Hi folks. I must, respectfully, disagree with Ann on a point about the color Prussian Blue Prussian Blue is defined as absorbing wavelengths about around 680 nm, causing it to appear in visible light as approximately 700 THz. Which is a lovely strong blue leaning towards the violet end of the spectrum, not to the green/yellow end. (Methods of Chemical Analysis, 1998)
I will agree with her that I misspoke when I said it was and aniline dye, its a cyanometalate. I would have been more accurate to say that Prussian blue was one of the first chemically synthesized dyes. Thanks for the redirect on that one. (navel gazing: We know that the dye was in the painters sphere in the early 1700s (18th century), but when did it move to the dyers sphere? Was it in the mid-1700s, thanks to Macquer's experiments with reduction, thereby giving an easily transportable salt? Or was it used popularly, or rarely before that. I'm going to go have to go research this. Fascinating topic. As a nifty side note, and a easy visual reference (although I got it from Wikipedia, so take it with a big grain of NaCl) the midnight blue crayon was once colored with and called Prussian blue. Mari _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
