HOW KHAKI WAS DISCOVERED
FORTUNE FOR A LIEUTENANT. Khaki, the colour which will render, our troops so difficult to see, was discovered by a happy accident. The Britisn troops in India wore a cotton uniform which, when it was new, was khaki in colour, but after a visit to the laundry was indescribable. A Manchester business man, discussing this defect, remarked casually that a fortune awaited the man who could find a khaki dye that neither buii, soap, nor soda would fade. A young officer heard the remark, hired a skilful native dyer, and began the search. Years passed in fruitless experiments, till one day, turning' over a heap of rag's, relics of their failures, they chanced upon one piece which was still khaki, though the laundry had worked its will. But it had received no special treatment, so far as ,fchey knew, except that it had fallen into a metal dish. That was the secret. The metal of the dish and the chemicals in the dye had combined to produce that fadeless khaki colour which makes our soldiers invisible and turned the lieutenant into a millionaire. — From "The Office Window," London Daily Chronicle.
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Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 82, 3 October 1914, Page 11
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194HOW KHAKI WAS DISCOVERED Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 82, 3 October 1914, Page 11
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