By M. MAURICE PRUD'HOMME.
Since several years, the methods of madder dyeing have undergone a
complete revolution, the origin of which we will seek to point out. When
artificial alizarin, thanks to the beautiful researches of Graebe and
Liebermann, made its industrial appearance in 1869, it was soon found
that the commercial product, though yielding beautiful purples, was
incapable of producing brilliant reds (C. Koechlin). While admitting
that the new product was identical with the alizarin extracted from
madder, we were led to conclude that in order to produce fine Turkey
reds, the coloring matters which accompany alizarin must play an
important part. This was the idea propounded by Kuhlmann as far back as
1828 (_Soc. Ind. de Mulhouse_, 49, p. 86). According to the researches
of MM. Schützenberger and Schiffert, the coloring matters of madder
are alizarin, purpurin, pseudopurpurin, purpuroxanthin, and an orange
matter, which M. Rosenstiehl considers identical with hydrated purpurin.
Subsequently, there have been added to the list an orange body,
purpuroxantho-carbonic acid of Schunck and Roemer, identical with the
munjistin found by Stenhouse in the madder of India. It was known
that purpuroxanthin does not dye; that pseudopurpurin is very easily
transformed into purpurin, and the uncertainty which was felt concerning
hydrated purpurin left room merely for the hypothesis that Turkey-red
is obtained by the concurrent action of alizarin and purpurin. In the
meantime, the manufacture of artificial alizarin became extended, and a
compound was sold as "alizarin for reds." It is now known, thanks to the
researches of Perkin, Schunck, Roemer, Graebe, and Liebermann, that in
the manufacture of artificial alizarin there are produced three distinct
coloring matters--alizarin, iso or anthrapurpurin, and flavopurpurin,
the two latter being isomers of purpurin. We may remark that purpurin
has not been obtained by direct synthesis. M. de Lalande has produced
it by the oxidation of alizarin. Alizarin is derived from
monosulphanthraquinonic acid, on melting with the hydrate of potassa or
soda. It is a dioxyanthraquinone.
Anthrapurpurin and flavopurpurin are obtained from two isomeric
disulphanthraquinonic acids, improperly named isoanthraflavic and
anthraflavic acids, which are converted into anthrapurpurin and
flavopurpurin by a more profound action of potassa. These two bodies are
trioxyanthraquinones.
We call to mind that alizarin dyes reds of a violet tone, free from
yellow; roses with a blue cast and beautiful purples. Anthrapurpurin and
flavopurpurin differ little from each other, though the shades dyed
with the latter are more yellow. The reds produced with these coloring
matters have a very bright yellowish reflection, but the roses are too
yellow and the purples incline to a dull gray.
Experience with the madder colors shows that a mixture of alizarin and
purpurin yields the most beautiful roses in the steam style, but it is
not the same in dyeing, where the roses got with fleur de garance have
never been equaled.
"Alizarins for reds" all contain more or less of alizarin properly
so-called, from 1 to 10 per cent., along with anthrapurpurin and
flavopurpurin. This proportion does not affect the tone of the reds
obtained further than by preventing them by having too yellow a tone.
The first use of the alizarins for reds was for application of styles,
that is colors containing at once the mordant and the coloring matter
and fixed upon the cloth by the action of steam. Good steam-reds were
easily obtained by using receipts originally designed for extracts of
madder (mixtures of alizarin and purpurin). On the other hand, the first
attempts at dyeing red grounds and red pieces were not successful. The
custom of dyeing up to a brown with fleur and then lightening the shade
by a succession of soapings and cleanings had much to do with this
failure. Goods, mordanted with alumina and dyed with alizarin for reds
up to saturation, never reach the brown tone given by fleur or garancin.
This tone is due in great part to the presence of fawn colored matters,
which the cleanings and soapings served to destroy or remove. The same
operations have also another end--to transform the purpurin into its
hydrate, which is brighter and more solid. The shade, in a word, loses
in depth and gains in brightness. With alizarins for reds, the case is
quite different; they contain no impurities to remove and no bodies
which may gain brightness in consequence of chemical changes under the
influence of the clearings and soapings. These have only one result, in
addition to the formation of a lake of fatty acid, that is to make the
shades lose in intensity. The method of subjecting reds got up with
alizarin to the same treatment as madder-reds was faulty.
