colouring matter or assist in causing it to be attracted by the fibre, &c. In many cases the free colour-acid or free colour-base has little colour, this being only developed in the salt. The free base rosaniline, for example, is colourless, whereas the salt magenta (rosaniline hydrochloride) has a deep crimson colour in solution. The free acid Alizarin is orange, while its alumina-salt is bright red. It may be here stated that the scientific classification of colouring matters into Nitro-colours, Azo-colours, &c., already alluded to, is based on their chemical constitution, or the chromophorous groups they contain, whereas the classification according to their mode of application is dependent upon the character and arrangement of the auxochromous groups. The question of the mordant-dyeing property of certain colouring matters containing (OH) and (COOH) groups has already been explained under the head of Artificial Mordant Colours.
The peculiar property characteristic of dyestuffs, as distinguished from mere colouring matters, namely, that of being readily attracted by the textile fibres, notably the animal fibres, appears then to be due to their more or less marked acid or basic character. Intimately connected with this is the fact that these fibres also exhibit partly basic and partly acid characters, due to the presence of carboxyl and amido groups. The behaviour of magenta is typical of the Basic Colours. As already indicated, rosaniline, the base of magenta, is colourless, and only becomes coloured by its union with an acid, and yet wool and silk can be as readily dyed with the colourless rosaniline (base) as with the magenta (salt). The explanation is that the base rosaniline has united with the fibre, which here plays the part of an acid, to form a coloured salt. It has also been proved that in dyeing the animal fibres with magenta (rosaniline hydrochloride), the fibre unites with the rosaniline only, and liberates the hydrochloric acid. Further, magenta will not dye cotton unless the fibre is previously prepared, e.g. with the mordant tannic acid, with which the base rosaniline unites to form an insoluble salt. In dyeing wool it is the fibre itself which acts as the mordant. In the case of the Acid Colours the explanation is similar. In many of these the free colour-acid has quite a different colour from that of the alkali-salt, and yet on dyeing wool or silk with the free colour-acid, the fibre exhibits the colour of the alkali-salt and not of the colour-acid. In this case the fibre evidently plays the part of a base. Another fact in favour of the view that the union between fibre and colouring matter is of a chemical nature, is that by altering the chemical constitution of the fibre its dyeing properties are also altered; oxycellulose and nitrocellulose, for example, have a greater attraction for Basic Colours than cellulose. Such facts and considerations as these have helped to establish the view that in the case of dyeing animal fibres with many colouring matters the operation is a chemical process, and not merely a mechanical absorption of the dyestuff. A similar explanation does not suffice, however, in the case of dyeing cotton with the Direct Colours. These are attracted by cotton from their solutions as alkali salts, apparently without decomposition. The affinity existing between the fibre and colouring matter is somewhat feeble, for the latter can be removed from the dyed fibre by merely boiling with water. The depth of colour obtained in dyeing varies with the concentration of the colour solution, or with the amount of some neutral salt, e.g. sodium chloride, added as an assistant to the dye-bath; moreover, the dye-bath is not exhausted. The colouring matter is submitted to the action of two forces, the solvent power of the water and the affinity of the fibre, and divides itself between the fibre and the water. After dyeing for some time, a state of equilibrium is attained in which the colouring matter is divided between the fibre and the water in a given ratio, and prolonged dyeing does not intensify the dyed colour.
Some investigators hold the view that in some cases the fibres exert a purely physical attraction towards colouring matters, and that the latter are held in an unchanged state by the fibre. The phenomenon is regarded as one of purely mechanical surface-attraction, and is compared with that exercised by animal charcoal when employed in decolourizing a solution of some colouring matter. Some consider such direct dyeing as mere diffusion of the colouring matter into the fibre, and others that the colouring matter is in a state of “solid solution” in the fibre, similar to the solution of a metallic oxide in coloured glass. According to this latter view, the cause of the dyeing of textile fibres is similar to the attraction or solvent action exerted by ether when it withdraws colouring matter from an aqueous solution by agitation. Latterly the view has been advanced that dyeing is due to precipitation of the colloid dyestuffs by the colloid substance of the fibre.
