from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Tar obtained from wood. See tar.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
As aniline is a product of coal-tar, so picamar is a product of wood-tar; and as the former gives a purple with hypochlorites, so the latter yields a blue with baryta-water.
The colours obtained from coal-tar have become household words, and it is not impossible that those from wood-tar may be some day equally familiar.
Picamar blue is produced when a few drops of baryta-water are added to an alcoholic solution of impure picamar, or even to wood-tar oil deprived of its acid.
At present wood-tar is comparatively unexplored, but the fact that picamar furnishes a blue is at least as suggestive and hopeful as that transient purple colouration by which aniline was once chiefly distinguished.
Our object in noticing this blue has been two-fold: first, to direct attention to wood-tar as a possible source of colour; and secondly, to point to pittacal as a possible substitute for indigo, possessing greater durability.