After a blistering trip to the Googles: Prussian Blue had been known as a painting pigment as early as 1704, but it was in 1752 the French chemist Pierre J. Macquer<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_J._Macquer> made the important step of showing the Prussian blue could be reduced to a salt of iron, and a new acid, which could be used to reconstitute the dye. The new acid, hydrogen cyanide <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_cyanide>, first isolated from Prussian blue in pure form and characterized about 1783 by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Wilhelm_Scheele>. Can't recall the name of the unfortunate chemist who discovered HCN. The "tale" with that story ends up with the poor chap quite dead, and stained blue, from the experiment with Prussic Dye.
On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 2:32 PM, Marie Stewart <[email protected]> wrote: > AH. One thing just struck my mind. > This might be in the time period of the discovery of Prussic Acid and it's > use as a dye. The first of the aniline dyes it was noted for being a vivid > rich blue that didn't fade. > Sorry I don't have the time to Google now... have to scoot. > But, it's a theory. > > Mari > > > On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 2:18 PM, Emily Gilbert <[email protected]>wrote: > >> I can't find the reference (which is going to drive me nuts!), but I seem >> to remember reading somewhere that it was because blue cloth was more >> expensive to manufacture, so wearing a blue coat told people that you could >> afford the best. >> >> Emily >> >> On 1/31/2011 7:53 PM, Hope Greenberg wrote: >> >>> >>> It's funny how something so commonly known can strike us afresh with >>> questions. In this case: >>> >>> It's quite apparent that during the Federal/Empire/Regency or turn of the >>> 18/19century period* a dark blue coat was the sign of higher status and, >>> together with black, the most common color for full dress. The number of >>> mentions in Austen, the number of fashion plates that show them indicates >>> that this is so. Does anyone have any (documented) explanations why? >>> >>> The most common one seems to be "because Beau Brummel says so" though >>> this blog post suggests a Goethe/Werther connection ( >>> http://austenette.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/the-blue-coat/). >>> >>> Is it simply a fashion choice that became popular or does anyone know of >>> an economic, political or other reason for the prominence of the blue coat? >>> (For example, something like the tax on hair powder contributing to the >>> demise of that particular fashion, or the tax laws regarding Irish linen >>> that increased its popularity, etc.) >>> >>> - Hope >>> >>> * I'm tempted to start using the abbreviation FER to cover this time >>> period! >>> _______________________________________________ >>> h-costume mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> h-costume mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume >> > > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
