Cockling is the term given to ripples occurring in a piece of paper. The effect is usually caused by exposure of the paper to moisture such as water - also known as water damage. Cockling can be reduced or removed by slightly moistening the paper and then pressing it between blotting paper and weights. Research Cockling
Dyeing is the art of giving colour to textile and other articles in such a way that the colours are more or less permanent, and not readily affected by the action of light, washing, etc. Like spinning and weaving it was originally a home industry, as it still is in many places. Until about 1850 natural dye-stuffs alone were employed, but the discovery of dyes of all colours that can be obtained from coal-tar products revolutionized dyeing as an industry, and the vegetable dye-stuffs were gradually superseded by the newer colours.
Before dyeing, the materials have generally to be cleansed or bleached to get rid of undesirable colouring matters or impurities; and frequently a textile material is subjected to some subsidiary treatment in order to obtain special effects. For example, cottonyarn may be subjected to the action of strong causticsoda ('mercerizing' process) while in a state of great tension, in order to give it a permanent silky lustre.
Dyeing is not only an art, it is also a branch of applied chemistry. One fundamental principle is, that the colouring matter and other necessary substances must be applied in a state of solution, and while in direct contact with the fibre they must be rendered insoluble, so that they are precipitated within or upon the fibre and thus permanently fixed. The method of effecting this varies greatly according to the fibre and the colouring matter employed. As a rule the vegetable and the animal fibres are dyed by very different methods. The affinity of the animal fibres for certain colouring matters is often so great that they are readily dyed by simple immersion in hot colour solutions;
but this simple process is not generally sufficient. According to the method of their application in dyeing the following groups: of dye-stuffs may be distinguished: Avid Colours, Basic Colours, Direct Colours, Developed Colours, Mordant Colours, Miscellaneous Colours, Reactive Colours.
The acid colours are so called because they are of an acid character and are applied in an acid dye-bath. As a rule, they are only suitable for dyeing the animal fibres, e.g. wool and silk, also leather, horn, feathers, etc. Only a few vegetable dye-stuffs belong to this class, for example, the purple colour orchil and the blue colour indigo extract. On the other hand, the acid colours derived from coal-tar - and increasingly petroleum - are very numerous and yield a great variety of hues - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, and black, each with its particular name.
The basic colours are so called because their essential constituents, to which they owe their dyeing power, are organicbases. The bases themselves are colourless and too insoluble in water to be of use, hence they are employed in the form of their soluble coloured salts, usually the hydrochlorides of the colour-bases. Their solutions are precipitated by tannic acid, because it combines with the colour-bases to form insoluble tannates. Wool, silk, and animal substances generally have a direct attraction for colour-bases, and hence these fibres are readily dyed by simple immersion in hot aqueous solutions of the basic colours. Cotton and linen, on the other hand, are not dyed so readily; they need first to be prepared or impregnated with tannic acid, and thus prepared are said to be mordanted, the tannic acid in this connection being styled the mordant. Most of the colours of this class are fugitive to light, and all but one, barberryroot, are derived from coal-tar products.
The direct colours are so called because they dyecotton direct, that is, without the aid of any mordanting process. The first of this class derived from coal-tar was congo red, discovered in 1884; this group includes a very great variety of fast colours, and forms, indeed, one of the most important and valuable series of dye-stuffs employed. Cotton, linen, and the vegetable fibres generally are dyed in the simplest possible manner by merely boiling them in a solution of the dye-stuff, with or without the addition of a little soap, carbonate or sulphate of soda, etc. Wool and silk are frequently dyed in the same manner as cotton. Very few vegetable dye-stuffs belong to the direct colours, e.g. Safflower, Turmeric, Saffron, Annatto. They are all fugitive, and have been of little or no importance to the dyer since the end of the 19th century. The coal-tar colours of this class, on the other hand, are extremely numerous.
The developed colours include a variety of colours which are formed in situ upon the fibre by the successive application of two or more substances. These colours are all of coal-tar origin. A number of them belong to the so-called azo colours, derived from compounds containing nitrogen.
