As we have mentioned before, the manufacturer of colours now generally uses materials supplied to him by chemical works. The purer these are, the easier it will be to work with them, and the finer will the colours turn out. We have indicated that it is important for the manufacturer to know accurately the properties of his materials in order to be able to estimate their value. Many substances required in certain cases must be made by the colour manufacturer, since, on account of their condition, they cannot form articles of commerce—chlorine and sulphuretted hydrogen, for example.

In addition to the substances which are not to be bought, there are others which do occur in commerce, but are sold at so high a price that the manufacturer is compelled to make them himself. This is the case with the cobalt compounds, from which many beautiful colours are made. The producers of these demand such prices that it is to the interest of the colour maker to prepare them for his own use.

In the following chapters, we shall deal with the more important raw materials which are employed in colour manufacturing, and shall restrict our remarks to what is of particular importance thereto. For more detailed accounts of these raw materials the reader is referred to the text books of chemistry, in which he will find them minutely described, in so far as they are chemical products.

The materials employed may be divided into assistants in the processes and components of the manufactured pigment. The assisting substances are those which are used in the manufacture of a colour without entering into its composition; from the component materials the colours are directly derived. For example, in the manufacture of Prussian blue, yellow prussiate of potash, an iron salt, water (in which the salts are dissolved) and nitric acid are used. In the blue obtained are contained portions of the iron salt and of the yellow prussiate, these are, therefore, component materials, whilst water and nitric acid are simply assistants, since they do not enter into the composition of the pigment.

In colour making a large number of assisting materials are employed, which comprise a considerable number of elements and compounds. Since these are of great importance for our purpose, we shall describe their properties, and, when necessary, briefly the method of preparation.

Among the component materials are to be reckoned a large number of salts of the alkaline earth and earth metals and of all the heavy metals. In addition, there are also the substances of animal or vegetable origin used in lake making.

In the description of the raw materials, if we were to overstep the line drawn here, we could include a great variety of compounds, those, for example, used in the manufacture of the so-called aniline dyes. These substances form, however, as we have stated, the object of a particular branch of manufacture, which forms a separate division of colour chemistry, but with which is not to be confounded what has been hitherto designated the manufacture of colours.