[Footnote 1: A paper recently read before the Society of Arts,
London.]
By Prof. J.J. HUMMEL.
As it is with many other arts, the origin of dyeing is shrouded in the
obscurity of the past; but no doubt it was with the desire to attract
his fellow that man first began to imitate the variety of color he saw
around him in nature, and colored his body or his dress.
Probably the first method of ornamenting textile fabrics was to stain
them with the juices of fruits, or the flowers, leaves, stems, and
roots of plants bruised with water, and we may reasonably assume that
the primitive colors thus obtained would lack durability.
By and by, however, it was found possible to render some of the dyes
more permanent, probably in the first instance by the application of
certain kinds of earth or mud, as we know to be practiced by the Maori
dyers of to-day, and in this way, as it appears to me, the early dyers
learnt the efficacy of what we now call "mordants," which I may
briefly describe as fixing agents for coloring matters.
At a very remote period therefore, I imagine, the subject of fast and
fugitive dyes engaged the attention of textile colorists.
Our European knowledge of dyeing seems to have come to us from the
East, and although at first indigenous dyestuffs were largely
employed, with the discovery of new countries many of these fell
slowly and gradually into disuse, giving way to the newly imported
dyestuffs of other lands, which possessed some advantage, being either
richer in coloring matter, yielding brighter or faster colors, or
being capable of more easy application. Thus kermes gave way to
cochineal, woad to indigo, and so on.
Down to about the year 1856, natural dyestuffs alone, with but one or
two exceptions, were employed by dyers; but in that year a present
distinguished member of this Society, Dr. Perkin, astonished the
scientific and industrial world by his epoch-making discovery of the
coal tar color mauve. From that time down to the present, the textile
colorist has had placed before him an ever increasing number of
coloring matters derived from the same source.
Specially worthy of notice are the discoveries of artificial alizarin,
in 1868, by Graebe and Liebermann, and of indigotin, in 1878, by Adolf
Baeyer, both coloring matters being identical with the respective dyes
obtained from plants.
In view of the vast array of coal tar colors now at our disposal, and
their almost universal application in the decoration of all manner of
textile fabrics, threatening even the continued use of well known
dyestuffs of vegetable origin, it becomes of the greatest importance
to examine most thoroughly, and to compare the stability of both old
and new coloring matters.
The first point in discussing this question of fast and fugitive dyes
is to define the meaning of these terms "fast" and "fugitive."
Unfortunately, as frequently employed, they have no very definite
signification. The great variety of textile fabrics to which coloring
matters are applied, the different stages of manufacture at which the
coloring matter is applied, and the many uses to which the fabrics are
ultimately put, all these are elements which cause dyed colors to be
exposed to the most varied influences.
The term a "fast color," then, may convey a different meaning to
different individuals. To one it implies that the color will not fade
when exposed to light and atmospheric conditions; to another that it
is not impoverished by washing with soap and water; to a third it may
indicate that the color will withstand the action of certain
manufacturing operations, such as scouring, milling, stoving, etc.;
while a fourth person might be so exacting as to demand that a fast
color should resist all the varied influences I have named.
It is well to state at once that no dyed color is absolutely fast,
even to a single influence, and it certainly cannot pass unscathed
through all the operations to which it may be necessary to submit
individual colors applied to this or that material. Many colors are
fast to washing or milling, and yet very fugitive to light; others are
fast to light, but fugitive toward milling; while others again are
fast to both influences. In short, each color has its own special,
characteristic properties, so that colors may be classified with
respect to each particular influence, and may occupy a very different
rank in the different arrangements.
It is, however, by no means necessary to demand absolute fastness from
any color. A color may "bleed" in milling, and therefore be very
unsuitable for tweeds, and yet be most excellent for curtains and
hangings, because of its fastness to light. So, too, a dye capable of
yielding rich or delicate tints, but only moderately fast to light,
may still be perfectly well adapted for the silks and satins of the
ball room, or even the rapidly changing fashion, although it would be
quite inadmissible for the pennon at the masthead.
The colors of carpets, curtains, and tapestry should certainly be fast
to light, but no one expects them to undergo the fatigue of the weekly
washtub; and just as little as we look for the exposure of flannels
and hosiery, day by day and week by week, to the glare of sunlight,
much as we desire that the colors shall not run in washing.
For all practical purposes, then, it seems reasonable to define a
"fast color" as one which will not be materially affected by those
influences to which, in the natural course of things, it will be
submitted. Hence, in speaking of a fast color, it becomes necessary to
refer specially to the particular influences which it resists before
the term acquires a definite meaning. To be precise, one should say
that a color is "fast to light," or "fast to washing," or "fast to
light and washing," and so on. Further, it is necessary, as we shall
see afterward, to give always the name of the fiber to which the color
is applied.
All that I have said with respect to the term "fast" may be applied
with equal propriety to the term "fugitive." This, too, has no very
definite meaning until a qualifying statement, such as I have referred
to, gives it precision.