MADDER. See RUBIA.
M. Macquer observes, that the Hollanders are obliged to the refugees from Flanders for the knowledge of manufacturing the root of madder; and that they generally cultivate it in fresh lands which have not been ploughed. The commodity, when manufactured, is distinguished into different kinds, as grape madder, bunch-madder, &c. The grape-madder is the heart of the root; the other, besides the heart, consists also of the bark and small fibres proceeding from the principal root. For that kind called grape-madder, the finest roots are picked out, the bark separated at the mill, and the inside root kept moist in casks for three or four years, which makes it more fit for dyeing than otherwise it would be. Unless madder be kept close in this manner, it is apt to spoil, and loses its bright colour in a great measure. It is yellow at first, but grows red and darker with age. It should be chosen of a fine saffron colour, in very hard lumps, and of a strong though not disagreeable smell.
The madder used for dyeing cottons in the East Indies, is in some respects different from that of Europe.
Madder, Madeira. On the coast of Coromandel it has the name of chat, and grows wild on the coast of Malabar. The cultivated kind is imported from Vaour and Tuccorin, but the most esteemed is the Persian chat called also dumas. Another plant, called raye de chaye, or colour-root, is also gathered on the coast of Coromandel; but this, though supposed to be a species of madder, is a kind of galium flore albo, which, however, gives a tolerable good colour to cotton. Another species of madder, called chive-boya, and chive-hazala, is cultivated at Kunder in the neighbourhood of Smyrna, and some other countries of Turkey in Asia. It is more esteemed than the best Zealand madder imported into these parts by the Dutch; and experiments have shown that it is superior to any other kind as a dyeing ingredient. The modern Greeks call this kind of madder lizari, and the Arabs sonoy. The fine colour of these madders, however, are by our author attributed to their being dried in the air, and not in stoves. Another kind of madder is produced in Canada, where it is called tyssa-voyana; its qualities are nearly the same with the European kind.
The root of madder impregnates water with a dull red colour, and spirit of wine with a deep bright red. This root, when eat by animals along with their food, tinges their urine, and their most solid bones, of a deep red. Wool previously boiled in a solution of alum and tartar, receives from a hot decoction of madder and tartar a very durable but not a very beautiful red colour. Mr Margraaf (Berlin Mem. 1771), shows how a very durable lake of a fine red colour, fit for the purposes of painting, may be obtained from madder. This process is as follows: Take two ounces of the purest Roman alum, and dissolve it in three French quarts of distilled water that has boiled, and in a clean glazed pot. Set the pot on the fire; and when the water begins to boil, withdraw it, and add two ounces of the best Dutch madder. Boil the mixture once or twice; then remove it from the fire, and filter it through a double filter of paper not coloured. Let the liquor thus filtrated stand a night to settle, and pour off the clear liquor into the glazed pot previously well cleaned. Make the liquor hot, and add to it gradually a clear solution of salt of tartar in water, till all the madder is precipitated. Filtrate the mixture; and upon the red precipitate which remains upon the filter pour boiling distilled water, till the water no longer acquires a saline taste. The red lake is then to be gently dried. No other water, neither rain nor river water, produces so good a colour as that which has been distilled, and the quantity required of this is considerable. The colour of the above precipitate is deep; but if two parts of madder be used to one part of alum, the colour will be still deeper: one part of madder and four parts of alum produces a beautiful rose colour.