In the case of colours which are dyed on mordants, the question is merely transferred to the nature of the attraction which exists between the fibre and the mordant, for it has been conclusively established that the union between the colouring matter and the mordant is essentially chemical in character.
From our present knowledge it will be seen that we are unable to give a final answer to the question of whether the dyeing process is to be regarded as a chemical or a mechanical process. There are arguments and facts which favour both views; but in the case of wool and silk dyeing, the prevailing opinion in most cases is in favour of the chemical theory, whereas in cotton-dyeing, the mechanical theory is widely accepted. Probably no single theory can explain satisfactorily the fundamental cause of attraction in all cases of dyeing, and further investigation is needed to answer fully this very difficult and abstruse question.
The poisonous nature or otherwise of the coal-tar dyes has been frequently discussed, and the popular opinion, no doubt dating from the time when magenta and its derivatives were contaminated with arsenic, seems to be that they are for the most part really poisonous, and ought to be avoided for colouring materials worn next Conclusion.the skin, for articles of food, &c. It is satisfactory to know that most of the colours are not poisonous, but some few are—namely, Picric acid, Victoria Orange, Aurantia, Coralline, Metanil Yellow, Orange II. and Safranine. Many coal-tar colours have, indeed, been recommended as antiseptics or as medicinal remedies, e.g. Methyl Violet, Auramine and Methylene Blue, because of their special physiological action. In histology and bacteriology many coal-tar colours have rendered excellent service in staining microscopic preparations, and have enabled the investigator to detect differences of structure, &c., previously unsuspected. In photography many of the more fugitive colouring matters, e.g. Cyanine, Eosine, Quinoline Red, &c., are employed in the manufacture of ortho-chromatic plates, by means of which the colours of natural objects can be photographed in the same degrees of light and shade as they appear to the eye—blue, for example, appearing a darker grey, yellow, a lighter grey, in the printed photograph.
Since the year 1856, in which the first coal-tar colour, mauve, was discovered, the art of dyeing has made enormous advances, mainly in consequence of the continued introduction of coal-tar colours having the most varied properties and suitable for nearly every requirement. The old idea that the vegetable dyestuffs are superior in fastness to light is gradually being given up, and, if one may judge from the past, it seems evident that in the future there will come a time when all our dyestuffs will be prepared by artificial means.
Authorities.—Macquer, Hellot and le Pileur d’Apligny, The Art of Dyeing Wool, Silk and Cotton (London, 1789); Bancroft, Philosophy of Permanent Colours (2 vols., London, 1813); Berthollet-Ure, Elements of the Art of Dyeing (2 vols., London, 1824); Chevreul, Recherches chimiques sur la teinture (Paris, 1835–1861); O’Neill, The Chemistry of Calico Printing, Dyeing and Bleaching (Manchester, 1860); Dictionary of Calico Printing and Dyeing (London, 1862); Schützenberger, Traité des matières colorantes (2 vols., Paris, 1867); Bolley, Die Spinnfasern und die im Pflanzen- und Thierkörper vorkommenden Farbstoffe (1867); Crookes, A Practical Handbook of Dyeing and Calico-Printing (London, 1874); Jarmain, Wool-Dyeing (1876); O’Neill, Textile Colourist (4 vols., Manchester, 1876); Calvert, Dyeing and Calico Printing (Manchester, 1876); Moyret, Traité de la teinture des soies (Lyon, 1877); O’Neill, The Practice and Principles of Calico Printing, Bleaching and Dyeing (Manchester, 1878); Girardin, Matières textiles et matières tinctoriales (Paris, 1880); Hummel, The Dyeing of Textile Fabrics (London, 1885); Sansone, Dyeing (Manchester, 1888); Witt, Chemische Technologie der Gespinnstfasern (Brunswick, 1888); Benedikt and Knecht, The Chemistry of the Coal-Tar Colours (London, 1889); Hurst, Silk Dyeing, Printing and Finishing (London, 1892); Noelting and
