320 DYEING AND CALICO PBINTING. 



gurancux, and which could be used for producing colours, if not so fast 

 as those of madder, still a good imitation of them. This process is now 

 adopted at all print works, especially for obtaining various shades of red 

 and chocolate. 



When, instead of spent madder, fresh madder root is treated by the 

 above process, the result is a substance called garancine, the use of which 

 has very greatly extended since 1851. The advantage obtained by 

 converting madder into garancine instead of using it in its original form, 

 is that it saves the printer much expense, as goods dyed with garancine 

 do not require soaping to obtain good whites, a slight chymic and good 

 washing being sufficient. 



The defect presented hy this class of goods, viz., their inability to 

 resist the action of soap, led Messrs. Pincoff and Schunck to search for 

 a substitute, which they discovered in 1853, and called " commercial 

 alizarine." This material, which has been of late years most extensively 

 employed by several printing firms, is obtained by taking principally 

 garancine prepared as above, thoroughly depriving it of acid, and sub- 

 mitting it to the action of high-pressure steam, when the substance 

 called verantine is decomposed or modified, so as to stain the whites 

 less, and not to interfere with the purple-dying power of alizarine. The 

 advantages possessed by this product are : — the production of good lilacs 

 economically and without soaping ; great promptitude and regularity in 

 the production ; facility of producing combination of lilacs with catechu 

 and lilac with chocolate, which results cannot be so satisfactorily 

 obtained with madder or garancine ; production of lilac shades graduated 

 ad libitum as to cost ; lastly, economy of mordants. 



Mr. Higgins has lately devised a method of preparing commercial 

 alizarine which differs from that of Messrs. Pincoff and Schunck, in that 

 he boils garancine, and carbonate of soda, and a little ammonia. The 

 litpior, which is alkaline at starting, becomes acid after being boiled 

 twenty-four hours, and converts the garancine into alizarine. 



Another preparation of madder, known under the name of flower of 

 madder, which is now extensively used by continental printers, was 

 introduced to the trade in 1852, by MM. Julian and Roijuer. It is ob- 

 tained by allowing madder to ferment, and then washing it thoroughly, 

 which removes from it not only all soluble matters, such as sugar, 

 mucilaginous substance?, acids, &c, which interfere with the fixation 

 of the alizarine on the various mordants, but also (in accordance with 

 Dr. Schunk's researches, on the influence of the ferment erythrozym on 

 rubian) increases the quantity of the colour-giving principles, — alizarine 

 and purpurine. It is found by experience that 100 parts of flower of 

 madder are equal to about 200 parts of ordinary ground roots, and that 

 the shades are finer, the pinks and reds also having greater solidity. 

 Mr. Mucklow has recently introduced a process similar to the above, 

 which consists in alternately macerating and pressing madder roots, so 



