On the Purple Violet Flower. 349 



The great brilliancy which this purple violet colour pro- 

 duces upon cotton, and which surpasses that of the finest 

 satin dyed in the ordinary manner, suggested to me the idea 

 of producing it on the fine calicoes. The success so com- 

 pletely answered my wishes, that we soon manufactured some 

 whole pieces of Turkish shawls, dyed of this colour, for 

 Messrs. Soehne and Co. of Paris, who received them some 

 years ago ; but although they were greatly admired, they 

 were too high priced for the present times. Formerly, when 

 it was the fashion for the ladies to wear calicoes at all sea- 

 sons, we were under the necessity of making a high priced 

 article of that description if we wished to succeed in busi- 

 ness : I had proofs of this 32 years ago, when I lived at 

 Rouen ; for, having then some pieces of ten ells length for 

 making robes, a very rich fabric, I sold them for 22 louis 

 d'ors apiece. These pieces came from the manufactory of 

 the famous Jean Henry Schule, at Augsburg, whom I think 

 the first manufacturer in Europe who has united the greatest 

 possible perfection and beauty in the printing of calicoes : 

 his productions made so great a noise in the mercantile 

 world, that even the emperor of China requested to see 

 them, and greatly admired them when compared with those 

 of his own country. 



The cotton stuffs destined for printing a ground of purple 

 violet, and which is to preserve some white objects, require 

 to be well bleached, in order that they may be dirtied as 

 little as possible by the dyeing; for, although the purple 

 violet colour is so solid that it bears very well, without being 

 much weakened, the action of the alkaline ley of oxymu- 

 riate of potash, the white is re-established but with difficulty. 



The aluminc, fixed upon the stulT and saturated with the 

 colouring parts of the tincture of bugloss, stdl admits of the 

 application of the colouring parts of other anin)al and vege- 

 table substances; which gives room for an infinity of other 

 shades, which may be augmented in an indeterminate man- 

 ner, by diluting or weakening the acetate of alumine intended 

 for printing, and by dyeing the purple violets and the shades 

 which belong to it, such as the violet, lilac, &c. &c., by 

 the more or less weakening of the acetate of aluminc, mad- 

 der, 



