Posted on 09/12/2003 9:17:38 AM PDT by presidio9
The secret of imperial purple has been rediscovered.
A British amateur chemist has worked out how the ancient Romans dyed the togas of emperors this deep colour thanks to a bacterium found in cockles from the supermarket Tesco.
The hue had special significance as the colour of imperial power. Cleopatra also had the sails on her ship dyed the same colour.
The recipe for the dye had been kept a craft secret, even in ancient Egypt and Rome. There are few references to the dying process in the historical literature.
Green to purple
Modern chemistry can make every shade of every colour, but retired engineer John Edmonds is interested in how the ancients managed to make dyes from natural materials.
He explained to the British Association science festival in Salford, Greater Manchester, how he rediscovered the secret of imperial purple after studying the fermentation process of indigo pigments from the woad plant.
With help of researchers in Reading and from Israel he has been able to establish the vital role played by a bacterium in chemically reducing the ancient pigments so that they will dissolve in a dye solution.
The pigment for imperial purple was derived from Murex molluscs, a form of shellfish. So, Mr Edmunds reasoned that he could try to use the related common cockle.
He bought a jar of them from Tesco. "Having removed the vinegar, I placed several of the cockles with some of the purple pigment in a vat consisting of a 2 lb jam jar."
Modern jeans
The cockles are thought to harbour a bacterium that is crucial in reducing the dye. Wood ash was added to the vat to ensure the mixture did not turn acidic.
The mixture was then kept at 50 Celsius for about 10 days.
Wool dipped in the pigment turned green at first but, eventually, in contact with light, it turned purple.
The recreation of the old dying method might have implications for present-day practice.
Currently, tonnes of chemicals are needed to reduce the dye for denim blue jeans, resulting in large quantities of sulphur waste.
Mr Edmonds said: "University of Reading scientists are trying to understand how the bacterium reduces indigo in order to develop a clean biotechnology to replace the chemical process for indigo reduction in the future."
"Do you think you are an expert because you have 10 patents?"
So your answer is none. Thought so.
You aren't going to address any of the substance of the argument are you? You have no argument, and so you are trying to claim that you are right because you have 10 patents. That's the weakest logic I've seen on the internet for some time. You don't know much about patent law, so you'd look foolish if you actually tried to debate me on the patent laws, obviousness, or anything else."Do you think you are an expert because you have 10 patents?"So your answer is none. Thought so.
Instead, you just snort about having patents. It doesn't carry water. You are wrong, and simply refuse to admit it.
patent
I don't need anymore of your "argument".
All of your "argument" is simply conjecture. He's not a legal invention mumbo-jumbo expert, so his choice of words has to be taken into the context --- all of which you ignore.
I laid out the facts: He still has no prior knowledge of the ancient process, still has no known ancient dye source, and no known expectation or results prior to the start of his process. The process was or is as patentable as someone who figures out a new process to make a new alloy from steel.
So --- you can't invent and and you can't convince.
Think what you like. A discussion of basic legal principles is hardly conjecture simply because you don't understand it. Notice, this article is several years old, but there is no patent. Why do you think that is?
patent
I thought it was the favorite drink of the hoi polloi?
It’s a common enough disease. A lot of people know just enough to get themselves in trouble by forming an opinion. Fools are often their own experts.
The color purple is also associated with Claviceps Purpuria
a fungus that grows on grain and has LSD alkoloids.
It is theorized that a decoction of it was used
in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
“For where ever has there been a greater disparity
between seeing and hearing...” Aristides the Rhetor.
The offering was called the kykeon and those who
partook of it were called Epoptes as they had
experienced the whole of the rite.
For over two thousand years...
Eleusis and the cult of Demeter, very interesting.
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