The mordant colours form one of the most important classes of colouring matters, for they include not only most of the vegetable dye-stuffs, e.g. madder, logwood, fustic, etc, but also many valuable fast coal-tar colours, commonly known as the alizarin colours, after their typical representative, alizarin. These mordant colours have by themselves very little colouring power, as a rule, and if employed alone in dyeing give little or no result. If applied, however, in conjunction with metallic salts, notably those of chromium, aluminium, iron, tin, and copper, they each yield a variety of colours, according to the metallic salt employed. In employing them usually two distinct operations are involved: first, that of applying the metallic salt or mordant, called the mordanting process ; and second, that of dyeing proper, in which the mordanted material is boiled in a solution or decoction of the dye-stuff. During the dyeing operation the colouring principle of the dye-stuff combines with the metallic salt already upon the material, and the colour is thus produced and fixed upon the fibre. The method of mordanting varies with the fibre and the metallic salt employed. The vegetable dye-stuffs of this class include Madder, Sapanwood, Camwood, Barwood, Old Fustic, Young Fustic, Quercitron Bark, Persian Berries, Weld, Logwood. Madder was formerly the most important and highly valued of the dye-stuffs of this class, being especially employed to produce the fine 'Turkey-red' dye; but was entirely superseded by the coal-tar colour alizarin towards the end of the 19th century.
Reactive colours combine directly with the fibre being dyed through a chemical reaction and result in a fast colour. The first ranges of reactive dyes for cellulose fibres were introduced in the mid-1950s.
Similarly, the employment of cochineal (an insect dye) has also greatly diminished through the introduction of the cheaper colours. Camwood and barwood are almost entirely used in wool-dyeing, either in conjunction with the indigo-vat or for the purpose of dyeing various shades of brown. Old fustic is the most important of the yellow mordant dye-stuffs, and the colours are fast although not very brilliant. Young fustic yields fugitive colours, and has been little used since 1900. Quercitron bark is an excellent dye-stuff employed by wool-dyers for the production of bright orange and yellow colours. Persian berries and weld, a species of wild mignonette, are both excellent dye-stuffs, but their employment is now limited. Logwood is largely employed by wool, silk, and cotton dyers for dyeing black and dark-blues, which, although fast to washing, are only moderately so towards light. During the 20th century dyewoods were gradually replaced by coal-tar colours.
Among miscellaneous colours are several dye-stuffs applied in a distinct manner. Indigo is a dark-blue powder quite insoluble in water, but can be rendered soluble for dyeing purposes by two methods. The first method converts the indigo into so-called indigo extract, which is sold as a blue paste and applied as an acid colour in dyeing wool and silk. In the second method the indigo-blue is converted into indigo-white, which readily dissolves in the alkalipresent, the solution thus obtained being called an indigo-vat. If cotton, wool, or silk is steeped for some time in the clear yellow solution of such a vat, and then exposed to the oxidizing influence of the air, they are dyed a permanent blue. The indigo-white absorbed by the fibre loses its acquired hydrogen, and thus insoluble indigo-blue is regenerated within and upon the fibre. Aniline black is a valuable colour, produced direct upon the fibre by the oxidation of aniline, and remarkable for its extreme permanency.
Catechu is a vegetable dye-stuff used in dyeing cotton and woollen brown. On wool, catechu yields khaki browns in single bath by using copper sulphate as the mordant. On silk it is largely employed for weighting purposes in the process of dyeing black. Chrome Yellow, Iron Buff, Prussian Blue, and Manganese Brown, employed in cotton dyeing, are frequently classed as mineral colours. Chrome yellow is obtained by immersing cotton successively in solutions of acetate of lead and bichromate of potash, whereby the yellow precipitate of chromate of lead is fixed upon the fibre. Iron buff is obtained in a similar manner by the successive application of iron sulphate and carbonate of soda, and finally developing the full colour by washing with water and exposure to air. The buff colour is really due to the precipitation of oxide of iron on the cotton. Prussian blue is at once developed by passing the buff-dyed cotton through an acidified solution of potassium ferrocyanide. The production of manganese brown on cotton is similar to that of iron buff. The brown colour ultimately produced upon the fibre is an oxide of manganese. The mineral colours are very useful for certain purposes, and are to be regarded as very fast to light. Research Dyeing
An espalier is a wooden framework on which fruit-trees or creepers are trained to grow horizontally with the object of securing for the plant a freer circulation of air ad a full exposure to the sun. Research Espalier
Etiolation or blanching of plants, is a state produced by the absence of light, by which the green colour is prevented from appearing. It is effected artificially, as in the case of celery, by raising up -the earth about the stalks of the plants; by tying the leaves together to keep the inner ones from the light; by covering with pots, boxes, or the like, or by setting in a dark place. The green colour of etiolated plants may be restored by exposure to light. Research Etiolation
