value of the madders, cochineal, turmeric, and safflower.