Extracts from Fairbairn's Address. Dyes in Coal Tar.

Scientific American 14, 5.10.1861

What would now be the condition of calico-printing, bleaching, dyeing, and even agriculture itself, if they had been deprived of the aid of theoretic chemistry?

For example: - Aniline - first discovered in coal tar by Dr. Hoffman, who has so admirably developed its properties - is now most extensively used as the basis of red, blue, violet and green dyes. This important discovery will probably, in a few years, render this country independent of the world for dye stuffs; and it is more than probable that England, instead of draqing her dye stuffs from foreign countries, may herself become the center from which all the world will be supplied.

It is an interesting fact that at the same time in another branch of this science, M. Tournet has lately demonstrated that the colors of gems, such as the emeral, aqua-marina, amethyst, smoked rock crystal and other, are due to volatile hydro-carbons, first noticed by Sir David Brewster in clouded topaz, and that they are not derived from metallix oxyds as has been hitherto believed.