The harp-shell is a genus of molluscs (Harpa) belonging to the gastropoda and to the whelk family. The species are found around Mauritius. The shells are very attractive, but exposure to light causes their colours to fade. Research Harp-shell
Quassia is a genus of tropical American trees named after a renowned black man named Quassi who used the bark of the tree as a remedy for fever, belonging to the family Simarubeae. There is only one species, Quassia amara, the Jamaica Quassia also known as bitter wood or bitter ash, which grows to around 25 metres tall with an erect stem one metre in diameter. The bark is smooth and greyish in colour. The leaves are alternate, unequally pinnate with opposite leaflets, rectangular, acuminate and unequal at the base. The tree bears small pale yellowish green flowers in October and November followed by a fruit composed of three drupes the size of a pea. The timber is very tough, close grained and white, changing to yellow in colour on exposure to the air. Research Quassia
John Barclay was a French poet and satirist. He was born in 1582 at Pont-a-Mousson (Lorraine) and died in 1621. Probably educated in the Jesuits' College at Pont-a-Mousson, having settled in England he published a Latin politico-satirical romance, entitled Euphormionis Satyricon, having as its object the exposure of the Jesuits. In 1616 he left England for Rome, received a pension from Pope Paul V. His chief work is a singular romance in Latin, entitled Argenis (published in Paris, 1621), thought by some to be an allegory bearing on the political state of Europe at the period. It has been translated into several modern languages. Research John Barclay
Lorenzo Valla or Laurentio Valla was an Italian scholar. He was born in 1400 at Rome and died in 1457. He became professor of eloquence at Pavia in 1431, and opened a school of eloquence in Naples. He was the writer of many works of history, criticism, dialectics, and moral philosophy, and has been described as the father of modern negative criticism, owing to his exposure of a notable papal imposture in De Donatione Constantini. His De Elegantiis Linguae Latinae, 1471, and translations of Herodotus andThucydides, were his other best known works. Research Lorenzo Valla
William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the USA. He was born in 1773 at Berkeley, Charles County, Virginia and died in 1841. A son of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, he was educated at Hampden Sidney College, entered the army, and fought at Wayne's victory of 1794. In 1798 he became Secretary of the Northwest Territory, and in 1799 delegate to Congress.
In 1800 he was appointed Governor of the new Indiana Territory. He was still Governor when the Indian outbreak occurred, and his victory at Tippecanoe, on November the 7th, 1811, gave to him a national reputation and an epithet for life.
In the War of 1812 he was major-general, first of Kentucky militia, and then in the regular army. He defended Fort Meigs against the British in 1813, and on October the 5th of the same year he achieved his second noted military exploit by defeating Proctor and Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames. General Harrison resigned from the army in 1814.
From 1816 to 1819 he was Congressman, from 1825 to 1828 US Senator, and US Minister to the United States of Colombia from 1828 until 1829. As the Whigcandidate for President in 1836 he was defeated by Van Buren. In December, 1839, the Whig Convention put Harrison again before the country, and Van Buren was again his antagonist. The campaign of 1840 was without precedent or successor. The log cabin and hard cider charged by his opponents against his early record, became a tower of strength to him; a campaign ball was set rolling across the country and Tippecanoe and Tyier too were fairly sung into the White House.
In his Cabinet Webster as Secretary of State was the ablest member. Fatigue and exposure and importunities of office-seekers caused his death after a month of service, the first death of a President while in office. General Harrison, though by no means brilliant, was an able administrator, and a man of good sense. Research William Harrison
Bibi Besch was an Austrian actress. She was born in 1942 at Vienna and died in 1996 of breast cancer. She had worked in television for over twenty years before she was nominated for an Emmy. She received one supporting actress Emmy nomination for the 1992 'Doing Time on Maple Drive' and another in 1993 for a guest appearance on 'Northern Exposure'. While she was a veteran of dozens of television films from 1976 to 1995, she also appeared in feature films. She played Dr. CarolMarcus in 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' and she played Belle in the 1989 'Steel Magnolias'. She also worked in the 1990 giantearthworm movie 'Tremors' and was in Madonna's 1987 film 'Who's That Girl? '. Her stage work included the plays 'Fame', 'The Chinese Prime Minister' , 'Here Lies Jeremy Troy' and 'Once for the Asking'. Her Television credits include guest roles on shows from 'ER' to 'Murder, She Wrote'. Her Television mini series and Television series ran from the 1970 soap-opera 'Somerset' to 'Backstairs at the White House'. Research Bibi Besch
 
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert