Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The perfect addition to the quilt lab

What could be more perfect for me, than my latest find on ebay?   It is a 19th century book covered with a beautiful purple calico.  And guess what the subject matter of the book is?  Chemistry of course!

The title of the book is "A Laboratory Manual Containing Directions for a Course of Experiments in General Chemistry", by Ira Remsen, c.1890.  It is covered with this awesome purple calico, which we don't see often because the early purple dyes were not light-fast.  This book must have been stored away.  It has a few spots where the color has faded to tan but for the most part the purple remains, especially inside the cover.
Here's a view inside the cover.  You can see how the fabric and thread ties have stained the inner cover; this is a sign that this is an authentic antique piece, not an old book recently covered with fabric.  If you look closely on the left side, there is piece of filter paper (circle of paper) tucked under the fabric.  It too is stained by the purple fabric so it has been in there a long time.
As you can see, the student has written his notes for experiments 36, 37, and 38 on this page  He made soap bubbles filled with hydrogen and then lit them with a match.  What fun!
I read about purple dyes from the chemistry perspective a while ago and wrote a newsletter on the topic.  Here is an excerpt. 
Early natural purple dyes were not colorfast, often fading to a tan color in the presence of light. In 1856, William Henry Perkin, when he was only 18 years old, did a chemical reaction with a derivative of aniline (hence the term aniline dyes). Instead of throwing away the black junk that formed in the reaction, he extracted a purple compound, which he called mauve. It turns out that an impurity in his starting materials, gave rise mauve, the first stable purple dye. Like many discoveries in science, the accidental result turned out to be the most interesting result. This chemistry was the start of the synthetic dye industry, which eventually became dominated by German companies by the time of WWI.
Reference: Introduction to Organic Chemistry, A. Streitwieser and C. Heathcock, Macmillan Publishing Company, NY, c. 1985.

16 comments:

  1. That's a cool find Ann and a very interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is perfect! Interesting infomation, too. How do you plan to use it? Will it be out on display or will you have to tuck it away from the light to preserve it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Often the things we find out on the way to another answer is the information we most need;) Love you find. I've watched too many old things get used for drop clothes, door stoppers, or otherwise just thrown out.
    Happy Quilting!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. that book was meant to be in your library and of course can't wait to see that purple fabric in one of your little quilts
    Kathie

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a great find! I have collected a few old Chemistry books myself (Ihave a BS in Chem) but none with so great a cover as this one!
    Thanks for sharing it,
    Katy

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think my love of purple is well known, so I also think that fabric is a fantastic find. But why someone would put such a wonderful color on a book of such a dreaded subject (I took my fair share of chemistry courses on my way to a degree in microbiology, so I speak from repeated experience here)is beyond me! And I love the history lesson about purple and mauve. It reminds me how many things we take for granted in our daily lives.

    ReplyDelete
  7. interesting! what a treasure to find!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a fun find! Love the purple fabric too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That is sure a treasure! How lucky to find it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. How exciting with your new find!!! Very interesting story. Thanks for sharing. Always enjoy your blog, Carolyn

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a thrill to have found such an item of special interest to you! I'm sure your heart was racing as you looked through it. ---"Love"

    ReplyDelete
  12. I just can't get over how perfect that book is for you. Congratulations on such a great Ebay find! I know you must be so pleased.

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a great find! Great post.

    ReplyDelete