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Mordants

Substances employed to fix the coloring matters of dye-stuffs on organic fibres, and to give them brilliancy and permanency. This they effect, either by their strong affinity for the fibre and the dye matter, a little salt of tartar to a blue or purple soluserving as a bond of union between the two, or by uniting with, and rendering insoluble, the dye contained in the pores of the fibre.

The principal mordants are alum, and the oxides of iron or tin. (See No. 93.)