There appeared next a method of dyeing bases upon different
principles. The work of M. Schützenberger (1864) speaks of the use of
sulpho-conjugated fatty acids for the fixation of aniline colors. In
England, for a number of years, dyed-reds had been padded in soap-baths
and afterwards steamed to brighten the red. In 1867, Braun and Cordier,
of Rouen, exhibited Turkey reds dyed in five days. The pieces were
passed through aluminate of soda at 18° B., then through ammonium
chloride, washed, dyed with garancin, taken through an oil-bath, dried
and steamed for an hour, and were finally cleared in the ordinary manner
for Turkey-reds. The oil-bath was prepared by treating olive-oil with
nitric acid. This preparation, invented by Hirn, was applied since 1846
by Braun (Braun and Cordier). Since 1849, Gros, Roman, and Marozeau,
of Wesserling, printed fine furniture styles by block upon pieces
previously taken through sulpholeic acid. When the pieces were steamed
and washed the reds and roses were superior to the old dyed reds and
roses produced at the cost of many sourings and soapings. Certain makers
of aniline colors sold mixtures ready prepared for printing which were
known to contain sulpholeic acids. There was thus an idea in the air
that sulpholeic acid, under the influence of steam, formed brilliant and
solid lakes with coloring matters. These facts detract in nothing from
the merit of M. Horace Koechlin, who combined these scattered data
into a true discovery. The original process may be summed up under the
following heads: Printing or padding with an aluminous mordant, which is
fixed and cleaned in the usual manner; dyeing in alizarin for reds with
addition of calcium acetate; padding in sulpholeic acid and drying;
steaming and soaping. The process was next introduced into England,
whence it returned with the following modifications; in place of
olive-oil or oleic acid, castor oil was used, as cheaper, and the number
of operations was reduced. Castor oil, modified by sulphuric acid, can
be introduced at once into the dye-beck, so that the fixation of the
coloring matter as the lake of a fatty acid is effected in a single
operation. The dyeing was then followed by steaming and soaping.
For red on white grounds and for red grounds, a mordant of red liquor at
5° to 6° B. is printed on, with a little salt of tin or nitro-muriate of
tin. It is fixed by oxidation at 30° to 35° C., and dunged with cow-dung
and chalk. The pieces are then dyed with 1 part alizarin for reds at 10
per cent., ¼ to ½ oil for reds (containing 50 per cent.), 1-6th part
acetate of lime at 15° B., giving an hour at 70° and half an hour at the
same heat. Wash, pad in oil (50 to 100 grms. per liter of water), dry on
the drum, or better, in the hot flue, and steam for three-quarters to an
hour and a half. The padding in oil is needless, if sufficient oil has
been used in dyeing, and the pieces may be at once dried and steamed.
Wash and soap for three-quarters of an hour at 60°. Give a second
soaping if necessary. If there is no fear of soiling the whites, dye at
a boil for the last half-hour, which is in part equal to steaming.
Red pieces and yarns may be dyed by the process just given for red
grounds; or, prepare in neutral red oil, in the proportion of 150 grms.
per liter of water for pieces and 15 kilos for 100 kilos of yarns. For
pieces, pad with an ordinary machine with rollers covered with
calico. Dry the pieces in the drum, and the yarn in the stove. Steam
three-quarters of an hour at 1½ atmosphere. Mordant in pyrolignite of
alumina at 10° B., and wash thoroughly. Dye for an hour at 70°, and half
an hour longer at the same heat, using for 100 kilos of cloth or yarn 20
kilos alizarin at 10 per cent., 10 kilos acetate of lime at 18° B., and
5 kilos sulpholeic acid. Steam for an hour. Soap for a longer or shorter
time, with or without the addition of soda crystals. There may be added
to the aluminous mordant a little salt of tin to raise the tone. Lastly,
aluminate of soda may be used as a mordant in place of red liquor or
sulphate of alumina.
Certain firms employ a so-called continuous process. The pieces are
passed into a cistern 6 meters long and fitted with rollers. This
dye-bath contains, from 3 to 5 grms. of alizarin per liter of water, and
is heated to 98°. The pieces take 5 minutes to traverse this cistern,
and, owing to the high temperature and the concentration of the dye
liquor, they come out perfectly dyed. Two pieces may even be passed
through at once, one above the other. As the dye-bath becomes exhausted,
it must be recruited from time to time with fresh quantities of
alizarin. The great advantage of this method is that it economizes not
merely time but coloring matter.
The quantity of acetate of lime to be employed in dyeing varies with the
composition of the mordant and with that of the water. Schlumberger has
shown that Turkey-red contains 4 molecules of alumina to 3 of lime.
Rosenstiehl has shown that alumina mordants are properly saturated if
two equivalents of lime are used for each equivalent of alizarin, if the
dyeing is done without oil. These figures require to be modified when
the oil is put into the dye beck, as it precipitates the lime. Acetate
of lime at 15° B., obtained by saturating acetic acid with chalk and
adding a slight excess of acetic acid, contains about ¼ mol. acetate of
lime.--_Bulletin de la Société Chimique de Paris._
* * * * *