VEGETABLE DYES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3009, 21 February 1917, Page 5

VEGETABLE DYES

, SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS AT KAITOEE. .;■

[n 'August last year,' Messrs. 6. and li. Phillips, of Kaifcoke, happened to read an article in TheJominion on tie shortage of dyes at' Homo and in 'America. They then, interested .themfcelveß in the variety of colours that it was possible \to get hy -treating certain'shrubs, trees, and oven noxious weeds in a .certain manner.--The're-sult of these experiments has boon .moat encouraging. '■ They have been able to make dyes with. "a. range of shade from black to the # lightest tints of green and fawn, and in-between the whole range of browns,. khakis, pinks, pale heliotropes, . and canary yellows. 'Further, they have experimented with a large, measure of. success in making their .dyes fast..' One lot of wool was dyed a light brown, and-was fully exposed to the weather.for 25 days, and on being compared with, a piece of the same wool that had.jiot been.exposed to the light, no variation in shado could be detected. Mr. L: Phillips Says that tho value of. the discovery lies in the > extreme simplicity _ of the process (which, of course, is a secret), and in the fact that there are noxious weeds .bf good colour- valuo which 1 at present tost the farmers a lot of time and money to keep down. The dyes will effectively colour coarse haiiy wool, silk; fcotton, jute, hemp,'and feathers.; They, top. have stood ttie test of scouring and ,milling. -In the past it has taken skilled men of science a considerable time to produce one colour. The Phillips brothers state that they have produced'2so shades or tints!of brown, green, and yellow, as wellas black and navy blue, but so far have not produced any vivid blues or reds. I .. Anyone who is interested may*, on tailing at The Dominion office, see a range of_ flannels, silks, and spun wool . (all originally white) which have been treated by the Phillips' process at Kaitoke. •