Nowadays: when a housewife goes shoppiag: to buy materials for furnishing she almost takes it for granted that fast colours, suck as will stand washing and sunlight, are used for the fabrics she is shown, and has forgotten altogether that it is only thirty years ago that it was almost invariably the rule to draw blinds when the sun shone and so keeps its light from delicate fabrics.
This progress. in the matter fast colours has: been due largely to British enterprise, in particular to the ente¥prise of one man, James Morton, of Carlisle and the story of the development of fast colours as applied to woven" and. printed fabrics is a fascinating one.
The art and practice of dyeing. goes back into the mists of the ast, but the dyes used were made from plants or minerals, though few such as cochineal or the Tyrian purple of the Romans, which is obtained from a mullose, were rived from animals, It was not until 1856 that the English chemist, Sir W. H. Perkin, first prepared an} me dye, the purple colouring we", from coal tar; the first steps towards which discovery not having been made until, 1834. The industry Inter however, passed to Germany and Switzerland and it remained almost a monopoly until the War brought: the necessity for its revival: in Great Britain, But over ten years before the war' Morton was proving his value in the dyeing trade and a shop wine dow, we are told by Dr, E. F. Armstrong, 'Technical Director of the British Dyestuffs Corporation, was actually responsible for much.' Morton, by nature an artist, had taken pains in the design and colour ing of some tapestries, and-passing down Regent Street, London, where these were displayed in x' wel known shop he found they had changed so radically in colour after exposure to sunlight that the balance of his designs was upset. Much concerned by this, Mortov collected samples of materials by other firms, and retired to his home fu the north. Here he turned everything out of the green house—what the gardener said is not te ported—mounted the patterns, hi covered and half exposed, on cards trid submitted them to the effect of daylight in a warm, humid atmos: phere. Only here and there four stood the test: but this a hint as to how to find a range of colours, however small, which would be proof against the' sun and ordinary washing.
By 1904 already progress had been made, and later, though at first only dyeing of the special colours on yarns had been tried, a process was worked out at Carlisle for the whole or plain vat dycing goods, to be accompanied by a guarantee, But by 1014 the firm in Carlisle was depending almost entirely upon Germany to supply the special dyes and no one in the firm knew anything of the chemistry of dyes—they had been fully occupied with: their application. Morton, however, was determined Fnot to be beaten and decided to make the dyes—the important blue and yellow—himself. At the end-of three months only ounce or so of each had been produced but, this was a start and despite all diffculties a dye-making factory was founded and work continued, until, by the end of March, 1915, about twenty pounds was produced. Today of the same colours about ten tons a week are made, The new industry faced many crises in its development—which threatened to devastate its future, But when times were bad: Morton occupied himself with chemical research and, not content to match pre-War dyes, he sought to discover fand invent dyes of his own, Among: others he a discovered, a new blue, the fastest ever made, was prom duced and in September, 1920, a green of pure quality, Caledon Jade, the lack of which had always been gap in the vat palette, The dis-Jeovery of this green is the most out nding in the dye trade for a quarter of a century, and twenty-two patents for it exist all over the world.
But despite all set-bucks the new industry managed to keep on and weathered finally the severe slump in trade in 1921 which lasted for two years, And so progress has been gradually won, and one smiles now to remember the days when proud housewives carefully covered thely cherished eaxpots with pieces of newspaper or drew the curtains at the slightest hint of even ti comparatively weak English sunlight shining steadily on thole rooms' furnishings.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.